Actual footage of general play was limited to a few brief snippets. The trailer focused primarily on highly scripted character interactions, stalkers chatting with one another over a campfire, a close-up encounter with a bloodsucker, an enjoyably bizarre dancing sequence. Perhaps it’s simply difficult for me to believe that a Stalker game can look this good, but I also think it’s prudent to treat E3 presentations with scepticism.
Heart of Chernobyl seems like such a huge leap ahead of what's gone before, that it left me as much suspicious as it did impressed. Stalker has always been a roughshod experience, one that has never quite lived up to its potential. To begin with, the trailer was extremely slick, to the point where I couldn’t help but wonder how representative it is of the game behind it. But the trailer also left me with questions and concerns. For a long-time Stalker fan, these improvements are exciting.
