S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow Of Chornobyl Review
Lauded on its original 2007 release, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow Of Chornobyl dropped players into a stark world, filled with effective horror and precision combat. It spawned two sequels, both of which refined and improved on the model of their predecessor. Ukraine-based GSC Game World’s Legends Of The Zone bundle squeezes all three expansive adventures onto Switch with modern optimisations and stable visual performance, although each title is also available as a standalone purchase. It’s worth noting that this is the series’ first time on consoles (with the PlayStation versions released back in March), which makes the competency of these ports all the more impressive.
The Dark and Haunting World of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Taking inspiration from the 1971 Russian novel Roadside Picnic, Shadows Of Chornobyl is set in the irradiated wilderness of the Zone. Decades after repopulation efforts, a second Chornobyl disaster occurs, turning residents into mutated creatures and littering the countryside with deadly elemental anomalies. The haunting and oppressive atmosphere of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation Stalker, is prevalent throughout. The Zone always feels like an alien landscape, or a bad dream.
Survival and Combat in the Zone
You play as the Marked One, an amnesiac S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers) who finds himself lost in the Zone with only one objective – Kill Strelok. From there he ventures into the dangerous wasteland to track down his prey, run missions for his fellow wanderers and try not to get killed by a random localised storm.
An FPS with survival elements, Shadows Of Chornobyl presents a semi-open world and freeform mission structure. Hunting Strelok leads the Marked One to several settlements scattered across the Zone. He befriends other Stalkers by running side jobs for them and a basic faction system has him gain or lose favour with his fellow mercs.
Challenges and Rewards
As you work your way through the first few story missions, you’ll encounter bandits that can eat through your health in a hot second and most locations have swarms of them. Saving often is essential, as is constantly scavenging for supplies. You’ll have NPC backup for a lot of the bigger fights, but it’s best not to rely on them.
This being an irradiated hellscape, you also come up against a diverse collection of deformed monstrosities. Exterior environments are littered with packs of rabid dogs and mutant creatures. Darkened buildings and derelict tunnels hide creepier humanoid foes. Luckily, shooting is precise and satisfying. An aim assist slider eases the pain of getting headshots with the Switch controller and there’s even gyroscope options for the braver Stalkers out there.
Visuals and Performance
Mild survival elements emerge when dealing with the Zone’s many anomalies. Status debuffs are inflicted by radiation, lightning and more bizarre occurrences. A bleed effect will slowly drain health without a healthy stock of bandages. Elsewhere, guns will occasionally jam, which can and will mean instant death if it occurs when you’re out of cover. Alongside a rudimentary armour system, mysterious artefacts can be found and equipped that mitigate some of the Zone’s dangers.
For a game that came out on PC almost two decades ago, it looks great on Nintendo’s console. Resolution is stable when docked and handheld, with motion smoothing that makes rapid camera movement fluid. Options are plentiful, with copious sliders for controller sensitivity. There’s only a gamma slider for visuals, though, and it would have been helpful to enlarge the tiny text, a strain to read on a large screen.