STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl was released by THQ as a retail game in March 2007, approximately two years ago. Although it was still a little bit rough around the edges, this only added to its character as a post-apocalyptic shooter.

Contrary to its sequel – Clear Skies, the game was well received by game critics and received high scores all around the world, with an average of 82.15%.

These days it can be bought for around $19.99, a price well worth to pay. However, if you’re quick, you might be able to grab it for free.

GameTap, an online Pay ‘n Download games merchant, has released the first STALKER game as a free download, at least until the end of the week. Be quick and grab a copy, read below about the game and GameTap instructions. Please note that this is a modified copy by GameTap. As a result, it can’t be used for any of the available mods.

Most free games we see around here are either very short, experimental episodes, or multiplayer games. A full-fledged singleplayer adventure isn’t something we see each day in the world of free gaming, mainly because it takes huge amounts of additional planning, coding and – most of all – money. Perhaps STALKER sounds a prelude for times to come, perhaps it’s merely a one-time event. Anyhow, it’s a chance not to be missed.

About The Game

STALKER takes place in a post-apocalyptic Chernobyl, and provides an alternative end to an already horrible disaster. The area’s flooded with radiation and mutants. The Zone isn’t a safe place to be, and humans huddle together in small groups. Man created hell.

The game is ambitious, to say the least. It’s an intensive, free-roaming first person shooter and role playing game. You start the game in one of the shattered fractions, and quickly get to explore The Zone through quest-like missions. It doesn’t take too long before you’re working for several different fractions in the game, as a hired gun and nuclear explorer.

It’s a great game. The story may be slightly shambled at times, but the game’s loaded with plenty of content to keep you busy. There are always new things to explore, more fights to be fought and more excitement to be sought. The fact that the game feels a little rough sometimes, with an occasional bug, only adds to its grunge character and atmosphere.

Downloading STALKER

There are a few things you need to complete before you can start playing STALKER. It’s an annoyance, true, but a very small effort to pay for a free copy of a retail game.

First of all, register for a free account on GameTap. Don’t worry, they won’t try to lure you into one of their paid packages.

When you try downloading the game, you’ll be asked to install the GameTap plugin. You’ll need this to download the game. Supported browsers are Internet Explorer and Firefox.

With the plugin installed, you can finally download your free copy of STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Depending on your internet speed, this could take a while, so you might want to let this run overnight.

STALKER currently only runs on Windows 2000/XP, although Vista is currently being tested.

Be quick and grab a free copy now! If there’s anything you need to share, or need help on the subject, refer to the comments section below.