A place where few people desire to tread – where horrible death and impossible riches are but a hair’s breadth apart. Isn’t it ironic that the gateway to a bright new future is rooted in a location that is so relentlessly dark and defies human logic?
This place is the “Zone.”
Perhaps like other recent North American SF fans, I was introduced to the Russian classic SF novel “Roadside Picnic” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky through the video-game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl. They share the same premise, but each have wildly different focus.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a game that mixes First Person Shooter action, Role-Playing Game character development and open world design with Survival Horror experiences. The player takes on the role of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R, a name derived from all of the miscreants that are kept out of the Zone – Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, Robbers. The Zone refers to the exclusion zone around the ill-fated Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. After the initial incident in 1986, the Soviet military moves in to secure it, setting up the Zone. However, there is a second incident, which creates artifacts with strange powers and it is these that attract potential S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s. On the black market, the artifacts can command immense prices, but the danger associated with their retrieval means that only a gifted few are able to find and bring them back. Over the years, a mythology of the Zone’s inhabitants has grown up as key artifacts and locations are mentioned briefly and through a surfeit of gossip, grow into legends; the Heart of the Oasis and the Wish Granter being foremost amongst them. The Wish Granter is supposed to make all your dreams come true, whether it be ultimate riches, fame, or even end of the Zone itself…
Pan Spectrum Analyzer 