S.T.A.L.K.E.R

[Stryder 0]

I'm considering getting this game, it looks really cool. Graphics a tad dated (compared to Oblivion and such) but if the gameplay delivers what it promises I'm sold. Huge world, very open-ended FPS... sounds familiar . Has anyone tried it yet?

[Messiah 2]

if anyone has, it would be a touch naughty, given it's released tomorrow

[Pathy 0]

I have a feeling it's going to be good though, really good.

[Messiah 2]

Preordered mine now (not much of a pre-order given its 1 day left) but should arrive by tomorrow morning since I'm early in the day)

There goes my weekend

[messiahua 0]

I can tell you, that this game is really nothing special... maybe it is worth to see it yourself, but it is not very open-ended, nothing compared to Armed Assault really. You have straight linear plot and enclosed space, which you can't pass.

AI is also nothing special. Promised "dynamic world" is so simple and it is very primitive in such enclosed space. All events and anomalies happen under you very nose and you don't have to even search for something, you will absolutely see everything, that you should see.

Only one thing, that is really made great is the whole atmosphere. Surrounding (textures), static objects are great, it is really something, that is maybe close to reality.

Nothing more to say. If you want to see it, then buy it, but nothing groundbreaking or special. I think, that one word can explain this - outdated.

[Messiah 2]

considering it was developed, what, 5 years ago now, calling it outdated isn't so suprising.

graphics don't maketh the game after all

[NSX 8]

Greetings from Russia. Rushed it a day ago...Really nothing special in all spheres - no RPG parametres, irrational damage system, stupid "life sim. system" you can call an ordinary respawn, no big zones - just a few zones with loadings and NO free normal exploration like it was in Xenus. I always wished to play like a stalker from "Roadside picnic", but this time it's more like an ordinary superhero. Pripyat, which supposed to be a normal dead town is crawling with Monolith fanatics and pretends to be just an atmospheric location for a big massacre. The same goes to NPP.

At the same time I don't like there're stupid locations like zombifiyng station and brain-scorcher - foreign people may think Russia or CIS countries are all like that - built up with "evil soviets vile devices".

[kronzky 5]

Oh well...

It sounded like a nice idea originally. Free browsing, independent life system, dynamic story line and all.

But that was a few years ago.

I guess a few "adjustments" had to be made in the meantime...

[4 IN 1 0]

so is it time to call our in doors almighty modders to help?

[NSX 8]

@ 4 IN 1

In my opinion - right. However, I really don't think modder's SDK would be the same as for OFP.

[450R 1]

That's too bad, I was really looking forward to everything Stalker seemed to offer. I probably idealized it a bit during the 5 year wait, but the unique mix of free exploration and combat appealed to me.

It's getting decent reviews from the regular places but all the user reviews are disappointing. I think I'll wait for a patch and see where it ends up ... at the moment it's alongside ArmA in the it's-got-potential category.

[Messiah 2]

I'm getting it anyways - worth the £25 I reckon - not got anything else to spend it on this week

[bonko the sane 2]

it may be linear gameplay but as already stated, the athmosphere is excellent, and you do get some freedom of movement, at least you choose the order of the tasks you perform, all in all, if you got money and time to waste, its worth it.

[NSX 8]

Well, atmosphere is not what I was awaiting too - there're too many people on too small territory and almost no monsters - it reminds me a kind of small room, where 30 people are in one time.

Industrial atmosphere lost here - it's more postapocalyptic - don't like that.

[NeMeSiS 11]

So..

Can you still walk around freely (even though there are loading times)?

[AWDrift 0]

If you decide to ignore the plot are there still ways of making money in the game?

[mechastalin 0]

Theres a small realism mod released on the official forums that increases the damage of all the guns majorly. So they take from 1-3 shots to kill or so.

[NSX 8]

@AWDrift

Money have no value in game, really. You can't buy OTs-14 Groza or Abakan even if you have money. However, everything you need you can easily get as a trophy from militaries or other stalkers. also, you can't fix weaps. So expect you rare G36, Val or FN2000 to be jammed anytime.

[VISTREL 0]

Don't get fooled by Messiah2's comments.

This game is very good but not GOTY.

As a fan of OFP I can tell you that shooting is great, and environments are awesome. If you like urban combat you will love stalker. AI is superb, however, it also tends to be stupid sometimes but every game that tried to make revolutionary AI had this.

Anyway, if you like easy shooters with space and stuff you might not like it. However, as you read this forum you probably like hard stuff so my bet you might like it.

I personally give it 8/10. It's a solid game with awesome atmosphere and nice shooting moments.

[NeMeSiS 11]

As a fan of OFP I can tell you that shooting is great, and environments are awesome.

Well i tried it today and i liked everything except for the shooting itself, its nice that we can use iron sights and turn the crosshairs off but it didnt feel as nice as ArmA, way too 'static' IMO. And i was quite dissapointed that the maps were very thing and long, it made it more or less impossible to get lost which is a shame. Its also a shame that the maps are way too 'filled', every 5 steps you run into an anomaly or a NPC. I had hoped that the anomalies would be much more scarce and harder to detect, right now all they do is prevent you from sprinting at night (otherwise you run into them without even noticing).

The AI is good though, athmosphere is generally more then OK and its just fun to play.

[5133p39 12]

I would say its the same as Boiling Point, except it lacks some features (no usable vehicles, no RPG elements at all, world divided by loadings into small levels like HL2).

The factories and scrapyards are nice, Chernobyl is nicely done too, etc.

Playing the main plot is fun, but the sidequests are repetitive and boring.

AI is relatively bad, but not so bad considering the fact that it does not appear to be scripted and that it is often using various obstacles for cover.

What is really BAD, is the forever respawning AI (on your way somewhere, you clear some enemies, and on your way back you encounter them again). Considering how often you need to travel through the same locations while completing various quests, it gets very annoying - again and again you are fighting the same enemies at the same locations, no matter how many times you have defeatet them already.

Especially watch out for enemy bases - the AI there is respawning forever (there are about 15 enemies, but as you are killing them, they are respawning back).

The map/log/journal is bugged - sometimes it wont zoom, often you see everything in your diary as new information (green), the "guiding system" (a little arrow on minimap) is not working with some quest destinations, etc.

But as i wrote earlier, playing the main plot is entertaining.

[USSRsniper 0]

This game is fun, even without any quests and main plot, you can just and explore the world, yes you can explore the world. So dont be scared that its linear as doom 3 , but this could be even better game if it had larger world so it had more places to explore. I give it 8/10 since earlier screenshots showed larger world and half of locations you see on screnshots earlier dont exist anymore...

[NeMeSiS 11]

I give it 8/10 since earlier screenshots showed larger world  and half of locations you see on screnshots earlier dont exist anymore...

I did run into several places which were in some old alpha though, although in the full version they seem to be further apart/moved somewhere else, it was quite fun to see how much the graphics where improved in several years.

[VISTREL 0]

As a fan of OFP I can tell you that shooting is great, and environments are awesome.

Well i tried it today and i liked everything except for the shooting itself, its nice that we can use iron sights and turn the crosshairs off but it didnt feel as nice as ArmA, way too 'static' IMO. And i was quite dissapointed that the maps were very thing and long, it made it more or less impossible to get lost which is a shame. Its also a shame that the maps are way too 'filled', every 5 steps you run into an anomaly or a NPC.

Trust me, shooting gets better as you progress on. You will get upgraded rifles with better accurace, more damage, and sniper scopes. Right now I have 4 rifles and one of them is upgraded one with scope. I can do headshots easily. They put crap weapons in first levels on purpose.

And yeah, there are lots of anomalies but they're useless. To get the best artifacts you need to explore for them. Same goes for upgraded weapons and suits.

I think this game is very realistic. It encourages you to approach the enemy carefully and not always engage them. For example, in HL2 you can take out the whole building of enemies without much effort but not in Stalker. In STALKER, I prefer to run away rather engage the soldiers.

Also, ARENA fights are simply awesome. One of the few games where I enjoy fighting against bots.

Graphics are top notch. Environments in DX9 with full shadows own. Luckily, my rig manages to pull off 20-30 stable fps.

btw, I change my opinion. this game is THE GOTY!

[Dark_vityaz 0]

I give it 8/10 too and wait for a patch.And I wonder what about any edit tools.They said it would be released in the nearest time.