The S.T.A.L.K.E.R board game – a review and unboxing
I’m not much for unboxing and reviewing board games. Yet with this, I will make an exception…
“Good luck, Stalker”
In any other context, such words would be mildly worrying. Calling someone a ‘stalker’ conjures up predator vibes and recalls series and films such as ‘Baby Reindeer’, ‘The Cable Guy’ and ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’.
Yet when I heard these words, they were not uttered in that context.
They were spoken to me by a character in the first of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series of computer games ‘Shadow of Chernobyl’; a certain trader by the name of Sidorovich, whose thirst for profit will be familiar to any fans of the series.
He called me ‘Stalker’ because in the game, that was my title; my occupation when understood right; in the game world ‘Stalker’ stood for something more.
It’s an acronym standing for ‘Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers.’
Long acronym but very accurate.
Through the first 3 x Stalker games, I was all of those, and I loved it.
It was a first-person video game unlike anything else I had ever played. The environment, the gameplay, the stories and the characters you met. The monsters and madness. The twist on the real-world Chernobyl nuclear station and its surrounding area.
It was to my reading and my playing, a uniquely Ukrainian story and game. I loved it.
Decades later, the latest video game based on the Stalker universe is available, but my computer and Xbox aren’t powerful enough to run it (Yet!). So in the meantime, I must content myself with two things.
First, remastered versions of the original games (bought on Xbox) and second, the subject of this review.
The board game.
Settle in my friends. Let me tell you about The Zone...
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R universe
The Stalker board game is set in the same fictional universe as the stalker video game series.
In this alternative modern reality, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine suffered a second ‘incident’ in 2006, creating ‘The Zone’ an area around the plant covered in strange Phenomena and mutated creatures.
This dangerous area was cordoned off, but that didn’t stop ‘stalkers’ from entering in the years afterwards and carrying out all sorts of missions from collecting ‘artefacts’ from ‘anomalies’ to battling the mutants that covered the zone.
Most of the games are set years later in around 2012.
That’s the rough background. The style is modern post-apocalyptic with very Soviet vibes, considering it takes place in and around the Chernobyl nuclear plant and the 30 square kilometres around the plant
So what about the game?
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R Board game
Really there was no question of whether I would get the board game or not. I’m a committed Stalker fan and very much a Ukrainian advocate.
So when the Kickstarter was announced by Awaken Realms, I jumped at this chance and pitched for the ‘Veteran pledge’.
This would get me not just the core game, but all stretch goals and most of the models, except the terrain and anomaly add-on’s.
I might cover the additional boxes that I received in a separate review, but for now this review will concentrate on the core board game box.
It comes in a nice big sturdy box and once you deconstruct all the different components, everything is exceedingly well laid out. One of the nice things I noticed about the contents, is there a very handy guide on the inside edge of the box, on just how they all fit together into the one box.
This simple addition to the instructions was very much appreciated because for many other Kickstarters, it is sadly absent. It's a minor positive point but a good one to start on.
When you open the stalker core board game, you are struck by many things.
First of all the huge number of different kinds of tokens. All are finished in excellent quality cardboard, hard-wearing and designed for constant use.
The game comes not just with a detailed rulebook but also a mission book that lays out exactly how each scenario is prepared in the pre-game setup and a complete example gameplay walkthrough.
These combined together create a very thorough rundown of just how the game is supposed to be played.
Reading through the example gameplay in particular made understanding the game a lot easier and for anyone thinking of purchasing I would highly recommend this.
The game is detailed and if it has one demerit in my mind is the length of time it takes to set up again.
This can be daunting for those not used to detailed board games, but I would encourage you to persevere; once the game gets going, all that prior set up time is worth it.
Very worth it.
Gameplay
The gameplay is fiendishly simple.
It is divided into two general phases.
Phase 1 can be considered the preparation phase when you gather together equipment and weapons. Talk to contacts and prepare for the mission at hand.
This is done through a ‘campaign binder’ that stores all your equipment and contacts, as well as a map you update as you progress using a variety of stickers.
It’s effectively a pre-game, game if you like, as at this stage all you have to go with is a very general prologue to the mission.
Then the game switches to the action part, where you actively take part in the mission and, hopefully, with its conclusion, reap the rewards
Each player has a ‘PDA’ board in front of them, where they track the likes of equipment carried, health points, ammunition and other details.
It likewise shows the special abilities of their chosen stalker characters.
When it is the player’s turn, their stalker effectively takes two turns, one after each other. For each turn they can typical take two big actions (moving, shooting), and any number of smaller actions (peeking into a room). All of which can be modified by special rules such as those of the scenario or the players chosen Stalker character.
However they must be careful as depending on circumstances, enemies can interrupt the time in between one turn and another.
For example, if the player opens fire on an enemy and failed to kill that enemy, it is entirely likely that the individual they were trying to destroy may fire back at them or attempt to move and engage them in close combat.
The stalker board game uses a variety of enemy activations and attention tokens to dictate gameplay.
Basically, if there is no attention token on the board, the enemy effectively does nothing. If a ‘yellow’ attention token is present, then enemies might just mill about or even ‘get bored’. But if the red token is out in play, for example because a player character fired their weapon, then things get serious.
Different types of enemy interact with the stalkers in different ways. Human enemies for example will typically use ranged weapons and will go to investigate loud noises such as gunfire. They can also be distracted by the likes of throwing bolts. Mutant enemies might be more suicidal in their attacks and be less affected by anomalies.
Other dangers include the unusual anomalies encountered in the zone, which if triggered, can cause enormous damage to friend and foe.
The long set up time I believe, is more than offset by a very smooth and satisfying gaming process.
The turns do not feel laboured and the actions do not feel overly complex. Once you get into the game it's easy to understand. Additionally the game does not require a games master; you can easily play it with your friends and it is specifically built for cooperative play.
Each mission forms a coherent storyline. Additionally, the core game comes with a ‘zone survival’ alternative play mode, which allows you to play individual scenarios with randomised objectives and monsters.
Additionally thanks to the Kickstarter, there is also the ‘lost territories’ mini expansion which adds additional areas to explore during main missions, providing more challenges and rewards.
There is immense replay value in the game.
Whilst the mission objectives are static, as is the general storyline, how each mission runs through can be completely different depending on the playthrough. Different cards create different circumstances as they are played both in setup and during the game, and these never play the exact same circumstances twice.
In one playthrough, you may be able to breeze through the various enemies as they attack you in a scattered manner, but then in another playthrough, you might find that you are nearly overwhelmed at the start of the mission and have to take drastic action just to survive.
The variety of different stalker characters that you can choose again adds different tactical elements. Some are particularly suited to run and gun loner gameplay, whilst others have considerable experience operating around anomalies or are very good at stealth and long-range engagements.
The gameplay and rules provide a satisfying experience. As long as you make sure to take into account the relatively long setup time then the game is a joy to play.
Conclusions
So far, I’ve played through 4 of the 6 missions available in the Core box, and honestly, every one was a joy.
They were satisfyingly challenging without feeling like they had a steep learning curve.
Every mission felt well crafted and put together, providing the right challenge and surprises.
With the variety of standard missions, zone survival, a variety of characters and gear and ‘lost territories’, you will have no problem with replay value or variety of gaming style.
And most importantly for me, it felt like ‘Stalker’. The missions and game are dotted with ‘Stalker’ references detailed in the right context, whilst the missions are unique enough to stand on their own. Every character and creature is faithful to the original, and as I got the monster models, I will be painting them up!
Stalker the Board Game is a brilliant game. Very well worth the wait.
