S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Game Poster Image

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

age 18+
(i)

 

A creepy, mature, first-person sci-fi shooter.
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What parents need to know

Positive messages

You play as a mercenary in a radioactive zone trying to recover magical artifacts.

Violence

As a violent and gory first-person shooter, players see bodies torn apart, lots of characters and animals bleeding profusely, and chunks of flesh flying. Realistic weapons are used and shots to the head rewarded. Knifing an opponent is also praised.

Sex
Not applicable
Language

While not excessive, near the beginning of the game you'll hear "s--t" and "bulls--t."

Consumerism
Not applicable
Drinking, drugs, & smoking

Liquor (most notably vodka) can be located and consumed all throughout the single-player campaign. It reduces radiation and applies a limited "drunk" effect.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the extreme violence and gore in this game make it an adults-only affair. Anomalies tear bodies apart, characters and animals bleed profusely when shot, and chunks of flesh fly freely when hit by more powerful attacks. It is possible to shoot others in the head, which results in a reward during multiplayer gameplay. This game offers online play, which Common Sense Media does not recommend for anyone under 12.

Kids say

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What's it about?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: SHADOW OF CHERNOBYL takes place at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, where an army of zombies spawned by the 1986 disaster is bent on destroying humanity. You're a \"Stalker,\" a freelance mercenary, and your goal is to stay alive long enough to recover rare artifacts with magical properties to sell to the scientific community, military agencies, and anonymous collectors. With the money you accumulate, you can buy better weapons, ammunition, equipment, and protective suits to be worn in areas with extremely high radiation levels. You can consume artifacts, too, but each comes at a price: The gelatinous Slug artifact, for example, can drive out radiation and nourish you, but it also makes you extremely susceptible to thermal, electric, or chemical injury.

Is it any good?

QUALITY

Because of its creepy atmosphere and disturbing creatures, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is billed as a "survival shooter" game, combining elements from the "survival horror" genre. You will also experience stealth games, role-playing games, and tactical-action games. With the latter, you can go it alone or work with computer-controlled allies to solve the non-linear mission objectives. The game's artificial intelligence is quite good.

The single-player game boasts more than 60 hours of gameplay, not to mention multiplayer modes for up to 32 players online. Because of its many missions and modes, chilling atmosphere, and interwoven role-playing elements, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. won't disappoint fans of first-person action games. Just be sure to take notice of the game's "Mature" rating (for players age 17 and older) because of its intense violence and gore.

Families can talk about...

  • Families can talk about how this game is purely science fiction. While it takes place at Chernobyl, years after the real-life nuclear disaster there, you are primarily shooting radioactive creatures and other baddies. Why do you think producers chose to use a real-life disaster as the setting? With mature teens who play this game, you may want to discuss what happens to people and vegetation near a nuclear accident or bombing.

Game details

Platforms:Windows
Price:$49.99
Available online?Available online
Developer:THQ
Release date:March 19, 2007
Genre:First Person Shooter
ESRB rating:M for Blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, use of alcohol

This review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was written by

Marc Saltzman
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are conducted by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
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Teen, 13 years old Written bybladeserpent April 9, 2008
not rated for age

fools

Once again commonsense, you are brain dead fools. this game isn't even over-the-top violent. and the blood level of this game isn't high either. it's almost as if you people just look at the back of the box and write crap about what you think the game is like. This game has moments where it'll scare you, but does that make it mature? The graphics aren't that great so the violence is not even as realistic as you think. Common sense, get some real reviewers...
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Teen, 17 years old Written byburnside001 April 9, 2008
not rated for age

DID YOU ACTUALLY PLAY IT!!!

HAVING COMPLETED THE GAME, I CAN TELL THAT COMMON SENSE HASN'T. HONESTLY, CALLING THE ARTIFACTS MAGICAL, ANYBODY WHO HAS REALLY PLAYED THE GAME WOULD TELL YOU OTHER WISE. a REALLY BIG MISTAKE IN THE COMMON SINCE REVIEW IS SAYING THAT THE GAME TAKES PLACE AROUND THE TINE OF THE ORIGINAL DISASTER, RIGHT OFF THE BAT CHARACTERS STATE THE THE DATE IS NEARLY 30 YEARS LATER ALSO, THE BODIES AREN'T DESTRUCTIBLE, IN OTHER WORDS THEY DON'T BLOW INTO CHUNKS, YOU CAN LAY 1000 ROUNDS INTO A CORPS ALONG WITH A GRENADE OR 2 AND THEY WON'T FLY APART. FURTHERMORE, THE GAME HAS HUGE AMOUNTS OF FACTS ABOUT THE ORIGINAL DISASTER AND THE GAME MAP IS BASED OFF THE REAL EXCLUSION ZONE, DOES THAT NOT QUALIFY IT AS AT LEAST MODERATELY EDUCATIONAL, YOU GUY'S REALLY NEED TO BE MORE ACCURATE.
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Adult Written byTheInsaneDude June 25, 2015
age 16+

I think parents and the like should start using their brains and play this magnificent game.

You guys should actually read what's on the box, and play the game yourself before making judgements based on what you think goes on, based on what actually happens. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl is a semi-open worlded survival horror first person shooter based in the Exclusion Zone/Zone of Alienation (Ingame, simply known as The Zone) of Pripyat, Kiev, Ukraine. The game's lore is based around a second, fictional explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, adjacent to the city of Pripyat in 2006. You play as an amnesiac Stalker known as Marked One, and you must navigate your way to the center of the Zone, exploring, robbing, etc, to get to the end goal. But it's much more than that, the atmosphere and overall feeling of the Zone depicted in STALKER SoC is just so unnerving, terrifying, and overall just amazing. This is a game, that is more for those that are looking for a challenge, and just something different than the average FPS game. It's like as if, the Fallout series and Metro series had a baby, set it in an alternate reality in a real place, filled it with anomalies, artifacts, mutants, and Stalkers from all walks of life, and giving it an absolute grueling experience, and called it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. My only real gripe with this game, is the fact at launch, it was almost completely broken, bugs and X-Ray Engine Bug Trap crashes all around, the most recent patches fix this issue, and installing bugfixing/improvement mods like OGSE (Old Good S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Evolution), Zone Reclamation Project, Oblivion Lost, and so on, will fix this issue for the most part. Personally, I enjoyed the hell out of this game, completed it on Master difficulty, patched to 1.0005 and Zone Reclamation Project 1.07 R4, it took 60+ hours, but my god, was it ever worth it. I highly recommend this game to anyone that can handle the so called sp00ky "Extreme gore and blood" (Which there isn't much of, a bit of body horror and intense gunplay but that's about it) I wish the best to my fellow S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s and gamers, stay cheeki breeki my brothers.
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