Stalker Difficulty enjoyment

[redisforever]

I just remembered Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl. They threw me in a room with 2 full armored and equipped Stalker and I had only a knife and 5 grenades. No armor, no other weapons, nothing. The good ol' times.

I always enjoy games where I have to work for not getting killed.

Ah...the Arena. I love it.

It is hard, but that's it's charm.

Quoting TvTropes:

There are few video games on this page which come close to the level of creeping, grinding dread this game and its sequels inspires. The atmosphere of crushing horror is made far worse by the fact it holds quite old fashioned views about what the average player should be capable of. In other words, it wants you dead. Very dead. Remember those other FPS s where you had limitless supplies of ammo which took up no room in your magic bottomless bag? No. Remember those games where there'd be some guy who would helpfully fill you in on the boss's weak point before you fought him? No. Remember those games where the people not shooting you spoke the same language as you? Nyet. Remember those games where you didn't have to eat, where being injured was just a reason to be slightly more cautious, and you could heal by simply walking away and waiting for a bit? No, no, no, no, no. There is no salvation, no Hope Spots in the crumbling, radioactive ruins of the Zone; you will die and you will not understand what happened, except that your end was quick but not quick enough. Around the next corner from your near fatal encounter with an invisible mutant you will find not a safe house but a band of disinterested Ukrainians waiting to kill and loot your slowly bleeding-out meat. It is a game that will hook and hold you even though half the time you wish you WERE dead, such is the level of fear and suffering you are being put through, because just surviving in the Zone feels like a tangible achievement. That is STALKER.

 

[The Madman]

The challenge is part of the charm, it adds to the oppressive atmosphere by creating as close to a sense of danger as a game can get. Crawling down a dark corridor isn't particularly spooky when you know you're capable of taking on whatever you might find there and then some, but go down that same corridor knowing that around each corner could be your death and it suddenly becomes a different experience entirely.

Helps that the AI is surprisingly good as well, both for human opponents and creatures alike.

Absolutely love the STALKER series, probably my favourite shooter series in, well, quite possibly ever. Seriously, I bloody love these games. Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat especially are just so damned good!

 

[R4GNOR0K]

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of my favorite games of all time. Never got to play Pripyat because my computer couldn't handle. I need an upgrade

 

[TankTop]

The harshness is quite a large amount of its appeal, at least for me. Sure, I get frustrated, but that only happens when I'm not immersed in the game. When I'm tense, eyes darting between the dark corridor barely lit by my flashlight, and my meagre health, with only the wind in my ears, and the faint sounds of heavy breathing with no foes in sight, and my pants have acquired a new shade of brown, THAT'S when it's doing it right. The fear, knowing that at any moment, the bandits you've been sneaking up on could whip out a high tier assault rifle and shred through your armour, or you could be swarmed by a pack of dogs and decimated at any moment, is what makes it worth playing.

+1 to the AI being good. Apart from their homing grenades in SoC. That was just bollocks.

Call of Pripyat is definitely quite punishing, both as a game in itself, and towards my PC. But it looks absolutely bloody amazing, despite my corresponding frame drop, especially when it starts raining at night, and thunder illuminates the world around you.

And the emissions.

And, and-

...

I need to play some more.