Shadow of Chernobyl is both an incredibly well executed, ambitious game and a hot mess at the same time. Before even starting the game, I recommend downloading the mod "ZRP", it's essentially the equivalent of the bug fix packs for Bethesda RPGs, and damn does it need it. Secondly, play on the hardest difficulty. This game does difficulty horribly. Pretty much everything below the hardest difficulty is essentially unplayable in my opinion. Lower difficulties lower damage globally. That includes you. So have fun blasting away at bullet sponges in a game where ammo can be a commodity. Just put it on Master. Don't be a baby.

Once you iron out the bugs with ZRP, you will start to play and notice 2 things:
1. The atmosphere is nearly unmatched in the industry, even for a 2007 game it rivals and surpasses almost every game in 2024 in the atmosphere department. There is a reason this game has such a cult following, and the worldbuilding and atmosphere is that reason. It kicks so much ass.

2. You can't hit a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing with your starting weapon. This will be a recurring theme for 50% of the game. My guess is that the developers found the game to be too easy with deadly accurate ballistics, so for the first half of the game they decided to make you feel really weak by just making half the weapons (the only ones you find for like 8-10hrs) absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. This is frustrating, really frustrating.... but.... it works. The game is incredibly tense and forces you to progress slowly and take in it's world because one wrong move, getting caught out of cover, and you're dead. Really dead. No twitch shooting here.

For the second half of the game, essentially when you get your first scoped weapon really, the accuracy is pretty much what you would expect of a normal FPS. This feels really good. Like you started out as a nobody stuck with rusty outdated soviet weaponry and worked your way up to a deadly precise killing machine equipped with advanced hardware from the present century. For the next 25% of the game, this feeling will remain as you mow down enemies swiftly. Then you get to the last 25% of the game. Basically the last 2 "levels". Oh boy. The last 2 levels. If you thought the first 50% of the game was brutal, you were wrong. You were just in boot camp, the devs said "Okay, they know what they are doing now, let's make them feel accomplished and strong for a little bit" and then once they've allowed you your power trip, they send you straight to hell. HORDES of enemies. Heavily armored enemies. Remember when you were killing enemies with 2-3 swift body shots? Nah. These mfers have riot suits and exoskeletons (which essentially make them cyborgs). You BETTER hit those headshots. Hope you didn't get too complacent on your aim mowing down the grunts. P.S. they have rail guns and RPGs. Have fun!

So, other than phenomenal atmosphere and a brutal experience, what else does Shadow of Chernobyl offer? Well.... that's mostly it. The story is definitely there, and it's pretty interesting but nothing world changing. You won't really get attached to characters for story reasons, but rather gameplay reasons, So what makes Shadow of Chernobly such a cult classic? Well outside of the combination of the aforementioned brutal difficulty and tension, it's the atmosphere. It's just that good. Atmosphere so good it elevates a pretty much universally regarded frustrating (albeit really fun) game to cult classic status singlehandedly.

The concept of STALKERS, the anomalies, the mutants, the world design, the lighting, the sound design, the AI design... damn it's all so good.

STALKERS are just cool as hell. A ragtag band of rejects that throw away a normal life, running headfirst into literal hell on Earth to have a chance at striking it rich and changing their lives. The different blend of personalities and ideologies you will encounter in game is really striking, no morality in STALKER is black and white, everyone has justified reasons for what they are doing, be it good or evil.

The mutants are very cool, and absolutely terrifying at times. I don't want to spoil any as their first encounters are quite significant moments in the game, but just know they would give any horror game a run for it's money in unique monster design.

Anomalies, similarly to mutants are really interesting and there is a wide variety of them to avoid... or bravely run into following the trail of treasure. They add so much to the world, what might be a simple task of crossing through a tunnel is turned into a tense puzzle of navigational and observation skills ensuring you aren't burnt to a crisp by a nuclear phenomena.

The world design is top notch. By and large, most people understand vaguely what Chernobyl looks like. But this isn't the Chernobyl we all know. This is an alternate universe Chernobyl, set in 2012. There are still some iconic landmarks, such as the ferris wheel of Pripyat, but there is some much appreciated flare added by the alternate universe, and the "Zone" as it is called manages to feel very unique despite being located in an area that has been portrayed countless times by many forms of media.

The lighting makes a game from 2007 still look phenomenal in 2024. It's incredibly dynamic for it's time and always set up perfectly to compliment the world design. Creeping through dark tunnels or sneaking into a bandit camp at night is kino as ♥♥♥♥ thanks to the lighting. Character models aged the worse, they are lacking in the polygon department, but the general art design of them does overtime to compensate. The armors and clothing in STALKER just look incredible. The type of ♥♥♥♥ that has you googling how to purchase them for cosplay after only 2 hrs of gameplay.

Finally, the dynamic AI. I'm not talking Oblivion "Radiant AI" ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ where AI is just programmed to do stuff at certain times. No, this AI is truly dynamic. You might leave a few bodies in a field, return a few hours later and see them getting devoured by mutants. You might run into a mutant nest, decide to go around, come back later and see it has been liberated by STALKERs, you might come back to a STALKER camp and find it has been overrun with bandits (and if you were present when the bandits were attacking, would have been able to help the STALKERs fight them off). The world truly moves around you, whether you're there to see it or not. It goes a long way for making you not feel like "THE guy" (although in this scenario, you technically are very much the guy), but rather just a cog in the wheel in the Zone. It's truly some of the most immersive, well built out AI in all of gaming. Unfortunately, the same doesn't hold true for the combat AI, it's no FEAR in that regard, but it's not terrible either.

So with all that said, Shadow of Chernobly will try your patience, it is inevitable. But show it patience and it will give you an experience you will never be able to forget, especially when playing other games of a similar vein and genre. One last thing I recommend, the modding community for STALKER is massive, and so many mods are phenomenal, but just stick with ZRP for your first playthrough. It remains thoroughly true to GSC's original vision and only improves the game in non-intrusive ways. Other mods are very aggressive in what they change, and most times it is arguably for the better, but best left for tertiary playthroughs; and yes, you will want to play through it multiple times because no other game will be able to scratch the unique itch STALKER creates in you.

Shadow of Chernobyl is both an incredibly well executed, ambitious game and a hot mess at the same time. Before even starting the game, I recommend downloading the mod "ZRP", it's essentially the equivalent of the bug fix packs for Bethesda RPGs, and damn does it need it. Secondly, play on the hardest difficulty. This game does difficulty horribly. Pretty much everything below the hardest difficulty is essentially unplayable in my opinion. Lower difficulties lower damage globally. That includes you. So have fun blasting away at bullet sponges in a game where ammo can be a commodity. Just put it on Master. Don't be a baby. Once you iron out the bugs with ZRP, you will start to play and notice 2 things: 1. The atmosphere is nearly unmatched in the industry, even for a 2007 game it rivals and surpasses almost every game in 2024 in the atmosphere department. There is a reason this game has such a cult following, and the worldbuilding and atmosphere is that reason. It kicks so much ass. 2. You can't hit a goddamn thing with your starting weapon. This will be a recurring theme for 50% of the game. My guess is that the developers found the game to be too easy with deadly accurate ballistics, so for the first half of the game they decided to make you feel really weak by just making half the weapons (the only ones you find for like 8-10hrs) absolutely dogshit. This is frustrating, really frustrating.... but.... it works. The game is incredibly tense and forces you to progress slowly and take in it's world because one wrong move, getting caught out of cover, and you're dead. Really dead. No twitch shooting here. For the second half of the game, essentially when you get your first scoped weapon really, the accuracy is pretty much what you would expect of a normal FPS. This feels really good. Like you started out as a nobody stuck with rusty outdated soviet weaponry and worked your way up to a deadly precise killing machine equipped with advanced hardware from the present century. For the next 25% of the game, this feeling will remain as you mow down enemies swiftly. Then you get to the last 25% of the game. Basically the last 2 "levels". Oh boy. The last 2 levels. If you thought the first 50% of the game was brutal, you were wrong. You were just in boot camp, the devs said "Okay, they know what they are doing now, let's make them feel accomplished and strong for a little bit" and then once they've allowed you your power trip, they send you straight to hell. HORDES of enemies. Heavily armored enemies. Remember when you were killing enemies with 2-3 swift body shots? Nah. These mfers have riot suits and exoskeletons (which essentially make them cyborgs). You BETTER hit those headshots. Hope you didn't get too complacent on your aim mowing down the grunts. P.S. they have rail guns and RPGs. Have fun! So, other than phenomenal atmosphere and a brutal experience, what else does Shadow of Chernobyl offer? Well.... that's mostly it. The story is definitely there, and it's pretty interesting but nothing world changing. You won't really get attached to characters for story reasons, but rather gameplay reasons, So what makes Shadow of Chernobly such a cult classic? Well outside of the combination of the aforementioned brutal difficulty and tension, it's the atmosphere. It's just that good. Atmosphere so good it elevates a pretty much universally regarded frustrating (albeit really fun) game to cult classic status singlehandedly. The concept of STALKERS, the anomalies, the mutants, the world design, the lighting, the sound design, the AI design... damn it's all so good. STALKERS are just cool as hell. A ragtag band of rejects that throw away a normal life, running headfirst into literal hell on Earth to have a chance at striking it rich and changing their lives. The different blend of personalities and ideologies you will encounter in game is really striking, no morality in STALKER is black and white, everyone has justified reasons for what they are doing, be it good or evil. The mutants are very cool, and absolutely terrifying at times. I don't want to spoil any as their first encounters are quite significant moments in the game, but just know they would give any horror game a run for it's money in unique monster design. Anomalies, similarly to mutants are really interesting and there is a wide variety of them to avoid... or bravely run into following the trail of treasure. They add so much to the world, what might be a simple task of crossing through a tunnel is turned into a tense puzzle of navigational and observation skills ensuring you aren't burnt to a crisp by a nuclear phenomena. The world design is top notch. By and large, most people understand vaguely what Chernobyl looks like. But this isn't the Chernobyl we all know. This is an alternate universe Chernobyl, set in 2012. There are still some iconic landmarks, such as the ferris wheel of Pripyat, but there is some much appreciated flare added by the alternate universe, and the "Zone" as it is called manages to feel very unique despite being located in an area that has been portrayed countless times by many forms of media. The lighting makes a game from 2007 still look phenomenal in 2024. It's incredibly dynamic for it's time and always set up perfectly to compliment the world design. Creeping through dark tunnels or sneaking into a bandit camp at night is kino as fuck thanks to the lighting. Character models aged the worse, they are lacking in the polygon department, but the general art design of them does overtime to compensate. The armors and clothing in STALKER just look incredible. The type of shit that has you googling how to purchase them for cosplay after only 2 hrs of gameplay. Finally, the dynamic AI. I'm not talking Oblivion "Radiant AI" bullshit where AI is just programmed to do stuff at certain times. No, this AI is truly dynamic. You might leave a few bodies in a field, return a few hours later and see them getting devoured by mutants. You might run into a mutant nest, decide to go around, come back later and see it has been liberated by STALKERs, you might come back to a STALKER camp and find it has been overrun with bandits (and if you were present when the bandits were attacking, would have been able to help the STALKERs fight them off). The world truly moves around you, whether you're there to see it or not. It goes a long way for making you not feel like "THE guy" (although in this scenario, you technically are very much the guy), but rather just a cog in the wheel in the Zone. It's truly some of the most immersive, well built out AI in all of gaming. Unfortunately, the same doesn't hold true for the combat AI, it's no FEAR in that regard, but it's not terrible either. So with all that said, Shadow of Chernobly will try your patience, it is inevitable. But show it patience and it will give you an experience you will never be able to forget, especially when playing other games of a similar vein and genre. One last thing I recommend, the modding community for STALKER is massive, and so many mods are phenomenal, but just stick with ZRP for your first playthrough. It remains thoroughly true to GSC's original vision and only improves the game in non-intrusive ways. Other mods are very aggressive in what they change, and most times it is arguably for the better, but best left for tertiary playthroughs; and yes, you will want to play through it multiple times because no other game will be able to scratch the unique itch STALKER creates in you.