The background and some terminology of the game ('The Zone', 'Stalker') is borrowed from the popular science fiction novella Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and the 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker that was loosely based on it, as well as Stalker, the film's subsequent novelization, which later became the full version of Roadside Picnic. The game also incorporates elements of role-playing games and business simulators. The game has a non-linear storyline and features gameplay elements such as trading and two-way communication with NPCs. It features an alternate-reality theme, in which a second nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2006 and causes strange changes in the area around it.
It is the first installment in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a survival-horror first person shooter video game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, and published by THQ.
