S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - If you have never played it, you really must.

image credit: hell, it's from the game marketing from Call of Pripyat. There you are.

I am not exactly a fanatical gamer, a lot of other things take precedence in my life. But this game is something special.

It's your typical survival horror scenario, but with really nice twists. Firstly, obviously, the russian language. I think that they should have made it Ukrainian, personally, but it's still nice.

Secondly, the slavic humour. Slavs have so much a better sense of humour than western europeans. In my opinion. Usually a lot more dry, sarcastic, and deadpan.

The game has, as far as I know, the most realistic ballistics modeling and representation of any FPS game ever made. You can see your bullets drop off downwards at distance, especially in the dark, which is true to how it is in real life. I have shot guns, not nearly as much as I would like to, and I remember watching that streak of light (I was shooting in the evening) launch from the end of the barrel. Damage is realistic too. The first gun you get in the game is usually a crappy russian Makarov pistol. Just like in real life, it's constantly jamming, and can be deflected by a thick piece of leather at a slight angle, sufficiently to prevent any damage to the person on the other side of the leather.

Thanks to this game, I also learned about the more rare and awesome weapons that were made for the Spetsnaz. The AS Val, the VSS Vintorez, and the OTs Groza https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OTs-14_Groza To me, these three weapons, especially the Vintorez, are the icons of this game, and in real life, they are perhaps the most well designed weapons ever made for special soldiers. Actually, it's pretty funny to say that, because 'special soldiers' are just well equipped guerillas. Part of what I love so much about these games is how they let you get some idea of what it's like to run around in hostile territory in Ukraine.

No, I don't think war is fun. But some people do, and we have to stop them, right?

The premise of the games is based around a cult film, and the book, which in the censored version is what the film is made from. I want to share with you these things:

http://www.buecher.de/shop/belletristik/roadside-picnic-ebook-epub/strugatsky-boris-strugatsky-arkady/products_products/detail/prod_id/40807890/

Ok, I was going to try to post a link to the free version I downloaded and read back in 2013, of the recent re-release of the book, sans censorship, with a great foreword from Ursula le Guin. But hell, why not buy it, it's not expensive and as far as I know, at least one of the authors is still kicking around and I think this would send him some rubles... Hell, I would love to just give the Strugatski brothers and their legacy some money anyway. Their work has drastically affected my life and my dreams.

The movie that this game derives from is also legendary, not just in Russia, but also Ukraine. In fact it is hugely popular in Ukraine, and this is where this game's conceptual basis came from. After Chernobyl melted down, there was people who explored it afterwards, and they called it, colloquially, 'The Zone' (Zona) and people who went into this very dangerous area, got the label 'Stalkers'.

It is interesting to note that the word 'Stalker' is not originally Russian, and through this book, entered the Russian language. It does not mean, as it is in use generally in english, to mean someone who is spying on and harassing someone, but rather, like a hunter, but not the blustering, blow em away type, rather, the hunter who is quiet, tentative, and slowly follows, and studies the prey, and gathers knowledge in order to capture it with a minimum of fuss and energy. Like how cats hunt. And also how Spetsnaz generally conduct their operations.

So, back to the game. The other great things, that were gradually improved in subsequent sequels of the game, was the weapon upgrade and repair systems. In the first, Shadow of Chernobyl, you could not repair weapons, and upgraded weapons were rare items that you could find in special places. Call of Pripyat had this mechanic very well set up, and all kinds of modified versions could be created by weapon technicians.

Changing calibre, adding anti-recoil additions, improvements of trigger action, higher quality, straighter barrels, and the like. I was particularly fond of the modification you could do to an MP5, to make it into a .45 calibre weapon, which really helped out a lot when you were faced with a swarm of these little rat mutants that were tiny, moved fast, and did a lot of rupture damage.

I was able to get a decently fast computer at one point, and I used to play this game on 'Master' difficulty, and I became very good at accurate shots, in fact I generally switched to single shot mode because I could pop off multiple shots at multiple targets, and not just within the range of my screen's view, but I could swing around, after hearing a snork, another of the most pesty monsters in this game (a mutated human with a russian latex gas mask like the ones issued to the people in Pripyat) who runs around on all fours and is very hard to kill, and pop a round right into its head, and kill it in one shot.

On maximum difficulty. Bear in mind also that killing enemies in this game is not easy, it is far more realistic than any other game you will play. In real life you want to aim for the heart, but if you are fast and accurate, 100% chance of kill comes from hitting a target in the head.

I lament endlessly that I am unable to practise firearms marksmanship, because I have very good vision, hearing, and coordination, I know that if I was ever in a war situation, that I would be a very very dangerous guerilla fighter. Assuming I was not sick, of course. My health problems you may already know from my recent posts about yet another bout of problems I am having right now. But my mind is sharp, and I know that with practise I probably could in real life pop shots into people's heads very precisely. As well as them not noticing me getting within range to do it.

The Stalker games changed my life. In fact, they can take credit for me finally pulling out all stops and taking the risks I had to take to get out of Australia and go to europe, and eventually end up in Bulgaria. Ideas that I had that stemmed from my playing the game and reading the book from which it was inspired, were very big factors in the adventure that unfolded after I tried to escape the grind of homelessness in Amsterdam. It's not been pretty, along the way. But I proved in my adventuring, just how strong I am, and how resourceful I can be.

So in some way, I am making this post because I am who I am today, in part because of this game, and the constellation of cultural artifacts surrounding it. If you have been following me for a long time, or read back in my blog, you can also find that this concept of frontier exploration is part of why I am so utterly addicted to Steem.

To me, the Steemosphere is like the Zone. It is not a safe place, really, and just this last day I am seeing that something I could have predicted was coming - whale-sized flagbots. People who I just recently added to my follow list, have been harassed by these ... Shall I say it... monsters... have had perfectly decent posts hidden or downranked for absolutely no reason.

No plagiarism, no bad language, nothing. Just some asshole, with some poorly thought out code, exploiting the flag mechanism. I don't know whether this threat to Steem will be addressed, but I am strongly campaigning towards it being abolished, because I think it does no benefit. I have seen a very good article in this last week, that showed that post count and market cap, and Steem price, are highly correlated. So empowering bullies is contrary to the success of Steem.

While it fits into the dangerous frontier situation I am talking about, I think that it is not beneficial to this place, and it must surely eventually be removed, because of the deleterious effect it has.

Regardless, this cultural artifact of the Stalker universe, is certainly part of why I have enjoyed my time here, even if I am literally feeling at times the sense of injury and danger that still lurks. It's nice to get a big upvote, but just as in my first experience, I went and kicked the hornets nest that gave me the upvote, and had a very harrowing emotionally draining experience from the indignation that sprung from it.

So, back to the game

Stalker left a big imprint on my life, and I think that more people need to be exposed to it. I hope that I have contributed in some way to promoting it. Us Stalker fans were jilted also, part way into development of Stalker 2, some kind of mischief went on, and the project was shuttered. It was deeply upsetting to myself and every other fan. This game, to me, is the most important game of the first decade of the 21st century.

Not just because of the relevant themes involved in it (in the story, there is special machines that produce radiation that warps peoples minds, also), but also because of its brutal realism, the unique, east european viewpoint it shows, the spectacular atmospheric effects it has, and the way it even shows things that you may not have even heard of or believed until you play the game.

Yes: alcohol reduces radiation sickness.

Yes: alcohol increases hunger.

The game actually has these mechanics in it, and I thought they were just amusing, but they are factual, medical, scientific facts. Really, I am not joking, look it up. I never would have learned these things had I not become so sucked into the Zone.

I hope you enjoyed my review, and commentary, and I hope it inspires you to shell out a few rubles to get yourself a copy of the game and have a crack at it. It's a very rewarding game, and to me, it is a microcosm of the macrocosm of this world we live in. It does not try to placate you at all, but rather, challenges you to grow in some way. Many games are not nearly so challenging in not just the mechanics of play, but also what it will get you thinking.