S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: one day...

On the April 20, 2018 a small group of casual Moldavian workers (OCG “Mamalyga”) moved to the Zone to finish construction works for high-rank military officer of Armed Forces of Ukraine. Name is as always a top secret information - corruption (but everyone knows).

Attempts to start the construction continued for a day and a half since night of Apr.20th till morning of Apr.22nd.

Mechanics: airsoft + electronics

Game rules allowed the use of airsoft guns, grenades and rubber training knives. Nothing new.

Players had to bring their own costumes, airsoft guns, etc. The only thing they had to do is to buy back their ammo for in game currency. During registration players received only a PDA. That’s it.

One other nice addition was in game currency - absolutely everything had to be purchased during the game only for in game currency: ammo, food, drinks at the bar, etc. Just from our experience different organizers try or to mix in game with real currencies or use only real currency during the game, which or creates a mess, or removes the feeling of existence in the Zone. Want to eat - go work.

Location

The game itself was held at the small firing field close to Kyiv (not even 1x1 km). But considering format of the game “invites only, friends of friends” 80 people were just enough for the nice game. Of course the were no atmosphere of emptiness and desperation in the Zone, but it was nicely wrapped up in the plot itself of “some events of searching something”.The location is nice itself and many of places were rather interesting. We just have to believe organizers that it’s even more awesome without greenery.

Plot

As always some mystic mystery happened at the Zone. Everyone hides everything from everyone, but immediately spoils to the Stalker on the other side of the bar. Soldier’s task is not to think, but to follow orders. Intellect of a Duty soldier reminds Black Square by Kazimir Malevich. Freedom can’t be stopped and everything like that. Nothing new.

Every faction had their own quest line, which we will not spoil, but some of them were successfully completed, some were fucked up with shame. On the bright side OCG “Mamalyga” could complete tasks of any difficulty. Brave and selfless, they sacrificed everything they have to help other players. Yes, they are heroes, but wethey keep it modestly.

We will throw a rock towards organizers (though maybe there’s something about that), but some quests had no logical ending - it’s not cool. Especially if some newbies would get them, would work shit out of themselves and in the end get magical nothing. That’s very unfortunate. Of course noble Moldavian lords could create illusion of sweet victory, but we’re players, not orgs.

Considering we’ve started talking about organizers we will throw another rock - rules. Despite the fact that this was a private game for “friends” and everyone knows everything, but covering numerous holes in rules would help not just avoid conflicts between players “I’ve killed you.” - “No - only injured, I’m in a flak jacket.” - “I have a mythril blade.”, but even cover tons of stupid questions to orgs by players about this and that. Of course everything was resolving pretty fast, but facts are facts.

One other fail was to publish PDA instructions with 4 buttons when in real life PDAs had only 3!

Factions

This game had almost all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. factions, except for Renegades and Sin. Though most numerous factions were Duty, Bandits and how surprising this can be - Neutrals.

Overall it was nice to play with everyone, except we didn’t have a chance to roleplay with Mercenaries (except drink couple of bears together) and Monolith. Aside of that everyone was true to their concept and ideology.

The only thing that surprised us most was Ukrainian Military - they were so trenchant and aggressive that even bandits were slightly confused. They didn’t even ask casual Moldavian workers for their documents and the only thing modest workers wanted was love, understanding and payroll calculation. Despite the fact that there was none they managed to construct a nice plot with a nice view of the Colosseum to an unknown hero.

Casual workers from Moldavia build a luxury holiday house for AFU Major

Aside of factions we would like to mention Arena and Bar. It was always nice to enter the bar, where the atmosphere itself was created by charismatic barmen.

And monsters. Rather nice costumes, especially Snorks. And +1 to karma for Bloodsucker - it was very funny to watch as he was running in circles trying to catch bandits.

And the last, but not least - outfits. Most of the players had rather nice costumes in style of the game itself with no “non-canon shit we think could fit the universe”.

Electronics

Of course it’s not new for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, but this is cosmic cosmos compared with other games. We still don’t get why other projects are not trying to use this experience.For those who don’t get it. Every player got a PDA during registration, which were processing absolutely everything: health level, radiation level, being close to anomalies and their influence, effects from other substances (zombifying, drugs, etc.), level of your armor protection, etc.Also, with some luck from shit and sticks (pieces of electronics lying around that looks like trash) you could create a really working machine (to activate artifacts for example). Everything starts to glow and shine, mix different liquids and create clouds of funny, but deadly smoke. This is awesome!Also it’s very cool and nice that organizers respect how tough OCG “Mamalyga” was that they even decided to place Electra anomaly just in their camp. It was awesome to get ressed and instantly die from the anomaly.

Conclusion

Honestly the game itself was not awesome, but not bad. Just for one day it’s exactly what you need, considering it’s a first game of the season. Orgs need to polish rules a bit and they can move forward. From our side we can only wish them luck. And of course give us a discount for the only and one honest review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: one day...

And of course some photos: Facebook