It's pitch black. I can't see shit. And I'm trapped under-ground. Help.

I click my flashlight on, and it begins illuminating a tiny cone of visibility before me, projecting twisted shadows across the wall in the process. This fucking door. It won't let me through without a key-code.

The bar provides a central hub for flogging your loot, and snagging new missions

What was I thinking, taking this job? I don't even remember my name, let alone why I'm here, yet some fat barman tells me to break into a lab and retrieve some documents with the promise of much needed information...and I jump. What an idiot.

Nothing for it I guess, time to track down that key-code. I edge my way along the wall of a long, ominous corridor, one I can't even see the end of...when I hear a loud bump off in the distance. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?! Something's down here with me.

I turn into a small room and notice some dead bodies. Fellow stalkers met with a grizzly end. I dare not ponder what befell them, instead rummaging through their pockets for all-too-valuable goodies. Aha...a PDA...and one containing the door code I so desperately seek! Things are looking up.

Wait a minute...did I just see something move outta the corner of my eye? Oh never mind. It's just a bucket in the corner of the room. I could have sworn it moved though. Bah, must be radiation sickness playing tricks on me. I dread to think what it's doing to my nuts.

I hear that bump again. Oh shit.

I decide a more pressing pace is in order, and begin high-tailing it back to the locked door, code in hand, when - crap - I hit a cross-roads. I don't remember coming this way. Think Diggs, think...which direction was it? That path over there looks a little brighter than the rest, let's try that way.

Big mistake.

Doom made me jump a little. Condemned freaked me out. STALKER makes me turn the game off and go rock in the corner

I end up in some sorta maintenance room. Big antiquated machinery and broken fuse boxes aplenty, none of which - judging by the lack of any light whatsoever - have worked in years. Boxes and crates litter the floor, but there's little of interest. And no door.

Oh fuck. That noise is back.

I spin around, shining my flashlight in the direction (I think) it stemmed from, but nowt's there. My heart's racing a million beats per minute, so I whip out my shotgun. Crap, it's empty. I check my pistol. 2 rounds in the chamber. Great.

Before I can worry too much about that...all the objects in the room begin moving! Elevating up from the ground slowly as if possessed by a poltergeist. What the...?!

FUCK! The objects have begun flying into me. Flung forth by a force I cannot see, they smash into my face and limbs with alarming ferocity. I'm bleeding. Disorientated. Terrified. I try to leg it back from whence I came, but boxes and buckets knock me down to the floor. I fire off a shot - blowing a flying crate apart with alarming accuracy - and use the window of opportunity to spring back to my feet and run like a bastard.

I'm back at the cross-roads and try an alternate path. Aha! This is more like it...the door's up ahead. Once through, I'll grab those documents, high-tail it back to the surface, and get the frack outta this urine-soaked hell hole.

Hang on a sec...

I guess one of those boxes must have hit me a little too hard across the head, as my vision's gone all blurry. I seem to be seeing some kinda squiggly, moving vortex further down the corridor. What is that? Radiation blips? Gas fumes? One too many puffs on the old Chernobyl baccy last night? That noise is back, by the way.

Holy shit! It's a mutant!! A big bastard too! Some kinda cloaked, humungous freak of nature the size of a wrestler! How do I know this? Because he just de-cloaked in front of me and is now flying towards me. FUUUUUCK!

Relax Dig. Breath. Aim. Fire.

Headshot. The fucker drops instantly.

I try to block out what I just saw, and clamber over to the keypad where I gently key in the pass-code. Phew. The door opens slowly and I sigh contently.

ARGHHHHH! A feral beast lays in wait behind the door, now pouncing on top of me and chewing on my neck. I pull the trigger. Nothing! Ammo? Out. Shotgun? Empty.

The gangly deformed beast bleeds his mutant AIDS all over me, as I slowly drift into unconsciousness...

I've been to hell and back. I've been shot at, beaten...hell, flat-out eaten to within an inch of my life, and am so choc-full of radiation at this point I'm also emitting a gentle hum. Worst of all...I've seen things no sane mortal should ever see. Yet I still live. For one single reason.

Locales range from undiluted wilderness, to more built-up residential zones

No, not Strelok. He is but a distant memory at this point. Something far more interesting has taken his place. Something beautiful. Something calling my name. A treasure beyond my wildest dreams. I dare not even speak of it, other than the fact that it lays buried deep down beneath the earth in a sarcophagus...and I'm on my way to find it.

The entrance to this sarcophagus lays far beyond the most brutal and remote areas of The Zone however, and getting there is proving difficult. I find myself in a desolate residential area now, surrounded by semi-destroyed apartment blocks and long-abandoned towers. The sky's never looked more imposing, and the stench of arse lingers long in the air.

It's quiet...almost too quiet, an action movie star might comment, but I can't help but enjoy the peace. After the shit I've been through today, I need it. Sadly what I need, and what I get are to be quite the contrary.

Radioactive anomalies pop up ahead of me. I poke my head out from the underground car park that led me here, to see a group of 'em peppered around the street. It'll take a slow and cautious toe to maneuver around these twisted reminders of mankind's sin, but there's nothing for it...I need to press on.

Boom!

Crap in a handbag...snipers! More than one, to boot. They've taken up residence in the tower blocks surrounding me...their concrete structures almost blocking me in with nowhere to run nor hide. But run I must, as a single stray shot just flew past my brow like a pissed off bee who just had his honey nicked.

So what's it gonna be? Splattered Diggler brains on the wasteland of a sidewalk, or a crispy-fried Diggler scorched to death by charging head-on through the sizzling electromagnetic radiation anomalies? I opt for the latter and run like hell.

I weave in-between the first couple - while a second sniper round soars past my ear - but my luck promptly runs out, as a straggling foot clips the edge of a third anomaly. Just like that, I'm on the ground, writhing in agony like Luke Skywalker before The Emperor. I can almost hear the sniper rifle cock miles off in the distance, as a crosshair no doubt glides its way across my forehead. So I muster up much-needed energy and get the fuck up. I charge like a mother fucker - in quite the horrendous state I might add - and make it across to the other side of the street in just about one piece. I dive into a nearby abandoned building - sniper shots echoing behind me - and collapse in a spasticated tangle, safe from fire.

Bloody hell.

Radiation fall-out has resulted in toxic anomalies scattered throughout all of Chernobyl. The slightest touch will cause adverse affects - namely pain and death - but protective gear is on hand should you need it

I look around. It's hard to say what this building once was - maybe a local shop, possibly someone's house - but for me, it's a refuge. I kick up a chair and start seeing to my wounds, downing some vodka to ward off the radiation.

Until I hear muffled noises coming from upstairs, that is. It appears I'm not alone. Again.

A few seconds later I hear heavy booted footsteps clambering down the steps towards me. More than one pair at that. It seems our sniper pal out front wasn't by any means alone out here in this ghost town.

I jump to my feet as fast as possible - desperate to get the jump on my new found friends before they see me - but I ain't so lucky. Right as I whip out my old trusty assault rifle, two massive stalker bastards - decked out in ludicrously tough exo-suits no less - spot me from the staircase. We open fire simultaneously, the room instantly filling with noise and smoke.

As luck would have it, the cramped interiors of this derelict building have worked to my advantage though - one of the buggers just popped his pal in the back of the head by accident, as if playing on Gil's team in a Medal of Honor clan match. Despite the odds piling a little more in my favor now, my assault rifle's just run out of ammo though. I opt to charge the remaining bugger down, melee-style - unsheathing my knife in the five meter sprint across the room towards him - the entire time wondering why the hell I'm attempting to knife a dude in a metal suit.

Thankfully blind craziness pays off, as while the poor sap reaches down to reload the mammoth double barrel shotgun planted in his hands, I leap into the air and stuff my blade squarely through his face. It looks painful.

Covered in blood - and hardly a picture of health myself - I limp off through a nearby backdoor into an alleyway, where I slowly continue my journey onwards towards the sarcophagus. Not far now.

Unfortunately supplies are running low at this point. A shotgun won't be of any use against snipers, and I'm all outta bandages too. Even worse, a humungous, open courtyard lays before me, the only thing standing between me and the entrance to the sarcophagus at the edge of the city. So close, yet so far...and I'm guessing, so utterly camped out by more sniper basts.

I'm worryingly tempted to just close my eyes and leg it head first across the vast open space - particularly in light of my bleeding guts all over the pavement and time therefore being a little critical - but I decide to play it smart instead. I stick to the outside perimeter and try to sneak across without being seen.

Sure enough, it seems to be working too. I lumber along a low-cut wall without attracting attention, and make it about halfway across...before something catches my eye off to my left.

Down an alleyway lies a beautiful, bright light. A glowing, glistening artifact. It's one unlike any I've ever seen though...stunningly luminous and as yellow as the sun. Remember that thing? The sun? It's been too long since I felt her rays.

Feckin' snipers. Come down here and try that

I can't resist. It's barely 20 meters away and is calling my name. I clamber over and bend down to pick it up...but am promptly cut-short. My radar informs me two stalkers are hanging out in a building directly above me! I whip out my pistol and chuck my last clip in. Time's running out as I continue to bleed precious bodily fluids all over my feet - and my aim is off as a result - but a quick peek through a window and a barrage of shots later, the fuckers go down. Click, click. Empty clip.

I loot the bodies - snagging some bandages that see me good again - then snatch the oh so pretty artifact, mesmerized temporarily by her vibrancy. Until that too is cut short by the harsh *zippp* of a rifle round piercing through my chest.

Woops. It seems my tussle for the artifact woke up the surrounding snipers, and now they're pissed.

I keel over to the familiar sound of intestines squishing against concrete, as my insides empty slowly onto the floor. How much life is left in this body I wonder, as everything starts to go white on me.

No. I ain't giving up. Not this far. I scoop up my entrails and rise to my feet one last time, running purely on stalker adrenaline, and the ultimate thirst for power. What lies in the sarcophagus houses all I need...all I could ever want...if I can just make it through this one final stretch.

So I run. Bullets ping and snap all around, while the wide open courtyard seemingly quadruples in size to taunt me. But it doesn't matter. I'm gonna make it. Another bullet slices through my arm and I drop my empty pistol, but it's too late, fuck-face. I'm at the entrance. I dive through. I've made it! Woo!!

Then the game crashes.

Oh poo. I forgot to save didn't I?