Legendary Drops, I was writing a paper that I wanted to be able to source some of the recent outrage from games media and how that backlash is misplaced on several layers and doing more damage to the LGBT community than true racists and bigots ever could and i started to notice a trend in that the harder i looked the harder it was for me to find those articles, "Toxic Gamer Culture Is a Social Problem" - Polygon, "The Problem With Representation in Games" - Kotaku "How Gaming’s 'Toxic' Fandom Is Changing" - The Verge "The Problem with 'Toxic' Gamer Culture and Representation" - Polygon to name a few examples that seem to have just disappeared, might be worth looking into if for nothing else to prove me wrong and say im just blind, if not... theres a story there
Czech here, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has always been a cultural phenomenon here, to this day we (and other European countires) have larp-airsoft groups doing Zone things. Kinda proud that GSC found sanctuary in our country to finish the game (even if I have.. nothing to do with it). Really excited for the second one, it very well may push Metaphor down to 2nd in my 2024 top list.
@@blokkymon336 hello, sweetie, I am Russian, do you wanna play IRL Modern Warfare and get unalived for $10 000 instead of my man? If not, you better shuddup and go be edgy on the internet about any other topic, clearly you have no clue how the world works outside your momma's basement and what war is.
@@ryszakowy it would sound weird, but fallout 1 (yes, that old as mammoth shit, isometric game) is a somewat good comparison. its the same "Idk what is behind the corner" atmospheric experience
Dude I am from Czech Republic and the game was huge hit in the eastern Europe at the time. Everyone played and really liked it. The world is so similar to what you can normally see in post soviet eastern countries. The team really knocked it out of the park with these games.
Yes, we never had complex games based on the post soviet scenery. I remember going outside around my town and any abandoned or damaged building had that SoC vibe. I could never truly relate to Fallout, but I could relate to this.
Dobrý den! I love the Czech Republic and am just starting Shadow of Chernobyl and even from my limited experience of Eastern Europe, I totally agree with you how authentic it feels in terms of the environment. Loving the game.
If anything, you’re an inconvenience to the world and its people. There are far more qualified stalkers than you. The zone has no problem keeping you in check and breaking your spirit.
Kenshi , Morrowind , From the Depths, Dark Souls, Gothic and Stalker, they are all different genres but these are some games i can think of that you will only grow by getting your ass kicked followed by a steep learning curve.
You have to LEAN my guy! You can lean left and right to peek around corners, which helps against the getting shot in the face issues a bit. But seriously, welcome to the zone, glad to hear that it's still got that magic for a new player in 2024. Not a lot of seventeen year old games holds up as well.
Ahhh the good old modern gaming palette cleanser by Stalker, where manual saving via F5 is the animalistic imbued reaction by the end of the game. Edit. You should from time to time create a "hard save" 1,2,3, and so on. X-ray engine is in crashed and non crashed state all the time.
one of the problem that is with the game now... A lot of new keyboards have in F1-F12 double function, so sometime you want to heal yourself fast or quick save, and instead you close the sound, press play for some video that will open....is super confusing. I just search and old keyboard and using it specific with this game.
It's funny that the first enemy of that Sewer is a Bloodsucker and the last enemy when you're about to leave the Sewer is a Controller, and they both manages to catch the player Off guard.
Played stalker in 2007. What a damn vibe that game was. Chilling with homies by the campfire playing guitar while a pack of mutated dogs tore up some other lone stalker in the distance
The ambience in the STALKER games is what really sets it apart from a lot of other games imo. Just listening to wtf was going on around you could be quite unsettling.. Nothing worse than been hold up in a house with a bloodsucker stalking around outside and all you can do is sit an listen to it running about hoping it doesn't work out how to use the door/doorway and decided to come inside and say hello. I've lost count of the amount of times in all the STALKER games where I've literally been sat in silence with a SPAZ 12 in hand waiting for whatever was outside to try coming through the door to the room im hiding in, soo much atmosphere.
@@Legion563 oh yea. i remember even in 2007 and for 2007 standards, it was a super jank and buggy game, yet still somehow one of my favorites simply because of its atmosphere and your personal will to persevere through the zone and get to that "wish granter" youve been hearing so much about and uncover the truth.
I wish I could have played it when it was new. I remember following rumors that Witcher and Stalker were gonna come to Xbox 360 and really hoping that they were true, because my PC was outdated at that point, and I ended up getting a 360 dirt cheap, because someone I knew needed to pay off warrants to get out of jail... Not sure how that version turned out, but I guess it did finally come to console. It just took like 15 years :p
Cheeki Breeki intensifies. Can't wait to "Get out there, Stalker!" back into the Zone. It will be glorious. I think Stalker games are flawed diamonds that are one of a kind. The Metro game came close, but they were way more streamlined than what Stalker did 5 years prior.
Let's be honest, the Metro lose post Soviet vibe and was just cringe because it was created by people with Western left-liberal views. And you know what that leads to in games.😂
Dude, wait until you play Call of Pripyat. Call of Pripyat is the quintessential refinement of what STALKER is. It's... fantastic. It's more refined, less janky, more structured. It's amazing, absolutely.
Yeah the AI and the random events that just happen, i dont have the worlds for it. When in the night i saw in the distance that a bunch of duty stalkers were fighting a bunch of mutants, than thoose mutants dragging off the corpses just brutal. One time in the night i found myself in some lake and 2 bloodsuckers showed up, useless to say at this point i did not have any night geer and just shi...ed myself.
I was obsessed with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ever since I saw the trailer for Oblivion Lost (that was the name at the time) back in 2002. This dark atmosphere and the idea of exploring abandoned military bases and secret underground laboratories with mutants roaming around gripped me. I'll never forget my first playthrough. Leaving the rookie camp with nothing but a pistol and very little provisions and being sent to that first bandit camp only to almost die to a bandit with a double barrel shotgun... Crossing the railway on the way to garbage area in one of two ways; a side tunnel that has an electrical anomaly that requires timing to cross or following the road straight and getting shot by the soldiers who had AK's... Before reaching the level exit almost getting ripped apart by a gravitational anomaly and a pack of mutated, blind dogs... Then you reach the garbage and find a couple of friendly loners sitting by a campfire, telling stories, drinking vodka, having a meal... And then they all go silent and one of them pulls out an acoustic guitar and plays a beautiful melody that makes you feel better... And the Zone is not that horrible of a place in those moments... It really is special.
As a Polish person who grew up in the 80s, I always admired how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games managed to capture the atmosphere of eastern Europe communist vibes brilliantly. You absolutely need to play those games with original dub for proper experience.
Language barrier, though. But yeah, the English translation does give the atmosphere of Soviet thieves' cant disservice. They should have went with cockney.
something it sounds like you are missing is the fact that there are currently 3 complete games from the STALKER series, Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat. each of those 3 games also has it's own set of mods. "STALKER 2" is actually the FOURTH game in the series released by the developers. in my personal opinion you should at least check out Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat before diving into mods.
Learn to press F5, learn to use Healing hotkeys. And you do have an indicator of how many human NPC's are in the vicinity below mini-map. The random beeps indicate this. 👍
It's funny how as someone who comes from eastern europe I never knew stalker released same year as halo because I never heard of halo until they released halo reach but I have been wondering the zone since like 6th grade!
My pc was shit at the time. It couldn't even run modern warfare because my GPU had 128 mb of ram (CoD MW required at least 256). So I pretty much grew up with stalker games.
I got a friend into GAMMA, since I knew he wouldn't be able to stomach the original STALKER games in their wild, unkempt fury. He spent the first couple of hours in complete silence, getting his arse handed to him repeatedly. I finally asked him what he thought, and he said "I love it". We then spent weeks on Discord together, sharing stories, watching him stream his playthrough, sharing tips and tricks. This is a guy who has the attention span of a goldfish and craves instant gratification, yet STALKER got it's hooks into him and just didn't let go. Glad you're enjoying it, it's definitely a one-of-a-kind experience.
I mean I kind of get what you say but GAMMA is like a completely different experience from the original stalke gameplay wise. With Stalker 2 releasing soon it will be interesting if Stalker 2 follows more the original Stalker or leans towards what GAMMA and other mods did. If its like the original games it will be somewhat of a system shock to many player that have only really played GAMMA.
@@laszlodajka5946 Yeah drastically. From a linear story-driven shooter in open locaitons, to a big open-world shooter with heavy survival elements and proceduraly generated quests
@@laszlodajka5946OG Stalker is more like Metro Exodus (it’s the opposite of course but you know what I mean) while the sandbox mods like GAMMA feel like playing a game like Mount and Blade but instead of a dude raising an army and doing jobs to make money in medieval times, you’re a dude in a post apocalyptic exclusion zone filled with mutants and other dudes trying to kill you while you take on jobs to make money, improve your guns and survive. I would say the original games are more of a sci fi shooter with RPG elements and a great story (the first one) while the sandbox mods feel like a “Roadside Picnic Simulator”.
Crazy how your experience with Stalker was a lot like mine in 2007. You nailed the nail on the head about how the atmosphere is fucking spot on in making you feel like you are there. Everything else helps build upon it to a point EDIT; props for playing unmodded. Also play the other 2 games unmodded. A lot of the experience is dictated by the original presentation
That's true. Russian troops were located in a lot of high radiation zones. Digs the trenches etc. That was insane to watch. Not a long time after that most of them were send to radiology clinic at Belarus, if I remember correctly. Insane
Had this series in my Steam library for years. Finally decided to dive in old school style. Modded the heck out of it to improve the visuals but other then that played vanilla. Wow what a down and dirty experience that really proves that atmosphere, challenge and true danger to the player makes for the most engaging experiences just like From games. Amazing title that deserves way more juice.
@foxdoe7540 oh yeah I know about gamma and alpha. They are absolutely fire but gamma imo is wayyy too much for me. It's like tarkov on steroids when it comes to combat
Metro is stupid and full of bullshit. The books are pure anti-socialist propaganda, while the entire living on VDNH station is clearly socialist regime. Writer clearly doesn't understand anything he criticizes. Stalker is entirely stolen from Strugatsky brothers.
Most people talk shit about the game and the jank and don't have the balls to finish it, i still time to time replay it with the Zone Reclamation Project. Really hope Stalker 2 is that Journalist filter.
I played and beat all 3, had issues with 2, couldn't beat the guy from the first game as he was bugged, had to go back to a save 2 hrs prior to beat game. Very lame
@@Elnegro.. Only 2hs consider yourself lucky, i had a mission marker stuck on Shadow half of the game to discover that the true ending was never going to trigger (i got it on the second playthrough), because the script bugout days before, with Zone Reclamation Project(mod) the game is more stable, but it's not 100%, unfortunately.
@@Suomiwimbula it's coming to Xbox only and that's because Microsoft funded if I'm remembering correctly. I dont think being on a console will change the way the devs decisions for the game.
Stalker reminds me of a lesson I learned about anime (bear with me, there's a point). I introduced my buddy to anime about 10 years ago, and at that time modern anime was pretty decent still, but I introduced him to the classics first (Cowboy Beebop, FLCL, Gurrenn Lagann). When he started branching off on his own, he actually started going backwards from where I was at. Where I was content with a lot of modern anime, he was convinced the older stuff was better. And he kept finding more. Brought me along for the ride. Overtime, I stopped being able to just passively watch anime because today because the older stuff was leagues ahead in so many ways. Gaming is the same, imo. I'm going back through my current library of games and find myself pretty content with things, because I don't really need something new and flashy. I just want the game to be fun, and older games actually offer a level of challenge that is totally divorced from modern, mobile style, always on rails gameplay. I love your content in general, but I prefer these nostalgia pro gamer videos instead :)
I bought the game when it was released but I never finished, but I clearly remembered the moment I understood it was something original: I was walking along a road when I heard shooting and screming coming from a nerby building; I stopped and hid because I thought it was an ambush, but then I realized they weren't even aware of me: they were two rival groups killing each other. When the shooting stopped, I got closer, I killed the last standing guy and took all the loot. And in that moment I realized that it was no longer me vs. the baddies: I was just some guy trying to accomplish his task in a world that didn't revolve around me; I was a character like anyone else in the exclusion zone, and this, in 2007, blew my mind.
"The same year as Halo 3, Bioshock, Mass Effect and Modern Warfare" Yeah, I'm happy to say that I chose Stalker over those game. The only one I played a little from those was Bioshock.
Also I love it has rpg elements but in a realistic yet effective way. Too many games try make enemies harder by just giving them more health and bs numbers and levels like you'll see a floating number above their head. But this game makes the enemies difficulty based on their armour and weapons so the risk reward is insane. I remember how badass i felt when i somehow no lie took down a military squad with only the pistol and being just really smart with my tactics. it was EASY to die so it felt earned to take such a risk and win
I love STALKER, have completed all 3 games, and those are one of my favorite games ever. But I think part of your astonishment is because you haven't played Metro series either, because the same team managed to recreate a lot of what you're voicing: the exploratio, the sound design, sense of danger. Seriously, give Metro a try, with the remasters it's even better
Oh man, so glad you gave Stalker a try. This game was super popular in Ukraine whenever it came out. All my classmates were playing it back than. I'm really happy that people from west are now aware about its existence. Stalker is one of the most immersive games in my opinion. Btw, you can use hotkeys to use bandages or medkits without opening an inventory.
I remember. Stalker AND Crysis released that year. And the *diots were like: "Look at the graphics! Crysis, yeah!" I played both. Stalker had bugs, wasn't really finished. But it had its own identity, great atmosphere and tension.
you are my brother from another mother...I got both back in 2007 ..when ever a friend was coming home I would shoot crysis to impress them with the graphics of my newly bought video card that could barely run it (technically the most impressive game up to then and even better than the sequels...I love cryengine) but when I was alone I would always end up playing STALKER for everything else...the game revolusionised: 1. AI-Life not AI 2. Perfect atmosphere with sky cubes 3. bullet trajectories (not like COD hit register) 4. AI would fight everyone and not only you...games up to that point were aiming only the PC....and much more....I really hope STALKER 2 is as good ...but deep inside I know it will be like Prypiat which was a farce and the choise of Unreal engine 5 is really dissapointing for me
Bottom right number on the mini-map shows how many people are nearby in your area, doesn't show mutants though. Took me a long time to notice it and put 2 + 2 together.
I wish you could feel the immersion of a person growing up in 80s and 90s in that region. There where so many moments, where I just felt "I've been there" or "I know this place, it's right around the corner". The touch of reality instantly teleported my mind into the game.
This section from 5:48 - 6:04 is a literal description of "the Forever Winter". And, honestly, in original trilogy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, there is no real scarcity of resources, especialy compared to the real description of "i am a vulnerable scavenger, surviving by the skin of my teeth. And every time i make it back to the safe zone, every time i survive a hostile environment". Sooooo, if you like the motive of "you are not protagonist, you are not this guy", then the Forever Winter is a good option to try out. The game is in early access, but the devs is actively cooking their game and listen all the feedback they recieve.
It was in 2007. Same for me and I remember my PC couldn't handle the game and it was running at 15 FPS. But I had a second PC more powerful on which I could enjoyed the game and it was amazing ! Still on of my favorite franchise to this day !
@@X-Ray_Fox Lol you and me both. I had a voodoo graphics card. I still remember playing counterstrike in early 2000s. I had that game the year it came out 99. I didn’t even have an AGP slot computer. My graphics card was on board and I was playing counterstrike in software mode using juno and beware of dog to eat the banner for free 56K internet. Those were the days. Not sure if any of the things I said mean anything to you, but sigh... Youth. 😆
lol Did you check the system requirements? The old Stalkers could be played, on a 15 year old office PC, while the new Stalker 2 demands exactly the opposite - a new generation, upper class CPU, GPU for a hardcore gaming PC, and one of the first games to demand 32 gigabytes of RAM. :D
@@meganoobbg3387 i still have an old Toshiba laptop, the small one with integrated graphic card...that can still run the game at normal FPS...amazing that i can play it in that little potato . I do not use it anymore, but i keep it and fire-up from time to time for nostalgic reason...and is still working.
3:08 you really should play the metro series. There’s only 3 games and the first two aren’t all that long and even had remasters. Please play metro especially if you liked stalker so much
You are absolutely right brother, you are not the main character, the ZONE is the main character. only 4 days remaining for my personal game of the year even if its not gonna be nominated or mentioned due to its release timing.
I still remember the day I realized Stalker was a game like no other. I was going around the zone doing some quest, following a trail, and suddenly it began to rain inside the game, and I thought; "Oh nice, it's raining", and when I looked at the window, the Sun was high above in the summer heat. Then I realized how freaking immersive this franchise was, no other game has made me feel like that, ever.
Opening the inventory for medkit and bandages is kinda funny, I got so used to just using the shortcut instead of opening the inventory. Edit: Also did you figured out how to quicksave?
It's worse when u leave a safe zone after buying ammo and forget to put your bandages back on the hotkeys, i felt so stupid and lucky after that had happened during a fight that i barely managed to survive.
I'm so glad you're enjoying the game and talking about it. It is definitely the game of my childhood. If you hooked so far, you'll like the whole trilogy. About two years ago I've discovered the GAMMA mod pack. And boy I glad I did. This is whole new immersive and ruthless experience. Hope you gonna give it a shot. Can't wait to see your video recap on the trilogy, though.
One of the many aspects that I really like of the original game is the presence of both 90s dungeons and 2000s open-ish world. Delving into a dungeon to retrieve some precious thing is a very old and powerful trope of European mithology, and its transposition in the form of searching rusty abandoned labs for documents is brilliant. Analogies with the analysis of the sub-conscious part of the psyche are also interesting, where you investigate the workings of the mind trying to find the solution to surface (conscious) problem, and there you find abandoned things (removed memories) and monsters (non-integrated, rejected parts of your self).
The original Stalker trilogy is an experience everyone should try. I recommend Call of Pripyat personally as its the most polished of them all and even though its the last chapter of the story, its an standalone experience with some connections here and there to the previous games. Oh and if you are gonna play the game here is an advice PLAY IT ON THE HARDEST DIFFICULTY TRUST ME. Why do I say this? because the damage model they use escales health and damage equally among every entity in the game, including you, so if you can take 4 headshots and survive while wearing a hoodie, so can do every other hooodie wearing bandit out there, and it just gets worst as tougher enemies come out. So to get a better experience, play it on the hardest difficulty and you'll have a great time. Enemies die with a headshot, weapons feel powerful, you have to be careful but not too much, just enough so it feels immersive and overall the game feels like it was designed with this difficulty as the standard. If you decide to give it a go, enjoy it! its great. See you in the Zone STALKER!
That is a myth. Difficulty only effects damage done to you and the amount of loot enemies have, unguarded headshots always kill enemies on any difficulty and the amount of shots they take the chest does not change. So newbies should not start with the highest difficulty unless they want the game to be way harder.
@@dannymirjanovic8453I actually always found the hardest difficulty to be easier in that it made me always want to shoot for the head to make everything end faster. The damage scaling is an absolute myth, but I don’t think it’s wrong to recommend Master to a noob
You should install the reclamation mod, it's the equivalent of a Bethesda unofficial patch that get's updated over the years by fan's, when you're done with the vanilla game ofc, after that when you get into the modding scene you will understand just how crazy underrated the series has been
i have lost ENTIRE playthoughs to me being bleeding out during a save like 10 20 hours in but i loved EVERY MINUTE OF IT a 3 games and pre'd stalker 2 LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO
Get out of here, Stalker! As someone who just played through it completely blind myself, and I instantly fell in love with it for many similar reasons. So excited to experience the zone in modern graphic fidelity with 2!
I quit the game somwhere in 2008 after going to Argoprom underground and dying to a bloodsucker because i played on hard difficulty. I grew balls a year later and not only that, something at the back of my mind was telling me to go back. After that im obsessed with Stalker
„Gothic” is a good game you may want to try if you want this feeling of immersion and being nobody. Mandalore made a video on it which also says how to get it working well
Also as pointer to play SoC - first game Clear Sky -prologue to SoC Call of Pripyat - follow after the event of SoC Anomay - Fan made free mod compounding all the previous game maps and happen after CoP, you truly play as a nobody there
@3:06 Man, I had that same feeling about Metro too, but about a month ago I decided to play through the whole trilogy and wow. Despite their age, those games are amazing and completely immersive. It took me about 50 hours to play all 3 and I wish there was more. The atmosphere, story, voice acting, animations, etc, they're all top tier. When you have another lull in what to play I strongly recommend playing through them.
@@Lewiski9356 lol ouch. Yeah I got the bad ending on the first game, then the good one on the other two. To be fair, getting all the moral points on the first game basically requires a guide.
I have yet to find another franchise like metro and that saddens me, I can only hope that whatever comes next for metro it keeps the same soul that the previous games have.
@@platniumdr ' first game basically requires a guide.' or a total loot goblin that searches every square inch of the game lol, I managed to get the good ending in 2033 on my 1st ever run though of it not even knowing about the moral points. You get most of them from hidden' areas off the main path eg random stashes and hideouts or just dead folks that you get a flashback of their last moments etc. I can play most games with no issues but a good few sections in each all the Metro games get me on edge still...soem parts are just creepy asf.....those games just ooze pure atmosphere!
I'm also finally playing through Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl for the first time for the same reason (Stalker 2 releasing soon) and I'm also playing it unmodded. The closest thing I can think of that this beautiful experience reminds me of so far is honestly The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which honestly took me off guard, but like you said it's that feeling of exploring a hostile and alien world, getting lost and being almost unable to resist that alluring urge to push further into places that you know you probably shouldn't go, along with the feeling of just being a normal person in this huge world with the opportunity to prove yourself and gain the respect of the factions and friends you meet along the way. Also of course the level of jank and the incredible level of ambition, along with the hand crafted world for you to explore filled with characters to talk to that have intriguing predominantly text-based dialogue full of interesting world building and lore. Even then, when you factor in things like the dynamic AI and occurrences going on in the world around you then you realise that Stalker is something very unique that doesn't really have any direct comparisons to other games owing to it being a sort of "chimera game". Didn't mean to ramble here, but I just find this game fascinating in a way that I haven't felt since falling in love with games like Morrowind and Kenshi (which is another very unique game with a very dynamic world that goes on around you, where you just feel like a small part of it, struggling desperately to survive). I'm still discovering your channel so I don't know if you've already played Morrowind or Kenshi before... I'd of course highly recommend them if you haven't, but if you already have played one or both of them I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on what kind of journey you had in whichever strange, bizarre and beautiful world(s) that you got to explore... Until then, wishing you all the best of luck with your adventures throughout The Zone! ^-^
Back in the day, a lot of people did make the comparison of STALKER with Morrowind. That feeling of left unguided, to your own misfortunes, of traveling almost aimlessly, discovering abandoned areas with an incredible ambience was only retaken by the Souls games later. And even then, it's not quite the same. It's a shame there are so few of these games with that level of cohesion and yet offer of pure freedom that comes from people that cared more about their taste, rather than what the market demands.
This is what I LOVE about the FPS genre. You can have an experience like Doom Eternal where you're the most powerful badass character to a game like this where you ain't even got plot armour and still have huge fun in both games.
Honestly, I've been playing Stalker since 2007 and I breeze through the Stalker games but I really struggle with and never finished Doom Eternal.. I have no sense of rythm (whether music or otherwise) and I have heard say that you need a feel for rythm to beat games like Doom Eternal or Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (coincidentally also breeze through the Souls games but can't beat Sekiro for the life of me) so for me it's the other way around I actually do feel like a badass in Stalker lol, it might help that I know all the Stalker games inside and out but yeah..
A couple of notes: It's based on the book "A Roadside Picnic" where aliens visit earth, and the anomalies are basically their trash. There's "mods" that are only graphics upgrades, and some that include bug fixes, without altering gameplay.
I went into this game totally blind cause it came in some sort of bundle. After dying multiple times in the tutorial mission against some bandits I was ready to give up on the game but I decided to explore a bit first. I climbed up a hill behind the starting area and suddenly came across this horrible pig mutant creature. I was ready to fight but instead the pig inexplicably starting rising into the air, spinning more and more rapidly, and then it exploded! After that I had to stick with the game to figure out what the hell was going on, and it became one of my favourites
I used to explore my backhill with my brother and we went further and further as well and made a secret base with gaming magazines, we used to go to our local elementary school when it was covered in fog and climb on the roof and your stories brought me right back to those days. I've had my eye on games like Metro, Day Z and Fallout 76 for a while now looking for this kind of experience in gaming. I like fantasy rpgs like Dark Souls and Runescape but I played New Vegas for the first time a couple months ago and it got me interest again in the industrial "post apocolyptic modern city wearing a gas mask in an abandoned subway surrounded by zombies" type of games. Games like Project Zomboid caught my eye. I wishlisted this game a couple weeks ago and after seeing this video it just seems like a sign I need to try it. Your praise has sold me honestly, the experience sounds too fun, I love relying on sound cues and exploring abandoned buildings with limited supplies. I love the lack of HUD and handholding, the grid inventory with gritty environments and survival elements. Plus you have a Berserk shirt on so I trust your judgement. 😂 I'm done yapping now but great video dude I'm glad I found your channel recently it's solid content.
@bubrub5564 i loved Call of Pripyat, but it was built on the X-Ray engine and was like the culmination of iteration on the first game. This IS the first full blown stand-alone sequel in the STALKER franchise.
@@jonpro9637 I don't see how a game being on the same engine as its predecessors would negate it from being a sequel. Thats how it is for the vast majority of game series. Thats like saying Bethesda never made a sequel for Morrowind because Oblivion and Skyrim were on the same engine.
I really envy your innocence in the zone, i cannot tell you how much i'd love to be a kid and explore it for the first time, you're in for a long ride and i hope you have a great and philosophically rewarding escape in the zone I also noticed how you got better at essential inventory management through the gameplay by the specific looting and artifact belt build. Good hunting!
I remember the good old days when PC game reviewers, and gamers (because they were one and the same), complained non-stop about autosave and checkpoints that devs insisted on putting in new games. PC gamers just wanted quicksave, quickload, and as many save slots as possible. The end. Autosave and checkpoints are concepts normalized by consoles.
The whole original ltrilogy is amazing. Back when it was coming out it didn't even feel that janky, because more games were like that at the time, where the idea and gameplay were significantly more prioritized compared to QOL improvements. The developers of course released a few bugfix patches, too, so it was fine. There are numerous mods for modern pc optimisation improvements, graphical updates, gameplay updates, and whole new story mods which practically are a different game on same engine within same universe.
I fear that a lot of the things that make S.T.A.L.K.E.R. being S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wasn't so much done on purpose. And we will not see a whole lot of that in the upcoming game.
That's my fear too. But i do think that the ATMOSPHERE will be there. And hopefully they'll NOT dub EVERY NPC. One of the things that sold S.T.A.L.K.E.R to me is the fact that pratically no one spoke english. That, and the AI and enviroments, really made the game for me.
Absolute truth known by any long-time STALKER fan. The game succeeded just in spite of everything, biggest part ofc is it's modding community. Even in 2007, like couple of months after release, I'm pretty sure I was already installing mods and tweaking shit myself because it was done poorly in my opinion. Their choice of game engine really makes me question their entire vision of their game and their understanding of reasons behind its relative success.
Though, I definitely understand why it flew under your radar in 2007 with what all came out that year (you forgot to mention The Orange Box from Valve, that was even bigger than Halo 3) I did happen to play the original Stalker back then and I was obsessed with it (and the half life comparison is fair because that's how it felt to me, too, back then, as a Half Life fan) and I got both expansions on day 1 when those 2 released, and Heart of Chernobyl is my biggest game this year (it was my biggest game for 2023 until it was rightfully delayed) I totally relate to your experience and understand exactly the feeling you're trying to explain
Nice to know that you enjoyed one of my favorite games of my youth so much. When I played Half Life 2 back then, it also reminded me of STALKER. Both games take place in a run-down and inhospitable Eastern Europe, throw you more or less abruptly into the world and have an unfathomable mystery wafting around in the background.
I highly recommend the mod-framework "Anomaly" and for that the mod pack "Gamma". "STALKER: Gamma" is easily one of the best open-world RPGs right now when it comes to immersion - maybe even the best. And it's literally a pack of mods for a >15 years old game.
I have only finished Show of Chernobyl. I played the other two but never finished it. I really do love these games though. I have played few games with atmosphere as immersive as STALKER. Definitely janky though. So i can see why some wouldn't enjoy it. But for those with a little bit of patience, and a love for the unknown, STALKER is a must play. Not your traditional shooting gallery FPS. Tho it has its moments, its more about the environment rather than shooting things. I hope everyone else finds enjoyment in this series. We need more games like this. Wild to me you made this video without even finishing the game. Im so happy it made such a good impression on you. I really hope you give us another video once you roll the credits. I feel the end of the game has the best of all the elements the game has to offer. I have a clip of being attacked by a poltergeist on my tiktok that i will never forget. Like you, I haven't been genuinely jump scared in a long time. but these games had me do it multiple times.
Go play the Anomaly mod. It stabilizes the game and adds in a lot of cut content and changes stuff up. It adds and improves on a ton of systems. And it more or less combines all 3 of the original stalker games into one experience. It is 100% worth your time. EDIT: Ah. You've met a controller. Fun fact, when it rips your camera off of your player model you still have your hands. They're just disabled while you're being pulled. If you pull the pin on a grenade and start cooking it, when it pulls you towards it you can actually release the grenade and it will fall near the controller. It's very stupid. Enjoy!
@@ChrisSmout Yeah I was in *that* hallway and this was my first encounter with one. It killed me 7 or 8 times and I was on call with a friend and he was laughing at me. I tried throwing the grenade and that didn't go far enough and then I just asked. "Does it move just the camera or the action to?" or "is the action attached to the model or the camera?" or something to that effect. He didn't know so, since I had nothing to lose, I gave it a shot. And it worked. Don't remember which mods I was running at the time. Might have been misery (this was a decade ago at least).
@@lukkkasz323 What do you mean highly inaccurate? It adds in cut content creatures and a whole faction. It uses systems and quests from all 3 games. It makes the game crash less. It makes less glitches happen. It gives you more systems to work with such as wiping your face mask and a real time PDA and revamping the artifact system including ones from the book. It even adds the anomalies from the book. Its a lot of little improvements. I left some stuff out, yeah, but I also don't want to spoil some of the big stuff.
@AgentSapphire It doesn't have the main story of any of the three games, how would that even work, they are logically incompatible, played with 3 different main charcters intertwined in different times, places and gameplay rules. Gameplay is very different because it's based on Misery, which is meant for experienced players looking for a specific experience (this is said by the dev, not me). And by the name itself you can figure out what kind of experience that is.
As an old timer Stalker, the pain I felt when you were bleeding, on 5 hp, and opened your inventory, to right click and use a medkit, is indescribable. Great video, welcome to the zone greenhorn :)
Hey man that first impression of yours is invaluable. I play STALKER everyday but I wish I could really feel it again. I still remember vaguely the menu music, it captures the game so well, then the sky, the sounds, the atmosphere...man it's the most immersive game ever.
I just installed STALKER yet again - this time STALKER-Anomaly, with the modpack "Escape From Pripyat(EFP)" installed. It looks amazing - but I'm right back there with you... a single bullet, and I'm bleeding out... a single mis-step and I'm irradiated. I'm chucking smokes and vodka to clear my radiation, while patching myself up, limb by limb. No game today has anywhere near this level if immersion.
Two things STALKER always nailed -Unforgiving living world -Immersion/atmosphere BTW most highly recommend you play on the highest difficulty : its just make everything die faster, lower diff just make everyone more like bullet sponge
Thats a myth, difficulty effects how much damage enemies do to YOU and how much loot they have on them. You always do the exact same amount of damage to enemies and headshots on enemies without helmets is always an instant kill. Players who are just starting should absolutely play on a lower difficulty.
It's always great seeing someone get into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Don't forget to use E and Q so you can lean while aiming. That will also help you survive gun fights a bit more than sticking your entire body out to aim at an enemy.
To anyone watching this video i shall give YOU couple of tips: -Play the game on hardest difficulty. This is an odd one but difficulty settings work in a weird way in these games. You take more damage but so does the enemy -Keep quick save button close to your fingers. You die fast, alot and sometimes you dont even know what killed you. Dont wanna lose any of that sweet progress because the air just decided to murder you -DO NOT MOD your first playtrough. Many of the mods and fixes change the core gameplay taking away the real experience -Its an old game from a dev that had ALOT of issues. The game is janky and weird when compared to almost anything else. You get used to it, dont worry Have fun and immerse yourself in a game that is a certified legend and one of the great ones
Very good video, I like how you put the emphasis on the atmosphere. Atmosphere could be Stalker's middle name, really. It's an incredible game, and there is a reason why people still play it today, after nearly 20 years.
My takeaway from this is he really needs to play metro. Metro does everything stalker does, with a well crafted narrative, interesting characters, and gameplay that hasn’t aged nearly as much
Metro is much more in line with typical narrative shooters like F.E.A.R. while STALKER is more similar to an old school unforgiving rpg. The only common thing between them is the setting and the guitars around a campfire. Metro is a very linear game and great at that, but the two experiences are very different imo
The Zone is like nothing else. I'm an open-world guy so I usually just become a zoner for months at a time playing nothing but Anomaly (in limited free time of course.) It's that kind of "forever game" where you just live in the world and stay engaged for as long as you can stand the grim, oppressive Zone. Cannot wait for the latest entry in the series.
Download Ash Echoes Global now: ae.neocraftstudio.com/LegendaryDrops
If you liked the game, playing GAMMA modpack is gonna blow your mind
Greedy Add, no surprises there...
@@AleksanderNevskij47 Let people earn their living
@@AleksanderNevskij47 Just skip it lmao. It's a hell of a lot better than youtube's forced unskippable ads, ain't it?
Legendary Drops, I was writing a paper that I wanted to be able to source some of the recent outrage from games media and how that backlash is misplaced on several layers and doing more damage to the LGBT community than true racists and bigots ever could and i started to notice a trend in that the harder i looked the harder it was for me to find those articles, "Toxic Gamer Culture Is a Social Problem" - Polygon, "The Problem With Representation in Games" - Kotaku "How Gaming’s 'Toxic' Fandom Is Changing" - The Verge "The Problem with 'Toxic' Gamer Culture and Representation" - Polygon to name a few examples that seem to have just disappeared, might be worth looking into if for nothing else to prove me wrong and say im just blind, if not... theres a story there
20:10 - There are no bugs in Stalker! Only anomalies!)
I was born in the jank, moulded by it
@@jackburton1455 I didn't see polish until I was already a man. By then, it was nothing to me but blinding.
True
@@zen_7748 😆👍
There are no original comments on TH-cam, just regurgitations.
Czech here, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has always been a cultural phenomenon here, to this day we (and other European countires) have larp-airsoft groups doing Zone things. Kinda proud that GSC found sanctuary in our country to finish the game (even if I have.. nothing to do with it). Really excited for the second one, it very well may push Metaphor down to 2nd in my 2024 top list.
Was a big hit in Poland also :^)
that sounds so awesome.
if ure so proud why polish want ukrainian refugees to be gone?
Romania as well
@@blokkymon336 hello, sweetie, I am Russian, do you wanna play IRL Modern Warfare and get unalived for $10 000 instead of my man? If not, you better shuddup and go be edgy on the internet about any other topic, clearly you have no clue how the world works outside your momma's basement and what war is.
It's always beautiful to watch a rookie in the zone
Liveleak has lots of footage of that rn lol
@DerekS-kq3zh but liveleak is no longer airing 😢😢
R.I.P. liveleak
"it was somewhat like fallout"
WRONG
DEAD WRONG
@@ryszakowy dobra tam ćśśś daj mu sie potknąć o własne słowa
@@ryszakowy it would sound weird, but fallout 1 (yes, that old as mammoth shit, isometric game) is a somewat good comparison. its the same "Idk what is behind the corner" atmospheric experience
Dude I am from Czech Republic and the game was huge hit in the eastern Europe at the time. Everyone played and really liked it. The world is so similar to what you can normally see in post soviet eastern countries. The team really knocked it out of the park with these games.
Was a huge hit everywhere lol
Yes, we never had complex games based on the post soviet scenery. I remember going outside around my town and any abandoned or damaged building had that SoC vibe. I could never truly relate to Fallout, but I could relate to this.
Dobrý den! I love the Czech Republic and am just starting Shadow of Chernobyl and even from my limited experience of Eastern Europe, I totally agree with you how authentic it feels in terms of the environment. Loving the game.
The "you are a nobody" aspect of games is so good, it gives you room to grow and prove yourself. You should play Gothic if you like this aspect.
If anything, you’re an inconvenience to the world and its people. There are far more qualified stalkers than you.
The zone has no problem keeping you in check and breaking your spirit.
Kenshi , Morrowind , From the Depths, Dark Souls, Gothic and Stalker, they are all different genres but these are some games i can think of that you will only grow by getting your ass kicked followed by a steep learning curve.
Turns out you were somebody
The remake ist comming end of this year or beginning next year
How about Subnautica? You're just the guy that lucked out crashing on an alien planet.
****Edit*****
Oh, he mention it later in the video. XD
You have to LEAN my guy! You can lean left and right to peek around corners, which helps against the getting shot in the face issues a bit.
But seriously, welcome to the zone, glad to hear that it's still got that magic for a new player in 2024. Not a lot of seventeen year old games holds up as well.
Also the double crouch and the effect it has on your aim.
Welcome to the Zone stalker, people don't know how ahead of its time this franchise was and how great are the survival and the immersion.
Ahhh the good old modern gaming palette cleanser by Stalker, where manual saving via F5 is the animalistic imbued reaction by the end of the game.
Edit. You should from time to time create a "hard save" 1,2,3, and so on. X-ray engine is in crashed and non crashed state all the time.
As is tradition 😆
Good old times.
And a great way to develop quicksavitis. Man... I heard Anomaly got an update, time for a refresh
one of the problem that is with the game now...
A lot of new keyboards have in F1-F12 double function, so sometime you want to heal yourself fast or quick save, and instead you close the sound, press play for some video that will open....is super confusing.
I just search and old keyboard and using it specific with this game.
> F5
> Take out knife
> Die to mutant immediately
> Continue the cycle for few hundred hours
> Always a pleasure
damn, my mom never sponsored my videos
damn, didn't expect that one💀
Don't know how to break it for you Kyrie, but you're adopted!
😂
you talking about YT or OF vids ???
Nah, because she was busy getting folded like an omelette and split like a banana.
I will never forget that first Bloodsucker encounter, just brilliant
the Burer throwing things at you is scare as hell too, had innumerous heart attacks playing gamma
Gosh I'm not the only one?
@@danielchacal2866 naaah. fist X lab with the poltergeist and fireballs
hehehe ever been to the blood sucker village?
It's funny that the first enemy of that Sewer is a Bloodsucker and the last enemy when you're about to leave the Sewer is a Controller, and they both manages to catch the player Off guard.
Played stalker in 2007. What a damn vibe that game was. Chilling with homies by the campfire playing guitar while a pack of mutated dogs tore up some other lone stalker in the distance
The ambience in the STALKER games is what really sets it apart from a lot of other games imo. Just listening to wtf was going on around you could be quite unsettling.. Nothing worse than been hold up in a house with a bloodsucker stalking around outside and all you can do is sit an listen to it running about hoping it doesn't work out how to use the door/doorway and decided to come inside and say hello. I've lost count of the amount of times in all the STALKER games where I've literally been sat in silence with a SPAZ 12 in hand waiting for whatever was outside to try coming through the door to the room im hiding in, soo much atmosphere.
@@Legion563 oh yea. i remember even in 2007 and for 2007 standards, it was a super jank and buggy game, yet still somehow one of my favorites simply because of its atmosphere and your personal will to persevere through the zone and get to that "wish granter" youve been hearing so much about and uncover the truth.
I wish I could have played it when it was new. I remember following rumors that Witcher and Stalker were gonna come to Xbox 360 and really hoping that they were true, because my PC was outdated at that point, and I ended up getting a 360 dirt cheap, because someone I knew needed to pay off warrants to get out of jail... Not sure how that version turned out, but I guess it did finally come to console. It just took like 15 years :p
Cheeki Breeki intensifies.
Can't wait to "Get out there, Stalker!" back into the Zone. It will be glorious. I think Stalker games are flawed diamonds that are one of a kind. The Metro game came close, but they were way more streamlined than what Stalker did 5 years prior.
Metro is nice but I prefer REAL OPEN WORLD
Let's be honest, the Metro lose post Soviet vibe and was just cringe because it was created by people with Western left-liberal views. And you know what that leads to in games.😂
Dude, wait until you play Call of Pripyat. Call of Pripyat is the quintessential refinement of what STALKER is. It's... fantastic. It's more refined, less janky, more structured. It's amazing, absolutely.
CoP story and quests are the GOAT
SoC is where it’s at. CoP is mid
Clearsky is still a pretty good game, but never gets the love
Less janky STALKER is a less quirky STALKER
Some like it, some don't
Yeah the AI and the random events that just happen, i dont have the worlds for it. When in the night i saw in the distance that a bunch of duty stalkers were fighting a bunch of mutants, than thoose mutants dragging off the corpses just brutal.
One time in the night i found myself in some lake and 2 bloodsuckers showed up, useless to say at this point i did not have any night geer and just shi...ed myself.
Happy to see people rediscovering this gem and enjoying it immensely.
I was obsessed with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ever since I saw the trailer for Oblivion Lost (that was the name at the time) back in 2002. This dark atmosphere and the idea of exploring abandoned military bases and secret underground laboratories with mutants roaming around gripped me. I'll never forget my first playthrough. Leaving the rookie camp with nothing but a pistol and very little provisions and being sent to that first bandit camp only to almost die to a bandit with a double barrel shotgun... Crossing the railway on the way to garbage area in one of two ways; a side tunnel that has an electrical anomaly that requires timing to cross or following the road straight and getting shot by the soldiers who had AK's... Before reaching the level exit almost getting ripped apart by a gravitational anomaly and a pack of mutated, blind dogs... Then you reach the garbage and find a couple of friendly loners sitting by a campfire, telling stories, drinking vodka, having a meal... And then they all go silent and one of them pulls out an acoustic guitar and plays a beautiful melody that makes you feel better... And the Zone is not that horrible of a place in those moments... It really is special.
As a Polish person who grew up in the 80s, I always admired how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games managed to capture the atmosphere of eastern Europe communist vibes brilliantly.
You absolutely need to play those games with original dub for proper experience.
Language barrier, though.
But yeah, the English translation does give the atmosphere of Soviet thieves' cant disservice.
They should have went with cockney.
it's hilarious how 99% of the players probably died the same way to that controller on lab x-16 the first time they went down there
Stalker may be clunky, but its clunky with a soul. A trait not many modern games have
something it sounds like you are missing is the fact that there are currently 3 complete games from the STALKER series, Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Pripyat. each of those 3 games also has it's own set of mods. "STALKER 2" is actually the FOURTH game in the series released by the developers. in my personal opinion you should at least check out Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat before diving into mods.
Learn to press F5, learn to use Healing hotkeys. And you do have an indicator of how many human NPC's are in the vicinity below mini-map. The random beeps indicate this. 👍
pfft amateur mistake, real pc gamers map those buttons on their mouse.
@@arkgaharandan5881 I have weapon firing modes and attachments on side mouse buttons for extra immersion.
Learn to lean and double crouch ha ha
Looks like we have a new Stalker fan boys.
We got em.
It's funny how as someone who comes from eastern europe I never knew stalker released same year as halo because I never heard of halo until they released halo reach but I have been wondering the zone since like 6th grade!
My pc was shit at the time. It couldn't even run modern warfare because my GPU had 128 mb of ram (CoD MW required at least 256). So I pretty much grew up with stalker games.
I got a friend into GAMMA, since I knew he wouldn't be able to stomach the original STALKER games in their wild, unkempt fury. He spent the first couple of hours in complete silence, getting his arse handed to him repeatedly. I finally asked him what he thought, and he said "I love it". We then spent weeks on Discord together, sharing stories, watching him stream his playthrough, sharing tips and tricks. This is a guy who has the attention span of a goldfish and craves instant gratification, yet STALKER got it's hooks into him and just didn't let go.
Glad you're enjoying it, it's definitely a one-of-a-kind experience.
I mean I kind of get what you say but GAMMA is like a completely different experience from the original stalke gameplay wise. With Stalker 2 releasing soon it will be interesting if Stalker 2 follows more the original Stalker or leans towards what GAMMA and other mods did. If its like the original games it will be somewhat of a system shock to many player that have only really played GAMMA.
So how does Gamma change the base game up
@@laszlodajka5946 Check OperatorDrewski videos of GAMMA
@@laszlodajka5946 Yeah drastically. From a linear story-driven shooter in open locaitons, to a big open-world shooter with heavy survival elements and proceduraly generated quests
@@laszlodajka5946OG Stalker is more like Metro Exodus (it’s the opposite of course but you know what I mean) while the sandbox mods like GAMMA feel like playing a game like Mount and Blade but instead of a dude raising an army and doing jobs to make money in medieval times, you’re a dude in a post apocalyptic exclusion zone filled with mutants and other dudes trying to kill you while you take on jobs to make money, improve your guns and survive.
I would say the original games are more of a sci fi shooter with RPG elements and a great story (the first one) while the sandbox mods feel like a “Roadside Picnic Simulator”.
Crazy how your experience with Stalker was a lot like mine in 2007. You nailed the nail on the head about how the atmosphere is fucking spot on in making you feel like you are there. Everything else helps build upon it to a point
EDIT; props for playing unmodded. Also play the other 2 games unmodded. A lot of the experience is dictated by the original presentation
Yeah, many western fans would often urge the newbies to play Anomaly with a gazillion tacticool addons, totally ruining the original experience.
Chornobyl Powe Plant actually was a warzone in 2022 for few months.
That's true. Russian troops were located in a lot of high radiation zones. Digs the trenches etc. That was insane to watch. Not a long time after that most of them were send to radiology clinic at Belarus, if I remember correctly. Insane
Had this series in my Steam library for years. Finally decided to dive in old school style. Modded the heck out of it to improve the visuals but other then that played vanilla. Wow what a down and dirty experience that really proves that atmosphere, challenge and true danger to the player makes for the most engaging experiences just like From games. Amazing title that deserves way more juice.
I wish they remaster the trilogy some time. Stalker and metro are the 2 best post apocalyptic settings I've ever experienced
There is a mod called Gamma, iit upgrades graphic and gameplay and put all three games into one big package, semi open world. It's free online.
@foxdoe7540 oh yeah I know about gamma and alpha. They are absolutely fire but gamma imo is wayyy too much for me. It's like tarkov on steroids when it comes to combat
You know they released the whole trilogy remastered earlier this year, right? It's called Legends of the Zone or something.
@@DanOfTheHill Yeah, literally a few months back lmao
Metro is stupid and full of bullshit. The books are pure anti-socialist propaganda, while the entire living on VDNH station is clearly socialist regime. Writer clearly doesn't understand anything he criticizes.
Stalker is entirely stolen from Strugatsky brothers.
Most people talk shit about the game and the jank and don't have the balls to finish it, i still time to time replay it with the Zone Reclamation Project.
Really hope Stalker 2 is that Journalist filter.
I played and beat all 3, had issues with 2, couldn't beat the guy from the first game as he was bugged, had to go back to a save 2 hrs prior to beat game.
Very lame
Its coming to consoles too so most likely not. Lets hope I'm wrong.
@@Suomiwimbula we shall hope brother
@@Elnegro.. Only 2hs consider yourself lucky, i had a mission marker stuck on Shadow half of the game to discover that the true ending was never going to trigger (i got it on the second playthrough), because the script bugout days before, with Zone Reclamation Project(mod) the game is more stable, but it's not 100%, unfortunately.
@@Suomiwimbula it's coming to Xbox only and that's because Microsoft funded if I'm remembering correctly. I dont think being on a console will change the way the devs decisions for the game.
Shadow of Chernobyl is a gem
Stalker reminds me of a lesson I learned about anime (bear with me, there's a point). I introduced my buddy to anime about 10 years ago, and at that time modern anime was pretty decent still, but I introduced him to the classics first (Cowboy Beebop, FLCL, Gurrenn Lagann). When he started branching off on his own, he actually started going backwards from where I was at. Where I was content with a lot of modern anime, he was convinced the older stuff was better. And he kept finding more. Brought me along for the ride. Overtime, I stopped being able to just passively watch anime because today because the older stuff was leagues ahead in so many ways.
Gaming is the same, imo. I'm going back through my current library of games and find myself pretty content with things, because I don't really need something new and flashy. I just want the game to be fun, and older games actually offer a level of challenge that is totally divorced from modern, mobile style, always on rails gameplay. I love your content in general, but I prefer these nostalgia pro gamer videos instead :)
I bought the game when it was released but I never finished, but I clearly remembered the moment I understood it was something original: I was walking along a road when I heard shooting and screming coming from a nerby building; I stopped and hid because I thought it was an ambush, but then I realized they weren't even aware of me: they were two rival groups killing each other. When the shooting stopped, I got closer, I killed the last standing guy and took all the loot. And in that moment I realized that it was no longer me vs. the baddies: I was just some guy trying to accomplish his task in a world that didn't revolve around me; I was a character like anyone else in the exclusion zone, and this, in 2007, blew my mind.
"The same year as Halo 3, Bioshock, Mass Effect and Modern Warfare"
Yeah, I'm happy to say that I chose Stalker over those game.
The only one I played a little from those was Bioshock.
I never played hello, bioshit of mourr effects ... Let The Zone take me if I am...
Also I love it has rpg elements but in a realistic yet effective way. Too many games try make enemies harder by just giving them more health and bs numbers and levels like you'll see a floating number above their head. But this game makes the enemies difficulty based on their armour and weapons so the risk reward is insane. I remember how badass i felt when i somehow no lie took down a military squad with only the pistol and being just really smart with my tactics. it was EASY to die so it felt earned to take such a risk and win
They also flanked and gave suppressing fire as well, which is sorely lacking in games.
Watching this video makes me wanna replay stalker all 3 games and enjoy them again
I love STALKER, have completed all 3 games, and those are one of my favorite games ever.
But I think part of your astonishment is because you haven't played Metro series either, because the same team managed to recreate a lot of what you're voicing: the exploratio, the sound design, sense of danger. Seriously, give Metro a try, with the remasters it's even better
Oh man, so glad you gave Stalker a try. This game was super popular in Ukraine whenever it came out. All my classmates were playing it back than.
I'm really happy that people from west are now aware about its existence. Stalker is one of the most immersive games in my opinion.
Btw, you can use hotkeys to use bandages or medkits without opening an inventory.
I remember. Stalker AND Crysis released that year.
And the *diots were like: "Look at the graphics! Crysis, yeah!"
I played both. Stalker had bugs, wasn't really finished. But it had its own identity, great atmosphere and tension.
you are my brother from another mother...I got both back in 2007 ..when ever a friend was coming home I would shoot crysis to impress them with the graphics of my newly bought video card that could barely run it (technically the most impressive game up to then and even better than the sequels...I love cryengine) but when I was alone I would always end up playing STALKER for everything else...the game revolusionised: 1. AI-Life not AI 2. Perfect atmosphere with sky cubes 3. bullet trajectories (not like COD hit register) 4. AI would fight everyone and not only you...games up to that point were aiming only the PC....and much more....I really hope STALKER 2 is as good ...but deep inside I know it will be like Prypiat which was a farce and the choise of Unreal engine 5 is really dissapointing for me
I played every Metro game and I can definitely recommend the whole series. They remade the first ones and Exodus is amazing...
Bottom right number on the mini-map shows how many people are nearby in your area, doesn't show mutants though. Took me a long time to notice it and put 2 + 2 together.
I wish you could feel the immersion of a person growing up in 80s and 90s in that region. There where so many moments, where I just felt "I've been there" or "I know this place, it's right around the corner". The touch of reality instantly teleported my mind into the game.
Welcome to the Zone, stalker.
*Get out of here Stalker*
This section from 5:48 - 6:04 is a literal description of "the Forever Winter".
And, honestly, in original trilogy of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, there is no real scarcity of resources, especialy compared to the real description of "i am a vulnerable scavenger, surviving by the skin of my teeth. And every time i make it back to the safe zone, every time i survive a hostile environment".
Sooooo, if you like the motive of "you are not protagonist, you are not this guy", then the Forever Winter is a good option to try out. The game is in early access, but the devs is actively cooking their game and listen all the feedback they recieve.
I remember when I first played that game on PC I really loved it. It was so good. I think that was back in like 2003 or 2005. I can’t wait for 2
2007
It was in 2007. Same for me and I remember my PC couldn't handle the game and it was running at 15 FPS. But I had a second PC more powerful on which I could enjoyed the game and it was amazing ! Still on of my favorite franchise to this day !
@@X-Ray_Fox Lol you and me both. I had a voodoo graphics card. I still remember playing counterstrike in early 2000s. I had that game the year it came out 99. I didn’t even have an AGP slot computer. My graphics card was on board and I was playing counterstrike in software mode using juno and beware of dog to eat the banner for free 56K internet. Those were the days. Not sure if any of the things I said mean anything to you, but sigh... Youth. 😆
lol Did you check the system requirements? The old Stalkers could be played, on a 15 year old office PC, while the new Stalker 2 demands exactly the opposite - a new generation, upper class CPU, GPU for a hardcore gaming PC, and one of the first games to demand 32 gigabytes of RAM. :D
@@meganoobbg3387 i still have an old Toshiba laptop, the small one with integrated graphic card...that can still run the game at normal FPS...amazing that i can play it in that little potato .
I do not use it anymore, but i keep it and fire-up from time to time for nostalgic reason...and is still working.
Looks like we got a new Stalker in the zone, make sure to mind your step and watch out for those cheeki breeki's.
3:08 you really should play the metro series. There’s only 3 games and the first two aren’t all that long and even had remasters. Please play metro especially if you liked stalker so much
You are absolutely right brother, you are not the main character, the ZONE is the main character. only 4 days remaining for my personal game of the year even if its not gonna be nominated or mentioned due to its release timing.
I still remember the day I realized Stalker was a game like no other.
I was going around the zone doing some quest, following a trail, and suddenly it began to rain inside the game, and I thought; "Oh nice, it's raining", and when I looked at the window, the Sun was high above in the summer heat. Then I realized how freaking immersive this franchise was, no other game has made me feel like that, ever.
Opening the inventory for medkit and bandages is kinda funny, I got so used to just using the shortcut instead of opening the inventory.
Edit: Also did you figured out how to quicksave?
It's worse when u leave a safe zone after buying ammo and forget to put your bandages back on the hotkeys, i felt so stupid and lucky after that had happened during a fight that i barely managed to survive.
@Analog-to-digital-cotinual pretty sure that's from CoP and not SoC but ok
I'm so glad you're enjoying the game and talking about it. It is definitely the game of my childhood. If you hooked so far, you'll like the whole trilogy.
About two years ago I've discovered the GAMMA mod pack. And boy I glad I did. This is whole new immersive and ruthless experience. Hope you gonna give it a shot.
Can't wait to see your video recap on the trilogy, though.
One of the many aspects that I really like of the original game is the presence of both 90s dungeons and 2000s open-ish world. Delving into a dungeon to retrieve some precious thing is a very old and powerful trope of European mithology, and its transposition in the form of searching rusty abandoned labs for documents is brilliant. Analogies with the analysis of the sub-conscious part of the psyche are also interesting, where you investigate the workings of the mind trying to find the solution to surface (conscious) problem, and there you find abandoned things (removed memories) and monsters (non-integrated, rejected parts of your self).
The original Stalker trilogy is an experience everyone should try. I recommend Call of Pripyat personally as its the most polished of them all and even though its the last chapter of the story, its an standalone experience with some connections here and there to the previous games.
Oh and if you are gonna play the game here is an advice PLAY IT ON THE HARDEST DIFFICULTY TRUST ME. Why do I say this? because the damage model they use escales health and damage equally among every entity in the game, including you, so if you can take 4 headshots and survive while wearing a hoodie, so can do every other hooodie wearing bandit out there, and it just gets worst as tougher enemies come out.
So to get a better experience, play it on the hardest difficulty and you'll have a great time. Enemies die with a headshot, weapons feel powerful, you have to be careful but not too much, just enough so it feels immersive and overall the game feels like it was designed with this difficulty as the standard.
If you decide to give it a go, enjoy it! its great.
See you in the Zone STALKER!
That is a myth. Difficulty only effects damage done to you and the amount of loot enemies have, unguarded headshots always kill enemies on any difficulty and the amount of shots they take the chest does not change. So newbies should not start with the highest difficulty unless they want the game to be way harder.
@@dannymirjanovic8453I actually always found the hardest difficulty to be easier in that it made me always want to shoot for the head to make everything end faster. The damage scaling is an absolute myth, but I don’t think it’s wrong to recommend Master to a noob
You should install the reclamation mod, it's the equivalent of a Bethesda unofficial patch that get's updated over the years by fan's, when you're done with the vanilla game ofc, after that when you get into the modding scene you will understand just how crazy underrated the series has been
i have lost ENTIRE playthoughs to me being bleeding out during a save like 10 20 hours in but i loved EVERY MINUTE OF IT a 3 games and pre'd stalker 2 LETS GOOOOOOOOOOO
Hell yeah. Im glad you're playing this
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Metro series are good games.
Get out of here, Stalker!
As someone who just played through it completely blind myself, and I instantly fell in love with it for many similar reasons. So excited to experience the zone in modern graphic fidelity with 2!
STALKER beats Fallout, hands down.
The fact you could set it to Survival and accuracy and pacing became so important
Those translucent monsters broke me when I was a child. I never finished this game.
I quit the game somwhere in 2008 after going to Argoprom underground and dying to a bloodsucker because i played on hard difficulty. I grew balls a year later and not only that, something at the back of my mind was telling me to go back. After that im obsessed with Stalker
Ah... Always so fun to see new people enjoy the Zone.
„Gothic” is a good game you may want to try if you want this feeling of immersion and being nobody. Mandalore made a video on it which also says how to get it working well
Also as pointer to play
SoC - first game
Clear Sky -prologue to SoC
Call of Pripyat - follow after the event of SoC
Anomay - Fan made free mod compounding all the previous game maps and happen after CoP, you truly play as a nobody there
Love to hear it. Hope the second one pulls through.
@3:06 Man, I had that same feeling about Metro too, but about a month ago I decided to play through the whole trilogy and wow. Despite their age, those games are amazing and completely immersive. It took me about 50 hours to play all 3 and I wish there was more. The atmosphere, story, voice acting, animations, etc, they're all top tier. When you have another lull in what to play I strongly recommend playing through them.
I’m so pissed i fucked up first train area and ended up killing artyom with my choises. sad ending😢
@@Lewiski9356 lol ouch. Yeah I got the bad ending on the first game, then the good one on the other two. To be fair, getting all the moral points on the first game basically requires a guide.
Metro is done by same people that left GSC after STALKER
I have yet to find another franchise like metro and that saddens me, I can only hope that whatever comes next for metro it keeps the same soul that the previous games have.
@@platniumdr ' first game basically requires a guide.' or a total loot goblin that searches every square inch of the game lol, I managed to get the good ending in 2033 on my 1st ever run though of it not even knowing about the moral points. You get most of them from hidden' areas off the main path eg random stashes and hideouts or just dead folks that you get a flashback of their last moments etc. I can play most games with no issues but a good few sections in each all the Metro games get me on edge still...soem parts are just creepy asf.....those games just ooze pure atmosphere!
I'm also finally playing through Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl for the first time for the same reason (Stalker 2 releasing soon) and I'm also playing it unmodded. The closest thing I can think of that this beautiful experience reminds me of so far is honestly The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which honestly took me off guard, but like you said it's that feeling of exploring a hostile and alien world, getting lost and being almost unable to resist that alluring urge to push further into places that you know you probably shouldn't go, along with the feeling of just being a normal person in this huge world with the opportunity to prove yourself and gain the respect of the factions and friends you meet along the way.
Also of course the level of jank and the incredible level of ambition, along with the hand crafted world for you to explore filled with characters to talk to that have intriguing predominantly text-based dialogue full of interesting world building and lore. Even then, when you factor in things like the dynamic AI and occurrences going on in the world around you then you realise that Stalker is something very unique that doesn't really have any direct comparisons to other games owing to it being a sort of "chimera game".
Didn't mean to ramble here, but I just find this game fascinating in a way that I haven't felt since falling in love with games like Morrowind and Kenshi (which is another very unique game with a very dynamic world that goes on around you, where you just feel like a small part of it, struggling desperately to survive). I'm still discovering your channel so I don't know if you've already played Morrowind or Kenshi before... I'd of course highly recommend them if you haven't, but if you already have played one or both of them I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts on what kind of journey you had in whichever strange, bizarre and beautiful world(s) that you got to explore...
Until then, wishing you all the best of luck with your adventures throughout The Zone! ^-^
Back in the day, a lot of people did make the comparison of STALKER with Morrowind. That feeling of left unguided, to your own misfortunes, of traveling almost aimlessly, discovering abandoned areas with an incredible ambience was only retaken by the Souls games later. And even then, it's not quite the same. It's a shame there are so few of these games with that level of cohesion and yet offer of pure freedom that comes from people that cared more about their taste, rather than what the market demands.
This is what I LOVE about the FPS genre. You can have an experience like Doom Eternal where you're the most powerful badass character to a game like this where you ain't even got plot armour and still have huge fun in both games.
Honestly, I've been playing Stalker since 2007 and I breeze through the Stalker games but I really struggle with and never finished Doom Eternal.. I have no sense of rythm (whether music or otherwise) and I have heard say that you need a feel for rythm to beat games like Doom Eternal or Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (coincidentally also breeze through the Souls games but can't beat Sekiro for the life of me) so for me it's the other way around I actually do feel like a badass in Stalker lol, it might help that I know all the Stalker games inside and out but yeah..
A couple of notes:
It's based on the book "A Roadside Picnic" where aliens visit earth, and the anomalies are basically their trash.
There's "mods" that are only graphics upgrades, and some that include bug fixes, without altering gameplay.
I went into this game totally blind cause it came in some sort of bundle. After dying multiple times in the tutorial mission against some bandits I was ready to give up on the game but I decided to explore a bit first. I climbed up a hill behind the starting area and suddenly came across this horrible pig mutant creature. I was ready to fight but instead the pig inexplicably starting rising into the air, spinning more and more rapidly, and then it exploded! After that I had to stick with the game to figure out what the hell was going on, and it became one of my favourites
I used to explore my backhill with my brother and we went further and further as well and made a secret base with gaming magazines, we used to go to our local elementary school when it was covered in fog and climb on the roof and your stories brought me right back to those days.
I've had my eye on games like Metro, Day Z and Fallout 76 for a while now looking for this kind of experience in gaming. I like fantasy rpgs like Dark Souls and Runescape but I played New Vegas for the first time a couple months ago and it got me interest again in the industrial "post apocolyptic modern city wearing a gas mask in an abandoned subway surrounded by zombies" type of games. Games like Project Zomboid caught my eye. I wishlisted this game a couple weeks ago and after seeing this video it just seems like a sign I need to try it.
Your praise has sold me honestly, the experience sounds too fun, I love relying on sound cues and exploring abandoned buildings with limited supplies. I love the lack of HUD and handholding, the grid inventory with gritty environments and survival elements. Plus you have a Berserk shirt on so I trust your judgement. 😂
I'm done yapping now but great video dude I'm glad I found your channel recently it's solid content.
"This world hates me", "I am nobody" - welcome to Eastern Europe, sweetie, enjoy a buffet.
So many people have no idea how good this game .Pure atmosphere
I've waited almost 20 years for a true sequel to STALKER SOC. I've got PTO this week, and I can't wait.
same brother! can't wait to get back to the zone!!
I booked the whole week off so I can spend Wednesday to Sunday no-lifing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
How is Call of Pripyat not a true sequel?
@bubrub5564 i loved Call of Pripyat, but it was built on the X-Ray engine and was like the culmination of iteration on the first game. This IS the first full blown stand-alone sequel in the STALKER franchise.
@@jonpro9637 I don't see how a game being on the same engine as its predecessors would negate it from being a sequel. Thats how it is for the vast majority of game series. Thats like saying Bethesda never made a sequel for Morrowind because Oblivion and Skyrim were on the same engine.
I still have the physical copy I bought when it was released. I loved it. Very immersive. Bleak and somewhat so entertaining.
You die, try harder 😳
Learn from your failures 😳
Develop situational awareness 😳
Plan ahead 😳
*Qualities of better games 😊
I really envy your innocence in the zone, i cannot tell you how much i'd love to be a kid and explore it for the first time, you're in for a long ride and i hope you have a great and philosophically rewarding escape in the zone
I also noticed how you got better at essential inventory management through the gameplay by the specific looting and artifact belt build. Good hunting!
anyone else feels the pain of watching him fight without leaning on walls?
Welcome to the club dude. Might I recommend Cryostasis next. Another excellent euro jank first person game with unequalled atmosphere.
I remember the good old days when PC game reviewers, and gamers (because they were one and the same), complained non-stop about autosave and checkpoints that devs insisted on putting in new games. PC gamers just wanted quicksave, quickload, and as many save slots as possible. The end. Autosave and checkpoints are concepts normalized by consoles.
So much this.
The whole original ltrilogy is amazing. Back when it was coming out it didn't even feel that janky, because more games were like that at the time, where the idea and gameplay were significantly more prioritized compared to QOL improvements. The developers of course released a few bugfix patches, too, so it was fine.
There are numerous mods for modern pc optimisation improvements, graphical updates, gameplay updates, and whole new story mods which practically are a different game on same engine within same universe.
I fear that a lot of the things that make S.T.A.L.K.E.R. being S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wasn't so much done on purpose. And we will not see a whole lot of that in the upcoming game.
That's my fear too. But i do think that the ATMOSPHERE will be there. And hopefully they'll NOT dub EVERY NPC. One of the things that sold S.T.A.L.K.E.R to me is the fact that pratically no one spoke english. That, and the AI and enviroments, really made the game for me.
really getting the impression from all the video i've seen of it that i'm not going to hear a single person say cheeki breeki
@@Mersak168 All NPC are dubbed. But you can choose between ENG or UKR dub, so it depends what you want.
@@tlap1508 source?
Absolute truth known by any long-time STALKER fan. The game succeeded just in spite of everything, biggest part ofc is it's modding community. Even in 2007, like couple of months after release, I'm pretty sure I was already installing mods and tweaking shit myself because it was done poorly in my opinion.
Their choice of game engine really makes me question their entire vision of their game and their understanding of reasons behind its relative success.
Though, I definitely understand why it flew under your radar in 2007 with what all came out that year (you forgot to mention The Orange Box from Valve, that was even bigger than Halo 3) I did happen to play the original Stalker back then and I was obsessed with it (and the half life comparison is fair because that's how it felt to me, too, back then, as a Half Life fan) and I got both expansions on day 1 when those 2 released, and Heart of Chernobyl is my biggest game this year (it was my biggest game for 2023 until it was rightfully delayed) I totally relate to your experience and understand exactly the feeling you're trying to explain
Watching before Asmongold makes a video about this one 😂
Nice to know that you enjoyed one of my favorite games of my youth so much.
When I played Half Life 2 back then, it also reminded me of STALKER. Both games take place in a run-down and inhospitable Eastern Europe, throw you more or less abruptly into the world and have an unfathomable mystery wafting around in the background.
All the games are great, its a very underrated franchise and stalker 2 is going to be absolutely mental
No it's not
I highly recommend the mod-framework "Anomaly" and for that the mod pack "Gamma".
"STALKER: Gamma" is easily one of the best open-world RPGs right now when it comes to immersion - maybe even the best. And it's literally a pack of mods for a >15 years old game.
Metro Exodus doesn't require playing previous games to understand the plot. Some of Artem's past is told by NPSs
Agreed but I would recommend playing Last Light too, it's fire
I have only finished Show of Chernobyl. I played the other two but never finished it. I really do love these games though. I have played few games with atmosphere as immersive as STALKER. Definitely janky though. So i can see why some wouldn't enjoy it. But for those with a little bit of patience, and a love for the unknown, STALKER is a must play. Not your traditional shooting gallery FPS. Tho it has its moments, its more about the environment rather than shooting things. I hope everyone else finds enjoyment in this series. We need more games like this.
Wild to me you made this video without even finishing the game. Im so happy it made such a good impression on you. I really hope you give us another video once you roll the credits. I feel the end of the game has the best of all the elements the game has to offer. I have a clip of being attacked by a poltergeist on my tiktok that i will never forget. Like you, I haven't been genuinely jump scared in a long time. but these games had me do it multiple times.
Go play the Anomaly mod. It stabilizes the game and adds in a lot of cut content and changes stuff up. It adds and improves on a ton of systems. And it more or less combines all 3 of the original stalker games into one experience. It is 100% worth your time.
EDIT: Ah. You've met a controller. Fun fact, when it rips your camera off of your player model you still have your hands. They're just disabled while you're being pulled. If you pull the pin on a grenade and start cooking it, when it pulls you towards it you can actually release the grenade and it will fall near the controller. It's very stupid. Enjoy!
Ha, I have been playing SoC and it's sequels and mods for years and I never knew that! Talk about "humiliate the controller" with bugs, brilliant!
@@ChrisSmout Yeah I was in *that* hallway and this was my first encounter with one. It killed me 7 or 8 times and I was on call with a friend and he was laughing at me. I tried throwing the grenade and that didn't go far enough and then I just asked.
"Does it move just the camera or the action to?" or "is the action attached to the model or the camera?" or something to that effect. He didn't know so, since I had nothing to lose, I gave it a shot. And it worked. Don't remember which mods I was running at the time. Might have been misery (this was a decade ago at least).
That's a highly inaccurate description, but yeah Anomaly is worth trying at some point.
@@lukkkasz323 What do you mean highly inaccurate? It adds in cut content creatures and a whole faction. It uses systems and quests from all 3 games. It makes the game crash less. It makes less glitches happen. It gives you more systems to work with such as wiping your face mask and a real time PDA and revamping the artifact system including ones from the book. It even adds the anomalies from the book. Its a lot of little improvements. I left some stuff out, yeah, but I also don't want to spoil some of the big stuff.
@AgentSapphire It doesn't have the main story of any of the three games, how would that even work, they are logically incompatible, played with 3 different main charcters intertwined in different times, places and gameplay rules.
Gameplay is very different because it's based on Misery, which is meant for experienced players looking for a specific experience (this is said by the dev, not me). And by the name itself you can figure out what kind of experience that is.
As an old timer Stalker, the pain I felt when you were bleeding, on 5 hp, and opened your inventory, to right click and use a medkit, is indescribable.
Great video, welcome to the zone greenhorn :)
Half of you aren't ready because you forgot what a game is.
Hey man that first impression of yours is invaluable. I play STALKER everyday but I wish I could really feel it again. I still remember vaguely the menu music, it captures the game so well, then the sky, the sounds, the atmosphere...man it's the most immersive game ever.
I just installed STALKER yet again - this time STALKER-Anomaly, with the modpack "Escape From Pripyat(EFP)" installed.
It looks amazing - but I'm right back there with you... a single bullet, and I'm bleeding out... a single mis-step and I'm irradiated.
I'm chucking smokes and vodka to clear my radiation, while patching myself up, limb by limb.
No game today has anywhere near this level if immersion.
Yes, new players play this game like is COD. Big mistake. Those enemy npc, bandits, are lethal with those grenades. 😂
Your commentary on this was top notch. The way you broke down your thoughts on this game made me appreciate a game I’ve never played. Bravo!
Two things STALKER always nailed
-Unforgiving living world
-Immersion/atmosphere
BTW most highly recommend you play on the highest difficulty : its just make everything die faster, lower diff just make everyone more like bullet sponge
Thats a myth, difficulty effects how much damage enemies do to YOU and how much loot they have on them. You always do the exact same amount of damage to enemies and headshots on enemies without helmets is always an instant kill. Players who are just starting should absolutely play on a lower difficulty.
It's always great seeing someone get into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Don't forget to use E and Q so you can lean while aiming. That will also help you survive gun fights a bit more than sticking your entire body out to aim at an enemy.
To anyone watching this video i shall give YOU couple of tips:
-Play the game on hardest difficulty. This is an odd one but difficulty settings work in a weird way in these games. You take more damage but so does the enemy
-Keep quick save button close to your fingers. You die fast, alot and sometimes you dont even know what killed you. Dont wanna lose any of that sweet progress because the air just decided to murder you
-DO NOT MOD your first playtrough. Many of the mods and fixes change the core gameplay taking away the real experience
-Its an old game from a dev that had ALOT of issues. The game is janky and weird when compared to almost anything else. You get used to it, dont worry
Have fun and immerse yourself in a game that is a certified legend and one of the great ones
Very good video, I like how you put the emphasis on the atmosphere. Atmosphere could be Stalker's middle name, really. It's an incredible game, and there is a reason why people still play it today, after nearly 20 years.
My takeaway from this is he really needs to play metro. Metro does everything stalker does, with a well crafted narrative, interesting characters, and gameplay that hasn’t aged nearly as much
I'm a Stalker fan and i couldn't get into the Metro series. The Atmosphere in Stalker is unbeatable in my humble opinion.
Metro is much more in line with typical narrative shooters like F.E.A.R. while STALKER is more similar to an old school unforgiving rpg. The only common thing between them is the setting and the guitars around a campfire. Metro is a very linear game and great at that, but the two experiences are very different imo
The Zone is like nothing else. I'm an open-world guy so I usually just become a zoner for months at a time playing nothing but Anomaly (in limited free time of course.)
It's that kind of "forever game" where you just live in the world and stay engaged for as long as you can stand the grim, oppressive Zone.
Cannot wait for the latest entry in the series.
If you're into VR, there is a game called "Into the Radius" that is very very similar to this gameplay, and incredibly immersive in VR