"Well I'm standing by the river,
but the water doesn't flow;
it boils with every poison you can think of.
And I'm underneath the streetlight
but the light of joy I know -
scared beyond belief, way down in the shadows.
And the perverted fear of violence
chokes the smile on every face;
and common sense is ringing out the bell…"
- 'Road to Hell' by Chris Rea.
Nothing captures the desolate, grim realm of 'The Zone' better than the words of Chris Rea’s song, Road to Hell. The Zone is a fictitious rendition of the area where the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster took place in 1986. In the story of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a second nuclear mishap takes place in the same area, which causes far more destruction, while radiating the area around it and severely mutating all the life in its vicinity. Most animal life in the Zone has perished, leaving the ones that survive the disaster to continue to evolve in a mutated state, which in turn places their survival instincts more on edge, making them far more dangerous than their former selves. The radiation takes a toll on everything - most rivers either turn dry or have their waters run rampant with radiation poisoning; even the skies give in and become highly overcast. All the little details including the visually stunning weather effects have been ingrained brilliantly into the game - making you experience 'The Zone' first hand. If any of you have played Fallout 2 (or any other game in the series), think of this game as an FPS based on a setting very similar to the post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout dystopia seen in the Fallout series.
Great review of a great game. This is my FPS of the decade right now, and like you say, this is the future. Sorry, but for my $50 why have a 20 hour rail shooter with little replayability, when I can have an 80-100 hour game that has huge replayability?! These games are ultimately way cheaper than rail shooters and that's why I hope they become the main genre. Certainly Precursors, White Gold, Mass Effect and Far Cry 2 are all going to have free-form open worlds - and of course next year we get STALKER - Clear Sky, a prelude to this game! Because of the lack of and more linear gameplay of Bioshock, I think it should have got 80% reviews, and for its open, immersive FPS/RPG world, STALKER should have got the 95% scores!!! 
