This game is literally everything I've ever wanted. It is a post apocalyptic, open world survival game that feels very much real. You constantly feel vulnerable and need to be prepared for enemies at every turn. You need to be smart in battles, you can't just pull a Rambo and just charge an army of people and expect to come out on top.

My only gripe is with stealth. I have a very hard time being stealthy but that may just be me.

This game is far too good to simply ignore. Worth every penny.

This is the first games in the stalker series and you can see that.

This is an open world survival horror fps and if you like any of those things you will like this game.

The game has wart basic item/weapon and armor management system but otherwise it's brilliant.. the story is nice the atmosphere is brilliant and it just plain and simple fun

P.S. this game has some great mods

STALKER is a solid game. The graphics are pretty dated, and after playing Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite and others, it really strains my immersion. The early game is really tough, and you will die a lot. The UI could use a little work to be more user friendly. Getting past the start is really the hardest part. Once you can survive the initial packs of bandits, the game gets better.

But there is a nice story line and some good RPG elements in there, and when it works it is a really fun game. It just can be "clunky" at times, which jars you out of the reality they are trying to create.

If you can get past the graphics and UI issues, there is a fun game to be had, especially if you can get it on sale.

One of the greatest games of all time. I know a lot of people say this, or similar, but it's true. The Russians know how to make a good first person shooter, and the RPG elements blend quite swimmingly. I also must admit to having been so scared by some parts that I had to take breaks, and that the atmosphere is creepy enough to give you nightmares.

This game is extremely fun its based on the horrible disaster that happened years ago in Chernobyl. The environment and surroundings very accurately described what it was like back then. I really recommend playing this game and checking out the on-line mode. However the graphics are not the best hours of gameplay will keep you on the edge of your seat while playing hours and hours of the campaign mode. 8/10

STALKER is one of those Games that draws you in. I know that's what a lot of them say but in this case it does it really effectively. You start off in a wrecked village with guys with guns lounging about, and then one guy gets out a guitar and you are suddenly there, with these guys in the middle of a warzone who are just taking pleasure in existing. Its little touches like that that really make this game.

I'm not a guy who really likes FPS's so I was really surprised that I liked STALKER as much as I did, but its really a game that rewards patience and exploration, which is stuff I do like. You start off in a walled off section of the zone, where you have to learn how to survive and get strong enough to beat the Army guys who are blocking your only (or is it) path to the next part of your quest. Or you could just bribe them to let you through. Once you are out of the first sector the game really opens up, but frankly even the first sector is filled with things to do.

The world is pretty much brutal, filled with Mutated animals and humans, and the ever present threat of Radiation, but its also honest and funny in a way, right from the first guy you meet, an almost charmingly corrupt shopkeeper who does not hide what he is. Another example is in one section you have to talk to a stalker who says he is waiting to meet someone, and when you go back later you find him dead with the guy he was meeting sitting at his fire calmly eating. But you also find people just wandering around minding their own business, bitched gun battles between stalkers and bandits or mutants. The world is moving right along and you are just one more part of it. You can get involved or mind your own business. Or sit there and wait to loot the bodies.

The reason I give this 4 stars is that while the outside sections are really open and fun, the game loses its atmosphere in the inside sections which are really claustrophobic and were nowhere near as much fun for me to get through. I found them a pain. But otherwise its a great game and anyone who has a PC should experience this.

The first step of a cult name for any gamer, it passes trough the years without problem thanks to his universe, gameplay and mainly his unbelievable ambience.

Hunt for the artifacts, shoot for the mutants, choose your side and survive... WORSHIP THE MONOLITH !

A solid if somewhat dated shooter. It has a lovely open world feel, and good if not great graphics. The RPG elements are a bit lacking for my taste, but the first person shootering is good. If you can catch it on sale I would highly recommend it.

A very good game if you like sandbox style games. The only minor gripes I have is with the shooting which can be a bit hard to get used to if you are used to first person shooters. This is mainly due to the inaccuracy of the weapons that you get a hold of at the first of the game. You can't just go in the shoot the heck out of your enemies. You must be cautious and use stealth to flank them and kill your enemies easier and more efficiently. This game offers nice rpg style missions which can eat up a lot of your time. Overall this is a great game.

Simply the best game in the series ( my own opinion),

One of the best open world games , post apocalyptic fill , great sound , great graphics

Suggest it to everyone who like's this type of games

This game sets to answer the what if radiation from the nuclear power plant explosion would create mutant and terrible anomalies questions.

The vanilla version is greatly enhanced by the awesome modding community, so if you're picking this game up right now, be sure to try some of the mods. It will make a good game into a great one.

A good game in general, but not for anybody who doesn't enjoy taking their time and looking around. I think the best way to describe this game is an older and more serious Fallout 3 with a much larger difficulty in general and of course depending on your difficulty of choice.

STALKER....................where to begin, it has so much going for it, graphics are realistic for its time, sound is crisp and clear, story is interesting and the community is so dedicated and relentless in improving the series. Gameplay is the highlight though. STALKER:SOC plays like no other FPS out there to date, it involves elements of FPS, RPG, Survival Horror, Adventure, and Story Driven FPS. It does take some time to Patch to v1.0005(dont get 1.0006, it causes more harm than good) and respectively mod for it to be what it was originally envisioned to be, but after that you have a great solid game that strangely keeps u playing it. The story line is tight, and focused around your overall goals, and the factions in the game are both interesting, and idiotic in their nature/concept. but the zone its self is the most lovely of the STALKERs atmosphere. its animals, inhabitants, and feel has never been matched in any other game if ever played to date. the rain feels bugged down, and wet. while clear sun feels warm and open. the AI is solid for its time and will actually work in teams if multiple NPC's are present. Jobs dont get old, since u can get actual rewards and enjoyment going to, and coming back from them. Its a game you have to play to understand why its loved. Just buy it, go ahead and buy it. Its worth it. ALL OF THE GAMES IN THE SERIES ARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only complaints i have, is that it isnt a totally sandbox game(the areas are in zone kinda things and u travel between them) and that you learn by trial and error what to do, and what not to do in the game. Also, you will have times when NPC's in the game have got to stay alive, but may get killed, and u cannot progress the story. Just save before you do anything serious, also get "Oblivion Lost" or "Complete 2009", best mods out there for it in my opinion

Shadow of Chernobyl is one of my favorite games, if not THE favorite. You wake up in the "Zone" with a memory loss, after been saved from a chrash site of an corpse transportation vechicle. Your PDA says "Kill Strelok", wich becomes your main objective trough the game.

This game have a amazing amtmosphere that none other game have that i have played. The zone is filled with mutants and bandits, which are extremly lethal if you aproach unprepared. The game is extremy hard even on the easier difficulties the first time you palye it, but when you master it the hardest difficulty isen't to big of a problem except in the start. Because you start with a simple pistol (Makarov) and a lether jacket pretty much. You need food to survive so you don't starv to death, and a cuple of medkits and bandages with you all the time because if you get shot and don't have those bandeges you will bleed to death eventually. Depending how serious the wound is ofcourse.

The zone was created after the Chernobyl disaster which created mutants and the valuable "Artifacts" which have very intresting propeties as anti-radiation or wound treating and a ton of other stuff. The treasures and secrets of the Zone drives Stalkers towards the center of the zone the Chernobyl NPP.

The game is slightly flawed but the unoffical patches fixes most of the problems, combine that with the "STALKER Comple mod 2009" and the game becomes truly amazing, without changeing the game anything but for the better.

Great post-apocalyptic atmosphere and overall good game! Downsides are sometimes riduculous spawning enemies and long travels without vehicle. But for price of about 3€ it is an top buy.

STALKER SOC with the complete mod is still beautiful. The atmosphere is incredible and the open non-linear world is fun to explore. The AI is very smart and it is advisable not not play this as a run and gun game. IF you like Fallout and never played STALKER before you gonna love it a must have 5/5!

Amazing game, the atmosphere it gives off is top rate. It gives a wonderfully large open world in which to roam around, with plenty to do even without the main quest. Though there are several glitches and such that plague it, that shouldn't really stop you from enjoying such a great game. It is quite dark, gritty, a great survival horror game

This review is based on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC with the 'Complete 2009 1.4.4' mod. This mod improves visuals, bugs, etc.

a) The Good:

- Non-linear, open world. You can do whatever you want whenever you want (within the limits of the game world).

- Mortality of Important Quest Characters! Quest Characters can die, but the game can cope with it.

- Nice interpretation of a post-apocalyptic world.

- Vast amount of weaponry.

- Sense of realism. Run and gun isn't that good of an idea, especially if you're outnumbered.

b) The Bad:

- Abundance of uninteresting/repetitive dialogue (note: the game is very action oriented, so this negative feature isn't that hard to overcome).

- Story. Difficult to really connect with your character.

I'd give this game 3.5 out of 5. I bought it for only € 1.39, I'll never regret spending this little money for a still very enjoyable game.

STALKER is a title agonizing, bloody, violent, relatively difficult and damn funny, with a plot that can be adapted ideally to our choices.

Various and intelligent enemies will be a nightmare in our adventure in a land devasted by radiations.

Graphic altogether credible, even now in the 2012, with excellent sounds effect unforgettable atmosphere.

Highly recommended!

This game is a blend of rpg and action set in a post-apocalyptic type of environment. The best part of the game is the realistic environment, gun battles and the smart AI (better than Metro's AI imho). The plot and characters are OK but not great. There are no skills and perks like in Fallout 3 but your character will get stronger with weapons, armor and artifacts as you move through the game. Graphics is good for a game this old, explosions and particles are beautiful. The game is quite gory with limbs flying off and there is no option to turn it off.

Awesome background, immersive storyline. Be sure to get the "complete 2009" MOD to enhance the user experience (increased graphics, AI improvements, UI redesigned, and much more).

A fantastic horror thrilling sci-fi, a hybrid between an RPG and an FPS, captures the goods of both, greatly atmospheric, nice graphics, addicting and always attracts you no matter how many times you've finished it, I strongly recommend it, has a good story, and beautiful thrilling open maps, and if that is not enough then you have a huge arsenal of weapons and armor enough to rock any mutant or enemy standing in your way! Overall score 9/10

A open world first person shooter. A very decent one. Thanks to the open world system, the game is just immerssive, and that's what you want for a shooter taking place in Chernobyl. You might find it a bit hard to start and a bit overwhelming by the large landscape at first. It is natural, but soon after you getting used to everything, you will have a blast exploring this not so queit wasteland.

A very good game, with a depressing, nuclear-charged environment and (still) very good graphics, despite de age, able to push my puny laptop to the limit.

The missions are varied and oppressing and the game pace itself, although not as enthusiastic as, say, Half-Life 2, makes this a cult classic.

STALKER is a brilliantly immersive, hardcore, tactical, and creepy FPS. The AI is very well done, the atmosphere is wonderful(ly dark), and it is a legitimately hard game. No running into lines of fire for you! Brilliant.

When it came out, STALKER was probably the most groundbreaking FPS ever. Not only is the setting interesting and is sure to draw you in, the shooting parts are great. The world is open, and it is in fact living: you'll suddenly meet a squad of scavengers shooting bandits, for example.

The AI is really the best I've ever seen in games. They react accordingly to what you do: they get behind cover, they try to flank you, they heal themselves... they're practically human.

But the strong point of STALKER is the mods. There's a few everyone should have and they make the game even better by adding anomalies, characters, quests... anything you can imagine!

As a side note, one thing that struck me was that rain did not fall through buildings. At the time it was released, it was common practice not to take care of the rain and have it fall through the roofs - which means it rains inside. The devs decided to correct that, and that is a proof of their involvement in this game.

I have only heard praise for this game, and I must say it is a classic. The gameplay is great, anomalies are a refreshing addition to the game and the weapons feel good. However, despite all this, I found it incredibly difficult to play. The ease at which you died and seemingly impossible quests just put me off, although it was improved slightly by the Complete mod. To round up, a good game, but may be difficult to really get in to.

Atmosphere is what will drag you right in and never let you out. Sure there might be some annoyances but pump it with mods and you are set for unforgettable ride (or rather walk) through the Zone. If you have seen pictures from Chernobyl area, Pripyat etc. you will encounter very familiar sights! But beware, this isn't for faint of heart experience. Personally I recommend Oblivion Lost (2.2 or 2012 version) mod which brings the game to its original design before it was somewhat "arcadished" for the wider audience.

Amazing Game! Very atmospheric and immersive. Gameplay takes a bit of time to get use to but is realistic and fun. Some parts of this game are very unusual, eerie, surprising, scary, and heart pounding. The story is confusing at times but interesting. The graphics are fine, and the game is pretty long. The major flaws of the games are, the loading times are dreadfully long, there are many bugs, and some of questionable ai (ex: A loner walks towards a anomaly not even caring then dies.). But many of these problems are fixed and the game is enhanced greatly with mods such as the L.U.R.K mod. 4/5 Stars

Stalker is an OK shooter/rpg game. The story and the setting is pretty good, there's also alot of missions to do and a nice selection of weapons at hand to complete them with.

One of the most original and best games ever. A hybrid survival FPS game in which stories develop over time due to the open-world nature of the game. The atmosphere in the game crackles with electricity and the music is excellent. It's so cheap now, that everyone should experience the zone at least once.

Originally bought this years ago on Steam and I wanted a copy that didn't require Steam running in the background. Excellent game that places you in a wasteland with other raiders and mutants.

I'm usually not a big fan of games that want you to complete tasks as a reward, but it works with Stalker. I could only imagine how a more free form sandbox type game play would work.

All in all a very good game even today.

It took a while before I started to appreciate this game. At first it was extremely difficult for me, but after reading a few tutorials, and changing the difficulty level to "novice" I began to understand what was going on and stopped to die every few seconds.

If you have enough patience, then this game will reward you with incredible, apocalyptic atmosphere, which could create only people living in this part of the world - Ukraine. Nuclear disaster site looks exactly like I could imagine it, and the changing time of day and weather conditions incrase the impression of realism.

To me the game is a combination of FPP shooter and RPG. This combination works very well for STALKER.

I was expecting a lot when getting this game - and boy does it deliver! Being a big fan of the Fallout series, I was pleased to see that this game was recommended as something vaguely similar. I wholeheartedly agree; this game mixes the FPS and RPG genres very well, but I feel in a much darker setting.

You play as "Marked One", a stalker amongst many who go out hunting beasts in a no mans land called the Zone. There are tonnes of quests, which you can choose to follow, or just ignore in favour of levelling up and shooting things. The combat can be difficult to begin, I was sent off to kill bandits for the first mission with a shockingly inaccurate pistol. It took about 10 attempts to kill about 6 bandits - with help! As time goes on though, you get better weapons and it's just pure brilliance.

For the price, you just can't say no! GET IT!

If you like in depth FPS games, you can't pass this up. The atmosphere is incredible. This game even runs great on older systems. In depth game that's more than just a run and gun. Open ended sandbox type, you can take missions or leave them. The way you treat other NPC's reflects how they feel about you and changes their trading and such to you. This is without a doubt one of the best FPS games I've ever played for those that want more than just run and gun.

The combination between RPG and FPS is always nice to see. And this game delivers a very nice experience in both sides.

Loosely Based on the wonderful story: "Roadside Picknick" the game immerses you in a dangerous post-apocalyptic world.

The sandbox experience of the game will keep you hooked up and replaying it for many hours.

There are many quests to complete, places to explore and "things" to kill.

If you liked Fallout 3 or Metro 2033, then this game is for you.

What's good:

Great replay value, immersible sci-fi world, sandbox world.

What's bad:

Graphics are a bit dated(to be expected since it's released date) but if you are not picky you can enjoy the game.

I would have to say this is one of the best games ever made. Its has one of the best atmospheres in any game i have played and I think has a very god story line. One downside of the game is its a bit buggy, but there are mods to fixed that. Another plus to the game is the modding community. For 10 bucks this game is worth it!

great rpg game only major thing i didnt like was the fact there no quick save so if you forget to save often then you end up restarting a good amount when you die

The atmosphere of the game is so thick that you can cut it...Even though it all ends kind of sudden[ly], S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is still one of the best First Person Shooters I’ve played in a long time, especially if you like the post-apocalyptic atmosphere from games like "Fallout."

This game was surprisingly excellent. It has a number of annoyances, such as travel being difficult and sometimes tedious, and crashes to desktop. But in Stalker's case these things can be forgiven because the game is just so fresh in so many ways. Combat is more realistic, at least before you gather a number of magic/radioactive pieces of equipment that help you become superhuman. The very first 'tutorial' mission lightly pokes fun at the Rambo mentality of a lot of first person shooter games. Stalker's main point of attraction is its atmosphere. The mysterious 'zone' is lively, dangerous and fun to explore. The world feels active and interesting most of the time. One final note, which may attract some and repel others, is that the game is surprisingly hard. Even as a veteran of first person shooters playing on the middle difficulty, I had to carefully plan my encounters if there were more than a few enemies or I would likely die. Overall a very fun game that kept me engaged quite well. Would have gotten a 5 star rating if not for bugs and instability.

What a marvelous surprise! S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a nice combination of FPS high stakes action with the equipment collection and strategic combination of said gear ala RPG. For anyone who liked Fallout 3, STALKER is sure to please, although it does lack lvling up, but the story elements are interesting and engaging as you would expect from an RPG (and something that is lacking in many FPS). In short it's worth top dollar and it will give you hours upon hours of shooting joy!