Remember, in the year Shadows of Chernobyl was released, a game like Stalker Mobile was released on old (then still new and popular) Java phones? So to speak, the only full-fledged Stalker released on mobile devices, and, in principle, released on another platform besides PC.
Mobile phones were gaining popularity at that time; in 2007, as far as I remember, even the iPhone was shown to the world for the first time. That is, the era of smartphones began. It’s no surprise that GSC Game World and THQ decided to release a mobile version of their game as an advertisement for the main product. True, they jumped onto a train that had already left the platform. Oddly enough, this game gave absolutely the opposite effect to the intended one. For example, I first played Stalker on a PC, and then a friend told me that the game is also available on the phone. For me, as a person who was impressed by the game, this sounded very tempting, because what could be better than killing time in your favorite game on a device that fits in your pocket? True, I didn’t buy the game. At that time I didn’t know, and I still don’t know, how you could buy Java games.
The development, due to the absolute ignorance https://simonsayscasino.co.uk/ in working with mobile games by GSC, was undertaken by a small, also Ukrainian, studio Qpazle, which announced the project on March 19, 2007, showing 6 screenshots, and which by that time already had impressive experience in mobile game development and was either posing as a reputable office, or under the influence of GSC on July 11, 2007, at the exhibition E3 released a trailer for this “port”, which, by those standards, could really impress, but what’s more, the phones that the studio used could not withstand their creation due to the fact that the already difficult game used unique lighting. Therefore, an emulator was used to record the trailer, which attentive users quickly discovered.
Andrey Baranovsky, head of Qplaze, later stated: “This game (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC – auto.) became a hit long before its release, and our vast experience in creating high-quality mobile games will guarantee that its mobile version will be no less expected and interesting. Naturally, given the specifics of the mobile platform, simple porting will not do – we will create our own, unique mobile project, fully consistent with the plot and spirit of the original"
In a way, he was lying. No, they really tried their best to make a quality game, but something somewhere didn’t quite work out. The plot, which is a prequel not even to Shadows of Chernobyl, but to Clear Sky, clearly did not correspond 100% to the original in everything, the spirit also disappeared somewhere..
It’s interesting that numerous reworkings of the concept, replacement of everything and everyone, as well as many interesting things cut out, accompanied not only the original game, but also this mobile port. The game was released on December 5, 2007, very stripped down, what can we say if Qpazle even had to cut out the GSC logo for the game to work properly. Apparently this is contagious, because if you remember the history of Stalker, you can notice one peculiarity – the games in the series changed their appearance seven times a week and still ended up being unfinished, cut down and completely different from the original idea. Even the not yet released S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 managed to change several times in 2011-12, but only Grigorovich knows what will come out in the end, and that’s not a fact. By January 8, 2008, to revive interest in the project, the studio released a release trailer.
When I started the game for the first time, I realized that my casual nature could not stand to complete it to the end. The controls were very inconvenient, but that’s not surprising, and the shooting didn’t look so great at all. It would seem that the game was so progressive for its time that even in the studio they could not find a suitable device to run it, but it felt completely different. And just imagine that a friend comes to me, a person who for several weeks could not pass one underground level and says that he passed it without straining. It was nonsense. Although I do not rule out that I simply had both left hands and therefore could not pass it.
Well, okay, let’s put aside my crookedness and remember why everyone loves Stalker so much? That’s right, for the atmosphere. Was this atmosphere in the mobile version?? There was, but in very small quantities. The combat was reduced to a shooting range, where your dexterity and ability to hit the button in time were tested, looting is generally a quiet horror, I’m generally silent about the plot, dialogues, etc. The only thing that really gave me pleasure was the underground locations, which at the same time I simply hated. But even here the developers managed to spoil everything, since soon it all came down to a dull corridor door opening in each room.
And despite everything, the game managed to remain a bright childhood memory, like its “big brother”. If I were offered to play Stalker Mobile or some modern “masterpieces” of mobile games, I would choose the first without hesitation..
