Poll: So, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series

[King of Asgaard]

Considering their recent release on GOG.com and steal of a price (~$15), I was wondering if I should pick them up.

I'd like you illustrious beauties in the know to sell me on them. Tell me why I should be playing them right now, and how dare I only consider getting them now.

As a frame of reference, I quite enjoyed all the Fallout games.

Oh, and should the verdict be positive, I'm open to mod recommendations, just not graphical mods, since my PC is only just able to run them.

If I missed any important details, I'm sure you'll let me know.

Thanks in advanced for the advice, you sexy thangs.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Seems like we're getting a thread like this once a week. I approve. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are unique classics and the demise of the series a tragedy.

The games themselves are a bit janky, and pretty much do require mods (IMO) to get them feeling smooth. The head bobbing in particular was appalling and I couldn't even play until I'd modded it out. There are also total overhauls that just make everything...more STALKERy. I'd recommend those.

On the pro side of things...they're arguably the most atmospheric games ever made. I thought Fallout 3 was pretty damn atmospheric. Pripyat blew it out of the water. The games convey an extraordinary sense of place just through weather, lighting and environmental atmospherics alone. They're basically linear/story games (not Clear Sky, but skip that one, it's the weakest) but FEEL like sandbox games because of the zone design and because of how much freedom they allow you.

The story is...uh...present, but nothing memorable, and can actually veer into "pretty bad" territory due to substandard voice acting and writing. Some will recommend starting with the original game for story purposes, but you could just as easily start with the best game (Pripyat) without losing anything.

The Metro games are probably the only games that come close in terms of atmosphere (and possibly Dark Souls), but unlike STALKER the Metro games are super linear corridor shoots. Their storytelling is better. In every other way, STALKER is superior.

Notably the games are pretty damn hard, especially if modded. Bullets HURT and combat can be highly lethal. This just adds to the tension. I remember crouching at the edge of a field in the dead of night, knowing there were monsters hiding in the tall grass, and needing the occasional flash of lightning in order to see what was ahead of me. One of the most memorable gaming experiences I ever had, and it was achieved with nothing more than some fancy lighting effects.

An example for you:


And a longer video showing more diverse gameplay:

 

[Sarcasm.]

It's certainly different than some other FPS games. they tried wrenching some more realistic elements in there as well. I think your gun can jam on you, if I'm not totally mistaken.

Aside from that, it's really not a colorful experience.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I bought the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on Steam back in 2007 because my college roommate told me I'd love it. He advertised it as being just like what he'd imagine a first-person Fallout title would be like (this was pre-Fallout 3). Being a sucker for all things Fallout, I bought it.

I have a feeling I'm going to be in a minority with this sentiment... but I found the game to be overwhelmingly mediocre. It did a lot of things decently, but nothing particularly well. The only thing I felt that the game really excelled at was atmosphere. The game, start to finish, felt pretty bleak and oppressive, which I guess is what they were mostly going for. So if you're looking for a fairly depressing-feeling survival game, it's got that going for it. The game is also completely loaded with bugs and glitches, which at the time there was no solution for. I went back and replayed the game a few years later after patching it, and while many of the issues were fixed, there were still seemingly more bugs and glitches in the game than most. Overall, I'd say the game is worth trying out if it's cheap enough... but don't go in expecting it to be a masterpiece.

Next I played the prequel, which I picked up on Steam during a sale like a year or so ago for like $2. I honestly have nothing nice to say about this one. It felt like a retread of the first game, but with far more bugs and glitches, that didn't really add anything at all to the franchise. The combat also felt a lot more wonky to me than the first game, which already felt kind of wonky compared to most FPS titles. I never bothered to finish it. I got pretty far in, wasn't having any fun at all, and bailed to play something else.

I never did play the sequel to the original game. I've heard from a lot of people that it actually is a significant improvement over the original, but I have no idea.

 

[Muspelheim]

Yes! Zone is friend! Come! Visit friend!

Be warned, though. They're not really RPGs, rather shooters with some RPG elements, like armour and weapon stats and upgrades. It's going to be a rather rocky adjustment, depending on what shooters you are used to before.

It's certainly different than some other FPS games. they tried wrenching some more realistic elements in there as well. I think your gun can jam on you, if I'm not totally mistaken.

Aside from that, it's really not a colorful experience.

Yes, depending on the condition and make of the gun. There is also ballistics to get used to, and different ammunition types.

 

[The Madman]

STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl and STALKER: Call of Pripyat I consider to be two of the best fps ever made. They're engrossing, beautiful, challenging, and ooze so much atmosphere and ambiance that even among my favourite classics I can only think of one other series which even comes close in those regards. Few other games can even hope to be nearly as immersive an experience.

There is simply nothing else in the gaming industry that can offer a similar experience. Hell the weather alone is amazing, I've never played a single other game that's done thunderstorms and the like nearly as well, and the first time you get a blowout in Call of Pripyat... damn.

As for mods there are a whole bunch out there to try. Complete is an easy one for newbies who just want to get into the game and start playing, a lot of hardcore fans dislike how Complete simplifies some elements of gameplay but if you're just looking for an easy, quick way to get into STALKER is a solid series of mods.

 

[Scy Anide]

Buy them, mod them up, and skip Clear Sky.

 

[Laughing Man]

Amazing game, the first time you heat the roar of a bloodsucker in an underground layer, believe me you will know the part I am talking about when you reach it and once modded the night times can become some of the most terrifying experiences you'll ever encounter. The early game is a lot more scary than the later game mostly because as you collect better and more powerful weapons the enemies do start to become less of a threat but the game does still have the ability to throw the odd scare at you even for the so called uber warrior of death. I've had a blood sucker leap out at me in the dark, take a lump out of me and disappear then leave me to unload an entire clip at it and hit nothing.

It's also the only game that has lead me to actually learn a little more about the back ground story behind it. The Chernobyl disaster how it it happened, how they dealt with it and it's REAL after effects are a surprisingly engaging subject.

 

[Strelok]

Buy them, mod them up, and skip Clear Sky.

Buy them, play them vanilla, then mod them up, and skip the rest of what this guy says.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Buy them, mod them up, and skip Clear Sky.

Buy them, play them vanilla, then mod them up, and skip the rest of what this guy says.

Do everything that Strelok said, but DO mod them. Use STALKER COMPLETE. It fixes many of the games lingering bugs and glitches without affecting the core game or narrative, and it also pretties it up a bit for modern audiences. But primarily mod for the bug fixes...

Love these games. CoP (Call of Pripyat) is far and away my favourite, but it's far shorter then the other 2 sadly. SoC (Shadow of Chernobyl) is also fantastic, but certain elements feel really dated without heavy modding. Clear Sky is good and the faction wars are interesting (if a little obnoxious) but it is comparably weaker then the first and last titles without much of substance pulling them together.

 

[Weaver]

I played the first one on launch day (the mods that fix everything didn't exist on launch day) and I actually hated it. It kind of ran like shit at the time, the game was buggy as hell, the voice acting was bad and I just got really bored.

All I can remember is throwing an infinite supply of bolts I was carrying at a field of anomalies on the ground for some reason.

Maybe the games are better with the mods, but my first impression to the series was not a good one.

 

[Zhukov]

I've never been remotely impressed by them.

The worlds feel mechanical and lifeless, like playing an MMO by yourself. There aren't any characters worthy of the term. The basic gameplay is FPS with no frills. The RPG elements are less about customization and more about just swapping out your shit for incremental upgrades. The survival elements are just a matter of filling meters every now and again.

 

[Rad Party God]

Absolutely YES. I've been playing them this week coincidentally (on Steam) and they're an absolute blast. Yes, the NPC's animation is awkward at best, the dialogues suck, the voice acting is dismal and it is quite unstable.

And yet, I fucking love them. There's few games with an atmosphere this opressive this side of Dark Souls and this might be one of the best horror experiences I've had recently.

There's so much to hate and yet I absolutely love them. I'd recommend you to just buy Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat, with Shadow of Chernobyl, mods are a must (Complete 2009 being my mod of choice) and Call of Pripyat is the most stable and polished "vanilla" of the 3.

I'd skip Clear Sky, it's kind of unnecesary and redundant.

I hope you do buy them and have a lot of fun with them

 

[Teoes]

didn't read lol Voted in the poll without reading OP, then read OP. Wheee!

Abso-floggin'-lutely, for the reasons the other yay-sayers have given. Yes the games are rough around the edges - graphically, in terms of stability and in terms of a largely clunky UI (in an FPS no less, wut) but they're rather unique.

They've got a lovely feel that you wouldn't have gotten from a game developed in the US or Japan - being made in the Ukraine it's got a real fondness and familiarity for the gameworld and atmosphere.

So, they're available on GOG now huh? I'm having to talk myself about of being a third copy of the series..

edit: While the AI can (rightly) take some knocks, it is handling a whole large area's worth of different creatures, with different allegiances and priorities. The chance for random shitting-crikey encounters never ceases to amaze me, even after many playthroughs. The last such significant one was finding myself wading through a chemical anomaly hunting for artifacts and stumbling upon a now three-way melee between a bloodsucker and a pack of hounds. Suddenly I had to choose between chemical protection and better armour/health regen/wound healing - and the requirement to be fleet of foot in avoiding the creatures didn't sit well with being surrounded by acid baths. Didn't end well for me even with top-end gear.

Another edit, on the subject of mods: If you don't want to try mods due to your PC specs (you should probably try the Complete mod anyway as you can still dial back settings and the remaining changes it makes are more than worth it) then I've always found that of the three, Call of Pripyat stands up best as unmodded vanilla.

 

[Azahul]

The people comparing them to Dark Souls aren't far wrong. This is a game where being winged two or three times is enough to put you in the ground, at least before you find some of the better armour. It does have a quick save function, which makes it a bit less oppressive than Dark Souls.

Most of what the nay-sayers are saying is true. The games have a lot of faults. They're clunky, the environments are usually ugly (although the weather is a beautiful thing), and the voice acting and story ranges from laughably bad to just bad...

But then there are the moments when it's late at night and you're being chased through an abandoned village by a pack of mutant, gibbering things, glowing eyes bobbing up and down at the edge your vision, and you spot a tower up ahead with a ladder you know the monsters won't be able to climb. You reach the base of the ladder, cop a blow to your back as the closest creature manages to land a swing, and haul yourself up out of their reach. You scramble to the top, bandage the wound to stop the bleeding, and take a few potshots at the creatures below. It's too dark to kill them without wasting a lot of ammo though, so you wait until dawn. When the sun rises, the monsters have mostly cleared off. You pick off the stragglers, descend, and set off again through the Zone for the next hair-raising adventure.

The games largely lack the scripted moments of other big budget shooters. They more than make up for it with gameplay that, at its best, is tense, atmospheric, and almost completely organic. The animal/mutant AI earns a particular bit of love from me. There are enemies that get bored, give up, or even just run away from you once you've scared them off or injured them.

So yeah, I heartily recommend the games.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

Personally, I could never get into the Stalker games, despite more than one attempt at trying (I think I tried twice).

So I couldn't vouch for them myself, but I like the fact that they exist and I wish more games would attempt to be more like them.

Perhaps you should listen to these more educated folks who are suggesting mods could fix my wailings about the game, because I definitely tried it 'vanilla' style.

 

[Simonism451]

Get out of here Stalker (and buy those games! Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat at least. Clear Sky's rather meh.)

Edit: Also, fuck Bloodsuckers! And Snorks. And Controllers. Basically anything more dangerous than a single dog.

EditEdit: Though I do have to agree with some of the more negative comments: Some of the core mechanics, such as shooting and the enemy AI are rather lacking. But that atmosphere!

 

[Kingjackl]

I just picked up Shadows of Chernobyl from GOG for the same reason. If what people are saying about needing to be modded is true, what mods are there that anyone would recommend for a first timer?

 

[Undomesticated Equine]

Well they have linked the best (imho) mods in this news post
http://www.gog.com/news/mod_spotlight_stalker_series

 

[Stavros Dimou]

imagine a combination of survival/horror features,with FPS features,with RPG features,and you get STALKER.

what to expect:

# semi-open world gameplay
# inventory,looting corpses,buying and selling with in-game npcs
# Solid shooting mechanics
# Fear and horror. No other game scared me as much as the STALKER games. Amnesia kinda scared me a little,but STALKER are much scarier games.
# Punishing and challenging gameplay. Dark Souls of FPSs.
# Great atmosphere.
# Not so good graphics.



Yahtzee made a review for Clear Sky. Note that since then that game had 9 patches,now it runs just fine.