Hi guys,
I finally had time to install and play the game for a few hours last night. I'm here to give my initial impression.
When the game began to install (Vista 32-bit BTW), I started to think of some of the feedback I'd heard from friends, read on messageboards, and heard on podcasts. I'd heard everything from "fantastic" to "ho-hum". I had also heard the terms RPG, FPS, and "we're not sure what genre this one falls in to" as well. People just didnt know what to make of this game. So, I want sure what to expect or what adventure I was about to embark on. One thing for sure--I was excited. I've been waiting for STALKER for years. I'd purposely dodged previews and most reviews because I wanted to know very little about the details of the gameplay. I wanted to experince it for myself for the first time.
Once the installation was complete, I launched the game expecting it to immediately crash to desktop since I had heard of some Vista nightmares. What luck! I experienced nothing of the sort. I immediately jumped into the Video Options and began to tweak away as I have done with so many other PC games. I toggled graphical features, adjusted sliders, and weighed many options plowing through the "advanced features". Once I was done, I created a new game and was off.
After watching the opening movie (both CG and in-game) -- I was already impressed with the atmosphere this game was creating for me. I couldnt wait to be set free! I wanted to step outside and see what this world was like first-hand. As some old guy with broken english informed me of some quest I needed to complete for him in some underground bunker, my mind wandered to the outdoors. What would it look and sound like?
As soon as the conversation finished, I whipped around and my frame rate dropped significantly. Ugh. I jumped back into the options menu and spent the next 30 minutes adjusting settings, rebooting, and turning off graphic features. The two things I absolutely could not change were the resolution (my LCD runs natively @ 1680X1050, and the Dynamic Lighting--I refused to use the old DX8 static lighting) and lighiting. After I found the balance between a rock solid smooth frame rate and great visuals--I was off! I climbed the stairs that lead me outside and it hit me in the face like a brick. It was a beautiful, dusty, post-apocolyptic world. I looked around admiring the dry dead world that was begging me to explore it. I turned slight to the right and a sudden but gentle breeze pressed into my face carrying leaves with it, bouncing off of my chest. I walked into the wind heading for the nearby camp. I was greeted by another man who spoke broken english. He told me a little bit of "The Zone", the camp I was heading into, and where I could find the man I was looking for. His chatter was interupted by distant laugher. Over his shoulder I could see several men sitting around a camp fire, talking (in russian?), and laughing once again. One strummed a guitar that lie under his arm--singing to the tune. Everything else was silent. It was just the wind, the guitar, and some occassional chatter that occupied my immediate world.
I was pulled in. This was it. It was what I wanted, expected, and welcomed. I smiled and knew I was in for a gaming treat. I cannot wait to play this game some more and see what it has to offer. I'm sorry if this comes across as cheesy (I know it probably does), but there are few games for me that are successful in creating the mood it sets out to create.
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