Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl (PC)

By PETER ELEY

One of the most anticipated games on the horizon is this apocalyptic title, based on one of the great disasters of modern times, Chernobyl.

The original meltdown at the Ukrainian nuclear power plant was in 1986, and radioactive fallout affected much of Europe for years afterwards.

The game starts with a fictional second, and more serious, meltdown at the reactor, which devastates large areas and turns their populations into mutants.

Stalkers are scavengers who hunt valuable irradiated objects while fighting an array of mutated monsters and rival Stalkers, as well as the military.

The game has been developed by Ukrainian company GSC, which has drawn on first-hand experience to produce a title that earned excellent reviews at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3.

GSC has set out to produce a realistic and immersive game, and a first look at the background settings evokes images from Cold War Eastern Europe.

The real-life disaster devastated the town of Pripyat, and GSC offices are a short drive away. Many of the company's staff have family and friends who were affected in 1986, and say Stalker has a message for humanity.

The movies of playable parts of the game and screenshots are impressive, mixing the grimness of Chernobyl with a futuristic world inhabited by half-humans. It is sobering to think this horrific world is based on a situation which came close to reality just two decades ago.

Stalker should be released later this year, and GSC hopes to release a demo beta version soon.


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