Parents' Guide to

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

By Marc Saltzman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

A creepy, mature, first-person sci-fi shooter.

Game Windows 2007
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 5 parent reviews

TheInsaneDude
TheInsaneDude Adult
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.
1 person found this helpful.
Michael Z.
Michael Z. Parent of 13-year-old
January 4, 2023
age 14+

Great game for tanagers and adults.

Very nice Ukranian game. Developers did great job in order to get models and skins made from real pictures of Chernibyl zone. NPCs behavior (jokes, songs, phrases if you are native speaker) is a kind of art. Game has it's specific post-apocalyptical atmosphere, huge flexibility and various scenarios, open huge map. It is one of epic games ever.

This title has:

Easy to play/use
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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?

Our review:
Parents say (5):
Kids say (6):

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.

Talk to Your Kids 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

  • Platform: Windows
  • Available online?: Available online
  • Publisher: THQ
  • Release date: March 19, 2007
  • Genre: First-Person Shooter
  • ESRB rating: M for Blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, use of alcohol
  • Last updated: November 4, 2015

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