Aah...no, I don't think so. There might be some references that pass you by, but I can't really think of anything that's too specific.
Just in case, here's some background info from Wikipedia:
"
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a series of
first-person shooter survival horror video games developed by
Ukrainian video game developer
GSC Game World for
Microsoft Windows. Based very loosely on the novel "Roadside Picnic" and the 1979 film adaptation "Stalker", the games are set in the area surrounding the
Chernobyl accident site, called ‘The Zone’, in an
alternative reality where a second explosion occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant some time after the first and causes strange changes in the area around it.
Clear Sky - the second game released of the series - is a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl. The player assumes the role of Scar, a veteran stalker. Upon being injured by an energy emission while guiding a group of scientists through The Zone, he - the lone survivor of the incident - is rescued by an organization going by the name "Clear Sky"; a faction dedicated to researching and understanding the nature of The Zone for the sake of humanity.
When Scar encounters and survives a second energy emission, Clear Sky theorizes that the emissions are The Zone's way of reacting to human activity, and that with time they will become highly unstable and spiral out of control.
Throughout the game, the player can choose to have Scar side with or against certain factions in the area to help achieve Clear Sky's goal. Ultimately, their plan to stabilize the energy emissions fails, and an enormous energy emission from the Chernobyl plant itself sets the scene for the events of Shadow of Chernobyl to unfold.
In the first game of the series, the player takes on the role of an amnesic S.T.A.L.K.E.R. who is referred to as the "Marked One" tasked with killing another stalker named Strelok. During the course of the game, the protagonist uncovers clues to his past and true identity while helping other stalkers and fighting the mutated creatures that inhabit The Zone.
Eventually, he reaches the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and confronts the C-Consciousness that explains that the Marked One is actually Strelok himself - a stalker who managed to reach their headquarters prior but brainwashed and turned into a sleeper agent - accidentally configured to kill himself."
(The C-Consciousness = "In the aftermath of the
Chernobyl disaster, the
Soviet Union decided to use the Exclusion Zone for special research into the human mind. Results included enhanced
ESP, psychic weapons, and the eventual formation of a hivemind of seven neurally linked scientists known as the C-Consciousness. After the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, the self-aware C-Consciousness took control of the Zone and continued its research. It attempted to bring about world peace through global mind control by directly interacting with the
noosphere; however, these attempts resulted in the unintentional twisting of the physical terrain around Chernobyl as well as the mutation of resident life forms, creating the Zone. In an attempt to hide its existence the C-Consciousness created the two Brain Scorcher fields and erected a Monolith artifact - the Wish Granter - in the center of the Zone, which it uses to brainwash any stalkers who reach it; brainwashed stalkers are tattooed with the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." acronym and reprogrammed to serve the C-Consciousness.")
"The third game in the series -
Call of Pripyat - takes place shortly after the events in Shadow of Chernobyl. Having discovered the open path to the center of The Zone, the government decides to take control of it via "Operation Fairway", in which they plan to thoroughly investigate the territory before dispatching the main military force."
My story takes place roughly one month after Marked One's tale begins and ends shortly before the events depicted in
Call of Pripyat.
That's really about all you might need to know, though Marked One, et al, are only really mentioned in passing.
