It's always nice when productions that are limited to a single platform land on other machines, because that way they can be accessed by even more players. A perfect example of this is the Stalker Legends of the Zone Trilogy, a package that has just arrived on PlayStation and Xbox and which allows, almost twenty years after the release of the first chapter of the series on PC, to enjoy the adventures in the Zone with holding a controller.
Faced with such a tempting opportunity, we didn't hold back and decided to once again take on the role of a Stalker to venture into the insidious area near Chornobyl (here is our test of Stalker 2 Heart of Chornobyl).
A series that made history
The enthusiasm of some about the possibility of recovering the titles included in the Stalker Legends of the Zone Trilogy (also sold individually) on Sony and Microsoft consoles is not accidental. The GSC Game World series had considerable importance when it debuted in stores, capturing users' attention with a truly intriguing mix of mechanics.
Far from shooters with a linear campaign, Stalker Shadow of Chornobyl was not a simple shooter. In fact, it boasted a rather cumbersome role-playing component, not to mention the survival element and a pinch of horror to complete the recipe. The same acronym present in the title allows us to understand the activities on which the entire production is based: STALKER in fact stands for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers (in Italian Saccheggiatori, Trasgressori, Avventurieri, Solitari , Assassins, Explorers and Thieves).
The game was damn difficult, as it threw the protagonist into a thorny situation: in the middle of an area contaminated by radiation and structured in an open map, the fighter had to do everything possible to survive, eliminating bandits and deformed creatures.
And the multiplayer? As you may remember, all three chapters included in the Stalker Legends of the Zone Trilogy include an online multiplayer component in their PC version. However, be aware that this gameplay element has been cut from the package, which therefore only offers single player experiences without the possibility of facing other users in PvP modes.
The adventure was not one of the linear ones and it was up to the user to decide how to gain reputation among his 'colleagues', given that he could continue with the main quest or collaborate with other survivors and accept their secondary tasks. Alternating the more action moments, in which the trigger was pressed, were those linked to inventory management, which required careful consumption of resources and the removal of objects that were too heavy, which slowed down the protagonist's movement. It is therefore easy to understand how important the series was and how it paved the way for numerous productions which took up not only its atmosphere, but also its playful characteristics.
You return to the Zone, with a controller
Before there can be any misunderstandings, it should be noted that the operation conducted by GSC Game World is profoundly different compared to what has been seen on other occasions. The products that have reached the virtual shelves of the Microsoft Store and PlayStation Store are not remakes or remastered, but versions very similar to those seen on PC between 2007 and 2009.
Therefore, do not expect substantial improvements, since each of the three chapters remains faithful to the original and there are no attempts to standardize the gameplay by, for example, introducing the features of the most recent games also in the predecessors included in the package.
By playing the three products in order (Shadow of Chornobyl, the prequel Clear Sky and the sequel Call of Prypiat), it is possible to notice the evolution of the series both in terms of graphics and gameplay.
In reality, also thanks to the original publication in close proximity, there are no major differences in technical terms between one episode and another, but what is most noticeable is the addition of features that have gradually made the game more enjoyable. gaming experience thanks to the introduction of weapon modification, more reactive AI and less wooden gunplay. The only intervention by the development team concerns – for obvious reasons – the control system, which has undergone a series of changes to adapt to the use of the controller. From this point of view, we must applaud the developers, who have managed to make the now former PC exclusives perfectly enjoyable on consoles too.
Also thanks to the fact that the GSC Game World titles did not use so many buttons, it was possible to ensure that any action was easily adaptable to the layout of the PlayStation and Xbox controllers. All three Stalkers are played in an almost identical way to any modern shooter, with the directional arrows having been used for the rapid use of medkits and bandages, so as not to go through the inventory in the most frenetic moments, which whether it's about stopping the bleeding or simply regaining health.
Instead, by holding down the reload button (Square/X), all the weapons and objects that can be collected within a radius of a few meters are highlighted by a white text on the screen indicating their name, so that you never miss them. a bullet. Speaking instead of managing the backpack, everything happens without particular problems via the controller and the simple press of a button allows you to transfer the loot from the corpses or containers into the inventory.
As far as the objects held by our Stalker are concerned, it is sufficient to use a practical wheel of weapons/accessories, which allows you to put away the gun or switch to another equipped element in just a few moments. Again using the wheel you can also change the fire mode and replace the type of bullets, so as to always have all the options at hand.
The only drawback we encountered during our test of the Stalker Legends of the Zone Trilogy concerns the annoying assisted aiming, which however can be deactivated in a few clicks from the settings menu, so as to guarantee the possibility of freely directing fire when pulls the trigger. In short, the gaming experience with Sony and Microsoft controllers is more than good.
The usual Stalker
We have already established that, from a technical point of view, we are faced with a porting without major differences compared to the original works except for almost imperceptible changes to the user interface. After all, the three titles have more than a few years behind them and the last generation consoles have no difficulty keeping up with them. Yes, because Stalker Legends of the Zone Trilogy is only available on PS4 and Xbox One, although it is also perfectly playable on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S via backwards compatibility.
In our case, we experienced the three adventures on the latest generation console from Sony, which never had difficulty managing 60 frames per second. The only times we noticed oscillations were during automatic saves, but this is a minor inconvenience and very common among older productions.
In any case, there is an fps selector that allows you to lock them at 30 or 60, probably because the game struggles to keep the higher frequency on last generation machines. Unfortunately there are no other options through which to customize the FOV or enable further graphic effects, given that the title boasts a rather small number of items in the settings screen. There isn't even an option to disable controller vibration, you actually have to go to the system menus to disable this feature.
We must point out that all three titles suffer from some stability problems that seem to mainly concern PlayStation: on more than one occasion the game crashed, forcing us to restart it and repeat short sessions due to failure to save progress. There are also some audio bugs inherited from the originals, all localized both in the texts and in the dubbing.