S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Worth it · Shooter · 2007
Steam Deck UnsupportedThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $19.99, a BANGER if it drops to $17.57.
- Cost per hour▼
- $1.32/hr
- ReviewsS
- 95% of 48,230
- Critics
- 82 players 13 higher
- Genre rank
- Top 4% Shooter
Holding it back: Cost per hour
Why
Watch this gameOne alert at $17.57 or less.
Time and effort
- Main story
- 15.1h
- To 100%
- 41.2h 2.7x the story
Price and sales
- Sales
- 70 on record
- Typical cut
- 70% off
- Steam low
- $3.99 April 2022
- Sale every
- 41d last December 2024
Players and genre
- Online
- 74 now
- Recent reviews
- 94% 30 days
- Cheaper than
- 16% of its genre
- Better reviewed
- 95% of its genre
Price and player charts
The value story
The value story
70 discounts in the 14 years on record, a median of 70 percent off across all of them, roughly 6 weeks apart. It becomes a BANGER at $17.57, a level the record has reached 70 times.
Its score sits in the top 4 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 84 percent of its genre, and better reviewed than 95 percent. Among the games that feel like it, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat ($19.99, scores 84) beats it on value, while it beats S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky ($19.99, scores 61).
More about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Critics scored it 82. Players sit 13 points higher at 95 percent, which usually means a game that plays better than it reviews.
Of the 399 Steam-purchase reviews this site sampled, 1 comes from a buyer who refunded the game, sampled from reviews written November 2025 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 83 percent of the 2,920 reviews written there were positive, against 95 percent overall, and those are 8 percent of everything written about it.
15.1 hours to finish it, 41 to exhaust it. The completionist tail is 2.7 times the campaign.
Buy now or wait
Buy now or wait
Discounted in 1 of its last 8 seasonal sales. Last discount ended 675 days ago.
- Next sale
- Winter Sale, Dec 17 to Jan 4
Sources: IsThereAnyDeal, Valve.
What drives the score
Grades: S best, D weakest
S is the best grade and D the weakest, judged as a buyer. ▲ raises the score, ▼ lowers it, ? is an input we do not have, • is a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
What players say
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a game that I had heard great things about but never got around to playing. A couple years ago I started playing this game and while I had some growing pains adjusting to the mechanics, I quickly found myself to be enjoying my time in The Zone. I found the setting to be very interesting and immersive, and many times I found myself scared to travel; especially knowing there were...
2 more reviews
Nota Geral | Overall Rating ⭐⭐⭐ S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl é uma experiência única, e não existe exagero nessa frase. A GSC Game World criou a Zona como um organismo vivo, hostil e imprevisível, onde cada passo dado fora de uma rota conhecida pode significar a morte, seja por uma anomalia invisível, por um mutante faminto ou por uma facção rival de stalkers. É a fusão perfeita entre FPS, RPG e survival...
Thank you For an amazing childhood I will never forget about this franchise That was amazing
Steam reviews, mixed to its ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
About the game
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl tells a story about survival in the Zone – a very dangerous place, where you fear not only the radiation, anomalies and deadly creatures, but other S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, who have their own goals and wishes.
Minimum specs
Minimum on the Steam store: 512 MB of memory, 128 MB DirectX 8.0 compatible card / nVIDIA GeForce 5700 / ATI Radeon 9600, 6 GB of storage. Windows only.
No data upstream: achievement curve (Steam global achievements).
Cite this score
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl scores 83/100 on the BANG Score (worth it) as of Nov 8, 2026. The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/4500/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-shadow-of-chernobylReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Oct 31, price as of Nov 7. A number here look wrong? Tell me and I will check the inputs.