STALKER: Shadow of Chornobyl Review (eShop Switch)
Praised for its original 2007 release, STALKER: The shadow of Chornobyl takes players into a harsh world, filled with effective horror and precision battles. It spawned two sequels, both of which refined and refined the model of their predecessors. GSC Game World is headquartered in Ukraine Legend of the area This bundle brings all three expanded adventures to Switch with modern optimizations and solid visual performance, though each title is also available as a standalone purchase. It’s worth noting that this is the first time the series has appeared on a console (with the PlayStation version releasing in March), which makes the capabilities of these ports all the more impressive.
Inspired by the 1971 Russian novel Roadside picnicShadows Of Chornobyl is set in the irradiated wilderness of the Zone. Decades after efforts to repopulate the population, the second Chornobyl disaster occurred, transforming the inhabitants into mutated creatures and littering the countryside with deadly elemental mutants. The haunting and claustrophobic atmosphere of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film adaptation stalkerpopular everywhere. The Zone always feels like an alien landscape or a nightmare.
You play as Marked One, an amnesiac STALKER (Scavenger, Trespasser, Explorer, Loner, Killer, Adventurer, and Bandit) who finds himself lost in the Zone of Only with one goal – Kill Strelok. From there, he ventures into the dangerous wasteland to track down his prey, carry out quests for his companions, and try not to get killed by a random local storm.
As an FPS game that combines survival elements, Shadows Of Chornobyl presents a semi-open world and free-form mission structure. Hunting Strelok leads the Marker to several settlements scattered throughout the Region. He befriends other Stalkers by performing side jobs for them, and a basic faction system helps him gain or lose favor with his comrades.
While doing some of the early story missions, you’ll encounter bandits that can eat away at your health in seconds, and most locations are full of them. Frequent saving is essential, as is constantly searching for supplies. You’ll have backup NPCs for many of the bigger battles, but it’s best not to rely on them.
This is an irradiated hell, you also have to face a diverse collection of deformed monstrosities. The outside environment is filled with packs of rabid dogs and mutant creatures. Dark buildings and derelict tunnels hide more terrifying humanoid enemies. Luckily, the photography was precise and satisfying. The aim assist slider eases the difficulty of getting headshots with the Switch controller, and there’s even gyro options for the braver Stalkers out there.
Light survival elements come into play when dealing with the Zone’s many anomalies. Bad statuses are caused by radiation, lightning, and more strange phenomena. The bleeding effect will slowly drain the blood without a good amount of bandage. In other places, guns will occasionally jam, which can and does mean instant death if it happens when you come out of cover. Besides the rudimentary armor system, you can find and equip mysterious artifacts to mitigate some of the Zone’s dangers.
For a game that came out on PC nearly two decades ago, it looks great on Nintendo’s console. Resolution is consistent when docked and handheld, with motion smoothing making rapid camera movements fluid. Options are plentiful, with multiple sliders to adjust controller sensitivity. However, there’s only one gamma slider for images, and it comes in handy when zooming in on small text, which is stressful to read on a large screen.
