The Low Down on STALKER

I have been extremely critical of STALKER. Not for any personal satisfaction of not seeing a game finish its development, but because I have followed the development of the game for three years. STALKER was one of the games that I really wanted to play. I loved the original concept and I believed that it was a FPS idea which was outside of the square. Unfortunately, development of the game has not gone to plan. A lot of the original ideas from the game were dropped and the game has become nothing more than "another shooter". While there is still speculation as to whether the game will ever get released (and I am one of those who think that it won't) there are still people in the media who are willing to give STALKER a chance. If you would like some more information about the release of STALKER then ign.com have a short interview with the Executive Producer of the game. Check the link here.

Some of the elements which have been dropped from the game are eating and sleeping. Which is a shame. Another is the fact that another STALKER could have beaten you to the outcome of the game, therefore, meaning that you fail in the game's completion. This is another thing which I am disappointed has gone. What other game would be in the market which would be like this? Generally, let's face it, First Person Shooters are easy. Anyone who has a save/load button can complete the game. You are guaranteed that the ending will be the same scripted ending every time. How would it be if an NPC in the game could beat you to the task at hand? Wouldn't that create a sense of urgancy throughout the game?

Rather than move to make the game a relatively unique FPS experience they have conceded that they are too hard to implement and are making the game more main stream. There are many other rumours floating around about STALKER, however, time will tell with this shooter. I think, having seen the ingame footage from Crysis, that no amount of time will bring STALKER up to what expectation had meant the game to be.