I'd like to comment on the fact that they DID intend to include a sleep system into this game, but due to time they had to cut it because they couldn't get it to work.
I need your help I'm really excited to start the franchise for the first time are there any mods I need to download to fix any game breaking bugs or is the game 100% perfect on it's own? I'm obviously starting with the first game
@@NoxianSoulHarvester an essential is the zone reclamation project (ZRP), mainly squashes many bugs and adds a few small things if i remember correctly. after getting zrp i would honestly just play the game, if something starts to annoy you or ruin the fun fix it with a mod lol. thats how i played, weapon accuracy was annoying me in the start so i modded it a little higher, just stuff like that.
I played through this game something like 8 times in a row when I was a kid, was trying to get all of the endings :D Had a classmate that was also crazy about Stalker. When we were in ~4th grade, I remember him bringing a Vintorez to the school that he made out of Lego. Also, we rollplayed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at my appartment. We set up a "shop" made out of massive pillows, sold artifacts and toy guns. Turned off the lights and walked around the rooms with guns and flashlights. Yep, that's the way Russian kids were having fun back in the day I guess. xD Ah... Good memories.
It’s an amazing game and I’m really surprised that it has so many American/European fans (I’m from Ukraine) I thought this game just popular in our countries That’s amazing
Just now playing stalker thanks to the Stalker Anomaly mod existing, but I've been interested in it for a long time. I wish there was more content like this out there, but unfortunately most companies don't want to throw their bets on such risks. Anyways, glad to have what we do
It's ultimately rather niche here in the US. The people here who like it absolutely adore it, but a vast majority of FPS fans here have never even heard of stalker. Which is honestly a shame. I think everyone should at least try this series, since the atmosphere and storytelling is so amazing. The aesthetic of the zone is so human, as are the small stories you see play out in the zone from these random stalkers around you. From Nikolai Brudovic who was overwhelmed by dogs in the junkyard, to Alexi Tharasov who got caught in a whirlygig, and even to Leonid Volkov who got shot down by bandits. Every stalker is tired, they've lost friends, and allies, and will inevitably be lost to the zone themselves, yet the zone is the only place they've ever felt like home. These games are fantastic.
I found this game from a guy called Chris Livingston who used to make comics and he makes amusing articles. He recounted experiences in the Zone where he ran into a cave to avoid the red explosion thingy. An enemy stalker also ran into the cave, just looking for cover, and he shot the guy in the back of the head. Hearing that as a kid made me think how cool and spontaneous this game is. So I played, it, and have loved it ever since.
I'm going to argue, that the beginning is _essential_ to learn how STALKER wants you to play: slowly and carefully. It hammers home that you're not the DOOM Marine and you wont get stuff for free. You got thrown into this nightmarish world where a stray boar may tear you to shreds or some guy in a trench coat will slit your throat for some canned food and RedBull, so whatever you have you have to make for yourself, and the world could get by without you hence a puny pistol.
His beef with the game seems to be the thing hardcore fans love about it. You’re right, it’s great because you’re just a dude. The game doesn’t give a fuck about you, people die and events transpire automatically. It’s very realistic, the hard af start... it’s a horror game. It’s not fallout 4.
@@IAmAnEvilTaco Yeah that's what I like about the game it's one of the few shooters than integrates RPG elements well, by using gear and artifacts as progression instead of levels. You start as a weak rookie but eventually become a BAMF once you get good gear and you can get artifacts that regens your hp/radiation etc making you much harder to kill.
This. Stalker was something of a survival FPS/RPG hybrid. I especially like how they handled multiple endings - modern games with multiple endings have it like, OBVIOUS ENDING 1, OBVIOUS ENDING 2, OBVIOUS ENDING 3 then optional ending 1 or maybe 2 and a secret (completion) ending. Stalker had no front-loaded hints about the endings, it gave a general goal and concluded the story with what you did within the zone. That was pretty cool for 2007.
Oh, good old Stalker! This game is VERY popular in Russia and Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, I think that anyone who doesn't at least barely knows Russian language is missing out on A LOT of atmosphere of the game. For example, take a simple conversations you hear in the game: the voice acting and the style of jokes comes from the good old dark Russian comedy movies of 90s, and really add up to that post-soviet apocalyptic feel. If you knew Russian, you would also mention the phrases of zombies: just like in Half-Life, their words strike you with a huge fear. The names of mutants and places and stuff... I can only blame the guys responsible for translation, because all the names sound very powerful, scary and cool, in Russian. I was really happy to see someone outside Eastern European culture can still appreciate the game!
The idle chatter lines for zombies are incredibly sad. Most notable one of them being a line about a zombie remembering their daughter and blabbering about how much she grew up since they saw them last time.
Actually I very like stealth system in stalker series. Enemies actually may see you and don't forget about you when you hide in bush for 15 sec. Maybe it provide more advantage to enemy, but I prefer this than most modern stealth systems where most enemies are half-blind and/or half-stupid
Fallout 4, like 20 raiders in a big building, I decided to play a game. Killed all but one, know what he said after I crouched for a few seconds? "I think I'm imagining things". While walking over their friends' corpses
It's also more realistic that enemies can spot you from such a far distance compared to other games where you just disappear from reality once you're like 100 feet away from them
It's just really annoying how inconsistent it is. I remember two buildings in Dark Valley with long sight lines and no obstacles. If there is an enemy at the far side, there is a good chance he won't see you. On the other hand, you crouch over the ridge to Bloodsucker Village (Army Warehouse) and get shot by Mercs from all across the map.
I used to love going in the water in the first room of Metal Gear Solid and knocking on the wall while the guard stood directly over me asking what that noise was and I was just running in circles at the bottom of a pool of a water in front of him and he couldn’t see a thing. I used to wonder how I beat that game as an 8 year but after replaying it again somewhat recently it kinda makes sense.
The reason i love this game is for it's freedom and AI. The latter may sound odd to people that are new to the game, but when the AI is not bugged, it's amazing. In my playtrough, while i was returning from a side quest to the camp i got it from, everyone i saw before was dead, the only thing that was left were their dead bodies and the bandits that killed them. Moments like that make S.T.A.L.K.E.R what it is.
they managed to do a better AI than most devs today. A-life was really interesting. for every bug it had you encountered 5 interesting and totally random situations. I feel pity for new players today that missed awesome gems like Stalker
Better AI than stuff like Bethesda fallout (and ESO) Honestly always loved AI like ArrmA and STALKER and was really bummed when I heard they wanted to put something very similar into Fallout New Vegas, which they couldn't because companions would always die or in Boone's case would always become a path of death and destruction.
True. For those who were lucky to discover this game back then will definitely consider worth it. Unfortunately I am sure that almost anyone who discovers it in 2020 they will see nothing special in the game especially given how many good games came out after stalker. I tried my theory on my friend who loves similar games but I was right. He said he loves the idea he loves the bgm but it just feels like shit and I completely understand that. Playing an old game as if it just came out and you wiped your memory feels impossible
@@バカロン I played it for the first time 2 years ago and fell in love with it. And there are so many mods that make it 4k along with enhanced graphics that: and while it felt old, it was still really fun. Just my opinion though.
Idk why, but something about how the characters treat you makes me feel that much more immersed. The Marked One isn't a big badass who everyone knows and admires, to everyone he's just another guy trying to loot and survive in the zone. It makes the characters feel more real and the struggles in the game feel more real
@@thundergaming155Main character doesn't remember he's Strelok, and people seem to know the legend of Strelok vs his face/voice as no one knows the Marked One is Strelok (including himself) until the scene with the Doctor, and even then I don't recall the Marked One choosing to go by Strelok
@@matthewjones39 yes, I've played them all - but nobody calls The Marked One out for being Strelok until the Doctor, and thus despite everyone seemingly knowing *about* Strelok, they don't seem to *recognize* Strelok walking around and even when he interacts with just about everyone in the entire Zone lol
Some notes: ~You forgot about a faction, but most people seem to forget about the mercenaries in Shadow of Chernobyl, as they are only really seen in Wild Territory in the one part where you escort Kruglov to Yantar. ~Monolith are not only the most well-armed and well-armored faction, but they also have some of the most skilled Stalkers in the entire Zone in their army. As a result, Monolith troops are extremely accurate on top of having high-end equipment. ~Burnt Fuzz only deals damage in Shadow of Chernobyl if you aren't wearing armor, otherwise it just produces a low hiss sound. They changed this in future games. ~While not an official name, Rodents are also called 'Tushkano' by various NPCs, which sounds better than 'Rodent' or 'Hamster' ~While I could never actually confirm this myself, I have always heard people say that Blind Dogs actually cannot see, and rely on sounds to attack things, unless there is a Pseudodog in the pack.
I think its totally understandable that blind dogs have an amazing sense of smell and hearing as they cant actually see anything, like blind people can develop their hearing and other stuff alot better
The reason why Strelok never sleeps is because any stalker who sleeps inside the zone gets hellish nightmares that gives the stalker who sleeps through the night psychological trauma.
Mercs are also present at Military Warehouse and Freedom have the whole quest line about traitor supplying them with info, also Duty leader sends you to Merc base at Warehouse area to get a unique weapon.
19:35 hey, as a Russian teenager, I actually loved the names of the mutants! Blind dogs sound like a terrifying name in Russian, and the Pseudodog has a VERY unique flavor to it. Flesh also sounds more unique in Russian, not to mention the Bloodsucker, whose name in Russian is extremely scary and memorable. By the way, the Rodents in Russian have a unique name: Tushkán, which serves both as an allusion to jerboa rodents, and to Ostap Bender's quote from a famous Soviet book and films called ''12 Chairs'' 32:39 lol, the names in this game are not disappointing. It's called ''Выжигатель Мозгов" in Russian and it's a hella cool name. It sounds like something a 35 year Soviet Officer positioned in a Post-Nuclear War base would come up with and it's hella atmospheric. The translation kinda ruined the names, but hey, if not for the English version, most people wouldn't know about the game at all. Not everyone wants or needs to learn Russian.
Im Polish so I got curious and checked our enemy names translations and they are actually much less lame than english ones (im pretty sure they still sound better in russian tho). There are just some names in slavic languages that have flavour absent in english counterparts.
There is story context that gets added in other games. For example, the reason why Strelok is set to kill himself is because he was stopped from reaching the Wish Granter not by Monolith but by a Clear Sky raid (the end of Clear Sky), which was then stopped by an emission. The C-Conciousness didn't actually know what Strelok looked like, and thought he had escaped in the emission, instead of being knocked unconscious and trapped. So they commanded this unknown Stalker to kill Strelok, when he actually was Strelok. As for the Wish Granter, it is the "Monolith". The C-Consciousness do not actually control it, but rather they study and use it. In Call of Pripyat, the Monolithian soldiers are still able to commune with the Monolith and receive orders despite the fact that C-Consciousness is dead and can't convey them, so the Monolith has a will of it's own. It may be an ancient or alien artifact that has been guiding or "controlling" the world, the noosphere, and their development for ages. As for the "Wish Granter" aspect, it isn't so much a defence, as it is a lure for new converts to the Monolith cult. Risk everything to make it to the centre, to become rich, bring back a loved one, etc. But then some people would be skeptical, which is why the seperate rumour of the "artefact treasure trove" was created. As for the issue of side quests, to ask for them to all be interesting story packed missions is missing the point. In this game you were just meant to be another part of a larger ecosystem of Stalkers. People aren't interested in people, they are interested in making money and surviving. So aside from some comradery and gossiping around the campfire, that is what you mean to others. A way to make money by bringing artifacts, or making life easier by clearing out mutants. Your boss isn't going to bore himself telling his life story to someone who could walk into a whirligig and die tomorrow. Call of Pripyat had a different take on side missions, with actual side characters and traditional quests. Recurring characters with traits such as Snag. But people were still quite disinterested in you outside of when you actually saved their hide, or wanted to scam you.
Luke DuFaur nah, Monolith soldiers lost their communication with Monolith when it was destroyed. They still in faction for various reasons - some are true fanatics, some just want to kill everyone, some because they cant actually leave faction, coz of their deeds. And part is actually leaving, like group in COP on Janov. In COP u can hear how this guys calling for Monolith, but it does not answer, u can find them in, i believe, book store in Pripyat
For some reason the line I remember the most is from the bar where the duty soldier lost his rifle and keeps saying "Damnit, if only someone could help me." I spent an unhealthy amount of time in the bar
the best line is when you just defended garbage for the first time, and then you hear a radio call for help from a group of stalkers saying "Help us we're in deep shit!". The English dialogue in this game is honestly just s-tier. Second to that is the fact that the trucks with the corpses are translated to simply death truck.
i remember having a really good memory of stalker where I teamed up with another group of stalkers to attack a bandit camp. We took the camp but almost all the other stalkers died in the process and on top of it, the bandit camp was next to a base and they sent bandits to take it back. in the first wave all the other stalkers died and i was the only one left, i fought them off but when i looked at my PDA i saw that there were more coming and if i tried to leave they'd catch me in the open and likely kill me so I decided to hold my ground. I held my ground at that camp for like 45 minutes on my own, scavenging weapons and ammo off the dead bandits to keep fighting until finally I saw that the group of stalkers i teamed up with were sending reinforcements to bust me out. But a bandit wave hit me before they got there and one of the bandits got me point blank with a shotgun and I died. It was fucking awesome and I was so annoyed
One gaping plot hole in _Stalker_ I've never seen adequately explained. Where did Strelok gain his uncanny ability to generate infinite bolts from thin air?
Originally, they were a limited resource, but they were too small to be practical to continue picking up during gameplay. Lorewise, you pick them up, but for the sake of fun, they're unlimited.
As I recall, the actual reason for that "lower difficulties were made buggy" thing was that, at least in the original release, the accuracy of NPCs was baked into the guns rather than the AI. Since this applied to the player using those guns as well, the game basically rolled an invisible dice to see if the player hit with a weapon _after_ they hit something. This was why all the early "realistic gun accuracy" mods also gave the AI God aim.
I don't understand why the developers thought baking the accuracy stat meant for NPCs into the guns and not the AI itself was a good idea, much less why that also affects the player, but it's good to know!
@@DESARD12 Yeah, it’s a weird thing at least considering they have the game as open as it is. I could see if we couldn’t pick up the enemies weapons or anything but still lol.
God I can't believe this fake crap still spreads. Late reply but this shit is not true, lower difficulties have the same ballistics as higher ones and the damage values for headshots and high end weapons are the same across all difficulties in each game.
I just finished the game like a week ago. For like the first two hours I kinda hated it, based solely on the gunplay. Twenty hours later and it proved totally worth it to just suffer through it.
СМЕРТЕЛЬНЫЕ АНОМАЛИИ, ОПАСНЫЕ МУТАНТЫ, АНАРХИСТЫ И БАНДИТЫ... НЕ ОСТАНОВЯТ ДОЛГ, ПОБЕДОНОСНОЙ ПОСТУПЬЮ ИДУЩИЙ НА ПОМОЩЬ МИРНЫМ ГРАЖДАНАМ ВСЕЙ ПЛАНЕТЫ! Death to Freedom btw
That game is trully amazing. The details, looting, the exploration, the moment you realize every weapon has different condition etc, than monster, anomalies so much stuff.
This is the game that made me both like horror and FPS games, learn how to both manage and your inventory like an absolute pack rat, and understand that not all situations are best engaged with a full on assault or any at all. One thing that's always been said about both SOC and the other two titles is that the games first immerse you in the atmosphere and setting of the gameworld before throwing the main story and plot at you, and many people liked the earlier parts of the game because of all the love and care given to make that atmosphere work while the last few legs of the games are are well known for being a bit of a difficulty filler filled with a bunch of surprisingly well armed monolith hoards. I think they did tone the hoards down in Call of Pripyat a bit but that game had a bit more time to mature to start with. It also made understand that sometimes even Bethesda games aren't as buggy in comparison to a homebrew game engine coded on Microsoft paint on Windows Bandera, with the bugs and quirks of said engine being bigger anomalies than what you encounter in the game. And i still have my physical copy of the game, that was send to me by my uncle in Russia back in 2008. (Russian version of course)
The train track side path in the Cordon is a great teacher of the games systems. Those fully active npcs that can literally out-gameplay you to death are bypassed by finding a hidden or less straight-forward path
The reason Stalkers believe in the Wish Granter is because of the anomalies, mutants, and people who HAVE been to it roaming about. There are a few legendary Stalkers within the Zone who have been to the Wish Granter and while their wishes didnt kill them immediately, they still ended bad for them. But they were still able to tell others about it and show their powers. Plus if you have artifacts that can regenerate torn limbs in hours, the wish granter is suddenly not an insane concept. I think you just did not pay enough attention since things like the X-16 emitter or the Brain Scorcher or the Barrier etc. were explained within the first 3 levels of the game :P. The reason the side quests were simple was so that they can feed into the initial A-Life Systems that GSC had planned. In the end product, there is still impressive simulation AI, but it is a lot more simple for sure. Still, a fault is a fault. Overall I like your review though.
The bit that made me love the Wish Granter all the more: Roadside Picnic, the book the game was inspired by, ends right before you get to know if the wish granter worked!
I think what he moreso meant was, why do people still believe in the Wish Granter and seek it out even after all of this negative shit goes on. Like if nothing good has ever come out of it what would be the point of going to the thing that always seemingly ends badly
@@loganparry2676 Well he should have said that if that were his point. People know that ending up with power or money or beauty often fucks up their lives yet they do it anyway. Having something even more powerful, that can resurrect the dead or make you special is even more intoxicating, no matter its cost.
Alexander Yordanov well yes I however think that his point just simply didn’t come off well enough there was room for confusion. In a long commentary like this words can get jumbled and meanings can be lost.
43:30 Is not dumb! Its actually brilliant. The idea is to first prevent stalkers to reach the center but if the powerful ones arrive those are selected to defend the center strongly. It would be useless to allow any stalker to reach the center and also to prevent absolutely anyone to reach will be running out of "personnel"
"Is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl worth playing today?" Is that even a question? Of course it is! The game is basically unbeaten since 13 years in it's category! Allright let's watch the video now.
@@deus_nsf I actually used to think the same thing so I rushed to try and have sex earlier in life and tbh was not that great. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on the other hand was just what I needed and a much better experience
finally someone made this comment, hilariously yesterday I was playing Stalker Anomaly with BaS, Hd Models, Blindside, etc mods and I maxed out my TOZ-66 and wiped out an entire Merc Camp with just a TOZ
So i was thinking about what you said about the wish granter being a “waste of resources” that could have gone into some more practical defense mechanisms, but I think I might understand the logic a little more: C-Consciousness has something to hide in the center of the zone. If they had set up automated turrets or lasers or something it would only confirm that they’re hiding something. In a way, the wish granter is both a defense and a distraction. It puts off the impression of being the only thing of interest in the center of the Zone, so those who make it there don’t go “wow there’s a lot of security here. What are they protecting?” Is it a great explanation? Nah. But does it help add context? Sure.
Another thing to consider is the inspiration of these games. The novel "Roadside Picnic" is hugely influential. It covers things like the burnt fuzz and tossing bolts. The main character of the book Red is supposedly the inspiration for the stalker that brings Strelok to Sidrovich. In Roadside picnic the ultimate goal is to find a wish granting artifact hidden in an anomolous area.
The wish granter provides a reason for experienced and skillful stalkers to enter the zone so they may become brainwashed into monolith soldiers by the brain scorcher. They're not just trying to kill anyone who gets close. The brain scorcher and generators, which are the cause of the blowouts, are pretty good defenses. These blowouts are caused intentionally, and have been activated more frequently when C-Consciousness is in danger. Anomalies, radiation, and mutants also contribute to reduce access to the zone, evidenced by numerous downed military helicopters and their failed assault on the NPP (explored more thoroughly in CoP). Entire regions of the exclusion zone were not accessible due to the conditions. For example, the Great Swamps get cut off, the Bar & Wild Territory open up along with the regions opened in CoP. Monolith soldiers are also good defenses, which other than being a private military, can be used as hit squads or assassins against priority targets. This is shown in the case of Strelok who when brainwashed, was tasked to kill someone (Strelok, himself) who was coming too close to the power plant and its secrets. The reason for that error made by C-Consciousness regarding Strelok is explained more in Clear Sky. ps: I'd also like to add that the mutants aren't just victims of radiation but some are actually monstrosities created in secret laboratories hidden throughout the exclusion zone. In essence they created those defenses.
First time I played it, I was the first guy you talked about in the wrap up. Played for a couple hours or something, didn't like it, and stopped playing it. Then I gave it a try some time later and learned to love it. Incredible atmosphere. Felt like I was truly wandering in a strange, radioactive nightmare land. And the underground portions really feel like you're underground.
That happened to me also, except I never attempted to get back into it but now I am seeing reviews pop up on this game and realise I actually might have a gem of a game yet to experience. I'll re-install and give it another go maybe over this weekend. 10 years later or whatever it is... I only have 1 memory of the game.... and that is me unloading a million bullets into a bunch of guys at a train station and possibly running out of ammo or just having barely any health/very low ammo after just scraping through that section. that's when I quit and just never felt like continuing with it again. I'll play it with a different mindset this time around. Stealth/survival/immersive games are MY kind of game, I am dissapointed in myself for not seeing this one through. I guess I just thought I had some weird broken unpopular low value game because nobody I know had ever heard of it. . .
I finished this game only 2 days ago having never played it before. I knew absolutely nothing about Stalker before playing, other than it was a FPS horror game of sorts. Yes, this game is worth playing. It’s fantastic. They don’t make games like this anymore.
"Everything was still alive so I'm not sure what they were shooting at." Traditional eastern european tactic, its called shock, awe, we ran ran out of vodka, disengage and maybe try later
The chicken eating cutscene at 23:24 is the most realistic shit I've ever seen in a video game. Not that "Perfect, no one ever fumbles in their life," nonsense. He bites, eye's widen as he realizes "aw shit aw shit I look like a piggy," then brings his hand up to HIDE the the slobbishness and slurps the shit up. I've done this exact maneuver so many times.
42:43 The reason the devs came up with The Monolith (the wish granter crystal) was because of russian sci-fi classic book called "roadside picnic", original inspiration and setting for stalker in which there was a similar anomalous zone and legendary wish-granting golden sphere. That same book later was adapted into a film called stalker which is why the game is also called like that. Once the devs decided that they don't want to pay for the setting license they adopted it into a custom one bringing main ideas from the book, the zone, artifacts, anomalies and the wish granter. This is the meta reason for it. In lore, there are rumors that wish granter crystal is only partially controlled by C-Consciousness, and "created" by them the same way they "created" the Zone - as an unfortunate accident. It is a wound in the fabric of reality crystalized into solid form, literal heart of the zone or a gateway of sorts from which anomalous reality-altering energy of Noosphere bleeds and merges with the physical world. Stated goal of active C-Consciousness is to fix the mistake of the zone, and yet every time the wish is granted the Zone expands by 5 km in all directions, hardly helpful to their agenda. Wish Granter is framed as a defense mechanism because C-Consciousness is ashamed to admit that they are powerless to remove it. In fact, it is a hostile entity or rather a new force of nature with opposing goals. This is the real reason why wish granter absorbs Strelok when he wishes to rule the world. C-Consciousness does not rule the world and when wish granter absorbs Strelok you do not join them, instead you join the Wish Granter directly. A sinister foreshadowing of its power. If C-Consciousness fails to fix the zone, in time wishes of greedy stalkers will expand the zone to consume the whole planet, in a way making Wish Granter and any absorbed essence by proxy rulers of the world.
@@VinAn-d8m movie, very little. It has the golden sphere and bolts for anomalies but its a different take, follows the book very loosely. The book was way more sci fi, with people integrating zone artefacts into eternal batteries for cars, with research institutes and scout drones. Film is more philosophical, dream like, abstract and low tech. The characters are completely different as well as the general mood.
That's somewhat true. "Snorks" for instance was coined by a German news reporter in the lore who called them "Schnorchel", which was simply translated into the English version. One has to bear in mind that those things in the zone didn't get their names from scientists or anything like that, but rather from mostly uneducated fortune hunters, which like to call things the way they see them. That's actually a really good way of naming things in terms of survival. I mean, you don't have to see a "bloodsucker" with your own eyes to know what they do. :
21:38 I remembered the first time I saw a controller. I got really desperate because of that Pitch noise... that was the moment I knew this game was more immersive than I thought and loved the game more.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is one of my all-time favorite games and saved me at a rough time in my life squatting and not having anywhere to live. I had seen Tarkovsky's movie and it is also in the top 5 favorite movies of mine so it was only natural that I was drawn to this game. I remember playing it when it came out and just locked myself in my brothers semi-abandoned computer room to play through it in two sittings and actually getting the true ending. It was a rough diamond, it was something I had never experienced before but it also felt like something familiar. It was my journey in a way, it encompassed a lot of the doubt I had of myself and the futility of striving for some kind of perfection. It was as flawed as me but Strelok and his trod towards the end was a rebuilding of once self of sorts. Maybe I'm waxing poetic but it truly changed a lot of how I viewed myself and the world.
Stalker is most interesting to me because of the anomalies. My ex was a huge fan of these games so he used to gush all the time about them. While it definitely has some slavjank, it is a very unique experience.
im early, so im going to say i enjoy your content a lot. i can clearly tell you put loads of time and effort into these videos so i just wanted to say good job :D
I used to play this game with my dad, brings back so many memories. Maybe it is not as good by today's standards but at the time it was incredible and immersive, and the worldbuilding is just... amazing! So looking forward to Stalker 2!!
@⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ but I really loved Stalker, it affected my development as a person so much that I even worked in Museum of Chernobyl for some time :)
I remember 2007, when I was a 12 yo kiddo and almost shit myself in the first lab with all those flying objects, that was spooky. And as for 2007 the visuals were really great. As the author said it really lacks good sidequests, that don't lead you to explore locations, so it depends on your initiative. Actually, I remembered an interesting sidequest where you had to find and stole a grenade launcher from the Freedom faction. Sidequests became interesting in the Call of Pripyat. Among three starker games, the most atmospheric is SoC, the hardest in terms of gameplay is Clear Sky, and the most developed is CoP. All three worth playing. As for me, a casual Ukrainian guy, the game really throws you in some post-soviet apocalyptic place where you feel the atmosphere pretty deep.
It’s amazing I can watch a 48 minute long video on a game I have no interest in ever playing. I just love your content. Keep up the great work. I get excited every time a new one comes out no matter the game
@@FriedrichHecker1848 this is true my grandfather was an irish Republican before he moved to America he told me AR180s and M16A1s were some of the most common weapons. They also had access to grease guns, M60s, even some RPGs. Old man was a lucky bastard to play with some of those toys
Dude you just made my day. I've been following rumors of stalker 2 for years and stoped bothering a while ago. I just looked it up when you mentioned it. I am so happy dude I cant even put it into words
I've noticed a few TH-camrs like yourself have been taking a look at Stalker, which is great to see. The more people that hear about this fantastic game series the better.
I just finished playing the game (got the blind ending) and I really enjoyed it. Admittedly I was not paying attention to the plot and don't really remember any of the factions at all. What I liked was the atmosphere. Such a terrifying game
Bro I literally got off of tarkov after a day of bullshit raids and did the exact same thing, like I lagged out of so many raids with zero connection issues at all and lost 18 mil worth of equipment today... in good news most of it was dumped so I will get it all back in like a day or two.
This is very useful, thanks! It is Interesting how much of the lore (which adds another level of depth to the experience) is missed, obviously, due to inadequate localisation. A great lesson to learn for anybody producing content. Again - thanks!
Believing a specific difficulty is the proper way to play isn't gatekeeping. Nothing is stopping you from playing the game on whichever difficulty you wish.
I have no idea why but I have been attracted to this game for several years and haven't played it. Something about the atmosphere really draws me in. Very excited for STALKER 2
I’ve always hated in games how if one enemy sees you for half a second before you kill them every nearby enemy is suddenly aware of your exact location like they’re a hive mind or something.
Lots of people in the comments are recommending Anomaly. I’d say to do so since it’s free but would suggest playing at least Shadow of Chernobyl first. It gets you into the world and gives you more information about the Zone that amplify the experience.
I'll recommend Lost Alpha instead. Anomaly is a pretty much just a freeplay Call of Duty style mod, you just pick a faction and go murder whoever is your foe, while Lost Alpha has an extended story to follow.
@@txenog While it is a freeplay mod at heart it's only like cod if you play it like that without delving into some of the more complex systems in it, like the crafting and repairing and self modding of weapons and armour. playing on harder difficulties so money is harder to come by as well as actually it does have a story in it you just have to enable it. Lost alpha is a good one to try yes but a lot of it is really buggy at least from when I played it. It's an interesting view into what the original game could have been like though.
I was 11 when Chernobyl actually happened. so the plant and its exclusion zone have always had a scary allure to them. This game just added to and magnified that childhood fear. plus as a fan of foreign cinema who prefers subtitles, I was used to things getting lost in translation. the story made enough sense without being shakespear..I could fill in the gaps. great games. all of them.
This is one of the best series i ever played. I have a horrible feeling the newest installment will be totally different in feel. I dont care if the shooting is tighter or looks better, I love the feel of the zone. I like the sum of the parts.
This was the game that made me realize to *never follow a game during development.* Not saying it was a bad game, it was just far larger then the developers could handle and the hype surrounding it made that problem all the worse. It still is one of my favourites to this day, it taught me about Roadside Picnic which is a great book, and I lift the concept of anomalous zones to fit into my R.P.G. worlds because they are so beautiful. I highly recommend playing it, particularly after slapping on some of the fan base mods that enhance it all the more.
I played this when it first came out, still have the dvd and box, and remember it as the most immersive fps Ive ever played. Maybe 2nd place after the original Deus Ex. Maybe its time to mod it up and give it 2nd playthrough...
This should be remade with the same music and atmosphere, it was class, the story and progression was perfect for the dark and bleak environment.. amazing
The machine you shut off in Yantar isn't the Brain Scorcher, it's the baby brother to the major emitter which itself is actually modeled on the Duga-3 Radar Array, infamously known as the "Russian Woodpecker" to shortwave radio enthusiasts. The first psy-emitter is known as the "Miracle Machine" due to being a complete fluke that they never expected to work, but it did. There's also evidence to support that the Miracle Machine, Brain Scorcher, and several of the labs were directly responsible for human experimentation into what psychic exposure would do to live subjects, and potentially embryos. So yeah, STALKER actually has some incredibly dark world building in some respects.
One of the best game series ever.. Esp. SoC, I always recommend it to everyone who isnt afraid to try something older and unique. This games world and how it treats you is one of a kind, something you rarely see in any other game
Am I the only one who really love the early gameplay of STALKER where you're running around with a rusty makarov and a sawn-off with 5 shells remaining?
Me, 2014: huh? What's stalker? Guess I'll check it out. Me, 2024: stalker? Yeah I played call of Chernobyl mod an hour ago, and I'll play it more tomorrow.
Yeah i never understand, first time i finished stalker was in normal difficulty and seriously it runs just fine and the enemy died to a headshot as always
I just like to know that i can kill somone with a headshot, and that he can too. If you get better armour they cant kill you with a singel headshot, but you cant kill a guy in full power armour with a single headshot ether. It just enhaces the atmosphere for me.
The first place you shut down was is called the miracle machine and it has the body of a Stalker named Ghost who was once with Streloks group along with another Stalker called Fang where if you find his grave at pripyat you get an unique exoskeleton
Us who are old enough to remember the development of this game might recall it ending up in development hell and being released as a severely cut version of what the devs had originally planned. The released version was still good but it was only a fraction of what was promised when it was announced. That's why there is so much stuff that doesn't quite make sense, it was developed for cut content. :) The devs came to a point where they would have to release what they had or scrap the project so they did their best to glue together what they had and make the best of it. For more insight in the story; It's based on a russian book/movie with the same name.
Having played all the games in the series and now replaying SOC via OGSR, I love what the game offers. My main criticism is the lack of direction and urgency at the start. My first time playing, I spent so much time in Cordon doing every one of Sid's quests because I didnt know where else to go. I feel like the game needed to dangle a carrot in front of players to get them to Agroprom underground as soon as possible so they can start to experience what makes this game shine.
Stalker game has a cool post soviet vibe that some of people around my age, I'm 35, experienced in our childhoods running around unfinished construction sites, abandoned farms and factories like in the game, also there is a book and a movie by soviet scifi authors about stalkers and the zone which I guess influenced many. That's why the game is so successful at least amongst post soviet countries.
While I’m not going to be one of these people who jump on the bandwagon of ‘you must play STALKER now!’, as this game isn’t for everyone - but I can easily say that there is absolutely nothing like it. Many games have been influenced by it, I.E. Escape From Tarkov, the Metro series (which is a spiritual successor) and DayZ. It deserves its place next to groundbreaking/unique games like Demon/Dark Souls, Binding Of Isaac, Resident Evil, Elder Scrolls, Metal Gear Solid, etc etc...for being wholly original as a whole and creating a new spin on a genre. But just as with those games, they’re not always for everyone. But for those that do enjoy them, they’re often accompanied by a hardcore fanbase that will cherish them for generations to come - as copy cat games come and go. What STALKER does is absolutely fantastic, but where it stumbles, it falls flat on its face at times.
I love how Stalker isn't afraid of being pitch black, in Call of Pripyat, there's a mission where you have to go raid a huge boat at night, it's such a clusterfuck because you're having to make split second decisions on Master difficulty on whether you're getting shot at or if one of your allies is shooting because it's entirely pitch black.
Personally I like how stealth works in this game. Guns are loud. Yes, firing a gun at one enemy means other enemies know where you are. It makes sense. Stealth revolves around breaking line-of-sight and then flanking. If the enemies are closing in on a position where they THINK you're hiding, you actually have the advantage because now it's your turn to flank them.
Honestly, this is the type of stealth I live in these types of games, and it made me happy as fuck when metro exodus took up that style of stealth, and took the fun as hell linearish shooter metro was with its engaging environments, and turned it into, what feels like to me, a true stalker successor. Or atleast until stalker 2 launches
So here's the thing; You spent ages looking for documents, but did you ever read any of them? It seems you only followed what the NPCs told you. Your PDA logs things from dead bodies you loot as well, stash locations, PDA entries ect. They all fill in background. You know why the fireside is so comfortable? You have a place to sit down and go through your digital things and feel safe.
I actually love the combat in Stalker. The way pistols work is so satisfying to me. Did I eventually switch to a scoped rifle? Yes, but just fighting enemies with a pistol was surprisingly fun.
Apologies for some of this video being VERY dark. I tried to fix it, but it still rendered out much darker than I would have liked at times.
porn review channel called the sugar factory
I'd like to comment on the fact that they DID intend to include a sleep system into this game, but due to time they had to cut it because they couldn't get it to work.
It was all right really (seen it on oled at midnight with my cats, lights dimmed fyi) when you'll play and do vid on call of pripyat?
yes very good
Its okay I’ll just turn my brightness up lol
Those aren't bugs, those are 4th wall breaking anomalies. Such is life in the zone.
YES
I need your help I'm really excited to start the franchise for the first time are there any mods I need to download to fix any game breaking bugs or is the game 100% perfect on it's own? I'm obviously starting with the first game
Mod it to shit.
@@NoxianSoulHarvester an essential is the zone reclamation project (ZRP), mainly squashes many bugs and adds a few small things if i remember correctly. after getting zrp i would honestly just play the game, if something starts to annoy you or ruin the fun fix it with a mod lol. thats how i played, weapon accuracy was annoying me in the start so i modded it a little higher, just stuff like that.
Yes comrade
I played through this game something like 8 times in a row when I was a kid, was trying to get all of the endings :D
Had a classmate that was also crazy about Stalker. When we were in ~4th grade, I remember him bringing a Vintorez to the school that he made out of Lego. Also, we rollplayed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at my appartment. We set up a "shop" made out of massive pillows, sold artifacts and toy guns. Turned off the lights and walked around the rooms with guns and flashlights. Yep, that's the way Russian kids were having fun back in the day I guess. xD
Ah... Good memories.
Sounds awesome man, I used to do this with a friend as well but we were playing final fantasy (NES) lol
Now you can roleplay a 24hr paintball scenario, with diff zones and the worx
@@jjcoola998 good times, the first time I brought the tail and my characters changed I lost my goddamn mind
I think slavs in general were having fun like this maybe like 10years ago
Хабар принес?)
It’s an amazing game and I’m really surprised that it has so many American/European fans (I’m from Ukraine)
I thought this game just popular in our countries
That’s amazing
Just now playing stalker thanks to the Stalker Anomaly mod existing, but I've been interested in it for a long time. I wish there was more content like this out there, but unfortunately most companies don't want to throw their bets on such risks. Anyways, glad to have what we do
It's ultimately rather niche here in the US. The people here who like it absolutely adore it, but a vast majority of FPS fans here have never even heard of stalker. Which is honestly a shame. I think everyone should at least try this series, since the atmosphere and storytelling is so amazing. The aesthetic of the zone is so human, as are the small stories you see play out in the zone from these random stalkers around you. From Nikolai Brudovic who was overwhelmed by dogs in the junkyard, to Alexi Tharasov who got caught in a whirlygig, and even to Leonid Volkov who got shot down by bandits. Every stalker is tired, they've lost friends, and allies, and will inevitably be lost to the zone themselves, yet the zone is the only place they've ever felt like home. These games are fantastic.
@@Deamons64 Big issue is the lack of marketing here. People love it. But they're haven't had a chance to try it because they haven't heard of it.
@@criseist9786 you're definitely not wrong there.
I found this game from a guy called Chris Livingston who used to make comics and he makes amusing articles. He recounted experiences in the Zone where he ran into a cave to avoid the red explosion thingy. An enemy stalker also ran into the cave, just looking for cover, and he shot the guy in the back of the head. Hearing that as a kid made me think how cool and spontaneous this game is. So I played, it, and have loved it ever since.
I'm going to argue, that the beginning is _essential_ to learn how STALKER wants you to play: slowly and carefully. It hammers home that you're not the DOOM Marine and you wont get stuff for free. You got thrown into this nightmarish world where a stray boar may tear you to shreds or some guy in a trench coat will slit your throat for some canned food and RedBull, so whatever you have you have to make for yourself, and the world could get by without you hence a puny pistol.
His beef with the game seems to be the thing hardcore fans love about it. You’re right, it’s great because you’re just a dude. The game doesn’t give a fuck about you, people die and events transpire automatically. It’s very realistic, the hard af start... it’s a horror game. It’s not fallout 4.
@@IAmAnEvilTaco Yeah that's what I like about the game it's one of the few shooters than integrates RPG elements well, by using gear and artifacts as progression instead of levels. You start as a weak rookie but eventually become a BAMF once you get good gear and you can get artifacts that regens your hp/radiation etc making you much harder to kill.
This. Stalker was something of a survival FPS/RPG hybrid. I especially like how they handled multiple endings - modern games with multiple endings have it like, OBVIOUS ENDING 1, OBVIOUS ENDING 2, OBVIOUS ENDING 3 then optional ending 1 or maybe 2 and a secret (completion) ending. Stalker had no front-loaded hints about the endings, it gave a general goal and concluded the story with what you did within the zone. That was pretty cool for 2007.
its a rough description that you gave but its still good lol. Its not that cutthroat unless you never played an FPS before.
Stalker is played best on ultra hardcore ironman but ofc only if you always know what your doing.
Oh, good old Stalker! This game is VERY popular in Russia and Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, I think that anyone who doesn't at least barely knows Russian language is missing out on A LOT of atmosphere of the game. For example, take a simple conversations you hear in the game: the voice acting and the style of jokes comes from the good old dark Russian comedy movies of 90s, and really add up to that post-soviet apocalyptic feel. If you knew Russian, you would also mention the phrases of zombies: just like in Half-Life, their words strike you with a huge fear. The names of mutants and places and stuff... I can only blame the guys responsible for translation, because all the names sound very powerful, scary and cool, in Russian. I was really happy to see someone outside Eastern European culture can still appreciate the game!
The idle chatter lines for zombies are incredibly sad. Most notable one of them being a line about a zombie remembering their daughter and blabbering about how much she grew up since they saw them last time.
I played in Russian. Didn’t understand a word but loved it all
Can you give us some rough translations of the monster names that are more accurate to their original language?
What is it that the voice is saying at the end of the game? It keeps repeating stuff in Russian. It's very creepy and I thought it was a nice touch.
@@leegsy th-cam.com/video/OJ5UmUOcoWA/w-d-xo.html turn on the captions
Actually I very like stealth system in stalker series. Enemies actually may see you and don't forget about you when you hide in bush for 15 sec. Maybe it provide more advantage to enemy, but I prefer this than most modern stealth systems where most enemies are half-blind and/or half-stupid
Fallout 4, like 20 raiders in a big building, I decided to play a game. Killed all but one, know what he said after I crouched for a few seconds? "I think I'm imagining things". While walking over their friends' corpses
It's also more realistic that enemies can spot you from such a far distance compared to other games where you just disappear from reality once you're like 100 feet away from them
@@staringgasmask I killed a raider in front of his friend, the guy just said some stuff and then said the exact same thing you said.
It's just really annoying how inconsistent it is.
I remember two buildings in Dark Valley with long sight lines and no obstacles. If there is an enemy at the far side, there is a good chance he won't see you. On the other hand, you crouch over the ridge to Bloodsucker Village (Army Warehouse) and get shot by Mercs from all across the map.
I used to love going in the water in the first room of Metal Gear Solid and knocking on the wall while the guard stood directly over me asking what that noise was and I was just running in circles at the bottom of a pool of a water in front of him and he couldn’t see a thing. I used to wonder how I beat that game as an 8 year but after replaying it again somewhat recently it kinda makes sense.
The reason i love this game is for it's freedom and AI. The latter may sound odd to people that are new to the game, but when the AI is not bugged, it's amazing. In my playtrough, while i was returning from a side quest to the camp i got it from, everyone i saw before was dead, the only thing that was left were their dead bodies and the bandits that killed them.
Moments like that make S.T.A.L.K.E.R what it is.
they managed to do a better AI than most devs today. A-life was really interesting. for every bug it had you encountered 5 interesting and totally random situations. I feel pity for new players today that missed awesome gems like Stalker
*playthrough
@@mikehunt3060 Nice pfp grammar nazi lol
Better AI than stuff like Bethesda fallout (and ESO)
Honestly always loved AI like ArrmA and STALKER and was really bummed when I heard they wanted to put something very similar into Fallout New Vegas, which they couldn't because companions would always die or in Boone's case would always become a path of death and destruction.
@Garlic ik but his pfp is the grammar nazi flag lmao
No need to watch 48 minutes,anyone who has ever played Stalker knows that the answer is YES.
Pete x But you better watch it, though.
Amen.
True. For those who were lucky to discover this game back then will definitely consider worth it. Unfortunately I am sure that almost anyone who discovers it in 2020 they will see nothing special in the game especially given how many good games came out after stalker. I tried my theory on my friend who loves similar games but I was right. He said he loves the idea he loves the bgm but it just feels like shit and I completely understand that. Playing an old game as if it just came out and you wiped your memory feels impossible
@@バカロン I played it for the first time 2 years ago and fell in love with it. And there are so many mods that make it 4k along with enhanced graphics that: and while it felt old, it was still really fun.
Just my opinion though.
@@jjtninja nice to hear that! check out Anomaly mod it's really great and it's in English as well
Idk why, but something about how the characters treat you makes me feel that much more immersed. The Marked One isn't a big badass who everyone knows and admires, to everyone he's just another guy trying to loot and survive in the zone. It makes the characters feel more real and the struggles in the game feel more real
Isn’t strelok at least respected for his skill, and I say respected at best due to the zone being the zone.
Except he is lmao, have you played call of pripyat?
@@thundergaming155Main character doesn't remember he's Strelok, and people seem to know the legend of Strelok vs his face/voice as no one knows the Marked One is Strelok (including himself) until the scene with the Doctor, and even then I don't recall the Marked One choosing to go by Strelok
Did you play past an hour into any of the games? He’s like *the* S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
@@matthewjones39 yes, I've played them all - but nobody calls The Marked One out for being Strelok until the Doctor, and thus despite everyone seemingly knowing *about* Strelok, they don't seem to *recognize* Strelok walking around and even when he interacts with just about everyone in the entire Zone lol
Some notes:
~You forgot about a faction, but most people seem to forget about the mercenaries in Shadow of Chernobyl, as they are only really seen in Wild Territory in the one part where you escort Kruglov to Yantar.
~Monolith are not only the most well-armed and well-armored faction, but they also have some of the most skilled Stalkers in the entire Zone in their army. As a result, Monolith troops are extremely accurate on top of having high-end equipment.
~Burnt Fuzz only deals damage in Shadow of Chernobyl if you aren't wearing armor, otherwise it just produces a low hiss sound. They changed this in future games.
~While not an official name, Rodents are also called 'Tushkano' by various NPCs, which sounds better than 'Rodent' or 'Hamster'
~While I could never actually confirm this myself, I have always heard people say that Blind Dogs actually cannot see, and rely on sounds to attack things, unless there is a Pseudodog in the pack.
I think its totally understandable that blind dogs have an amazing sense of smell and hearing as they cant actually see anything, like blind people can develop their hearing and other stuff alot better
The reason why Strelok never sleeps is because any stalker who sleeps inside the zone gets hellish nightmares that gives the stalker who sleeps through the night psychological trauma.
If that is the case, how come he is even alive.
The human body and brain require sleep to function properly
@@TH-camisntlettingmeuseczech zone shit
Mercs are also present at Military Warehouse and Freedom have the whole quest line about traitor supplying them with info, also Duty leader sends you to Merc base at Warehouse area to get a unique weapon.
STALKER is probably one of my most favourite game series. I played through Shadow of Chernobyl 8 times. I'm so hyped for STALKER 2!
I’ve been replaying it since S2 got announced. SoC with mods still holds up. One of my favourite franchises of all times too !!
Is stalker 2 will be available for xbox one?
@@massimohladun9497 Xbox series X and Windows PC
@@Old898 uff
@@Old898 i played all the stalker games and now i cant
19:35 hey, as a Russian teenager, I actually loved the names of the mutants! Blind dogs sound like a terrifying name in Russian, and the Pseudodog has a VERY unique flavor to it. Flesh also sounds more unique in Russian, not to mention the Bloodsucker, whose name in Russian is extremely scary and memorable.
By the way, the Rodents in Russian have a unique name: Tushkán, which serves both as an allusion to jerboa rodents, and to Ostap Bender's quote from a famous Soviet book and films called ''12 Chairs''
32:39 lol, the names in this game are not disappointing. It's called ''Выжигатель Мозгов" in Russian and it's a hella cool name. It sounds like something a 35 year Soviet Officer positioned in a Post-Nuclear War base would come up with and it's hella atmospheric. The translation kinda ruined the names, but hey, if not for the English version, most people wouldn't know about the game at all. Not everyone wants or needs to learn Russian.
Хороший мисливський сталкер.
Are you okay right now friend?
@@JagEterCoola Yeah lmao, I've got tons of friends in Russia. They're aight
Im Polish so I got curious and checked our enemy names translations and they are actually much less lame than english ones (im pretty sure they still sound better in russian tho). There are just some names in slavic languages that have flavour absent in english counterparts.
@@nerdolo748 and vice versa 🙂
There is story context that gets added in other games. For example, the reason why Strelok is set to kill himself is because he was stopped from reaching the Wish Granter not by Monolith but by a Clear Sky raid (the end of Clear Sky), which was then stopped by an emission. The C-Conciousness didn't actually know what Strelok looked like, and thought he had escaped in the emission, instead of being knocked unconscious and trapped. So they commanded this unknown Stalker to kill Strelok, when he actually was Strelok. As for the Wish Granter, it is the "Monolith". The C-Consciousness do not actually control it, but rather they study and use it. In Call of Pripyat, the Monolithian soldiers are still able to commune with the Monolith and receive orders despite the fact that C-Consciousness is dead and can't convey them, so the Monolith has a will of it's own. It may be an ancient or alien artifact that has been guiding or "controlling" the world, the noosphere, and their development for ages. As for the "Wish Granter" aspect, it isn't so much a defence, as it is a lure for new converts to the Monolith cult. Risk everything to make it to the centre, to become rich, bring back a loved one, etc. But then some people would be skeptical, which is why the seperate rumour of the "artefact treasure trove" was created.
As for the issue of side quests, to ask for them to all be interesting story packed missions is missing the point. In this game you were just meant to be another part of a larger ecosystem of Stalkers. People aren't interested in people, they are interested in making money and surviving. So aside from some comradery and gossiping around the campfire, that is what you mean to others. A way to make money by bringing artifacts, or making life easier by clearing out mutants. Your boss isn't going to bore himself telling his life story to someone who could walk into a whirligig and die tomorrow. Call of Pripyat had a different take on side missions, with actual side characters and traditional quests. Recurring characters with traits such as Snag. But people were still quite disinterested in you outside of when you actually saved their hide, or wanted to scam you.
Commie pfp?
That's called 'Retcon', my guy. And its poor storytelling.
I love this comment thank you!
Luke DuFaur nah, Monolith soldiers lost their communication with Monolith when it was destroyed. They still in faction for various reasons - some are true fanatics, some just want to kill everyone, some because they cant actually leave faction, coz of their deeds. And part is actually leaving, like group in COP on Janov. In COP u can hear how this guys calling for Monolith, but it does not answer, u can find them in, i believe, book store in Pripyat
Killed Snag the first opportunity I got, the fucking scoundrel.
My favorite line ever:
"I said come in, don't stand there!"
GET OUT OF HERE STALKER
For some reason the line I remember the most is from the bar where the duty soldier lost his rifle and keeps saying "Damnit, if only someone could help me."
I spent an unhealthy amount of time in the bar
You can't go there
the best line is when you just defended garbage for the first time, and then you hear a radio call for help from a group of stalkers saying "Help us we're in deep shit!". The English dialogue in this game is honestly just s-tier. Second to that is the fact that the trucks with the corpses are translated to simply death truck.
"Get out of here Stalker"
-Duty Guard, high on knockoff Ukranian cocaine
i remember having a really good memory of stalker where I teamed up with another group of stalkers to attack a bandit camp. We took the camp but almost all the other stalkers died in the process and on top of it, the bandit camp was next to a base and they sent bandits to take it back. in the first wave all the other stalkers died and i was the only one left, i fought them off but when i looked at my PDA i saw that there were more coming and if i tried to leave they'd catch me in the open and likely kill me so I decided to hold my ground. I held my ground at that camp for like 45 minutes on my own, scavenging weapons and ammo off the dead bandits to keep fighting until finally I saw that the group of stalkers i teamed up with were sending reinforcements to bust me out. But a bandit wave hit me before they got there and one of the bandits got me point blank with a shotgun and I died. It was fucking awesome and I was so annoyed
One gaping plot hole in _Stalker_ I've never seen adequately explained. Where did Strelok gain his uncanny ability to generate infinite bolts from thin air?
He was a Mutant, all of the medical supplies he uses and the food he eats are converted to bolts
He's a mechanic by trade, my dad's one and, I swear, he's got a shitload of random bolts everywhere.
not a plot hole, an anomaly
Originally, they were a limited resource, but they were too small to be practical to continue picking up during gameplay. Lorewise, you pick them up, but for the sake of fun, they're unlimited.
Because he's a wizard. have you seen how he runs?
As I recall, the actual reason for that "lower difficulties were made buggy" thing was that, at least in the original release, the accuracy of NPCs was baked into the guns rather than the AI. Since this applied to the player using those guns as well, the game basically rolled an invisible dice to see if the player hit with a weapon _after_ they hit something. This was why all the early "realistic gun accuracy" mods also gave the AI God aim.
I don't understand why the developers thought baking the accuracy stat meant for NPCs into the guns and not the AI itself was a good idea, much less why that also affects the player, but it's good to know!
@@DESARD12 Yeah, it’s a weird thing at least considering they have the game as open as it is. I could see if we couldn’t pick up the enemies weapons or anything but still lol.
@@DESARD12 Mostly, because the player is treated as an NPC in a lot of ways.
Least this explains why you can mag dump an enemy 1ft away and miss every round.
God I can't believe this fake crap still spreads. Late reply but this shit is not true, lower difficulties have the same ballistics as higher ones and the damage values for headshots and high end weapons are the same across all difficulties in each game.
Yes, yes absolutely! Sorry I hate comments posted before watching the full video but I love the Stalker games so much.
I haven’t watched it all yet but it looks good ngl I’m prob gonna get it
I haven't watched the video and now I never will! I'm just a drive-by commenter.
I just finished the game like a week ago. For like the first two hours I kinda hated it, based solely on the gunplay. Twenty hours later and it proved totally worth it to just suffer through it.
@@Y33tastic Gunplay gets better on the later games, so I'd recommend to stick with it :)
TheSatan lol I played CoP before it so it was extra frustrating
Deadly anomalies, dangerous mutants, anarchists and bandits... None of them will stop Duty on its triumphant march towards saving the planet!
I will like and comment so the propaganda can reach those newbie stalkers
Aaaaaah, a man of culture!
Duty is best faction.
СМЕРТЕЛЬНЫЕ АНОМАЛИИ, ОПАСНЫЕ МУТАНТЫ, АНАРХИСТЫ И БАНДИТЫ... НЕ ОСТАНОВЯТ ДОЛГ, ПОБЕДОНОСНОЙ ПОСТУПЬЮ ИДУЩИЙ НА ПОМОЩЬ МИРНЫМ ГРАЖДАНАМ ВСЕЙ ПЛАНЕТЫ!
Death to Freedom btw
Show those hippie freedomers no mercy
That game is trully amazing. The details, looting, the exploration, the moment you realize every weapon has different condition etc, than monster, anomalies so much stuff.
This is the game that made me both like horror and FPS games, learn how to both manage and your inventory like an absolute pack rat, and understand that not all situations are best engaged with a full on assault or any at all.
One thing that's always been said about both SOC and the other two titles is that the games first immerse you in the atmosphere and setting of the gameworld before throwing the main story and plot at you, and many people liked the earlier parts of the game because of all the love and care given to make that atmosphere work while the last few legs of the games are are well known for being a bit of a difficulty filler filled with a bunch of surprisingly well armed monolith hoards. I think they did tone the hoards down in Call of Pripyat a bit but that game had a bit more time to mature to start with.
It also made understand that sometimes even Bethesda games aren't as buggy in comparison to a homebrew game engine coded on Microsoft paint on Windows Bandera, with the bugs and quirks of said engine being bigger anomalies than what you encounter in the game.
And i still have my physical copy of the game, that was send to me by my uncle in Russia back in 2008. (Russian version of course)
"Microsoft paint on Windows Bandera"
_Ah, I see you are a man of culture as well_
I see you too watch off meds Mandalore
The train track side path in the Cordon is a great teacher of the games systems. Those fully active npcs that can literally out-gameplay you to death are bypassed by finding a hidden or less straight-forward path
@@C0wsmacker isnt mandalore different from sseth?
@@DanT-dh8lz The running joke is that Mandalore and Sseth are the same person.
The reason Stalkers believe in the Wish Granter is because of the anomalies, mutants, and people who HAVE been to it roaming about. There are a few legendary Stalkers within the Zone who have been to the Wish Granter and while their wishes didnt kill them immediately, they still ended bad for them. But they were still able to tell others about it and show their powers. Plus if you have artifacts that can regenerate torn limbs in hours, the wish granter is suddenly not an insane concept.
I think you just did not pay enough attention since things like the X-16 emitter or the Brain Scorcher or the Barrier etc. were explained within the first 3 levels of the game :P.
The reason the side quests were simple was so that they can feed into the initial A-Life Systems that GSC had planned. In the end product, there is still impressive simulation AI, but it is a lot more simple for sure. Still, a fault is a fault.
Overall I like your review though.
@Lassi Kinnunen Well the Zone mostly has insane people so someone would for sure manage to do it.
The bit that made me love the Wish Granter all the more:
Roadside Picnic, the book the game was inspired by, ends right before you get to know if the wish granter worked!
I think what he moreso meant was, why do people still believe in the Wish Granter and seek it out even after all of this negative shit goes on. Like if nothing good has ever come out of it what would be the point of going to the thing that always seemingly ends badly
@@loganparry2676 Well he should have said that if that were his point.
People know that ending up with power or money or beauty often fucks up their lives yet they do it anyway. Having something even more powerful, that can resurrect the dead or make you special is even more intoxicating, no matter its cost.
Alexander Yordanov well yes I however think that his point just simply didn’t come off well enough there was room for confusion. In a long commentary like this words can get jumbled and meanings can be lost.
43:30 Is not dumb! Its actually brilliant. The idea is to first prevent stalkers to reach the center but if the powerful ones arrive those are selected to defend the center strongly. It would be useless to allow any stalker to reach the center and also to prevent absolutely anyone to reach will be running out of "personnel"
god I love the lore of these games so much
nah it's fucking dumb
4:03
Right as you said "constantly emits low monster noises"
A seagull nearby my home said "gwahhhhhhh!" And it was scary
I don't know why this comment is funny but i find it hilarious :D
Get out of here, seagull
"Is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl worth playing today?"
Is that even a question? Of course it is! The game is basically unbeaten since 13 years in it's category!
Allright let's watch the video now.
Idk it seems kinda dated and boring
@@Pookie2112 You sound like a teenager that has never experienced sex. STALKER is like sex, it needs to be experienced to be understood.
@@deus_nsf I actually used to think the same thing so I rushed to try and have sex earlier in life and tbh was not that great. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. on the other hand was just what I needed and a much better experience
@@ultraprincesskenny6790 Hopefully you'll find someone great someday that can rival stalker's greatness :)
Wtf? This suddently became a discussion about sex?
Me playing stalker anomaly: Hmm, yes. Death is just a number. Fear is a function of lack of firepower. TOZ is only weapon.
Reject modernism, return to TOZ
TOZ is love. TOZ is life.
finally someone made this comment, hilariously yesterday I was playing Stalker Anomaly with BaS, Hd Models, Blindside, etc mods and I maxed out my TOZ-66 and wiped out an entire Merc Camp with just a TOZ
ffs who made the toz a early game to end game weapon
So i was thinking about what you said about the wish granter being a “waste of resources” that could have gone into some more practical defense mechanisms, but I think I might understand the logic a little more:
C-Consciousness has something to hide in the center of the zone. If they had set up automated turrets or lasers or something it would only confirm that they’re hiding something. In a way, the wish granter is both a defense and a distraction. It puts off the impression of being the only thing of interest in the center of the Zone, so those who make it there don’t go “wow there’s a lot of security here. What are they protecting?”
Is it a great explanation? Nah. But does it help add context? Sure.
Another thing to consider is the inspiration of these games. The novel "Roadside Picnic" is hugely influential. It covers things like the burnt fuzz and tossing bolts. The main character of the book Red is supposedly the inspiration for the stalker that brings Strelok to Sidrovich. In Roadside picnic the ultimate goal is to find a wish granting artifact hidden in an anomolous area.
turrets are horrible form of defense because of how obvious they are. in this case they opted for something a lot more subtle.
I'd say the wish granter was used to reflect and use in its advantage the greed and even the sort of naive mind of the human
The wish granter provides a reason for experienced and skillful stalkers to enter the zone so they may become brainwashed into monolith soldiers by the brain scorcher. They're not just trying to kill anyone who gets close. The brain scorcher and generators, which are the cause of the blowouts, are pretty good defenses. These blowouts are caused intentionally, and have been activated more frequently when C-Consciousness is in danger. Anomalies, radiation, and mutants also contribute to reduce access to the zone, evidenced by numerous downed military helicopters and their failed assault on the NPP (explored more thoroughly in CoP). Entire regions of the exclusion zone were not accessible due to the conditions. For example, the Great Swamps get cut off, the Bar & Wild Territory open up along with the regions opened in CoP. Monolith soldiers are also good defenses, which other than being a private military, can be used as hit squads or assassins against priority targets. This is shown in the case of Strelok who when brainwashed, was tasked to kill someone (Strelok, himself) who was coming too close to the power plant and its secrets. The reason for that error made by C-Consciousness regarding Strelok is explained more in Clear Sky.
ps: I'd also like to add that the mutants aren't just victims of radiation but some are actually monstrosities created in secret laboratories hidden throughout the exclusion zone. In essence they created those defenses.
Also the brain scorcher filters the trash. Ensuring only the strong survive to be recruited into the monolith
First time I played it, I was the first guy you talked about in the wrap up. Played for a couple hours or something, didn't like it, and stopped playing it. Then I gave it a try some time later and learned to love it. Incredible atmosphere. Felt like I was truly wandering in a strange, radioactive nightmare land. And the underground portions really feel like you're underground.
That happened to me also, except I never attempted to get back into it but now I am seeing reviews pop up on this game and realise I actually might have a gem of a game yet to experience.
I'll re-install and give it another go maybe over this weekend. 10 years later or whatever it is...
I only have 1 memory of the game.... and that is me unloading a million bullets into a bunch of guys at a train station and possibly running out of ammo or just having barely any health/very low ammo after just scraping through that section. that's when I quit and just never felt like continuing with it again. I'll play it with a different mindset this time around. Stealth/survival/immersive games are MY kind of game, I am dissapointed in myself for not seeing this one through. I guess I just thought I had some weird broken unpopular low value game because nobody I know had ever heard of it. . .
I finished this game only 2 days ago having never played it before. I knew absolutely nothing about Stalker before playing, other than it was a FPS horror game of sorts.
Yes, this game is worth playing. It’s fantastic. They don’t make games like this anymore.
"Everything was still alive so I'm not sure what they were shooting at."
Traditional eastern european tactic, its called shock, awe, we ran ran out of vodka, disengage and maybe try later
4:06 "even there is nothing nerby"
Litarely stands at that place where bloodsucker attacks you for the first time
The chicken eating cutscene at 23:24 is the most realistic shit I've ever seen in a video game. Not that "Perfect, no one ever fumbles in their life," nonsense. He bites, eye's widen as he realizes "aw shit aw shit I look like a piggy," then brings his hand up to HIDE the the slobbishness and slurps the shit up. I've done this exact maneuver so many times.
Agree. For some reason the cutscenes look very good
Everybody gangsta until Monolith starts crab-walking.
I only ever boot up SoC to feel the unique atmosphere. It makes me feel something no other game does
True and real
42:43
The reason the devs came up with The Monolith (the wish granter crystal) was because of russian sci-fi classic book called "roadside picnic", original inspiration and setting for stalker in which there was a similar anomalous zone and legendary wish-granting golden sphere. That same book later was adapted into a film called stalker which is why the game is also called like that. Once the devs decided that they don't want to pay for the setting license they adopted it into a custom one bringing main ideas from the book, the zone, artifacts, anomalies and the wish granter. This is the meta reason for it.
In lore, there are rumors that wish granter crystal is only partially controlled by C-Consciousness, and "created" by them the same way they "created" the Zone - as an unfortunate accident. It is a wound in the fabric of reality crystalized into solid form, literal heart of the zone or a gateway of sorts from which anomalous reality-altering energy of Noosphere bleeds and merges with the physical world. Stated goal of active C-Consciousness is to fix the mistake of the zone, and yet every time the wish is granted the Zone expands by 5 km in all directions, hardly helpful to their agenda.
Wish Granter is framed as a defense mechanism because C-Consciousness is ashamed to admit that they are powerless to remove it. In fact, it is a hostile entity or rather a new force of nature with opposing goals. This is the real reason why wish granter absorbs Strelok when he wishes to rule the world. C-Consciousness does not rule the world and when wish granter absorbs Strelok you do not join them, instead you join the Wish Granter directly. A sinister foreshadowing of its power. If C-Consciousness fails to fix the zone, in time wishes of greedy stalkers will expand the zone to consume the whole planet, in a way making Wish Granter and any absorbed essence by proxy rulers of the world.
I always wondered if stalker the game had anything to do with stalker the movie. Thx
@@VinAn-d8m movie, very little. It has the golden sphere and bolts for anomalies but its a different take, follows the book very loosely. The book was way more sci fi, with people integrating zone artefacts into eternal batteries for cars, with research institutes and scout drones.
Film is more philosophical, dream like, abstract and low tech. The characters are completely different as well as the general mood.
@@drillcore7768 interesting, I will read the book then, thanks for the explanation
For anyone who loves STALKER I recommend you all check out the book it was based on "a road side picnic" a absolute master piece in the sci fi genre
I'd also suggest Stalker, the film that inspired the game.
I never really minded the funny names for things because i always assumed that they were just shitty translations from russian
The NPC names really take the cake.
That's somewhat true. "Snorks" for instance was coined by a German news reporter in the lore who called them "Schnorchel", which was simply translated into the English version. One has to bear in mind that those things in the zone didn't get their names from scientists or anything like that, but rather from mostly uneducated fortune hunters, which like to call things the way they see them.
That's actually a really good way of naming things in terms of survival. I mean, you don't have to see a "bloodsucker" with your own eyes to know what they do. :
21:38 I remembered the first time I saw a controller. I got really desperate because of that Pitch noise... that was the moment I knew this game was more immersive than I thought and loved the game more.
Even with all its flaws it's one of the most memorable games i've ever played.
Fun fact.
Strelok in russian means "Shooter"
the Gunslinger word is more correct here
@@SadSvit-d2x In the meaning yes, but literal translation is "Shooter".
@@lukkkasz323 both translations are correct, anyway Strelok is kinda a personal name
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is one of my all-time favorite games and saved me at a rough time in my life squatting and not having anywhere to live. I had seen Tarkovsky's movie and it is also in the top 5 favorite movies of mine so it was only natural that I was drawn to this game.
I remember playing it when it came out and just locked myself in my brothers semi-abandoned computer room to play through it in two sittings and actually getting the true ending.
It was a rough diamond, it was something I had never experienced before but it also felt like something familiar. It was my journey in a way, it encompassed a lot of the doubt I had of myself and the futility of striving for some kind of perfection. It was as flawed as me but Strelok and his trod towards the end was a rebuilding of once self of sorts.
Maybe I'm waxing poetic but it truly changed a lot of how I viewed myself and the world.
Stalker is most interesting to me because of the anomalies. My ex was a huge fan of these games so he used to gush all the time about them. While it definitely has some slavjank, it is a very unique experience.
im early, so im going to say i enjoy your content a lot. i can clearly tell you put loads of time and effort into these videos so i just wanted to say good job :D
Thanks man!
Playing this game with the one mod that kind of brings it up to snuff with the later release was a refreshing take. Excited for stalker 2 for sure.
Having just finished Metro Exodus, I'm going to assume most of that dev team either worked on or were heavily influenced by STALKER.
IIRC almost all of the founding members of 4A worked on STALKER before founding 4A
@@Ozuhananas you are correct
Worked on. A few have gone back to help on the new Stalker.
I used to play this game with my dad, brings back so many memories.
Maybe it is not as good by today's standards but at the time it was incredible and immersive, and the worldbuilding is just... amazing!
So looking forward to Stalker 2!!
@⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ I am a daughter! haha
@⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ but I really loved Stalker, it affected my development as a person so much that I even worked in Museum of Chernobyl for some time :)
@Gringo ага
@Gringo C:
Considering how buggy it was when it released and compare it to triple A games today, this game is next to perfect. So much replay value.
I remember 2007, when I was a 12 yo kiddo and almost shit myself in the first lab with all those flying objects, that was spooky. And as for 2007 the visuals were really great. As the author said it really lacks good sidequests, that don't lead you to explore locations, so it depends on your initiative. Actually, I remembered an interesting sidequest where you had to find and stole a grenade launcher from the Freedom faction. Sidequests became interesting in the Call of Pripyat. Among three starker games, the most atmospheric is SoC, the hardest in terms of gameplay is Clear Sky, and the most developed is CoP. All three worth playing. As for me, a casual Ukrainian guy, the game really throws you in some post-soviet apocalyptic place where you feel the atmosphere pretty deep.
It’s amazing I can watch a 48 minute long video on a game I have no interest in ever playing. I just love your content. Keep up the great work. I get excited every time a new one comes out no matter the game
"This game has an Arma lite control scheme" *Irish rebelsongs start to play in the background*
But the irish Republicans got a bunch of guns from the Soviets too
@@diffsnicker6570 I know but their most prominent weapon was the Armalite AR-180. So famous that it even got it's own song.
@@FriedrichHecker1848 this is true my grandfather was an irish Republican before he moved to America he told me AR180s and M16A1s were some of the most common weapons. They also had access to grease guns, M60s, even some RPGs. Old man was a lucky bastard to play with some of those toys
I said come in, don't stand there.
get out of here stalker...... get out of here stalker.... get out of here stalker....
Dog food is more valuable than this
@@smellbow go your own road staker
Good hunting, stalker.
"Get out of here, stalker"
"Hey Stalker, Come ova here"
"Bullshit!"
Me talking with the Bois in 100Rads
Resident evil 4 merchant:
"I always got an information for people like you"
I've played the game many times and have only come across that guy dead once or twice. Was a bit of a relief not to hear the phrase anymore.
Why did you left us, oh monolith
The wish granter (and this game as a whole) is a MASSIVE send up to the novel Roadside Picnic
Dude you just made my day. I've been following rumors of stalker 2 for years and stoped bothering a while ago. I just looked it up when you mentioned it. I am so happy dude I cant even put it into words
I've noticed a few TH-camrs like yourself have been taking a look at Stalker, which is great to see. The more people that hear about this fantastic game series the better.
and 90% of said youtubers only cover shitty mods and pretend like the originals don't exist
@@ha9phtfpaehs and most of them are homosexual.
@@afistfulofpimples1745 Real
I just finished playing the game (got the blind ending) and I really enjoyed it. Admittedly I was not paying attention to the plot and don't really remember any of the factions at all. What I liked was the atmosphere. Such a terrifying game
Playing Stalker on master without crosshairs when Tarkov is getting on my nerves is the shit
Bro I literally got off of tarkov after a day of bullshit raids and did the exact same thing, like I lagged out of so many raids with zero connection issues at all and lost 18 mil worth of equipment today... in good news most of it was dumped so I will get it all back in like a day or two.
This is very useful, thanks! It is Interesting how much of the lore (which adds another level of depth to the experience) is missed, obviously, due to inadequate localisation. A great lesson to learn for anybody producing content. Again - thanks!
Believing a specific difficulty is the proper way to play isn't gatekeeping. Nothing is stopping you from playing the game on whichever difficulty you wish.
"Sneaki Treeki"?
So, I see you're new here Stalker.
@-Warkomm - AH NU CHEEKI BREEKI IV DAMKE
I have no idea why but I have been attracted to this game for several years and haven't played it. Something about the atmosphere really draws me in. Very excited for STALKER 2
For everyone new to Stalker the short answear of this 48 minutes video is
Yes, yes it is
should i use mod ?
Short answer: yes
Long answer: yes, and download Zone Reclamation Project
Fun fact: strelok means shooter.
Oh that's why the PDA said, "Kill the Strelok" instead of "Kill Strelok". I just thought that was a weird typo.
Fun fact#2: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is not mean anything, just a way to get away from copyright troubles.
Are Strelok and Strelet specifically related?
I don't think Strelet is a word.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streltsy
I’ve always hated in games how if one enemy sees you for half a second before you kill them every nearby enemy is suddenly aware of your exact location like they’re a hive mind or something.
over the years I have come to the conclusion that it is nothing more than lazy AI development 99% of the time.
yeah this is a problem in 99% of games that is never fixed
Lots of people in the comments are recommending Anomaly.
I’d say to do so since it’s free but would suggest playing at least Shadow of Chernobyl first. It gets you into the world and gives you more information about the Zone that amplify the experience.
THIS! It also lets you appreciate the what modding community has done
I'll recommend Lost Alpha instead. Anomaly is a pretty much just a freeplay Call of Duty style mod, you just pick a faction and go murder whoever is your foe, while Lost Alpha has an extended story to follow.
@@txenog While it is a freeplay mod at heart it's only like cod if you play it like that without delving into some of the more complex systems in it, like the crafting and repairing and self modding of weapons and armour. playing on harder difficulties so money is harder to come by as well as actually it does have a story in it you just have to enable it. Lost alpha is a good one to try yes but a lot of it is really buggy at least from when I played it. It's an interesting view into what the original game could have been like though.
txenog lost alpha is a garbage fan fiction. Do not recommend. Stay away.
@@messer7450 It really isn't as bad as people say it is. it's not great or anything but it's more than playable.
I was 11 when Chernobyl actually happened.
so the plant and its exclusion zone have always had a scary allure to them.
This game just added to and magnified that childhood fear.
plus as a fan of foreign cinema who prefers subtitles, I was used to things getting lost in translation.
the story made enough sense without being shakespear..I could fill in the gaps.
great games. all of them.
This is one of the best series i ever played. I have a horrible feeling the newest installment will be totally different in feel. I dont care if the shooting is tighter or looks better, I love the feel of the zone. I like the sum of the parts.
Uploaded 17 mins ago. 1 dislike. Gotta love when someone dislikes somthing they didnt even watch smh...
Wtf are you the real trollface???
how
Probably someone still mad about how Overkill's The Walking Dead was brutally murdered
Now it’s at 1k vs 9. That’s really good!
@@AaaBbb-kw5em I might be the only one left. Havent changed since I made this channel
This was the game that made me realize to *never follow a game during development.*
Not saying it was a bad game, it was just far larger then the developers could handle and the hype surrounding it made that problem all the worse. It still is one of my favourites to this day, it taught me about Roadside Picnic which is a great book, and I lift the concept of anomalous zones to fit into my R.P.G. worlds because they are so beautiful. I highly recommend playing it, particularly after slapping on some of the fan base mods that enhance it all the more.
Anything you could suggest? Since I can't play it due to its issues and terrible animations
I played this when it first came out, still have the dvd and box, and remember it as the most immersive fps Ive ever played. Maybe 2nd place after the original Deus Ex. Maybe its time to mod it up and give it 2nd playthrough...
This should be remade with the same music and atmosphere, it was class, the story and progression was perfect for the dark and bleak environment.. amazing
The machine you shut off in Yantar isn't the Brain Scorcher, it's the baby brother to the major emitter which itself is actually modeled on the Duga-3 Radar Array, infamously known as the "Russian Woodpecker" to shortwave radio enthusiasts. The first psy-emitter is known as the "Miracle Machine" due to being a complete fluke that they never expected to work, but it did. There's also evidence to support that the Miracle Machine, Brain Scorcher, and several of the labs were directly responsible for human experimentation into what psychic exposure would do to live subjects, and potentially embryos. So yeah, STALKER actually has some incredibly dark world building in some respects.
One of the best game series ever.. Esp. SoC, I always recommend it to everyone who isnt afraid to try something older and unique. This games world and how it treats you is one of a kind, something you rarely see in any other game
I just saw the thumbnail and came here to comment a resounding and absolute YES!
y'know I think I'll revisit stalker. This video has inspired me
this game is like an fps about depression
Bruh I binged all the elder scrolls videos while this notification popped up. Keep it up bruh
This game will be forever in our hearts.
Am I the only one who really love the early gameplay of STALKER where you're running around with a rusty makarov and a sawn-off with 5 shells remaining?
Whelp did this one, you know that now we want all the the stalker games looked at. It's a trap you are for yourself friend, I am just a messenger.
and the big mods
@LAW
befor doing cop he has to go through the head bobbing adventure that is clear sky.
"Is Stalker soc worth playing today"
This video doesn't need to be 48 minutes and 33 seconds long. Simple answer: YES.
Me, 2014: huh? What's stalker? Guess I'll check it out.
Me, 2024: stalker? Yeah I played call of Chernobyl mod an hour ago, and I'll play it more tomorrow.
The "Master" difficulty facade always confuses me to this day.
Yeah i never understand, first time i finished stalker was in normal difficulty and seriously it runs just fine and the enemy died to a headshot as always
I just like to know that i can kill somone with a headshot, and that he can too. If you get better armour they cant kill you with a singel headshot, but you cant kill a guy in full power armour with a single headshot ether. It just enhaces the atmosphere for me.
damn it salt, I have a test on monday..
The first place you shut down was is called the miracle machine and it has the body of a Stalker named Ghost who was once with Streloks group along with another Stalker called Fang where if you find his grave at pripyat you get an unique exoskeleton
Us who are old enough to remember the development of this game might recall it ending up in development hell and being released as a severely cut version of what the devs had originally planned. The released version was still good but it was only a fraction of what was promised when it was announced. That's why there is so much stuff that doesn't quite make sense, it was developed for cut content. :)
The devs came to a point where they would have to release what they had or scrap the project so they did their best to glue together what they had and make the best of it.
For more insight in the story; It's based on a russian book/movie with the same name.
Having played all the games in the series and now replaying SOC via OGSR, I love what the game offers. My main criticism is the lack of direction and urgency at the start. My first time playing, I spent so much time in Cordon doing every one of Sid's quests because I didnt know where else to go. I feel like the game needed to dangle a carrot in front of players to get them to Agroprom underground as soon as possible so they can start to experience what makes this game shine.
Bro I’m 6 hours in and just hit the underground, I fucking loved cordon ngl
Stalker game has a cool post soviet vibe that some of people around my age, I'm 35, experienced in our childhoods running around unfinished construction sites, abandoned farms and factories like in the game, also there is a book and a movie by soviet scifi authors about stalkers and the zone which I guess influenced many. That's why the game is so successful at least amongst post soviet countries.
While I’m not going to be one of these people who jump on the bandwagon of ‘you must play STALKER now!’, as this game isn’t for everyone - but I can easily say that there is absolutely nothing like it.
Many games have been influenced by it, I.E. Escape From Tarkov, the Metro series (which is a spiritual successor) and DayZ.
It deserves its place next to groundbreaking/unique games like Demon/Dark Souls, Binding Of Isaac, Resident Evil, Elder Scrolls, Metal Gear Solid, etc etc...for being wholly original as a whole and creating a new spin on a genre.
But just as with those games, they’re not always for everyone.
But for those that do enjoy them, they’re often accompanied by a hardcore fanbase that will cherish them for generations to come - as copy cat games come and go.
What STALKER does is absolutely fantastic, but where it stumbles, it falls flat on its face at times.
I never heard of this masterpiece, Thank you for reviewing this game.
As a 6 foot 3 tall male, I have never noticed being short in this game, maybe because it's a video game
The Story is amazing for anyone who played it , he must know !!!
STALKER is my childhood, this game has an atmosphere like no other, especially if you are a Russian speaker
I love how Stalker isn't afraid of being pitch black, in Call of Pripyat, there's a mission where you have to go raid a huge boat at night, it's such a clusterfuck because you're having to make split second decisions on Master difficulty on whether you're getting shot at or if one of your allies is shooting because it's entirely pitch black.
Personally I like how stealth works in this game. Guns are loud. Yes, firing a gun at one enemy means other enemies know where you are. It makes sense.
Stealth revolves around breaking line-of-sight and then flanking. If the enemies are closing in on a position where they THINK you're hiding, you actually have the advantage because now it's your turn to flank them.
Honestly, this is the type of stealth I live in these types of games, and it made me happy as fuck when metro exodus took up that style of stealth, and took the fun as hell linearish shooter metro was with its engaging environments, and turned it into, what feels like to me, a true stalker successor. Or atleast until stalker 2 launches
the only problem with stealth is the save system and switching guns makes noises
When I saw "Anomalies and enemies" I thought it was "Anatoly and enemies". Looks like I've been watching too many Slav Super Star videos. Boris Blin!
Glad I'm not the only one that thought that
So here's the thing;
You spent ages looking for documents, but did you ever read any of them? It seems you only followed what the NPCs told you.
Your PDA logs things from dead bodies you loot as well, stash locations, PDA entries ect. They all fill in background.
You know why the fireside is so comfortable? You have a place to sit down and go through your digital things and feel safe.
Yeah it's easy to never open the logs but it's all really interesting and detailed.
I actually love the combat in Stalker. The way pistols work is so satisfying to me. Did I eventually switch to a scoped rifle? Yes, but just fighting enemies with a pistol was surprisingly fun.
The makarov was so garbage though
@@j99044Makarov excels at what it was designed to do irl: headshots from < 5m away