I obtained a copy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadows of Chernobyl in 2008. Since it’s initial announcement in 2002 (?), this game always looked fascinating: abandoned regions, industries, freelancers, military, mutants, anomalies. And indeed, this game was fascinating. A little time ago, I spotted the Complete Mod 2009. It’s feature list sounded interesting, in short “greatly improving the game without touching the gameplay”.
Improved graphics, new weather, new sounds, better AI, bugfixing. Nice. So I spent my spare free time to have another run of STALKER part I, expecting this game to be even better – besides from having a much more powerful computer than in 2008.
If you tend to say TL;DR: SoC with the CM is the Sambal Oelek you put into a great Bolognese sauce for getting the ultimate taste.
Sunset at Agroprom
I cannot compare the visual presentation of the original game to the mod because I originally had to play the game with static lighting – but now: Wow! Natural lighting (sun, moon), very dark nights, more weather effects, gun/vehicle models or textures gained more details (I think so). Whatever you suspect the zone to look like, this game will bring it to perfection including all the beauty and scariness necessary.
Anyway, I can say that the audio overhaul is simply great. The environmental sounds at night will change the way you have a walk a night – initially I always suspected mutants right after me. New guitar samples (ones you know at least by melody), a new radio station for Rostok. Yes, t.a.t.u. – All about us is being played on the Ukrainian radio broadcast – no better way to make this experience of gaming unique :D Some pieces of dialogs also have been rewritten – resulting in some language mix-up here.
Chernobyl nights (and night vision)
Minor improvements concern the inventory design, a sleeping bag to skip time, improved night vision quality (as it’s really dark outside), 3rd person view (except from cinematic reasons, it’s fairly useless), some item redesigns. I’m not sure about noticable AI changes, but the enemies’ behaviour of using cover felt more challenging (or it was me having a higher difficulty chosen?) than I remember.
Fortunately, I discovered that there is a so called “true” ending – I never went to the stalker named “Guide” and so I missed the whole alternative ending – hfs, this was challenging. But hey, the whole turn felt like “STALKER: SoC v2.0″ and I don’t remember anything negative this time. Ok, aside from 100% male characters ;)
When you see it, you'll ...
A few words to the disappointing sequel, Call of Pripyat. SoC is epic, CoP boring. Wide-spread anomalies, bloodsuckers running around, Chernobyl NPP, Yantar, the Brain Scorcher, Pripyat. Post-apocalypse horror at it’s very best! But maybe I’ll try it again using the CM for CoP.
Whatever, get the original STALKER, get the Complete Mod, shut the lights and dive into the zone!
