Whatever Happened To...S.T.A.L.K.E.R?

If you have questions about Russian post-apocalyptic FPS, Ethan tries to answer them

- Ethan Butterfield

Has there ever been a point when you’ve looked through your gaming library and wondered, “Huh, whatever happened to this title?” Well, I’ll be taking a look at videogame standalones/franchises and the lead up to their eventual absence. With that being said, today I’ll be asking the question: “Whatever Happened to… S.T.A.L.K.E.R?”

Well it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Yes, after catching up on some new titles from this year and working out stuff for university, I haven’t had a lot of time for a new ‘Whatever Happened To...?’ Most of it came from the dilemma of not knowing what to do next in terms of a project. That is, until a recent session of the survival based 7 Days to Die finally helped me through that funk, reminding me of an earlier title that I had fond memories with...

For those who aren’t familiar (or perhaps choose not to remember), S.T.A.L.K.E.R was a tough-as-nails, post-apocalyptic action series that was heavily praised for its gameplay, but not so much for its story. The franchise itself was based on the novel Roadside Picnic by authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and was developed by Ukrainian studio GSC Game World. The series managed to garner three entries that would vary on the scale of good to fairly good.