The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Don't just stand there, STALKER! Come in! Call of Pripyat out and awesome
vsove
....also yes.Registered User regular
....also yes.Registered User regular
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Scavenger Trespasser Adventurer Loner Killer Explorer Robber
So what’s all this STALKER business anyways? It’s a game, right?
STALKER is the catch-all title for what looks to be a trilogy of games from Ukrainian developer GSC Gameworld. The premise of the game is that there was a second accident at Chernobyl, turning what was previously just a radioactive wasteland into a sort of bubble where all sorts of weird stuff happens. Like, really weird stuff – terrifying mutants, strange anomalies that violate the laws of physics, and a mind control device that strips away your conscious self and turns you into an automaton. It is inspired by Tarkovsky’s Stalker and the novel Roadside Picnic, though if you’re expecting the same deliberate, thoughtful storytelling you are probably going to be disappointed.
There are three games that carry the STALKER tag – Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat (not yet released).
Shadow of Chernobyl (hereafter referred to as SoC) is the first of the three and follows the story of a particular stalker who wakes up in the aftermath of a truck crash, amnesiac and with his only clue as to his identity being a cryptic set of instructions on his PDA – ‘Kill Strelok’. On your journey to complete this mission, you discover the truth behind the Zone and also that apparently everyone in the Zone has really poor memory for faces. And that you should never trust capitalists. The rest of this OP will be talking primarily about SoC because it is the best so far and if you disagree you are wrong.
Clear Sky (hereafter referred to as CS) is a prequel to SoC and puts you in the boots of a mercenary named Scar. Seems the Zone’s been acting up a lot lately, and the general theory is that someone’s made it to the center. So of course like any good problem the solution is to kill a lot of people. CS added faction warfare and customizable weapons/armor, as well as a beautiful graphics engine and some other neat stuff. It was widely considered to be a bit of a step down from SoC in terms of immersiveness, however, and is still a lot buggier than the original game (which many would have suggested to be impossible). Still worth a look, even though it's the lesser of the two.
Call of Pripyat (hereafter referred to as CoP) is the third game in the series, and takes place after the events of SoC. From the previews, it looks like CoP will take the gameplay and graphical improvements of CS and couple them with the more immersive qualities of SoC to create a better game than either one of these. Given GSC Gameworld’s propensity for overpromising, however, it is best to take a ‘wait and see’ attitude on this one. In this one, the protagonist is a military stalker, sent into the Zone to find a lost unit, and will theoretically show the effects of the player’s actions in SoC. It is scheduled for a late 2009 release.
There are three games that carry the STALKER tag – Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat (not yet released).
Shadow of Chernobyl (hereafter referred to as SoC) is the first of the three and follows the story of a particular stalker who wakes up in the aftermath of a truck crash, amnesiac and with his only clue as to his identity being a cryptic set of instructions on his PDA – ‘Kill Strelok’. On your journey to complete this mission, you discover the truth behind the Zone and also that apparently everyone in the Zone has really poor memory for faces. And that you should never trust capitalists. The rest of this OP will be talking primarily about SoC because it is the best so far and if you disagree you are wrong.
Clear Sky (hereafter referred to as CS) is a prequel to SoC and puts you in the boots of a mercenary named Scar. Seems the Zone’s been acting up a lot lately, and the general theory is that someone’s made it to the center. So of course like any good problem the solution is to kill a lot of people. CS added faction warfare and customizable weapons/armor, as well as a beautiful graphics engine and some other neat stuff. It was widely considered to be a bit of a step down from SoC in terms of immersiveness, however, and is still a lot buggier than the original game (which many would have suggested to be impossible). Still worth a look, even though it's the lesser of the two.
Call of Pripyat (hereafter referred to as CoP) is the third game in the series, and takes place after the events of SoC. From the previews, it looks like CoP will take the gameplay and graphical improvements of CS and couple them with the more immersive qualities of SoC to create a better game than either one of these. Given GSC Gameworld’s propensity for overpromising, however, it is best to take a ‘wait and see’ attitude on this one. In this one, the protagonist is a military stalker, sent into the Zone to find a lost unit, and will theoretically show the effects of the player’s actions in SoC. It is scheduled for a late 2009 release.
What makes STALKER special? It sounds like a generic shooter with a neat setting.
That’s a stupid opinion, but I’ll forgive you your ignorance. STALKER, while technically a shooter, is much more than that. It is, at its most basic level, a pure RPG – you play the role of a stalker in the Zone, and that’s about as much guidance as you’re given. If you want, you can run around shooting everyone and complete the game that way. Your character gets better as he acquires better guns and armour, and you go from hiding every time you see a couple of bandits walk by to taking on large armies of heavily-armed soldiers by yourself.
It is also the most atmospheric game you will ever play, until we’ve got holodecks or something like that, I don’t know. It combines an incredible ambient audio track with fantastic visual design and intelligent AI to create what feels like a living, breathing world where everyone and everything is out to kill you many times over. It is best described as ‘stressful’, and you will oftentimes find yourself taking breaks from the game because it does get that intensely creepy. Chernobyl is not a friendly place, and outside of a few very specific areas, there is no shelter to be had.
In spite of that, it’s also the most enjoyable game you will ever play. It combines all its various elements (open world, atmospheric gameplay, intelligent enemies) to make an extremely satisfying experience. The first time you manage to take out three bandits before they can even raise their weapons, or the first time you catch a Snork with a shotgun blast in mid-pounce, there’s an immense satisfaction. And as you venture into the world of mods, you’ll find new challenges to conquer and even bigger guns to conquer them with.
It is also the most atmospheric game you will ever play, until we’ve got holodecks or something like that, I don’t know. It combines an incredible ambient audio track with fantastic visual design and intelligent AI to create what feels like a living, breathing world where everyone and everything is out to kill you many times over. It is best described as ‘stressful’, and you will oftentimes find yourself taking breaks from the game because it does get that intensely creepy. Chernobyl is not a friendly place, and outside of a few very specific areas, there is no shelter to be had.
In spite of that, it’s also the most enjoyable game you will ever play. It combines all its various elements (open world, atmospheric gameplay, intelligent enemies) to make an extremely satisfying experience. The first time you manage to take out three bandits before they can even raise their weapons, or the first time you catch a Snork with a shotgun blast in mid-pounce, there’s an immense satisfaction. And as you venture into the world of mods, you’ll find new challenges to conquer and even bigger guns to conquer them with.
So what’s the point of the game? Why am I running around shooting people?
Aside from the obvious ‘because shooting people is fun’, there are several reasons. First, there’s the main storyline in both of the games released thus far – they’re cool, and they do have some pretty neat moments. Shadow of Chernobyl, in particular, requires you to complete certain missions along the main storyline to open up different areas to explore. And yes, this does seem somewhat contrary to the ‘open world’ idea, but the thing is you can go to these places beforehand if you really want to. You’ll just die horribly as your mind is scoured away by high doses of radiation. All the more power to you, though, if you decide you want to try it.
But beyond the main storylines, the games are, in a very loose way, Oblivion-esque. There are missions all over the place if you feel up to it, and these can net you rewards ranging from a few pieces of stale bread to a brand new suit of high-quality armour. They also provide you with some reason to venture into the more dangerous parts of the Zone – why go into an abandoned village full of bloodsucking mutants for any other reason? Well, because they’re there, I guess, but now you’ve got a second reason, and one that doesn’t make you sound like a crazy person.
And there’s one other reason to play STALKER – because it’s just a cool experience. Trying to find a safe path across the Wild after your original path is now blocked off by anomalies, only to find out a little too late that what you thought was an empty warehouse is instead filled with terrifying mutants – that’s a gaming experience you won’t really find anywhere else. And that’s why STALKER is such a great game, you never know exactly what to expect.
But beyond the main storylines, the games are, in a very loose way, Oblivion-esque. There are missions all over the place if you feel up to it, and these can net you rewards ranging from a few pieces of stale bread to a brand new suit of high-quality armour. They also provide you with some reason to venture into the more dangerous parts of the Zone – why go into an abandoned village full of bloodsucking mutants for any other reason? Well, because they’re there, I guess, but now you’ve got a second reason, and one that doesn’t make you sound like a crazy person.
And there’s one other reason to play STALKER – because it’s just a cool experience. Trying to find a safe path across the Wild after your original path is now blocked off by anomalies, only to find out a little too late that what you thought was an empty warehouse is instead filled with terrifying mutants – that’s a gaming experience you won’t really find anywhere else. And that’s why STALKER is such a great game, you never know exactly what to expect.
Anomalies? Those sound pretty dangerous!
They are. Remember how I mentioned earlier that the Zone was a place where the laws of physics didn’t always apply? Well, anomalies are the most visible manifestation of this. They’re small areas of space where all sorts of unpleasant things can happen, such as gravitational forces that will pull your body apart, air superheated to thousands of degrees where you’ll be incinerated as soon as you step in, and electrical charges that will course through your body and stop your heart. These are what anomalies are.
And before you assume that you’ll be able to just dodge these anomalies, think again. Oftentimes they’ll be no more than a slightly shimmering patch of air. Sure, in a brightly lit field with nothing around to distract you, you might be able to spot them. But in the middle of the night with packs of dogs coming at you from all directions, do you really think you’ll be able to see that tiny disturbance in the air? Probably not, at least not right away.
That’s why you have bolts. Yes, bolts. Those small pieces of metal, like the ones you’d find in any hardware store. You’ve got them for one reason – to throw in front of you and detect anomalies. It’ll get caught in the anomaly’s field, and either incinerate, be pulled apart or be struck with a powerful electrical charge. But you’ve got an unlimited supply of bolts, and at least you now know where the anomaly is! So you won’t wander into it, unless you’re stupid. You’re not stupid, are you?
Anomalies aren’t all bad, though. See, these strange disturbances in the fabric of both time and space also tend to agitate the matter around them. In the same way as grains of sand irritating an oyster will produce a beautiful pearl, these anomalies will create artifacts, chunks of matter which have properties such as helping you heal wounds faster while simultaneously killing you with radiation. Kind of a wash. But better artifacts have positives which outweigh the negatives, and you can usually counteract negatives with other types of artifacts, until your existence as a guy who isn’t spontaneously combusting is entirely predicated on a single, simple artifact. Like a giant, radioactive tower of Jenga.
And before you assume that you’ll be able to just dodge these anomalies, think again. Oftentimes they’ll be no more than a slightly shimmering patch of air. Sure, in a brightly lit field with nothing around to distract you, you might be able to spot them. But in the middle of the night with packs of dogs coming at you from all directions, do you really think you’ll be able to see that tiny disturbance in the air? Probably not, at least not right away.
That’s why you have bolts. Yes, bolts. Those small pieces of metal, like the ones you’d find in any hardware store. You’ve got them for one reason – to throw in front of you and detect anomalies. It’ll get caught in the anomaly’s field, and either incinerate, be pulled apart or be struck with a powerful electrical charge. But you’ve got an unlimited supply of bolts, and at least you now know where the anomaly is! So you won’t wander into it, unless you’re stupid. You’re not stupid, are you?
Anomalies aren’t all bad, though. See, these strange disturbances in the fabric of both time and space also tend to agitate the matter around them. In the same way as grains of sand irritating an oyster will produce a beautiful pearl, these anomalies will create artifacts, chunks of matter which have properties such as helping you heal wounds faster while simultaneously killing you with radiation. Kind of a wash. But better artifacts have positives which outweigh the negatives, and you can usually counteract negatives with other types of artifacts, until your existence as a guy who isn’t spontaneously combusting is entirely predicated on a single, simple artifact. Like a giant, radioactive tower of Jenga.
What kind of terrible things want to kill me in this game?
Pretty much everything in the game can be assumed to be out to get you. This is a place that has been through two major radioactive incidents, and is also home to all sorts of unpleasant people. Even the people who are ostensibly on your side might be tempted to stick a knife in your back if the price is right, and the wildlife is every bit as deadly/ There’s even a form of tree moss that can hurt you. Yes, you heard me correctly. More specifically, the threats to your health can be divided into three two distinct categories – mutant and human.
Mutants:
Mutants are partially composed of the irradiated offspring of whatever animals happened to be running around the Zone when the incidents happened. These are things like packs of blind dogs that hunt by smell, mutated domestic pigs, or giant boars that will attempt to rip your intestines out with their horrible, horrible tusks. These are a danger early in the game, when you’ve got little in the way of equipment, but later on they only present a problem when they travel in large packs. Which they usually do. So, I guess they’re always dangerous.
Much worse are the mutants that are either the degenerate forms of humans who lived and worked within the Zone’s confines, or creatures for which there is no explanation as to their presence in the Zone. These are the ones that will attempt to do such things as tear out your very consciousness to devour it, or suck out all your bodily fluids with their Cthulhu’esque face tentacles. These are the most dangerous things you’ll find in the Zone, and running away from them while screaming like a little girl does not make you less of a person.
As the game progresses, you will find far fewer of the former type of mutant and far more of the really terrifying ones. At a certain point, you will notice that your guns are becoming less useful and that carrying around a rocket launcher is almost a requirement, because it’s either that or spend half an hour running around, hiding and taking potshots at a giant mound of muscle mass that wants nothing more than to crush your tiny, tiny head in its hands.
Humans:
Every person in the Zone either wants you to do something for them, or wants to kill you. Oftentimes they will be the same person. You can ally with one of two groups, one of which is a group of hippie-analogues and the other of which is a bunch of Ukrainian Boy Scouts. And if you ally with one group, the other one will then want to kill you, because of course it’s far more logical to try and kill each other rather than working together to overcome the Zone. There are also a few factions that are always going to try and kill you, because they’re just that like that. These are the ones you want to steer clear of.
The bandits and mercenaries, as far as you’re concerned, can be treated as the same group. They want to kill you for simple reasons like ‘he probably has some good stuff we can take off his corpse’ and ‘hey you know what would be cool, if we shot that guy’. Generally their equipment tends to be at around the same level as yours, or slightly worse. Shoot them in the face, because they will do the same to you if they have a chance. They tend to haunt the earlier areas of the game and don’t show up as much later on. One can assume this is because they don’t enjoy having their brains torn away by dangerous radiation.
The military believes that the Zone is something to be investigated and studied extensively by the Ukrainian government. The entire Zone is restricted, and as a result they see everyone who’s not part of the military as a dangerous felon. They tend to have equipment as good or better than yours, and travel in small groups. Their reasons for killing you are much more sophisticated than those of the bandits and mercenaries, being along the lines of ‘the government told me to’.
The Monolith troopers are a group of fanatic religious-types who live in the heart of the Zone. No one knows exactly why the mind-altering radiation that covers this area does not seem to affect them in the same way it affects everyone else. They generally have the best equipment available, including such exciting things as gauss rifles and exo –skeletons. Their reason for killing you is the best one of all – ‘because a voice in my head told me to’. They like to use rocket launchers.
Mutants:
Mutants are partially composed of the irradiated offspring of whatever animals happened to be running around the Zone when the incidents happened. These are things like packs of blind dogs that hunt by smell, mutated domestic pigs, or giant boars that will attempt to rip your intestines out with their horrible, horrible tusks. These are a danger early in the game, when you’ve got little in the way of equipment, but later on they only present a problem when they travel in large packs. Which they usually do. So, I guess they’re always dangerous.
Much worse are the mutants that are either the degenerate forms of humans who lived and worked within the Zone’s confines, or creatures for which there is no explanation as to their presence in the Zone. These are the ones that will attempt to do such things as tear out your very consciousness to devour it, or suck out all your bodily fluids with their Cthulhu’esque face tentacles. These are the most dangerous things you’ll find in the Zone, and running away from them while screaming like a little girl does not make you less of a person.
As the game progresses, you will find far fewer of the former type of mutant and far more of the really terrifying ones. At a certain point, you will notice that your guns are becoming less useful and that carrying around a rocket launcher is almost a requirement, because it’s either that or spend half an hour running around, hiding and taking potshots at a giant mound of muscle mass that wants nothing more than to crush your tiny, tiny head in its hands.
Humans:
Every person in the Zone either wants you to do something for them, or wants to kill you. Oftentimes they will be the same person. You can ally with one of two groups, one of which is a group of hippie-analogues and the other of which is a bunch of Ukrainian Boy Scouts. And if you ally with one group, the other one will then want to kill you, because of course it’s far more logical to try and kill each other rather than working together to overcome the Zone. There are also a few factions that are always going to try and kill you, because they’re just that like that. These are the ones you want to steer clear of.
The bandits and mercenaries, as far as you’re concerned, can be treated as the same group. They want to kill you for simple reasons like ‘he probably has some good stuff we can take off his corpse’ and ‘hey you know what would be cool, if we shot that guy’. Generally their equipment tends to be at around the same level as yours, or slightly worse. Shoot them in the face, because they will do the same to you if they have a chance. They tend to haunt the earlier areas of the game and don’t show up as much later on. One can assume this is because they don’t enjoy having their brains torn away by dangerous radiation.
The military believes that the Zone is something to be investigated and studied extensively by the Ukrainian government. The entire Zone is restricted, and as a result they see everyone who’s not part of the military as a dangerous felon. They tend to have equipment as good or better than yours, and travel in small groups. Their reasons for killing you are much more sophisticated than those of the bandits and mercenaries, being along the lines of ‘the government told me to’.
The Monolith troopers are a group of fanatic religious-types who live in the heart of the Zone. No one knows exactly why the mind-altering radiation that covers this area does not seem to affect them in the same way it affects everyone else. They generally have the best equipment available, including such exciting things as gauss rifles and exo –skeletons. Their reason for killing you is the best one of all – ‘because a voice in my head told me to’. They like to use rocket launchers.
Okay, I’m convinced. I want to start playing!
Slow down there, cowboy! I know that you want to just jump right into the Zone and start shooting people in the face, but there are a few things you need to know first. First off, Shadow of Chernobyl is an exceptionally buggy game in its most basic form. You see, in Eastern Europe, Quality Assurance is something that really hasn’t caught on yet – much like democracy and alcohols not made from potatoes. So ‘vanilla’ STALKER will oftentimes crash you to desktop at the most inopportune times, and swearing at your computer until it works just doesn’t help as much as you might like.
However, this is where the player community comes in! Much like every other game that was released in a less-than-finished state, STALKER has a fairly prolific mod community. Unlike some other games, these mods have actually been finished and aren’t simply there to tease us about the hidden potential in STALKER. They range from minor bug fixes to complete revamps of most of the game’s core features, and there’s something in there for everyone. Your first time through the game, you’re going to want to stick as close to the core experience as possible (minus bugs and really inane design decisions). For this, you have two excellent options.
Zone Reclamation Project (ZRP):
ZRP is one of the most popular and yet simplest mods for SoC. It fixes a number of annoying bugs that the original had, balances the gameplay a little bit and changes some things like the HUD and such. It is very stable and relatively bug free, plus unlike some other mods it doesn’t try to rape you in the face with a billion zombies spawning every time you change zones. It’s a good starting point for your first playthrough, and if you want a relatively vanilla experience this is the way to go.
Stolls’ Mod compilation:
Full credit goes to Stolls of G&T for this one. It’s the ZRP, plus a bunch of other mods to further expand on the ‘enhanced vanilla’ thing. It doesn’t do anything incredibly new, nor does it drastically change the game, but it makes it more accessible and removes some of the more annoying design features. Of course, if you want the ‘true’ SoC experience this might be going a little too far. But it’s still a very solid compilation and generally works without any huge issues.
Next up, the more ‘extensive’ mods which start to veer away from the ‘base’ STALKER game:
STALKER Complete 2009:
This is a further expansion on the ideas presented by ZRP and expanded upon by Stolls’ project. STALKER Complete 2009 takes the vanilla STALKER game, adds the ZRP and some other mods, and then ups the visuals on the game to bring it more in line with Clear Sky. It still doesn’t have all the pretty god rays and other effects, but it does look a lot better than the vanilla game. For some strange reason it also seems to make it run better on some machines, which I think speaks more to the engine code used by GSC than anything else.
Oblivion-Lost:
Trivia – Shadow of Chernobyl was originally named Oblivion Lost. The similarly-named mod is an attempt to bring STALKER back to the game that was originally promised by GSC, and to do this it adds all manner of features. Random blowouts which spawn new mutants and change the locations of anomalies, a far greater variety of mutants and a much more ‘dynamic’ game world make this the favored mod of many people. Because it differs so significantly from the vanilla game, it is recommended that you not use OL for your first playthrough.
LURK:
The best thing to ever come out of 4Chan. Not yet released, LURK seems like it will be the definitive STALKER mod once it’s out. Sporting a rewritten AI system, better weather, better graphics, and a whole host of features borrowed from other mods, this one’s looking pretty promising. As mentioned, it’s not out yet, but you can follow its development and fervently wish that it were released. Maybe if you ask nicely enough they’ll let you try it out, I don’t know. Probably not.
However, this is where the player community comes in! Much like every other game that was released in a less-than-finished state, STALKER has a fairly prolific mod community. Unlike some other games, these mods have actually been finished and aren’t simply there to tease us about the hidden potential in STALKER. They range from minor bug fixes to complete revamps of most of the game’s core features, and there’s something in there for everyone. Your first time through the game, you’re going to want to stick as close to the core experience as possible (minus bugs and really inane design decisions). For this, you have two excellent options.
Zone Reclamation Project (ZRP):
ZRP is one of the most popular and yet simplest mods for SoC. It fixes a number of annoying bugs that the original had, balances the gameplay a little bit and changes some things like the HUD and such. It is very stable and relatively bug free, plus unlike some other mods it doesn’t try to rape you in the face with a billion zombies spawning every time you change zones. It’s a good starting point for your first playthrough, and if you want a relatively vanilla experience this is the way to go.
Stolls’ Mod compilation:
Full credit goes to Stolls of G&T for this one. It’s the ZRP, plus a bunch of other mods to further expand on the ‘enhanced vanilla’ thing. It doesn’t do anything incredibly new, nor does it drastically change the game, but it makes it more accessible and removes some of the more annoying design features. Of course, if you want the ‘true’ SoC experience this might be going a little too far. But it’s still a very solid compilation and generally works without any huge issues.
Next up, the more ‘extensive’ mods which start to veer away from the ‘base’ STALKER game:
STALKER Complete 2009:
This is a further expansion on the ideas presented by ZRP and expanded upon by Stolls’ project. STALKER Complete 2009 takes the vanilla STALKER game, adds the ZRP and some other mods, and then ups the visuals on the game to bring it more in line with Clear Sky. It still doesn’t have all the pretty god rays and other effects, but it does look a lot better than the vanilla game. For some strange reason it also seems to make it run better on some machines, which I think speaks more to the engine code used by GSC than anything else.
Oblivion-Lost:
Trivia – Shadow of Chernobyl was originally named Oblivion Lost. The similarly-named mod is an attempt to bring STALKER back to the game that was originally promised by GSC, and to do this it adds all manner of features. Random blowouts which spawn new mutants and change the locations of anomalies, a far greater variety of mutants and a much more ‘dynamic’ game world make this the favored mod of many people. Because it differs so significantly from the vanilla game, it is recommended that you not use OL for your first playthrough.
LURK:
The best thing to ever come out of 4Chan. Not yet released, LURK seems like it will be the definitive STALKER mod once it’s out. Sporting a rewritten AI system, better weather, better graphics, and a whole host of features borrowed from other mods, this one’s looking pretty promising. As mentioned, it’s not out yet, but you can follow its development and fervently wish that it were released. Maybe if you ask nicely enough they’ll let you try it out, I don’t know. Probably not.
That’s a lot of information! Is there anything else I should know?
A couple of things. STALKER is a very unforgiving game at first, and it’s quite easy to get discouraged in the first couple of hours of the game. It took me multiple tries to make it past the first hour, but when I did I was rewarded with what has quickly become my favourite game of all time. It is an experience unlike any other and showcases a design philosophy that is significantly different from what you are probably used to.
So don’t get discouraged. If you start out and it turns out you’re pretty bad off the bat, don’t worry – everyone started out there. Ask questions, as there are a few people on this forum that have played the game extensively and can probably give you whatever information you’re looking for. Try out different mods until you find a combination that works for you. And keep in mind that everyone has a different playstyle - what works for one person might not work for you. I like to use cover and get up close with a shotgun - other people prefer to hang back and pick off enemies with a sniper rifle.
A few more basic gameplay tips - always keep as many bandages and medkits on you as you can possibly carry. You will get hurt in this game quite often - without medkits or bandages, you are probably going to die a lot. So anytime you come back to the trader after an excursion into the Zone, if you can afford it, buy up their entire stock of both items. Ammunition is also crucial - it's very easy to run out of bullets, and your knife is pretty much useless when the enemy has high-powered rifles that can take you out from long range.
So let's talk about STALKER in this here thread, because I know there are at least a few huge fans of this incredible game in our midst (besides myself of course)! And if you're new to the series, have fun and feel free to ask whatever questions you might have.
WATCH THIS SPACE.
vsove on
0
Posts
why is that
it's beautiful
But this is cool too.
Game looks pretty neat.
the third one looks goddamned amazing though
I had so many corpses piled up inside of here.
I always dumped my bodies from there into the little train car outside. Every single time I went through the Garbage I'd go and take out those bandits, and I ended up with so many guns lying around that one time I stripped naked, ran over there to pick up every single gun and went back to the Bar to sell them. I think I got a total of about 5000 rubles, which didn't really seem worth all that hassle.
Theoretically, yes.
In practice, last time I crashed out to desktop within 5 minutes.
Well you're doing better than me, I can't even install it.
up in the mid 80s
still, enjoying it while it lasts
Are you using the disk version or the Steam version?
I have it on Steam and I've only had issues with installing it once. Running it is a different story of course.
the end of SOC was fantastic
I should probably fix that, this looks pretty rad.
I remember a battle in a scrapyard and sneaking up on a military base, and I don't know which one came later but I know that I quit right around one of them
woop woop
Altogether the three Penumbra games seem to average in the mid-70s on Metacritic, which is usually the 'if you like this kind of game you'll love this and if not you'll hate it' range.
which in turn is very loosely based on a book called the roadside picnic
I did kind of like penumbra. It was pretty scary and physic-y
For SoC, they should be pretty much the same. The boxed version is actually a little better for getting mods to run properly.
For CS, it is a buggy game regardless of what version you buy. Do not expect anything different.
The scene in Stalker where they're riding the cart up the rails and the landscape is passing by on either side was incredible.
my old sig is from it in case anybody ever wondered
In the first one i made it the end, but by then the armor i had saved up for had degraded so much i would die if enemies even glanced at me.
And in Clear Sky i got my face ripped off as soon as i exited the swamps.
something tells me i'm doing it wrong
and I never played it again, it's a shame because it was pretty darn good
how was clear sky?
Pretty and with some neat new gameplay mechanics (upgradeable weapons and armour, faction warfare, etc.)
Buggy as hell, though. It beats the original STALKER for number of crashes to desktop, hands down. And in the Swamp, at least, it rapes computers.
But then you start talking about the bugs and I'm apprehensive.
Just spell it out for me, do the pros out weigh the cons?