GSC Game World"s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow of Chernobyl seems to have been in development for ages, but it"s still looking to be one of the more interesting, nay intriguing PC games scheduled for next year.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R."s potential is certainly there for all to see, as it mixes classic first-person shooty action, exploration, RPG and even vehicular elements in a wide open game environment set in the devastated region surrounding the old Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
However, perhaps less well known are S.T.A.L.K.E.R."s multiplayer credentials with virtually nothing seen from the multiplayer code... Up until now that is, because we dropped by to check them out at last week"s EGN event in London.
Although we weren"t expecting huge things of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. multiplayer, in action, it has to be said it offers a very decent, if at the moment not very robust, experience. Sure, it"s still fairly early days for the team, so there were more than a fair few crashes and delays, but in between, during the actual brief but extremely violent in-game sessions, it plays like a very satisfying and slightly more sophisticated version of Counter-Strike.