Besides the military trying to perforate you, and the rampaging dogs, boars and pig-beasts trying to eat you, there's an even more deadly and imposing threat that haunts Stalker's world. The damage wreaked by Chernobyl's second nuclear incident has left the surrounding area teeming with Anomalies, lethal pockets of irradiated bizarreness with appealing names like 'burner', 'electro' and "vortex." We saw two packs of beasts fighting out in the Zone, and every now and then there was a silent, fizzing explosion as a landmine-like vortex zapped their victim with a killer dose of radiation. Then there's the tunnel out of the first zone, which randomly crashes with lightning - get caught when it goes off, and it's grilled Stalker time.
But like everything in Stalker, the anomalies can be used to your advantage. The extreme forces sometimes spit out valuable artefacts, which can be traded with friendly forces. Or you can choose to fight near them, putting their dangers between you and your enemy. Or, as we did, you could just creep after other Stalkers who stumble into an anomaly and are harmed. Then it's just a case of finishing them off and looting the corpse. Only the ruthless will survive in Stalker 's hostile environment.
