sZone-Online Client

The Stalker franchise is revered as one of the most engaging and atmospheric open world FPS series out there, and it’s difficult to argue against. Although players had to struggle with massive quantities of bugs and glitches, the overall experience was worth the trouble, since there is nothing quite like it out there. Now you have the chance to try an online version of the series, although only the concept is the same.

sZone-Online is an MMOFPS set in the Stalker universe, in which you are free to create your own character and interact with the world any way you want. There are multiple classes to choose from and a pretty extensive list of items that can be acquired, such as armors, weapons and accessories. Unfortunately, the gameplay experience is frustrating and very buggy, even more so than in Stalker.

You can also choose between PVP and PVE servers, depending on whether you want to engage in combat with other human players or not. The environment is deadly enough as it is, on the other hand, since everything from rats to dogs can pretty much kill you with one or two hits. A high difficulty level is a trademark of the series, but there’s a difference between hard and frustrating. Not being able to deal with a rat without a full set of combat armor is a bit over the top, even for seasoned gamers.

There are many other annoyances to spoil the fun as well, including interface trouble and awful gameplay mechanics. As an example, it takes a few seconds to equip a gun from your inventory, and your character does so without loading a clip too. Hence, you’ll be waltzing with a gun and feeling rather safe, until a mutant appears and you realize that there are no bullets in your weapon. While this is indeed pretty realistic in some way, it’s an unnecessary gimmick that adds nothing of real value to the game.

Thankfully, at least the atmosphere and the level design are decent. The graphics look very much like Stalker, but you need to be ready to deal with a huge selection of glitches. The Zone looks as you would expect it to look, and there’s definitely a very Eastern European vibe to the whole thing. Still, it doesn’t make a difference if you are not able to enjoy the experience at all due to various other motives.

In the end, sZone-Online is quite bad at the moment, and there’s no workaround right now. The gameplay is frustrating and unbalanced, the interface is not very helpful, and there are too many bugs to be able to enjoy yourself. However, things could take a turn for the better in the future, at least if the developers keep improving their game and listen to the community.