I have first heard about this game back in 2009. Then it was merely a couple of topics on the official forum of GSC Game World, creator of theI have first heard about this game back in 2009. Then it was merely a couple of topics on the official forum of GSC Game World, creator of the famous S.T.A.L.K.E.R series. In those topics, a group of enthusiasts developing modifications for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games were discussing a possibility of creating a multi-user online version of the game. Who could have thought that in just a couple of months the project will get a green light.
Five years have passed since them. The game has survived several court disputes with the copyright holders of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R brand. Finally, it was decided that the name of the game must be changed to sZone-Online. We have also survived an attempt or a corporate raid, after which the old name.
But we’ve had enough history; let us focus on what the project has to offer right here and now. I won’t bore you with lengthy descriptions of gameplay. This is something you can only feel for yourself. What I want to give you is a list of pros and cons. Let’s start with the strengths of the game:
+ Fully open world. Huge maps, fields, forests and towns, all swarming with various people, monsters and anomalies.
+ A true Mass MMO. Not a session shooter for 32 to 128 people. We have taken up to three thousand players at a time.
+ A well developed levelupping system. Literally no limit to perfection.
+ There is an actual story with the main story questline; some areas in the game can only be passed solo.
+ Tons of weapons, ammo, objects, devices etc. Well developed crafting.
+ Free to play. Well balanced donation vs. in-game objects. Lots of excellent gear and weapons are relatively easy to get just by doing the quests. Anything displayed in the shop window is available in the game and can be earned without spending a cent of real money.
+ After the game went to Steam, the development has become a lot more active; just for the past six months the game has moved further forward than for the previous four years.
+ First-person view available. It has to be polished yet, but a significant plus for those who don’t like “over-the-shoulder” view.
+ Surprisingly few cheaters, probably due to the harsh anti-cheat measures.
+ A good attempt to combine several game genres that are generally considered incompatible. As of today, this is the only game with coexisting elements of Mass MMOG, FPS, RPG and Survival genres. Even Bethesda, with its powerful Fallout universe and immensely greater abilities has yet to attempt such a project.
Now for the weaknesses:
- Old, ancient, miserable engine, dating back to 2007 (BigWorld), resulting in commensurate graphics. If the WOW-LEVEL GRAPHICS is what you are looking for in a game – this one is not for you.
- On maximum settings, you will get 15-20 fps on top-grade (!) hardware. The developers’ attempts to create something moderately resembling “Call of Pripyat’” based on the 2007’ technology are obviously failing. And this failure will likely to stay on unless they switch to something fresher.
- Lags and freezes in PvP battles. I am not sure whether it is the insufficient skill of the developers, or the incompatibility of the engine with the shooter mechanics, or both. But this problem has been the players’ nemesis since the very first versions of the project.
- Frequent server shutdowns, sometimes resulting in rollbacks of the character status up to several days back, with loss of levels, objects, donated money. Surely, it is all returned to you after a talk to the tech support, but the aftertaste is still not very pleasant. It’s the same feeling as getting killed after several hours of playing when you realize you haven’t saved your game. But here it does not depend on you. I mean, if ensuring server stability is that difficult for the developers, couldn’t they have done something about the progress saving mechanics? It’s been five years, for crying out loud!
So, to conclude it all:
The sZone-Online team is very small; per the developers, the project employs only 25 people, painfully insufficient for the declared scale and ambitions. Such games should be developed by hundreds of developers, using million-dollar budgets. This is like an airfield swept by a single cleaner. The job will take ages to complete, maybe more than a lifetime. Same story with this game, after five years completion is nowhere in sight. And the “broom”, which was not exactly brand new even in the beginning, has got even older for the five years. I personally see no point in sticking to the current engine. Will the company handle an upgrade? That’s the question I have no answer to. We can only hope for “yes”.
I give the game 10 points out of 10 just for the persistence of the developers who keep working on this huge and by all means promising projects on the limited resources they have. Despite the numerous prophecies of imminent death coming from the ill-wishers, sZone-Online is like rock-n-roll: absolutely not dead!… Expand
