Yes the game is heavily inspired by the movie , though they do not have a lot in common aside from the atmosphereThe games are very good , even if riddled with bugs , I reccomend them . The story is that in chernobyl after the reactor explosion the exclusion zone was used by the soviet union for top secret research , that would eventually lead to a second explosion in 2006 . The zone then was locked off by the military to contain the unexplained and strange phenomenons , mutations and anomalies happening around the nuclear plant . The S . T . A . L . K . E . R . s are people that adventures in the zone in search of richies , often finding only their untimely deaths . S . T . A . L . K . E . R . stands for scavenger , trader , adventurer , loner , killer , explorer , robberOh if you ' re curious about the quote from uafghandan in the first stalker game an NPC was set to repeat that phrase every time the protagonist passed by , but the guy was in a place where the player would often find himself so you would hear time and time again this guy shouting at you to get out . It quickly became an inside joke in the community .