>>714773894
>oh, trust me, they have one thing in common.
The zone (in the most vague sense imaginable) and the Wishgranter. That is literally it. They do not share characters, main story beats, factions, or even the explanation of what Zone is.
I know for a fact you haven't read the book, and I very much doubt you have seen the movie either, so let me enlighten you.
The book takes place in fucking Canada, over the course some 20 years. There is about a dozen different zones across the world, and most of the book actually revolves around watching how humanity is rapidly technologically changing thanks to the zone, going from contemporary, to literally Jetson style post-scarcity future with infinite power and flying cars everywhere.
Also, the zone in the book is explained very simply. It's aliens. That is it. Some aliens made a stop on earth and left their trash behind. It's what the actual name of the book (which isn't even called "Stalker") refers to.
Meanwhile, in the movie, there is actually zero explanation for anything. It's entirely an exploration of the cinematic tools of constructing tension and anticipation. It's an absolute masterpiece, but all it shares with the book is the idea of the Zone as a place of utter unpredictability. It's also set in Russia.
And in the games, the zone is the fucking Chernobyl exclusion zone, and it's a product of not!Seele trying to preform not!Instrumentality and creating a "hole in the noosphere", while completely inventing factions (Duty, Freedom, Monolith, Bandits, Clear Sky, the planned but scrapped mutant factions), ALL of that is an invention of the games. So are the mutants, actually. So are the Scorchers, the Emissions, everything, really.
In the book there are Zombies, but they aren't harmful. It's just people burried close to the zone coming back alive in a strange, cataleptic state. Also some children born close to the zone are strange, it mentions the protagonists daughter being a literal furry. No monsters.
