Remember when I called this the year for surprises? No? Well neither do I specifically, but I think I said that somewhere. And it fits doesn't it; everything that could go wrong has done this year and some of us are left wondering if there's anything left worth going on for. Well I don't rightly know how to answer that but at least there are some cool games coming out in the near to far future. One such is quite surprising indeed to little old me, because I didn't think anyone remembered that old game or it's sequels. Of course, I'm talking about the S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise, a game series dedicated to hardcore FPS experiences, the likes of which hasn't been properly realised after this series with an exception only to 'Escape from Tarkov'. (An online title which has been given the reputation of 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R's spiritual successor.') Yet despite that, afterall of these years we're finally having a real sequel announced in S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2.
Now the original, 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl', purposed a scenario in which you play as a scavenger known as a 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R' who prowls the disaster-struck ruins of Chernobyl in order to find artefacts and uncover a mystery. Sounds simple enough, only there's a lot more stopping you from getting your scavving done then just the odd bout of radiation. You have various factions of hostile gunmen wandering the wastes with a shoot-on-sight policy, you have rapid animals ready and willing to chew the face off of anyone who wonders up unto their neighbourhood, traps everywhere hoping to take out your kneecaps- oh, and the horrifying mutants and deadly anomalies who defy reason as they pick you up and drag you across the map with telepathy. So in that light I suppose one could be forgiven for thinking that it all sounds a lot like Fallout.
Except it's not really like Fallout at all. For you see, whereas Fallout is a happy-go-lucky world of post apocalyptic survival and wacky commentaries on patriotism, consumerism and any other Ism that Bethesda's writing staff happen across that morning, S.T.A.L.K.E.R is dead-set on capturing the grim atmosphere of battling for survival in a land without rules. This means that, for one, their gunplay is leagues less forgiving than Fallout's, often turning a bout against 5 men into a deadly duel defined by positing, flanking and patience. On the highest difficulty, you can pretty much expect to be taken down by a couple of bullets, so tactical awareness becomes the absolute name of the game if you want to survive any length of time in the dangerous badlands known as 'The Zone'.
In place of RPG mechanics comes scavenging for ammo in a vein similar to the Metro games, however even those games a quite a bit less hardcore than the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games. (Though they are a lot more immersive, I'll never take that crown away from Metro.) Survivors will be required to pick ammo off of corpses, gauge the times to fight with the times to run and make use of rudimentary stealth mechanics if they want to get to the heart of The Zone. It really captures this almost Souls-ian vibe of being at the absolute bottom of the foodchain at all times, making each encounter stand out as a thrilling, hair-raising struggle for every inch of ground. All this was achieved by a game from 2007 which, and I'm being as fair as I can here, looks like total ass in today's world. Look past those graphics and somewhat clunky controls and you'd find a surprisingly solid survival game here that puts a lot of what the genre is today to shame. They didn't need any food or water systems to dictate the survival, just a hyper focus on the gameplay to a brutal degree. (There was a hunger system, but it was in the background, instead of the forefront.)
The legacy of the hardcore shooter game has become lost and diluted in the recent years of FPS', as everyone's tricked themselves into thinking that COD's arcadey shooting is the height of haptic fidelity, or that Battlefield's slower combat somehow makes it the arbiter of tactical planning. Where these games all fall short, however, is in that moment-to-moment feeling of being perpetually outmatched by your environment and one stray bullet away from death at anytime. As I mentioned before, only the online shooter 'Escape from Tarkov' seems to get the memo, and that's literally made by folk who were inspired by this game and at least two devs who worked on it. So not only has S.T.A.L.K.E.R been denied the widespread acclaim and recognition it deserves, but only a handful of people really even respect it's legacy. What a sad state of affairs.
The revival of the franchise, sporting just the name 2, was heralded with a suitably macabre, but frustratingly vague reveal trailer. Yes, it's amazing to know that S.T.A.L.K.E.R is back, but I want just the briefest of glimpses as to what that'll look like. Judging by the way that the newest game doesn't even have a prospective launch window, however, I think it's fair to assume that this new game might not be too far along in development. Hell, they might have just been cleared to make it the week previously, there doesn't even appear to be any in-game screenshots circulating around the web, just concept art. All the know is thus, that the game is going to be set in an open world, which does change things up for the franchise a little as they've always operated in open hubs up until now. But, not to be ungrateful, thus is expected in today's day-and-age, and I'd much rather hear about the ways that S.T.A.L.K.E.R intends to evolve in order to meet the demands of today's survival market, because I worry.
If I'm being brutally honest with myself, and I feel I must, then I have to admit that I think it's inevitable that this new S.T.A.L.K.E.R, especially with it's open world tag, will probably feature some sort of crafting mechanic. Previous games have alluded to the way that the Zone and it's uniquely mutated creatures can be used to sustain itself, but the player has never been able to really take advantage of that, as crafting is now a dime-a-dozen in every game it only makes sense for this one to get in on the action. (Although, I really must stress that Crafting is hard to get right and oh-so-easy to make feel like a redundant, tacked-on mess.) On a more positive note, however, the new game with it's new engine and open world setting could allow for the addition of cool new systems like dynamic weather effects and other little features that can help bridge that gap with the brutal realism we've come to love this franchise for.
At the end of the day, there's precious little to really talk about in regards to S.T.A.L.K.E.R, and that does frustrate me just a little. (Even more than the fact that this game is labelled 2 despite being the 4th in the franchise.) Yet in that same vein I must admit it's the mystery of these games and the worlds they contain which makes up for a lot of the allure, so I'm a fellow of two minds right now. We could have done with a release window, though. (Just tell us if we should be waiting 2 years or 5.) I'm glad to see Mircosoft giving this series it's due with an official reveal at their event, and I wonder if they'll be willing to ramp up on this admittedly niche title once development starts wrapping up. (You need these sorts of games, Mircosoft, don't leave them to the wayside!) Most of all, I'm just happy to see this franchise still kicking after all these years, I need something to replace the Fallout-shaped hole in my heart afterall...
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