S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - most atmospheric series ever. Anything similar?

[Norrdicus]

For me, the only game that comes close is Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. While the survival elements are not really present and many hate the dice-rolling 1st person combat, it hit a lot of the same notes as Stalker does. You're often on your own, walking on dirt roads, vision either blocked by a mountain, a sandstorm or a group of Cliffracers. Nobody really wants you around, you're a just freed prisoner in a foreign land where the landscapes vary from swamp to desert to volcanic to beautiful shores.

The wildlife is as hostile if not moreso than the locals, you will never know if the next thing to attack you is a big worm, a zombie or an assassin sent after you to kill you in your sleep. If you do not know your way around, money doesn't come by easy, you sometimes have to take a risk and enter tomb, a cave or an old fortress, where you might find unique treasure that will be able to restock your entire supply of potions, scrolls and repair equipment, or you might find yourself facing an enemy that you have no chance of beating for the next 20 hours.

The only clues to proceed with whatever purpose you were given upon release from captivity are letters that you carry from person to person, or weird prophecies in books that you have no clue whether they should be interpreted literally or not.

Although very different games to Stalker, Pathologic and the The Void both made by Russian dev Ice Pick Lodge are really twisted, creepy, tense and atmospheric.

Oh man, Ice-Pick Lodge, thumbs up for mentioning them. The Void, while not a perfect experience, was something completely out of the ordinary and it'll probably be years before I experience anything like it. By the way, have you seen their in-progress game Knock-Knock?

Although I'm basing this on my very limited Clear Sky experiences, STALKER for me was pretty forgetable :/

It is quite forgetable, at least for me it was. It's widely considered the weakest of the series, and picking either of the other two games is recommended. Clear Sky just doesn't do enough with story or have good set pieces carefully placed along the main quest path. It's like someone put the carefully crafted Shadow of Chernobyl into a martini shaker, and then put the shaker in the trunk of a rally car, and then poured it in the glass after a race. Works great for some drinks, but not a videogame that's not procedurally generated. Pick one of the games up when they go on Steam sale or something.

On topic, i still find it (the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series) the most unique and captivating FPS series.

I remember once saying "Boy, I love half Life. I would love to keep exploring beyond the coast and see what a whole country looked like in this wierd world with it's creepy abandoned houses and haunted offices."

And then I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Heh, I'm almost angry that I can't experience FPS the same way I used to ever since I played Shadow of Chernobyl

"So how was Half-Life 2: Episode 2?"

"It's alright, I guess. I'm gonna boot up Stalker now though"

 

[ShipofFools]

I never heard of this game, but reading your guys descriptions it sounds... amazing. Not that I want to derail the thread or anything, but could you tell me a little about it?
And has it anything to do with the Andrei Tarkovsky film?

 

[Thedutchjelle]

I never heard of this game, but reading your guys descriptions it sounds... amazing. Not that I want to derail the thread or anything, but could you tell me a little about it?
And has it anything to do with the Andrei Tarkovsky film?

In short:

Thirty or so years after the Chernobyl accident, a second explosion takes place. This event is followed by all kinds of weird crap in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the most important being the arrival of anomalies and artifacts. Anomalies are small areas within the Zone where the regular laws of Physics gave up. You could walk in one and be crushed to death by superhigh gravity, or be launched in the air, or be boiled alive in seconds.. Anomalies spawn "artifacts" though, mysterious objects that posses strange powers and are highly valued by both researchers and black market dealers.

Hunting these artifacts are the men called STALKERs. They life is hard and short - the Ukraine military shoots on sight as they are trespassing, mutants lurk the countryside, anomalies kill many and ofcourse STALKERs fight amongst themselves as well (there are various STALKER factions, some of them allied to one another, others hostile).

That's the setting, more or less. I can't really do it justice, it's one of those things you have to experience for yourself. As it is set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, most of the environment already looked like shit before the game events started - now it's truely a derelict dystopian Soviet environment.
The story was kinda.. interesting, but it's not the strongest part of the game in my opinion.

 

[lolcatize]

Although I'm basing this on my very limited Clear Sky experiences, STALKER for me was pretty forgetable :/

I agree with Tom_green_day. Fallout 3 was incredibly atmospheric, with the shitty yellow hue of the sky, the dystopian nightmarish civilian clutter akin to the Normandy evacuation, the slight sound cues here and there, the odd bits of music and of course, the first time you step out of the vault.

Honestly, I can't say any one game is the most atmospheric. To each their own.

i hope you understand clear sky was just a prologue, Shadow is where everything picks up. Weve got brain bending machines, creepy bunkers and the city of pripyat at its full glory.

 

[rofltehcat]

I never heard of this game, but reading your guys descriptions it sounds... amazing. Not that I want to derail the thread or anything, but could you tell me a little about it?
And has it anything to do with the Andrei Tarkovsky film?

Kind of. The Stalker games, books, that movie... the roadside picknick book, Metro 2033... they are all kind of connected.

You should definitely play the Stalker games if you liked the movie.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I love the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, but I consider Metro 2033 to be the superior game, both in terms of player experience and overall quality.

Totally this. Shalebridge Cradle in 3 is always cited when talking about atmospheric games and it really is one of the greatest levels ever in that sense. And of course 1 and 2 are totally solid too. Available on both steam and Gog if I don't misremember.

Good call. Individual levels of Thief, particularly Shalebridge Cradle, are close to unmatched in terms of atmosphere.

Really sad that the new Thief game has had so many issues.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

If you are looking for atmospheric first person shooters akin to Stalker I would recommend Metro 2033 and Cryostasis.

If you want something "older" I'll tell you to play the first two Bioshock games.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

The Cry of Fear mod is pretty atmospheric. You may have already heard of it. Its a full blown horror mod made from Half-Life 1.Just walking around empty Swedish town is creepy.I think it got green lit on Steam too. The first Fear game does a great job with the environments. The way shadows creep up on you and it always seems like that creep girl could be hiding behind any corner waiting to freak you out when you see her

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Probably BioShock series, Fallout series and Condemned: Criminal Origins

These.
I also found the Metroid Prime series, especially the second one, to be very atmospheric.

I second the Metroid Primes. Don't know why I didn't think of them in the first place.The games truly make you feel alone on an alien planet. I found the first 2 better than the third in that respect. I don't if you have access to gamecube games (they were re-released on the Wii) you might be able to try dolphin emulator if I'm not mistaken (you know, after you've leagally bought the disks *wink)

 

[DSK-]

Although I'm basing this on my very limited Clear Sky experiences, STALKER for me was pretty forgetable :/

I agree with Tom_green_day. Fallout 3 was incredibly atmospheric, with the shitty yellow hue of the sky, the dystopian nightmarish civilian clutter akin to the Normandy evacuation, the slight sound cues here and there, the odd bits of music and of course, the first time you step out of the vault.

Honestly, I can't say any one game is the most atmospheric. To each their own.

i hope you understand clear sky was just a prologue, Shadow is where everything picks up. Weve got brain bending machines, creepy bunkers and the city of pripyat at its full glory.

Yeah I knew it was a prologue, but if I remember correctly, I was interested in the faction mechanics and stuff. But that turned out to be buggy as shit.
But yeah, to be honest I don't think the STALKER games are my sort of game to begin with.

 

[lolcatize]

Although I'm basing this on my very limited Clear Sky experiences, STALKER for me was pretty forgetable :/

I agree with Tom_green_day. Fallout 3 was incredibly atmospheric, with the shitty yellow hue of the sky, the dystopian nightmarish civilian clutter akin to the Normandy evacuation, the slight sound cues here and there, the odd bits of music and of course, the first time you step out of the vault.

Honestly, I can't say any one game is the most atmospheric. To each their own.

i hope you understand clear sky was just a prologue, Shadow is where everything picks up. Weve got brain bending machines, creepy bunkers and the city of pripyat at its full glory.

Yeah I knew it was a prologue, but if I remember correctly, I was interested in the faction mechanics and stuff. But that turned out to be buggy as shit.
But yeah, to be honest I don't think the STALKER games are my sort of game to begin with.

Bugs are present but i recomend to replay the game with Complete 2012 mod, it should fix a lot of buggs and re balance the game

 

[EquestrianGeneral]

Although I'm basing this on my very limited Clear Sky experiences, STALKER for me was pretty forgetable :/

Funny you should mention that, 'cause I loved Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat, and I thought that Clear Sky was pretty forgettable too.

OT: Fallout and Metro 2033 are the only games off the top of my head that come close. Bioshock maybe, but the immersion of being in Rapture kinda fell away after the second half of the game.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Probably BioShock series, Fallout series and Condemned: Criminal Origins

These.
I also found the Metroid Prime series, especially the second one, to be very atmospheric.

I second the Metroid Primes. Don't know why I didn't think of them in the first place.The games truly make you feel alone on an alien planet. I found the first 2 better than the third in that respect. I don't if you have access to gamecube games (they were re-released on the Wii) you might be able to try dolphin emulator if I'm not mistaken (you know, after you've leagally bought the disks *wink)

Yeah, I had the gamecube games.
Personally, I like the first one the best, it's the most isolating, and I love that solitude. I find Echoes to be the most atmospheric; it's probably the music(which coincidentally is my favorite soundtrack of the three). And the third the easiest to play. It's really easy to lose your way in all of the Primes, just slightly less so in Corruption.
Anyway.
Then I traded them in for the Trilogy. I almost didn't get it because there was quite a time gap between when I traded in the individual games and when got the Trilogy. But some good and kind deity somewhere must have been smiling on me because not only did I get the Trilogy, bit I got the tin case as well which, as I hear it, is almost impossible to find anymore.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Oh man, Ice-Pick Lodge, thumbs up for mentioning them. The Void, while not a perfect experience, was something completely out of the ordinary and it'll probably be years before I experience anything like it. By the way, have you seen their in-progress game Knock-Knock?

What the hell did I just watch? That was awesome!

Cheers man.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Nope.

No other game hit me like the first STALKER. It came totally out of left field for me. I spent at least the first hour dying, and when I finally managed to get an awesome shooty shooty, I could hold on to it for maybe a minute before I got shot to bits. It trained me to take care, plan my movement, really put some thought into my attacks like no other game before or after it. It was definitely not one of those mainstream forgettable tunnel-vision-on-rails shooter rides... and I loved it for it, still do.

The only other game that felt like it wanted to convince me to stop playing before it showed me true gaming bliss was Dark Souls... yeah, those two games are some of my top favourites, even though Shadow of Chernobyl somewhat falls splat later in the game. Due to the whole ride it offered that's forgettable and forgivable.

The Suffering offers another two rides I consider well worth taking. They both feel rushed and incomplete at some point, but up to there I found it to be perfect action shooter fare. To know that Stan Winston was doing the creature design just blew my mind, and I only found out well after playing the game. I just couldn't believe people didn't know about The Suffering.

Metro always felt quite a bit too constrained, too rails-y for me. I don't want to diss it as a game, a ride, an experience, but it's just nowhere near STALKER for me. It just doesn't do it for me. It does not invade my dreams. It does not make me want to read books, paint stuff, sketch and type random thoughts it triggered, because it's just not on the same level as STALKER.

Everything else that pops to mind has already been said, methinks. If you can handle the trip down low memory lane, do check out Fallout and Fallout 2 (with user/fan patches and hi-res patch, or risk going mad). I like the first Bioshock, but, as with Metro 2033, it's just too claustrophobic to me to really compare to STALKER. It's like Half Life, with the Weird replaced and the rails removed. Go ahead, move around whichever way you please. Get shot over there. Get irradiated to death over there. Most of the deaths are wrong decisions and split second affairs. It sure primed me to look at the COD and BF fare quite differently.

 

[ShipofFools]

Yeah I got the game. Loved the film, I hope some of that weird atmosphere remains in the game.
I'm going to play it tonight, but right now the sun is shining, so I have to go outside I'll tell you guys what I thought!