This review of the whole S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series will be separated into parts per game.

In the first part, I will review the first game of the series, Shadow of Chernobyl.

I gotta say, this is the best Open World FPS game series so far, with all of its beauty. And no, not just because the game is played in Chernobyl.

The game's idea came from a book called "Roadside Picnic". Its the story of aliens, who came to our planet.

Now the game is a bit different. As you can tell by the name, you have Chernobyl with a scientific catastrophe, creating the zone itself.

Lets begin with some storytime.

The game begins with a cutscene. We see a truck flying down the road at blisstering speed. It a "Death Truck", Its cargo department is full of dead rotten bodies. But on the way, a lightning bolt hits the truck, blowing up on the impact, rolling down the hillside. The next day, a "Stalker" (Explorers of the Zone) find the remainings of the truck. He checks the bodies, and then finds out that one of them is still alive, that is You. He then picks you up and brings you to Sidorovich, a Trader.

- What have you got?
- A body. It came from the death truck. Its got the mark.
- Well you know the drill, leave it on the...
- This is a live one!
- Bull***t! You are lying!
- Let the Zone take me If I am.

So yeah pretty harsh start but also pretty cool. Then they find your PDA with the following job: "Kill the Strelok"

This Strelok guy is the main enemy. You dont know who he is, and why you have to kill him. You also dont know who you are at first, so you are just named "Marked One". Ahh you see what the game did there? Heh funny

You begin with some easy jobs to do, like killing some bandits or getting some contracts done and other things. You are also equipped with an "Anomaly Detector". These anomalis are all around the whole map, and they do various stuff, from being radioactive to tearing your body apart into pieces. The detector has a beeping sound, the closer you are to one, the faster it beeps.

There are sooo many items you can collect, but you have a weight limit of 50kg. You can carry stuff up to 60kg, but over 50 your stamina will go down faster. Of course, you can buy some energy drink to get it back up, because waiting takes a lot of time. You can also buy food, vodka, ammo, guns, medkits and other things you need to survive in the zone.

These zones are also separated between loading times. It takes about 10-20 seconds to load in one, and you can also save and load game anytime you want to.

There are many story missions to complete, but if you want to wonder on your own, there are always side quests, like killing mutants, giving something to someone, or stealing stuff.

BUT, There is one big problem.

For shooting things, you need ammo (of course). But ammo has weight too. So if you have 3000 pistol ammo in backpack (just like me), it will have a total weight of around 15kg. And you also have to carry weapons food and medkits. So I recommend taking just enough ammo with you, and only the weapons you need. Just find a stash or a box to put useless stuff away.

Weapons also have many kinds of different forms. Like you have a basic Akm 72/2, and you can also have the "Fast Shooting Akm 72/2", which is the same, but its more accurate and fires faster. You can also put on some equipment, like scopes and greande launchers.

About equipment, you can also use artifacts you get in the zone as some "body upgrades". You can attach 5 artifacts at once onto your belt, and they give you some good and bad stuff. They can improve health or radiation protection, but they can make you bleed easier, or any other effects. Getting some clothing or even armor is very usefull too. Yeah, you will get a bit more protection, but not insanely much so you cant get killed.

Enemies. They are all around the map. From bandits to mutants, all kinds of stuff. Like blind dogs, for some reason they run after you trough whole map. We also have Bloodsuckers, Zombies, some pig wannabes, people who became zombies, and soldiers.

Aaaaaand you also have the beautiful Chernobyl atmosphere, which is just astonishing! Its so well made, it literally feels like you are there. The story just makes it even better!

I personally love this game, its awesome!

Also, if you want to play an even more glitchy, buggy, unstable, but improved version, try Lost Alpha. You will have to load for 10 minutes, but its pretty much the same game.

I the next part, Ill review the last game of the series, Lost Alpha, because its almost the same thing as SOC.

Good hunting, stalker!

I couldnt include all the cool stuff, because it would, as always, take up too much space.