Some of you may know about that open-world post-apoc first person shooter action/horror/RPG. No, not Fallout. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a game similar to Fallout, although it takes place in Chernobyl in the Ukraine, simply called "the Zone" because of a fictional second explosion that caused mutation in plants and animals. It is an ideal setting as the developer, GSC Game World, is Ukrainian-based. There are three games in the series: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky (a prequel, and considered the worst game of the series), and, most recently, Call of Pripyat. The thing about the Zone is that it is a living world. Things happen independently of player actions. If you get called for a mission to take down a tower of hostiles, you might wait for a bit until a swarm of mutants come and do your job for you. If you have to defend a tower, the attack will start no matter if you are there or not. If you make it during the attack you might have to fight your way to your allies and help the defense, or you might make it there extremely quickly and scout the area for strategic locations to use to your advantage. There were also roaming bandits and military. You can often hear screams and gunshots in the distance. If you make it there later you might find a pile of dead bodies with their ammo taken, the attackers having left.
Unfortunately, it has been confirmed that GSC was closed and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 canceled.
Fortunately, the GSC team made Vostok Studios and is now working on a new game called Survarium.
This game is a bit different from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. First, it is a free to play MMO. There was a lot of groaning about this: even though S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had multiplayer the isolation provided a great atmosphere and a f2p MMO implies a bunch of starfishs running around looking for quests and going frequently out of character, ruining the immersion. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. also had quests, but they were more of an excuse to get out and explore and get paid while doing it, for example finding an artifact then selling it to Barkeep or Beard, as much else consisted of looting broken down buildings for food and supplies. If it's anything like DayZ, though, it might work. There is also another interesting feature. You can apparently explore the entire world. This is in a different S.T.A.L.K.E.R. situation. This time nature has gotten its revenge on humanity... expect more vines and mutated wildlife as you try to survive. All in all, it's an interesting concept. As for technology, they have made a new engine (perhaps an updated X-Ray Engine) called the Vostok Engine. Say what you think about it below.
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