It was a Friday evening. I sat down on the couch, picked up the gamepad, and pressed the PS button. There was a sharp «peak!», the PlayStation 5 turned blue, and the main menu appeared on the 4K TV screen in front of me. With the left stick, I switched from the God of War Ragnarök icon to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl and pressed the X button. The familiar music started, several pictures changed on the screen, and now I was standing in front of the legendary Sidorovich. The year was 2024. I was lying on the couch and playing «Stalkers» on the PlayStation 5.
On the morning of February 6 appeared information about the re-release of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy on Sony consoles. This news was like something from a parallel universe and seemed fantastic to me, «Sonyboy». But recently, I’ve gotten used to the crazy shift in reality, so the hope of playing the cult Ukrainian shooter on my favorite console began to glow in my heart.
On the same day, GSC Game World and the Polish studio Mataboo, which ported the trilogy to consoles, announced that Xbox and PlayStation had released S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone— remaster of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat. The next day, I was looking for an opportunity to take the key I received from the ERC company, am very grateful to them for that. But I managed to get to the trilogy only on the evening of March 8.
Of course, I didn’t complete all three parts on the console, but only played a little bit of each of them, but I’ve already started a replay of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and then the other two games will come next. Therefore, this is not a review, but an opinion or impression of the beginning of savoring these projects in the console iteration, about the port to game consoles, and the situation in general. We will also talk about the feasibility of the release, real and imaginary problems, etc.
Content
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was released in 2007, Clear Sky in 2008, and Call of Pripyat a year later. That is, the oldest game in the trilogy is now 17 years old (!), and the youngest is 15 (!). Technically, they are the same game, created on the proprietary X-Ray Engine. Only in the first part it was version 1.0, and then 1.5 and 1.6.
I didn’t just mention the age of the cult Ukrainian trilogy, especially since it was released on consoles so many years later. The fact is that shooters have not stood the test of time and are almost unplayable for the modern audience. This is not a problem of «Stalkers», but simply an unfortunate fact of many well-known projects in the past. That’s why remakes are in vogue because everyone wants nostalgia, but at the same time, you need to offer modern gameplay, interface, animations, textures, etc. But here we have a remaster that is almost indistinguishable from the originals.
Of course, the graphics here are the same as the most powerful computer ever produced, and the sky still impresses with its realism and detail. 60 fps and a 4K TV also help, but if you can walk, move, and explore the world without any problems, then shooting will be painful. Especially for beginners and PC gamers.
An aiming assistant has been added to all units. And a real fight broke out on the Internet around it. Some say it really helps, others say it makes things worse. I belong to the former because I tried it without it and with it, and it really helps to shoot, but still limits the gamer’s actions in a certain way.
With or without it, aim and shoot in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy is very difficult and uncomfortable. And this is from me, who plays shooters only with gamepads and easily defeats people on keyboards in online games. And here, I look like a shooter, so this very moment will scare away the lion’s share of new players. For their sake, at least partially, this trilogy was released on consoles to show them what it is and to get younger generations hooked on «needle» stalking. But I give you a guarantee that with the available shooting in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy, these boys and girls will be screaming and crying and then running as far away from these shooters as possible.
I should note that it’s not easy to shoot in these games on PC either. I specifically downloaded one of the titles from my Steam collection and found that shooting even on the keyboard in «Stalker» is also difficult. The reticle still jumps around like crazy, the recoil is strong, and the enemies are constantly moving and changing positions. Therefore, this is a problem not so much for consoles, although they sometimes fail the test the most, but for the entire franchise due to the age of development.
The interface of each part was left different, but a new circular menu of items and weapons was added to all of them, which greatly simplified and modernized the control. It’s also a full-fledged console interface, where there are no pseudo-arrows to move around the interface with a stick. This is often the case in the latest Assassin’s Creed installments or other Ubisoft games.
New players will probably not like the communication with NPCs either. There is a lot of text in the dialogs, which is only relevant for full-fledged RPGs nowadays. Although it’s good that everything is dubbed by voice. However, I should note that in this case, I still like this way of communicating with heroes and characters more because it immerses you in the game and creates the appropriate atmosphere.
Another significant problem was the game’s sound and voice acting in general. GSC Game World was definitely banned when they removed the Russian voice acting. However, the sounds in these shooters are very loud, often varying in volume, cutting off in the most unexpected places, etc. For example, you approach a merchant with a loudspeaker hanging above him. The NPC starts to speak, but the music above him is so loud that you can hardly hear him, so you have to read his text. And if this is not a problem for me, it will probably become one for the same new generations of gamers.
It’s also hard to figure out how to use a PDA, although I remembered everything in an hour and got into it. However, the same teenagers or young people will be flushed with the unfriendliness of this section. And it looks like something has been added here.
However, the quests are still catchy and interesting. There are the classic «bring» and «find», but the NPCs create such a touch of stalker romance around these tasks that you want to run after these artifacts or mutant tails right away. But most of the missions are still well done, even today.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy runs at a full 60 frames per second. You can also switch to 30 fps. I tried to find the difference between 60 and 30 fps, thinking about the same situation with modern games, when they run either in 4K at 30 frames or in 60 fps but in 2K. Perhaps they did the same thing here, but I didn’t notice any actual difference in the image. You can see a comparison of graphics in the video below.
Judging by this video and my own impressions, the picture hasn’t changed at all. But it has been improved by the increased resolution, at least if you play in 4K. Also, all parts have definitely become lighter, but the problems with shadows and lighting that were on PCs have remained on consoles.
Neither textures, nor figures, nor anything else was updated. But the fire, sky, and water still look good. And even more so. I’m sure that in some modern, relatively low-budget games, all of this has much worse textures.
However, it’s painful to look at the textures and appearance of the characters. Their movements and animations are especially outdated. Grass and trees, as well as weapons, also look bad. Nevertheless, the damage, scratches, chips, and other details are still impressive, although the overall quality has long since fallen short of competition.
GSC Game World has promised to release a patch for the new generation of consoles that will bring additional graphical improvements and other features. I don’t know what it will be, but it must be done. All of this will happen by the end of 2024. We also expect mod support through mod.io, and after that, the trilogy will definitely get a full second life on consoles. In my opinion.
The main reason for the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy, at least according to the official statement, is to introduce gamers to the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. before the release of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Is the trilogy capable of this now? No, it’s not. In its current form, it will only appeal to oldies like me who played these games as a child or young adult.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy gives you the opportunity to lie down on the couch and run these games on the big TV. For us, who played them hunched over on stools in front of bulky monitors with minimal graphics, this is an incredible leap forward. Even when later it became possible to run «Stalkers» on modern PCs with maximum graphics. The experience of playing on a console, on the couch, with a cup of tea or something stronger, is an experience of a new, cosmic level, for which I thank GSC Game World and Mataboo.
However, the new generation of players doesn’t know about all our suffering and experience. They have already played on adequate builds, had consoles, and for them, you are already homeless if you have an Xbox One or PlayStation 4. They are spoiled by modern engines, 4K, detailed graphics, Sony exclusives, etc. And that’s a good thing. It’s great that they live better than we did back then. But this is exactly what S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy. It’s just a dinosaur ported to consoles that makes you smell like an elderly father or uncle.
But. I think young people should wait for an update with better graphics and fashion. And when the best of them move to consoles, and the graphics, perhaps the textures, are slightly improved, then we can give this trilogy a real chance. Because these are incredible games that are worth every hour spent on them. Just not right now. We have to be patient.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy already allows you to break into the cult shooter trilogy while lying on the couch. Even ardent console players will have to get used to shooting, but it’s worth it. However, in its current form, «new» will only interest old-fashioned gamers and those who are already fanatical about it. I advise everyone else not to play yet, but to wait for improvements and mods. And after that, be sure to try «Stalkers».
