Chernobyl, Ukraine - The near future. After the 1986 meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the U.S.S.R. attempted to repopulate the area with military personnel and scientists in an effort to fully understand the consequences of nuclear fallout. After the Plant was brought back online, it suffered another cataclysmic failure, this time blasting all of the surrounding area with radiation, mutating the wildlife and people, and the ones who weren't mutated were driven insane.
The Zone of Alienation, known commonly as The Zone, is the area where nothing grows anymore. This area was littered with radioactive isotopes, making it near impossible to inhabit. The second meltdown caused several space-time anomalies that have been of great interest to a select group known as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s. The Stalkers venture into the zone and make their lives in it, searching for rare and valuable artifacts and scientific anomalies.
