E3 2006: The truth behind STALKER

Logan Booker tells you the latest about GSC's STALKER, why it's been delayed and... what's been cut.

E3 was full of surprises, but none quite as engaging - or alluring - as the behind-closed-doors demo of STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl. We've heard the supposed problems at developer GSC Gameworld, read the financial forecasts from THQ stating the game's release as 'sometime next year', stories of cut features and even the (thankfully) quickly squashed rumour that the game had been scrapped.

Some of it is true, some isn't. Obviously, we know now the game is still on track and that the release will indeed be early next year. A major development did however occur - around a year ago THQ brought in freelance developer Dean Sharpe to transform the game from an undefined mess of potential to a sprawling masterpiece.

Sharpe is now executive producer as well as product manager for STALKER. It was he who talked us through the action, displayed on a nice, big LCD and explained a few of the concepts.

The first was a new PDA mechanic, much like Doom 3 or, if you're old enough to remember, System Shock. PDAs can be found by searching the bodies of fallen enemies. The PDAs act as journals, and provide GSC with a great (and apparently now-popular) way to explain the story.

'You'll find everything about what the person has done, he'll write things in his diary and you get all that information. That's how a lot of the story is conveyed,' explained Sharpe. Sharpe also said that every character in the game has voice however, the characters we talked to in the demo had temporary voice clips.

Next were the scripted events. Ducking through the concrete and steel remains of Chernobyl, we approached another stalker who informed us that his leader, Mole, had been captured by the Militaries. Sharpe told us it was the Militaries' job to keep the stalkers out of the exclusion zone around Chernobyl.

The scripted sequence that followed came as a bit of a shock.

'This is an example of a little bit of how the game has changed over the year,' said Sharpe. 'You wouldn't have [this] type of thing in the game before - it was completely open-ended. So now we've added scripted events to make sure you can actually follow the story.' We had to ask at this point about STALKER's much publicised 'A-Life' AI system.

'It's still there, but with scripting elements as well that make sure that you can make it through the game ... It's still very, very open-ended. The only difference is that there are now scripted events throughout the world that will let you progress. But once that scripted event happens that area then opens up to the entire world again,' explained Sharpe.