The STALKER series is a series of video games that centers around the "Zone of Alienation" in the very-true city of Chernobyl and the accompanying town of Pripyat. The games revolve around three characters: Scar, The Marked One, and Major Degtyarev. It takes place in the Chernobyl Area after a group of post-Soviet scientists create a body of psionic masterminds welded together to create a supermind, and unwittingly, creating the psionic background of the Zone of Alienation, contributing to the mutations due to radiation, and scattering anomalies, which are psionic/radioactive hotspots around the zone of alienation.
There are three games in the STALKER series: STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, STALKER: Clear Sky, and STALKER: Call of Pripyat.
Gameplay: The gameplay is much more fun and much more simpler than Fallout or standard RPGs. There are no stats no skills, and that's one of the things that sets it apart. It's all of your aiming, and all of your stuff. You have to do quests, as you can't simply just sell off everything, as you can only carry 50 kilograms of gear. Scavenging is important, and "stashes" hidden caches of weapons and armor can be found throughout the game. Enemies range form bandits and the ones you make yourself, and religious fanatics and mutants. Exploration is a must, and one of the main factors to surviving are the artifacts you own, which are only obtainable from going into anomalies (or shooting them out) and help you fight radiation or increase your health.
Down to opinions: Now, you may be thinking; "What in God's loving name sets this apart from all of the other post-apocalyptic games like RAGE or Fallout?"
Well, there are alot of things that I think set it apart. Aside from the obvious setting, story, and gameplay differences, there are plenty of things that the other games don't have, or that STALKER doesn't have.
It's more of a action oriented game, leaning towards more of the FPS side rather than the RPG side. There are not stats, no agility, no strength represented by numbers. There isn't a skill for shooting a gun or talking your way out. It's all in the player. Want to get a perfect headshot on that guy across the hall? No stats, it's all you.
Plus, it's more serious. While there's mostly no change in setting in STALKER, neither do the other games, and STALKER possesses a great deal more variety than Fallout or Rage in that respect. STALKER is a serious game (mostly). Just don't be surprised when you find a dead Gordon Freeman in some ass-crack of the world.
I also think that the gameplay is more plot-oriented. While in Fallout you can go off and do other things (never found the main plot interested in NV or F3) in here, it's more confined, as in, there's a objective, and you go after it. There are still tons and tons of side quests for the multitudes of factions, and in Clear Sky (even though it's the buggiest one) you can join a faction, and be shot on sight by other factions, and feel that you're in a real conflict.
Screenshots: image dump.
