Should I buy S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

I've been eyeballing this game for awhile now. If my memory is correct, it's basically a FPS-RPG, kind of like a 3-D version of Fallout. Now, I love FPS's, and I fucking LOVED Fallout. Needless to say, I was very excited about this game. But I wanna get some community feedback, first. If you own/have played STALKER, I sure could use some in-depth reviews of the game. (Multiplayer aside; I intend to spend most of my multiplayer days playing Empires.)

Dumpster Fox, I'm looking at you.

 

Play it. Now. My friend murdered a guy playing guitar with a sawed off from behind, and then took his energy drinks. It is very fun, if you can handle the creepy factor.

 

Did someone say a 3D version of Fallout?

/me cleans out his bank account

 

I've played it front to end and the levels are great! If you have a beefy computer you should be able to play the game with all the fancy lighting on (think doom 3 meets HL2).

The only drawbacks are the story development and some of the RPG elements that aren't worked out very well.

 

There are 7 endings...
Um, how do you kill the invisible mutants? I'm trying to find the "Family Rifle", which is for some reason not where it shows on the map, and everytime i try to get to that area i get rushed by a single invisible mutant that wont die after i unload a clip into it.

 

If you want a great semi realistic FPS with RPG elements, this is a very very, very awesome game.

If you are looking for a RPG game that is also FPS, you might be disappointed.
The RPG element is spread thin, there are lots of things that are done badly, the dialogs and NPC's aren't that intriguing, spawning mobs can get annoying, the weight system can get tiresome real quick and more
small things that I forgot.

On the other hand, the story is great, the levels are amazing, weapons are totally kickass, the aiming is different, but I love it. Its quite creepy aswell, although looking back, it were just 2 or 3 short moments that creeped me out (hadnt been creeped out like that in a looooong time). Overall the immersion into the game made it an unforgettable experience for me.

There were also some guns I never got to use because there wasnt any ammo for it except the single clip 1 out of 10 enemies would drop, some artifacts were bugged, most of em useless imo, and later in the game, no matter what difficulty, the game gets too easy, untill the story develops further to the end.

If you're very picky and are looking for the best of the best, keep your notepad ready, because you're going to find so much to bitch about you will forget half of it.

 

Jeez, everybody finds it so hard to find it, while it's really quite simple. Try thinking in a 3d plane instead of the 2d map.

Also, climb on top something higher the bloodsucker can't get onto and blast it. A Spas12 fixed my problem with em. Also, headshots.

 

Sounds good. Is it out on Steam? Can't get into a shop for a while.

 

In reverse order:

It's not on Steam, Bloodsuckers are easy as cake in the open, there are many tiny flaws but it's great as a whole, just backpedal and keep an eye out for the dust kicked up by the bloodsuckers and for their white eyes, the lighting is freaking amazing and they somehow got the dynamic shadows to have wiggly edges that perturb along with the normal/parallax map, it's only forty bucks, energy drinks are cool, and yes.

The game is somewhat like Deus Ex and Fallout, but it's a FPS at its core. No levels, no skills, no stats other than armor resistances. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has incredible AI that puts stuff like F.E.A.R. to shame. Like I mentioned, there are tons of small hiccups (icons on the map don't always go away when you're done with them, for example), and the translations are definitely iffy. Just remember that when they say "cellar" they mean "attic," and don't try to read the artifact descriptions (ow, my head), and you'll be fine.

The game provides great moment after great moment. For example, I had a mission to kill another Stalker, only he was in the starting camp with like 12 other guys. Now, I could go up to him and blow his brains out execution-style without most of them batting an eyelash, but this one guy that I had saved earlier and that I liked would get pissed off and attack me. So my solution? Hide in a nearby attic, take out my silenced pistol, look out a hole in the roof, and put a single bullet through the guy's skull. It worked. He flopped over, the entire camp started freaking out not knowing who was shooting at them (but knowing exactly where the shooting was coming from - they all took cover and pointed their guns at the attic, yelling frantically in Russian at each other). I put away my pistol, emptied the clip, escaped through another hole in the attic, and strolled back into camp like nothing had happened. The guy who got upset before didn't try to kill me this time - in fact, he was still asleep.

Another great moment happened when I was re-traversing these underground tunnels. I came across a lone bandit in a hallway, crouched down and with his shotgun out, covering a doorway leading into a place where (last time I went through) a bloodsucker lay in wait (these guys can turn invisible, and can take a clip or two in the chest). He obviously knew what was in there. It was fairly dark, so I hid in the shadows, snuck up behind him, and once again took out my silenced pistol (I carry this thing with me everywhere, it's great fun). I put a couple bullets into him and he freaked right the hell out, making a mad dash for cover - right into the room with the bloodsucker. A few seconds pass, and I hear this:

*hisssss*
*terrified Russian shouting*
*HISSSSSS*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*screaming*
*silence*

It was so epic.

In conclusion, yes. Buy it. Also, if your system isn't fairly recent, upgrade. Just for this game. It's incredible.

And now - screenies!

Random pretty.
"Think we should, like, help him or something?" "Nahhhhh."
Holy shadows'n'stuff, Batman!
Standing guard.
A sequence!:
A badly wounded military Sergeant.
A loner Stalker approaches.
He unholsters his pistol.
The loner Stalker has finished the job.
Now back to your regularly scheduled other stuff:
Back inside, other Stalkers take reprieve.
The result of the second described Great Moment.
A mutant boar getting out of his car after realizing that he hit a pedestrian.

 

I want it now.

 

Ill cook up a Fraps video when i get back home from school.

 

Hah nice one dumpster, for the stalker in the camp, I used a flak grenade, it actually killed the 3 loners sitting on the ground, but they never found out it was me :>

anyway, I didn't play it at awesome graphics at all, and I would still recommend it, if you can run empires, you can run stalker on my settings and it doesnt even look half that bad imho
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/4668/ssrpg032707063649l07milqx9.jpg
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/7994/ssrpg032707110618l11pribi8.jpg

yes i am an ammo collecting whore.

 

Well, I'm pretty sold. As for the problems with translations and the minor programming issues mentioned by DF, anyone who played Fallout or Fallout 2 knows that those games had their fair share of programming issues and AI problems, but still rocked the house.

 

fallout is in a completely different league, and if I would have to pick, fallout2 would beat the crap out of this, over and over.

 

Fox, you are indeed a wise man. And if what you said in those lines are true, then STALKER to me must be worshipped like a god, no less.


L O V E D Deus Ex, and FEAR as well, I thought FEAR's AI was the best god damn thing to grace an FPS (Many many stories I could tell you).

However, I'm torrenting C&C 3 right now, so getting STALKER will have to wait until my 4-day torrenting-fest... err, I mean 'holiday' this weekend :D

 

I would say wait till prices lower.

When you are well into an hour of playing you get the feeling that it should have been released years ago so thus your expectancies of what it should do are very high, so high that you feel a bit of disapointment when you begin to see the game's premise.

 

BTW, dont bother joining Duty or Freedom. The duty quest is bugged, and joining freedom gimps your ability to travel around, due to the Bar being duty controlled. It works best to just kill everyone you see thats not in a town, get their guns and sell them for casholas.

 

the bar is neutral ground, its just that its right inside of duty territory, if you want to go back to the bar, you either have to sneak in or kill em all

 

Dot he graphics always look like that? They look...well....old...esp the gun models....

Deus Ex was awesome...never liked FEAR that much personally...

 

I actually have the textures lower than their max settings, so the weapons do look a bit blurry. It makes it load a lot faster, though. Other than that, the weapons aren't particularly low-poly or anything.

Keep in mind that the game and the engine were originally slated for a 2005 release. A remark that seems to keep popping up is that if it had been released back then, it would have been so much better.

I don't really subscribe to that line of thought.

Also, references.