"On paper, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a bit the miraculous formula for million players. A FPS with an astonishing 3D engine, flanked with physic management quite as powerful, a unique environment , 30 km² of surface of play, hundreds of characters and animals with unscripted behavior, and at least 60 hours of play under the hostile pressure of an environment in perpetual evolution. At a few months from the official release, planed for May 2005, THQ thus invited us to one more presentation of the game, this time to enable us to discover the solo mode, on a basis we could decently hope for a near final version. Badly took us. In spite of undeniable qualities, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. we saw is rather a vast experimental field where many interrogations remains in term of gameplay. Explanations:
Five months. It’s at the same time a lot for the impatient players that we are, but on a scale of a project of the amplor of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., this is nothing. As an example, nine months after our last visit in the buildings of GSC in Kiev, we are rather surprised to see the low number of innovations of this demonstration of the solo mode, asphyxiated by the bugs and leaving blur on the gameplay.
The adventure proposed here begins with a quick discussion with the Dealer, this underground tradesman, responsible to give us our prime objectives and to inform us on the situation of the zone, between two batches of ammunition and medkits. The system of dialogue is for instance very limpid and effective with a system of choice of answers - without digitalized voices -. That also permit us to discover the interface for trading which makes it possible to very simply resell our items as every RPG with some drag and drop. Nothing astonishing good thus, and to tell the truth, it’s rather the PDA we impatiently waited to discover, its presence had been so much presented during the last shows. Unfortunately, the stability of the version didn’t permit us to test its possibilities, like the management of quests, the display of the last news, the log book, the charts, the prices settings or the encyclopedia of the objects collected on the ground. Theoretically, this accessory should authorize us communications with other mercenaries or of the possibilities of remote loading data of other PDAs discovered on the corpses, but nothing concrete for the moment. To talk about the interaction with the other humans, it’s rather binary: either one fires a full load of bullets in the head, or the guy ignores us according to our "reputation", a concept for the moment invisible in an unspecified interface. By chance, it was possible to approach some Stalkers to try a short discussion in the native language of the developers (Ukrainian). Difficult thus to know of which type of discussion it was.
On the aesthetical side, it’s obviously eye-candy even if all graphical features were not yet implemented. However, impossible not to be impressed by the level design of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., full of details with a lot of variety of landscapes. A work of ant which has what to make quiver, thanks that the weather conditions and the day/night cycle reinforces considerably this impression of immersion. Only the faces of the protagonists are a good notch below, just as the lack of specific animations at the time of the impact of the bullets on the enemies. Concerning times of loading, one from now on is fixed: the streaming has obviously not been able to be retained as solution and the zone of 30 km² was thus divided into "little" zones, causing times of loading as a transition. Too bad.
It remain a very important question: Will S.T.A.L.K.E.R. be released in May 2005? Considering tha degree of achievement of the game and the politic context in which Ukraine is, the title of GSC still seems far from having achieved its goals. For now, the team still seek to balance the gameplay to make it less difficult, while debugging with a trowel. For the moment, we even haven’t been able to foresee the beginning of an interface, of a cinematic, to fulfill a mission, or to check the presence of many options of communication, detection, etc. So we have to be patient and hope that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. won’t be released too soon and unachieved... even if it means to be patient some more."
