The STALKER series

[Sn1p3r187]

Anyone played through these games on pc? Loved all of em. Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat are my personal favorites. Had some funny ass moments in Shadow of Chernobyl, though that game was basically first person shooter horror at its best. The damn paranormal shit and the Ukrainian military break dancing squad of 1986 (Snorks) since it was popular in the 80's. So what did you think of the games.

 

[Hassknecht]

Man, I was so hyped for Stalker back when it was first announced.
Then it came out and it was pretty good. Not what I was hyped for, but good. The underground levels fucking ruled!
Then GSC started to be bullshit. They announced massive community interaction and a 1.1 patch that would enable free gameplay after the end and all kinds of stuff. They kept their community interaction up for about a month and never got back to it. They made a few patches, mainly for multiplayer, never got to the 1.1 patch and simply went on to make Clear Sky. Nobody wanted Clear Sky, and it sucked balls. I still haven't finished it because it's just fucking awful.
When CoP was announced I wasn't interested anymore. GSC burned their bridges, and I only played CoP years laters when it was dirt-cheap on Steam. It was ok, but it lacked the underground levels.
I still like CoC, especially with some mods to make it more like how it was announced to be. And I certainly hope some people will at some point finish up the released Alpha build.

 

[AskWazzup]

I used to really dread those lab levels in shadow of chernobyl, it was not just some quick scares but the whole time leading up to the places the atmosphere kept getting creepier and creepier. Actually the whole game was like this, i haven't played another game that made you feel so alone and dreadful. I loved the game and it made me shit my pants.

The other ones were interesting, but missed the mark for me, as clear sky was a broken game and call of pripyat was great in terms of new features but wasn't the same atmosphere wise.

 

[Sn1p3r187]

I used to really dread those lab levels in shadow of chernobyl, it was not just some quick scares but the whole time leading up to the places the atmosphere kept getting creepier and creepier. Actually the whole game was like this, i haven't played another game that made you feel so alone and dreadful. I loved the game and it made me shit my pants.

The other ones were interesting, but missed the mark for me, as clear sky was a broken game and call of pripyat was great in terms of new features but wasn't the same atmosphere wise.

How so? I haven't played Clear Sky yet.

 

[LordAshur]

Brilliant games. My biggest issue was that the first time playing SoC I encountered a game-breaking bug pretty far in, only to find out that it was fixed by a patch. Naturally I was pretty pissed when I found out that the patched game couldn't load any of my old saves.

 

[Crni Vuk]

I played only the original game and Call of Prypjat.

I was too pretty hyped about Stalker. All the promises they made. That you will have cars, a true role playing experience with randomized interactive quests. Hell even hellicopters for the player. And all in a giant zone in and around Tschernobyle.

The finished game was pretty far from the claims they made. Still a decent shooter. But well, just a shooter. However, the fact that the game had several different endings was pretty good. So the game definitely had a lot of strong points. And a good mod community. I would say the combat was also solid. And I really loved the atmosphere of the game. However certain mechanics also really frustrated me. Mainly the stealth in the game. I tried at some point in the game to inflitrate a base, getting some plans without killing anymore. No matter what I tried. It simply didn't worked. It was like the enemy had some kind of radar vision or they could sniff you out or something. So I said, fuck it. And killed everyone. A very low point in the game. And it happend countless of times. For some reason enemies also continued to have perfect vision even at night. Even bandits without any kind of fancy tech. The other issue, weapon degrading. I hated that part. A lot. Thankfully mods removed it.

Prypjat. Meh. Hit and miss. THe gameplay, pretty good. The story? Pretty shit. And mainly because of the narrative and how the story was presented. I really expected more here. But the narrative was already a problem in Stalker. A game that did a much better job here? Metro. It shows how it's done well. And Stalker should have done the same. It would have been a lot better.

my 5 cents.

 

[LordAshur]

My main issue with Call of Pripyat was a lack of locations... I don't know how large the maps are in comparison to those in Shadow of Chernobyl, but the world itself feels a lot smaller. And while I will always rather take a small and detailed world to a big bunch of empty space, I was hoping for both size and detail. I guess it's a good thing I never heard of Shadow of Chernobyl until I played it, although the idea of having cars and choppers in the zone sounds terrible to me.

Metro 2033 was a terribly underrated game. The reaction to it really increased my animosity towards the gaming world. Especially complaints about things like the knife not being a one-button instant kill and shotguns being powerless against some armor. Gamers today can't seem to understand that if the knife was the most effective weapon in the world, we never would have invented guns, and when you're fighting someone with a knife you don't sheath it after every slash. some actual reviewers pointed out that there's no other way to go through the game than charge straight at the enemies, while every single mission where you encounter hostile humans not only allows you but encourages you to play stealthily.

However, the absolute height of reviewer retardation (and I see this in many comments and the like as well) - "There are Nazis here. Yeah, Nazis. Where is their metro line to Germany?"


While it did sell enough for it to get a sequel, it would have been better if it didn't. A story-driven shooter can still be bearable with bad shooting, but never with a bad story.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Well, knives COULD kill any human enemy with one hit. People just had to keep in mind that you have to hit unprotected parts, which makes sense. Stealth in Metro 33 required some learning and sometimes it was a bit of luck, if the bullet hit the helmet everyone knew you are around! But once you get the hang out of it, it works. The Sequel simplified this a lot with the kill animations. And made stealth kills a walk in the park. Just crouch. Get behind the enemy. Hit the kill button. Huray! No tension, no learning.

 

[Chromevod]

There are some people who really hate it, but the Misery 2.0 mod (Or 2.1.1. as I think they've updated to) is something I really like. It adds a lot more survival elements to Call of Pripyat, makes anomalies basically 1 hit kills if you don't have dedicated suits, that sort of thing.

It's punishing, grueling, and I love it. On my 3rd playthrough of it now, since I built a new computer that could actually run it at full graphics settings.

Seriously, on top of that it makes the game look stunning. I really recommend at least giving it a shot. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing.

 

[AskWazzup]

How so? I haven't played Clear Sky yet.

When it came out, it was buggy to the point of being unplayable, don't know if they fixed it as i haven't played it since. Otherwise it brought some new features and would have been a pretty good game at the time.

 

[Hassknecht]

How so? I haven't played Clear Sky yet.

When it came out, it was buggy to the point of being unplayable, don't know if they fixed it as i haven't played it since. Otherwise it brought some new features and would have been a pretty good game at the time.

It's still pretty bad. GSC has a habit of not fixing anything but the multiplayer which nobody plays.
Clear Sky had some nice ideas, thewhole faction war thingy for example. But it just became annoying really fast (mostly because it was, like everything else in the game, buggy and broken) because it interrupted the game incessantly, especially combined with blowouts. But it had really nice graphics.
CoP is just better in every single way.

 

[ChildServices]

I actually started a playthrough of SoC again recently with the Autumn Aurora mod. Everything about this game is superb even if you're just playing the vanilla. An absolute masterpiece. 2007 was a pretty good year for PC gaming, to be honest.

 

[UniversalWolf]

Played SoC: some fun to be had there, definintely. I also really enjoyed the underground levels. In fact, I wish there were more of them and bigger. Maybe way, way bigger.