Play sZone Online

Overview of the game sZone Online

When the first STALKER appeared in 2007, it was immediately dubbed a descendant of Strugatsky's cult novel called Roadside Picnic. This game brought with it the development of a new game setting. The world of Chernobyl, with all its atmosphere and unpredictability, really liked the fans of the genre. Therefore, they began to expect the Stalker to appear online from GSC. It should be to combine mutants, abandoned neighborhoods and artifacts in one project. However, instead, the game sZone Online appeared, which became the brother of Stalker. You can find out about it on the MMOTOP.ORG website.

Creating a game

However, interestingly, the creators of sZone Online immediately wanted to disown their relationship with STALKER Of course, this turned out to be impossible, because the novelty turned out to be very close to the cult game about Chernobyl, not only externally, but also in many technical parameters and gameplay characteristics.

Plot

According to the story, the player will find himself in an old abandoned train station, where he was brought by an old Soviet-era train. The clothes and appearance of the character are absolutely unremarkable and not much different from the appearance of the homeless you meet on your way. At the same time, you will not see any hints in the interface, nor will there be any on the mini-map. All this is a real romance of hopelessness and detachment. Of course, before you find yourself in such a world, it would be nice to take a training course, but the creators of sZone Online did not bother about this.

Gameplay

To get the first pistol, you will have to do a few fairly simple tasks. When getting acquainted with the interface, the absence of all kinds of hot keys immediately attracts attention, which would be very good. In addition, I don’t really like the inability to go through the ranks of the same stalkers. The map is not well done either. Especially confused are the many identical icons on it, the meaning of which is not always clear. Also, it is not entirely correct that the player cannot take off his starting equipment.

Graphic arts

On the contrary, the graphics and landscapes are very pleased. Abandoned buildings with open windows look intriguing, peasant huts look attractive, where there are many useful things. Finally, the tunnels are very gloomy and atmospheric, of which there are many. However, you can’t build a game on landscapes alone, since not only graphics are important, but also the gameplay itself.

Skill system

sZone Online offers a rather interesting system of skills, the development of which is divided into three areas: Combat, Support and Survival. The easiest way to upgrade is the experience gained in battles. To do this, you just need to shoot at all moving objects. To improve Survival, you will need to climb abandoned buildings in search of artifacts. To pump Support, the player will have to collect various useful things from acorns or paper clips. However, it will be quite difficult for any beginner to develop. This is due to the small size of the initial maps, where many of the same stalkers roam in search of useful containers. At the initial levels, quests also do not please with large rewards, and the prices in local stores are clearly not small.

visual highlights

The visuals in sZone Online are not encouraging at all. The game is full of identical NPC dummies that do not move at all when talking to you. The use of old textures, which even SEGA fans may not like, also looks unpresentable. As for the animation, it is generally more like moving bots in Counter-Strike. If you want to create a more or less individual image of a character, you are unlikely to succeed. There are no thugs in tattoos and gray-haired old men here. Instead, sZone Online offers many identical clones in camouflage clothing. Snowfalls occurring in game locations look more presentable. Also somewhat pleased with the swaying trees, which look very original here.

Summary

However, in general, under the appearance of Stalker and the gloomy atmosphere, a rather inexpensive and ill-conceived game is hidden, which can attract players only with bright pictures of landscapes. In fact, this project is still quite raw and unfinished. According to its characteristics, he did not even manage to get close to the famous Ukrainian blockbuster. It turns out that sZone Online has become far from the most successful reincarnation of the famous series, which has poor graphics, a primitive interface and many glitches.