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For people that might think that shadow of chernobyl is dated, they should try OGSR. It's a standalone port of Shadow of Chernobyl to the 64bit xray engine. It also has cut content and some Fan made dlc that fits perfectly into the universe. But OGSR might spoil you, for me it was the best Stalker experience
@@FR4M3Sharma it wasn't clear what so ever he went into a fucking history lesson then was like "its all up too you" like gamma not on the steam store anomaly not there so by all means if you know a web site that is legitimate please be more helpful than this video
As a self-confessed STALKER grognard, this is absolutely spot-on. I think the main worry of a lot of the purists is that the old STALKER experience kind of just gets forgotten about, and Anomaly becomes the new default. I think it's important that we still keep the old STALKER alive, but attacking the newbies or asking them to play all three original games unmodded isn't the way to do it. Your suggestions are absolutely the right middle ground.
@@eelyy212 as someone that has played all three stalker games and anomaly unmodded then replaying all of them with mods and addons, i enjoyed all of them but I’m kinda surprised hearing that people think anomaly is boring that was personally my favorite.
@@crudefredo9148 its not for everyone. i REALLY try to get into it but ive never been able to enjoy it that much if at all, and i feel like most people would like the originals more than anomaly
@@eelyy212 Dude anomaly has more players than all 3 games combined and still has consistent updates. It doesn't reflect the original gameplay because the original gameplay is clunky outdated garbage with terrible assets and horrible balance. Get over yourself.
I'm so happy for you to get a sponsor! I've been rooting for you since your early Anomaly guides and playthroughs. It's so nice to see you grow! Keep it up Cheeki Breeki!
I know a good number of people in USA who have been aware of the stalker games since they came out. I mean- it's not anywhere near the number who know call of duty, but I'm sure that's the case everywhere, since console gaming is easier to get into/cheaper
I went straight in with GAMMA. First 3 hours was confusing but I chose to be confused starting with GAMMA and don't regret it Coz I love the game and I like my story in the form of breadcrumbs / lore. I can choose to delve deeper when I want but the gameplay keeps me playing. But I bought the trilogy to support the company
Honestly, imo if one just wants the survival experience of GAMMA (my situation) it is actually MORE immersive to have not played the original games and only watching videos about the lore as you progress, since your character in Anomaly is someone you actually does not know anything about Strelok, you're literally a newbie in the zone both in and out of game, so it is more in-line with the character to discover stuff on the fly
I started with Gamma 3 days ago and I am completely immersed in the amazing world. But I want to learn more of the lore to make the journey more meaningful. I just bought the original games and am starting my new journey today. I will pick back up on Gamma after!
This rabbit hole is actually pretty hilarious. I've never even heard of the series before that drewski video that blew stalker up big time, but it's kind of amazing to see this huge history that I wasn't apart of. I just started with anomaly around 2 to 3 months ago, and man, even with my constant crashes and issues since I can't stop modding it like it's skyrim, I still cant keep myself away. Pretty much have been playing non-stop since I downloaded it. Great video!
There are a lot of awesome games that are just outside the spotlight of the mass-market! Souls was also a series that was like that; when Demon's Souls came out people compared it to the King's Field series, which was a really obscure series at the time. People really only played those games when they'd go see what was in the Bargain Bin, or during rentals when Blockbuster was still around. Now, that series is a big money-maker and is beloved by players. Sometimes these games take a while to catch on, but I can see how real-life events caused STALKER to become more popular. STALKER has true bleakness that is reflected in the war that is going on in Ukraine, it took certain events in real-life for people to see that its not just some grimdark series on the sidelines, it really tried to say something even if most stuff didn't pan-out, and the game released in a terrible state causing game reviewers to either love it, or hate it.
I'm sad that I wasn't apart of this history until after Drew's video. Now here I am watching the video that got Drew into stalker and I feel complete now. Haha
GAMMA was so confusing for the first few hours but god damn its so much fun. Its like a Stalker RPG, but you're not the main character. You're just another Stalker in the Zone, surviving day to day untill the Zone inevitably claims you. 10/10 everyone should give it a try.
So happy you got a sponsor!! Cheeki, I say it every video, I'll say it again. You're a blessing to the community and to someone like me, making my STALKER journey for the first time. Thanks for everything, and I can't wait for more lessons from the zone ;)
Ahahh thank you for the kind words! As I say at the end of the video this channel has been a passion project for a while, I'm dedicating as much of my free time as I can to it. All the people watching and commenting on the videos have been extremely supporting and one of the main reason I'm still at it today, and now having a first sponsor is actually a big achievement at least in my eyes! Anyways, thanks for being here!
I recently started playing STALKER SoC because of you and honestly, It's been a long time since I had this much fun I'm having right now playing through it, the map is immersive and it truly feels like the world around you is alive and real, the game has a great story and a pretty decent variety of weapons for a 2007 game + It's always on sale for like $4.99
I dont understand why so many people say Shadow of Chernobyl looks outdated, first time i played it and finished it was end of 2023 to start of 2024 and it looked preety good, maybe I just have low standards but its fine
I believe it's people being spoiled by AAA games and graphics since like 2014+ when the "Next Gen Consoles" first came out. Some of the best games I still play to this day were released 03-06 and while graphics are "outdated" it's the gameplay and feel that makes the game good.
@@milkdudz3895yeah graphics don’t matter anymore to me once you start adding 4k textures game sizes triple Older games are usually 1-15gb have full experiences The old world at war is less than 10gb with all the dlc Darkest Hour Europe 44-45 is a hardcore ww2 sim with drivable tanks many maps and constant updates and free expansions and is less than 10-20gb and is still going at almost 20 years old So many old games took little drive space and are arguably better than their modern counterparts Want to have a hardcore flying sim experience IL-2 1946 easy takeoffs, complex engine management, every theater of war, tanks vehicles and infantry to shoot at on the ground all in a small size from a game from 2000 I don't mind breath taking graphics but when they are taking up more space then ever its time to tone it down
@@Red_Star_robinit's not 4k graphics ruining game sizes, it's bad optimization of storage on the developers side and also it's cause by the sheer level of detail (LOD) they're adding to the graphics
I was always of the opinion that you are free to play or not play as you please in regards to Stalker. But you will definitely miss out on a lot of lore ,fun and of course other amazing mods if you only play Anomaly. God I remember the first time I played Stalkersoup back in 2012, was like a whole new game for me.
I consider myself a hardcore fan of Stalker and have been playing it for years, yet all I've played is Misery, Anomaly, and now Escape from Pripyat. It's amazing how many mods there are. I'll never forget misery back in the day, especially the cats before 2.2 (I think) lol
Being introduced to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise through Anomaly is like starting to read a book from the very last chapter: you may enjoy the finale, but it has little chance to make sense and will always feel incomplete without the groundwork provided by the previous chapters.
its more like watching Fantastic Beasts but not Harry Potter, watch the new Star Trek reboot but not the older series. you lose some context because the world already has been introduced in the past but isnt important for the current plot, if you want you can hunt for information on previous games but its not necessary and you better just watch a summary of the other history.
Never played EFP but if it's anything like your average sandbox stalker mod, it wouldn't be good Gamma and anomaly are not hard-core, they just have terrible mechanics
@@tmm8837 fun fact, game design is objective, not subjective. The mod is objectively bad, having only 5 mission types is not bad, it's terrible. Not to mention the balance there sucks so you can get a very hard mission that pays like crap, or a very easy mission that takes 5 minutes tops to complete and pays handsomely. This is bad game design, it's not subjective, it's objective. To whoever said that I'm bad at anomaly, I have two things to say. 1. Good job creating such a unique counter argument, I'm sure that it took you more than 3 seconds to make it. 2. I'm not bad at anomaly, I play it well, I'd go as far as say I'm starting to notice how crap its difficulty is. You don't have to be bad at something to say that it sucks mechanically
I absolutely recommend playing the first 3 games. The events of those three games are actually canon. As much as I love the hell out of Anomaly/GAMMA, the original games deserve exposure for being the reasons why the latest sandbox S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games and mods exist. Anomaly may be the smoothest in terms of experience, but it would never have existed if Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, or Call of Pripyat never existed.
"Deserving exposure" doesn't sound like a convincing argument to play them... Do oil lamps deserve exposure for coming before battery powered lamps? If the mod is just smoother and better, I don't see a reason to not play the mod.
@@kirbylover37Except it’s not just smoother and better, though is it, that’s why this whole debate exists. I love Anomaly and Gamma but they are lacking in one major department - story. Not all gamers care about it, and that’s fine, but the original games deserve their stories to be shown to those who are and not the modded ones that are absolutely - no disrespect - not up to the original trilogy’s standard, and that’s fine, they’re not supposed to be. They should be appreciated to, of course, but I am saying the original world and works of GSC are a wonderful time too that can easily compete with the likes of Anomaly with just a bit of modding, that you’ll be doing anyways. Don’t play if it’s not your piece of cake but it’s more than just a debate on what is “smoother”. They’re all smooth, these are old games lmfao, ultimately like the video says play what you want, but I don’t see the point in arguing against the valid opinion that the original works should absolutely be given a chance.
@@kirbylover37Also not even touching the plethora of story mods created from the older games that are amazing experiences in themselves, that are also being outshone by the sandbox experience that is much different to the roots of stalker. And again that’s fine; but the differences absolutely should be shown and appreciated.
I'm really happy that You made this video. I've recently pulled a random person from the Internet into STALKER, and I've tried explaining to her how she should begin her adventures in the Zone, but Your video did a much better job of that (I of course sent her the video, duh) :D
I saw Drewski's video about Anomaly and that's how I originally got into the STALKER series. This is all pretty recent. I started with Anomaly, and much like you said I was COMPLETELY lost as to what was going on, but it really only took looking through the PDA and doing a little bit of research to learn what I ultimately needed to know for it. It was definitely an experience on it's own but it got me deeper into the game enough that I have now bought the 3 original games. I'm glad I saw this video because now I know about the specific mods for the original games that fix a lot of issues. I started Shadow of Chernobyl last night for the first time and got to the Railway bridge and basically gave up there for the time being because I cannot for the life of me figure out where my shots are going. I can sometimes be at 20m and go for a pistol chest shot and the NPC wont even react, as if I did nothing at all. Same issue with the AKS-74U and whatnot. I'm hoping the mod you mentioned for it will fix the gunplay at least a little bit because that is what is kind of gatekeeping me from playing the game. If I can't hit you without basically being on top of you that's absolutely ridiculous. After that I jumped straight to Call of Pripyat since I know that's the original game that Anomaly ultimately came from and that is definitely a better experience from the get-go but still has a learning curve with the gunplay. Personally I find that to by far be the weakest point of the original STALKER games. Especially when coming from something like Anomaly or GAMMA, dated is an understatement. It was dated even for it's time. To be honest, I was actually surprised at exactly how different Anomaly/GAMMA is compared to Call of Pripyat. The similarities are obvious, however the differences are even more glaring. I look at Anomaly/GAMMA as completely different games that are just based in the same universe because ultimately, that is what they are. The experiences really cannot be directly compared. Personally from my experience combined with what you mentioned in the video, I would say starting with something like Anomaly is probably fine assuming that if you do have a question, you just look hard for the answer and don't bother actually asking it yourself. It is really unfortunate that it seems the STALKER community has some of the worst gatekeeping of any series that I know of. Either way, I'm loving the series so far, even the original games I'm seeing and enjoying the vision they had for it. I do MUCH prefer Anomaly/GAMMA because of the open world aspect, as well as the SIGNIFICANTLY better gunplay. While I do find myself immersed in the stories in games, I do actually prefer the concept of being far from the center of attention with the ability to essentially craft my own story rather than having to follow a specific narrative. After watching this though, I'm going to try installing ZRP, SRP, and PRP to the 3 original games and probably leave it at that, and then give it a try. Still gonna hop on GAMMA in the mean time as well now that I've gotten the hang of it lol. TL;DR: The original games are pretty cool and if you're into lore, absolutely play them. If you prefer a more free and open world style of game, go for Anomaly. Play it as is, and decide if you like how it is, then think about mods or modpacks you might want to add on. Ultimately, you don't really NEED the full lore behind the original games to understand what's going on in Anomaly though it definitely would not hurt. It just takes some research both on the internet and within your PDA and you'll be fine.
Have fun with the original games! You'll see how interesting the lore is, and in the end it will make any Anomaly/GAMMA/EFP... run you do even more enjoyable!
@@CheekiBreekiTv It definitely is nice having SOME direction thanks to the storyline that's for sure. Again my only real complaint, at least with SoC, is the gunplay but from what I've now read, ZRP does help with that. When I first started with Anomaly I was shocked at just how fast they throw you to the wolves with absolutely no guidance in sight.. that is unless you start as a Loner and do the sort of tutorial quest there, which itself is hard as hell when you're new! 😂
IIRC, the difficulty is tied in with weapon damage for everyone, so you have to play on the highest difficulty to get highest damage output out of your weapons.
@@ecayeta I have recently gone back and tried them again. Beat SoC and am working on Clear Sky now. I figured out the gunplay a bit. Damage was never my issue. It was getting my shots to land anywhere even remotely close to where I am aiming. The RNG based bullet trajectory is the absolute worst. It took a bit of practice but in SoC I managed to get a hang of it. It seemed pretty consistent that with high accuracy weapons, shots were either on target, just above, or up to the right. Clear Sky is a different story.. so far it just seems completely random. I have struggled to predict where my shots may go. I went back and played around in the start of CoP to find that it is mostly "fixed" I would say. I actually feel like I have control over where my bullets go. Anomaly/GAMMA did it a lot better for sure. I have high hopes for Stalker 2 as the trailers have reminded me more of the modded variants in terms of mechanics.
Relatively new Stalker here (1 month actually) Knew the series thanks to Anomaly, wanted to try it, friends told me to play the original three, and that’s what I did As for mods the only things I really had were ZRP, SRP, and PRP, and weapon reanimation mods so it doesn’t deviate so much from the vanilla experience Recently just finished Call of Pripyat too, and I have to say Shadow of Chernobyl still is my favorite due to it being the most simple of the three
@@CheekiBreekiTv yeah, I'm in Anomaly now and a lot of mods I have for it are qol - you're kinda responsible for getting me to know what mods to get, lol
From all 3 games, the I actually changed a bit when it comes to graphics/gameplay was SoC, I installed the Autumn Aurora 2 mod, which was beautiful. The rest were only the basics: Atmosfear + Absolute Nature + Gunslinger.
@@gabrielrodriguez8539 I didn’t really change anything in terms of graphics for me, I was pretty satisfied with all of the vanilla graphics and the lighting really helps with it The only thing I really dealt with was the weapon animations and OWR for SHOC/COP and FWR for CS covers that for me Gunslinger I might give a try but I’m not a fan of the mod turning my hud off by default when on master, it’s sort of the same reason why I could never get myself to play Metro on Ranger Hardcore
In the future I'd really like to see a critique of some of the more story driven stalker mods, explaining the way in which they build upon the pre-existing lore and tell a compelling story (I really want to see how they build upon the existing world of stalker in their own unique way). I'm from the western audience who's only played the trilogy (+anomaly) and hasnt explored much into the story driven mods, I only recently started playing spatial anomaly alongside gamma :3
Old-ass STALKER fan here. Long story short: there are no story mods for STALKER. Nada. And the new "generation" of STALKER plebs just jump straight to mega-mods like CoC or Anomaly, that remove any and all resemblance of story and campaign.
100 percent agree, I played the first game years ago and got back into it with GAMMA. The subreddit for STALKER in particular is literally the most negative gaming space I have personally visited on Reddit. So many people hating just because someone hasn't played the original trilogy, or is asking questions about the games/modpacks, etc. For being a legitimate "STALKER" a lot of them sure haven't fucking touched grass.
Yeah it quieted down a bit and mostly reasonable people ended up on top with all the crazy negative posts downvoted after a while, but the very first hours after the Drewski video were crazy. Never seen so much negativity on the subreddit. Made me honestly worried for the community when Stalker 2 is gonna come out.
there are a lot of people just jealous of this whole success that stalker is having with many people coming in the zone, they wanna be the "veterans" just because they played many years before anomaly went popular, i'm one of these people but i'm just happy that stalker is getting so much attention and modding support thanks to newcomers, there's no reason to hate them really, my only worry is that they could twist the actual lore of the game (just like the hd models pack i hate), that and the graphic mods that actually are going to give the white tarkovish unrealistic feel, that's bad
This. I visited the subreddit just to see if there is somekind of guide to Anomaly and every thread I see have at least 1 reply like this "maybe play the OG trilogy first". Like, no and go fuck yourself. We are asking something and you tell us to do something else.
They don't like you because another 500 people came before you asking the exact same question, what i gathered so far is that the new crowd are braindead sub 80iq zoomers who don't know how to use google. The hate is well deserved, take the hit and move on.
Congrats on the sponsor :) I only got into stalker in the last year in part because of your vids and started w a lightly modded SOC. It’s been a blast and actually just started CS like 3 days ago
I started with Clear Sky couple years back, just completed a playthrough of it recently. Now playing GAMMA and I am absolutely addicted with it. Stalkers atmosphere is just too perfect to pass up on experiencing.
Though I largely agree it's important to keep in mind that not all gatekeeping is bad, I've seen more then one community like stalker cater to the new people too much and change for the worst. Dark Souls is a fine example of gatekeeping that's done good, anyone can get into the community and even get help to beat the games but anyone who tries to push for changing of what's core to those games is shutdown or ignored.
Not sure about the point you're trying to make. - Please explain what the Gatekeepers in DS complain about - Please explain what the Gatekeepers in Stalker complain about - Please explain to me how the two are in any way related, because I can't see it right now.
I had always heard of stalker and never really consumed any content on it picking up the og 3 playing shadow of chernobyl amd had a blast despite the age, the atmosphere is i credibly terrifying i love it
Drewski showed me anomaly 2 years ago. i never even noticed the stalker series in stores as a kid i remember seeing the games but never actively investigating them. greatest overlooked trilogy of all time. my answer is play all of them non stop
Memories of the Zone for Shadow of Chernobyl is a great honorable mention. That was my first STALKER experience and honestly my favorite. There's a great guide for installing it too on the steam community
I played the original trilogy about 6 years ago for the first time and found them to be very interesting lorewise, but as you mentioned slightly dated, which is fine with me as I play other games which are even older than them (I'm in my 30s so some games I play are older than some fellow S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s But mods like Anomaly, EFP and Gamma also have a big merit in my eyes. The original 3 games were other people's stories, whereas with Anomaly for example I'm free to make my own stories. Making different characters in different factions you can make your character have their own goals and impact on the world, even if it's limited to just your playthrough. Whether you're a Merc trying to make it rich, a scientist trying to understand the Zone, or a faithful warrior of the Monolith, you can mold the Zone with your actions. And that's (personally) why I keep returning to the game.
Great video. 👌 And since you mentioned it @12:07 : you should make a vid on the 2 groups in the community (east & west). You could answer common questions like 'will they ever get along?' And 'should they?' 🤨
I've been a Stalker since December 2021. I strongly recommend first playing the original trilogy, not to understand especially the story, but to understand the gameplay, the way of how the Zone works. If you have to use mods for fixes, like i used for Clear Sky, use them. But first and foremost, play the 3 original games vanilla. After that, you can use all the mods you wish; you can play Anomaly, Gamma, Escape from Prypiat. What i am trying here is those ones who are new in this world to not have an unenjoyable experience when playing the Standalone mods. Have a nice hunting, Stalker☢️ Regards from Argentina
gracias por el tip paa, empecé en Anomaly y la verdad q estoy re perdido. Voy a hacer eso, me voy a bajar los primeros juegos y voy a ver q onda. Saludos desde los campeones del mundo's country 🇦🇷
@@elFrankklin Estoy igual que vos JAAJAJAJA, queria empezar con el primer juego pero esta re bugeado, mejor proba ponerle el starter pack, que es un mod que saca una bocha de bugs y encima mejora la experiencia sin sacar ni agregar nada del vanilla. Por que siempre somos lo Argentinos los que llegamos ultimos jajaja, saludos.
Was trying to figure out which game to get during the steam sale, thanks for clearing up lots of unknowns and concise overviews along with mod histories!
I've been playing call of pripyat and exhausted all the mods that could function on my old potato and stumbled upon your vid after starting shadow of cheronbyl and these mods have helped me enjoy the vanilla experience more ty
Congrats on the sponsor! Been watching you for a while and it's nice to see your efforts giving fruit. I remember telling you you were in a good spot for it a while ago, I'm glad to see it happen.
Discovered anomaly thanks to you Mr Breeki, and now I'm totally hooked on GAMMA. It's been a wild ride. played the original SoC back when it released but I think it's time for a revisit now before stalker 2 releases
Thank you for everything you do on your channel. I'm a fan of the first hour since the E3 2001, and I find your videos very interesting and relevant. I'm French and I can say that the community is very small.people here know more about the Metro series.but this is changing with the arrival of stalker 2 and the dayz rp servers modded on the term stalker.
Dude that's the best video I've ever seen, I'd upvote twice if I could. I'm also very happy you finally got a sponsor because you 100% deserve it! I'll keep following you till the end of time, I wanna be here for the whole journey to 25k followers and then 1 million and every milestone in-between. Keep having fun, take care, see you soon bruh =)
This video is extremely helpful. I came here to explore the games that inspired Tarkov, and you got me going in the right direction for the Stalker series. I have now started Stalker with ZRP.
I was trying to find out the mods, the differences, which ones are recommended, after pages and pages of reading being lost, I just found your video. And thank you very much for your explanations, I see it more clearly and I can better (re)launch myself in this incredible adventure! Good luck to you, thank you again from France!
I learned about Stalker and i started with Anomaly, i then went deep into the lore, learned the most i could to enjoy the universe of Stalker even more and now i am deep into GAMMA with a few adjustments and addons added by myself to grant me the experience i want, i simply love Stalker games regardless and the community, as intense as it can be at times, is one of the best community i have found for a very long time.
I did not know there were mods which contained all the levels from the 3 original games and finished the original games first before messing with mods. I don't regret it. Without finishing the original games and seeing the story, I wouldn't have liked the mods either. The original games have such great atmosphere and story that while playing the mods such as anomaly, I can see the referances and always compare them to the original. I recommend everyone to play: 1-SOC, 2-Clear Sky, 3-COP first and then start playying either by modding the original games or installing anomaly mod pack since it still has that original feeling. Mess around with the difficulties and different factions in anomaly then you should probbably play the heavily modded packs like gamma.
Merci mec , je me permet de te répondre en français car avec ton accent à couper au couteau, y a pas de doute que tu sois francophone. Bravo pour ton taff , c'est un plaisir à suivre. Et félicitations pour le sponsoring.
As someone who had basically no knowledge of the story or environment of stalker beyond the Ssethtzeentach video, and just jumped right into anomaly, I loved it. Barely knowing anything about the story and world made it feel super authentic and organic to just wander the world, knowing no more than my character!
Try a modpack for an anomaly called gamma, its megapack of 368 add-ons, its very modular and you can enable disable what ever you want to fit your gameplay style, by default is much harder than anomaly since vendors dont sell weapons or armor, so you need to fix everything yourself, besides condition now you have gun parts that wears of and needs replacement, saves can be done near campfires, i personally disabled all these things because i like anomaly style gameplay, besides that graphics are much better, sounds, ui, you have now limb health besides normal health etc..
I just finished the trilogy, all 3 games with SRP+ZSP, what should I play next? I'm looking to play rich story telling, story driven mods before jumping to Anomaly. So, there's Wind of Time, Vector of Alienation, mods at 5:25, and even Anomaly has 4 chapters. But in what order to play the first few?
Thanks a lot for this video! I bought all 3 games (Kinguin has good prices for the steam versions). I'm done with Shadow of Chernobyl with ZRP, starting Clear Sky with SRP now =)
if you play anomoly first and are willing to read even a little bit here and there of the wiki which you'll inevitably end up at anyway with questions about gameplay. This doesn't take that long you'll figure out the story :there is also one or two youtube channels out there that summarize the lore really well in videos i would imagine also if Stalker 2 ever releases half of its sales will be people who only played anomoly and then went from there this is llike Tarkovs phase when it really started to blow up and people wanted to gate keep it. History repeats my friends great video too.
For me personally the best way to enjoy stalker series now is to play Clear Sky LFO which brings lots of new things while still being close to vanilla experience, after that Radiophobia 3 and Gunslinger for CoP. Still everyone should enjoy these games the way they like it. Great video btw
I remember people strongly pushing Complete mods for people playing the games for the first time. Saying it only change visual and not mentioning gameplay changes. Still waiting for proper translation of NLC so people can enjoy its glory. This is where "saving at campfire" came from to Anomaly btw. Oh and recently Goldsphere was translated, one of the coolest Stalker mods.
Finally, another NLC fan. I have literally seen zero mentions of NLC on any stalker modding video even in the comment section. Mod beats anomaly and gamma straight out of the water and into orbital space in terms of actual hard-core difficulty instead of relying on poor game mechanics and skyrim "stuff is tanky" difficulty.
@@LordTrashcanRulez Not surprised since there is no good English translation for NLC. There's a lot of text in there and arsenal isn't plentiful. Also it's hard as ball and rarely fair with little options to deal with challenge. And even more small details and mechanics to learn if you want to survive.
I guess I'd be called a purist since I started with all original games unmoded, then I watched the movie and no I haven't read the book - I'm probably illiterate. Vanilla shadow of chernobyl is full of glitched time-sensitive repetitive quests that are forced on you (not accept, just pops up for no reason), small bugs like glitching map/minimap, meaningless tooltips, descriptions and dialogue in some places. RMA: Autumn is the best mod keeping the original stalker while vastly improving weather and graphics on the dated engine. OGSE is not a mod but an overhaul of everything basically, definitely great for a second round of SoC. And for mindless fun Stalkersoup is my go-to right now - a buggy as hell mod soup that is way too fun to play. If you don't like fun but like a challenge CP2/OP2 grew from the same branch as stalkersoup, has tons of content but provides a highly polished experience that will kill you with its economy, lack of ammo and OP mutants. Still, I'd recommend these over Lost alpha, Anomaly, Misery or any other mod out there. As for Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat, I'd recommend playing vanilla. PS Fuck RAID.
I'm just diving into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the very first time after being a total Escape from Tarkov addict since it launched in closed Alpha. As I really want to jump into this world and soak in the OG feeling of the game I'll just go with the unmodded trilogy first and then checkout the Anomaly standalone. The realistic weapon behaviour mod which reminds me of EFT is insane. Can't wait to play this mammoth, thanks for this info video. Made my decision way more easy.
3h played and saved the game without manually saving because it showed me the little floppy icon.. then I had to quit the game because I received a call and couldnt tab out - joined back in and all progress is gone. I love that OG feeling 😅
Why would playing the original trilogy unmodded bring "pain and frustration"? That comes later with mods. Misery, Anomaly, Gamma etc. are all built on pain and frustration as design choices, and they make the original trilogy look like a casual experience by comparison.
Because they barely work on modern operating systems and modern hardware. Playing shadow of chernobly even with ZRP still crashed like every hour for me playing it, not enjoyable at all.
Yo, c'est vraiment cool ce que tu produis. Je prend parfois plus de plaisir à découvrir ton contenu que celui des jeux en eux mêmes. La narration est bonne, tu arrives à créer une très bonne ambiance avec le mélange astucieux de musique mélancolique ainsi qu'une voix douce mais assurée qui pourrait rappeler celle d'un stalker expérimenté voulant bien nous partager un peu de ses tuyaux... J'avoue comme ça on dirait que je veux te pécho mais c'est pas le cas, je veux juste te donner de la force pour continuer à produire ce genre de contenu. Ciao !
Started playing stalker after seeing Drewskis videos during Covid. But I knew I couldnt go unmodded OG so I went Anomaly. Its a one- stop- download, the new engine just works and I had zero crashes and just a few bugs in a year of playing it :) Of course I watched countless reviews and story discriptions about the OG´s here on YT to have atleast some context.
What I tell anyone interested in STALKER is to ignore Anomaly and everything associated with it like Gamma and EFP. Play the unmodded original trilogy first (maybe some light bug fix mods only), then play some of the "first wave" mods like Oblivion Lost 2.2, AMK, ZRP, LURK, etc. then move to some of the more popular mods like OGSE 0692 (0693 is very different, play 0692 first), SGM, Misery, then moving to the modern stuff like Dead Air. Anomaly should be last, the people who start playing STALKER on Anomaly/Gamma/etc are not true STALKERS, they are zoomers who have been brainwashed by the Monolith. Special mention to OP-2, also called Cumulative Pack 2 or Joint Pak 2, I recently beat this and it was incredibly stable for the largest STALKER modpack ever created. It has a lot of very annoying missions such as anything to do with finding hidden stashes or invisible portals, but there's so much content and things to do. Anomaly etc. is just gun porn on the xray engine, OP-2 is the true STALKER experience for masters.
People should not forget that in sandbox versions (Anomaly/Gamma) we're playing as "yet another stalker", not an all-knowing lore master, so it's quite fitting to go in blind. Later, if the newbie falls in love with the game he'll dive into the universe retroactively. Knowing everything about the Wish Granter kinda kills a part of the mystery.
I remember getting back into STALKER because of Nikolai’s videos, I remember when there was no Anomaly and only a few quest mods to compliment AO3 for CoC.
Thank you Cheeki for making this video! I just got into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Iceberg starting of with GAMMA and have watched a lot of beginner guides , including yours, to get into the game and all the lore around it and i found it extremely hard, but i guess that is part of the experience. What I have been missing in GAMMA is the story and to get into that and dive deeper in the lore this video came just in time! Now I’m going to start of with the original triology to get a better grip on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. before i move on to Anomaly and GAMMA.
I would not recommend using mods like Analmeme nor Gamma as your first mods either. There's tons of mods for each of the three main STALKER games as well.
Personally: Autumn Aurora is the smoothest way to play Shadow of Chernobyl itself. Clear Sky LFO. And of course Gunslinger for CoP. All the freeplay mods are cool but they're not Stalker so much as big survival sandboxes that happen to run on Xray and use Stalker's assets.
Install Raid for Free ✅ IOS/ANDROID/PC: clcr.me/CheekiBreeki and get a special starter pack 💥 Available only for the next 30 days!
For the best possible experience make sure to use the desktop version.
For people that might think that shadow of chernobyl is dated, they should try OGSR.
It's a standalone port of Shadow of Chernobyl to the 64bit xray engine.
It also has cut content and some Fan made dlc that fits perfectly into the universe.
But OGSR might spoil you, for me it was the best Stalker experience
No, thanks.
Which staler is the newest and is a open world survival experience and how do i get it
@@battledsoda6744 Bruh
@@FR4M3Sharma it wasn't clear what so ever he went into a fucking history lesson then was like "its all up too you" like gamma not on the steam store anomaly not there so by all means if you know a web site that is legitimate please be more helpful than this video
You're the reason I discovered GAMMA Cheeki! Will be sending this vid to some of my buddies who want to get into stalker hehe.
The obligatory "wow other youtuber that I watch commenting on a video I'm watching" comment
the Chad Drewski
10:14 :Because I know people won't watch the whole video, and evidently haven't based on the comments
My man
You're the reason I discovered ANOMALY. which lead me here.
As a self-confessed STALKER grognard, this is absolutely spot-on. I think the main worry of a lot of the purists is that the old STALKER experience kind of just gets forgotten about, and Anomaly becomes the new default. I think it's important that we still keep the old STALKER alive, but attacking the newbies or asking them to play all three original games unmodded isn't the way to do it. Your suggestions are absolutely the right middle ground.
It's more so because anomaly is super boring to most people.. and doesn't reflect the originals gameplay
@@eelyy212 as someone that has played all three stalker games and anomaly unmodded then replaying all of them with mods and addons, i enjoyed all of them but I’m kinda surprised hearing that people think anomaly is boring that was personally my favorite.
@@crudefredo9148 its not for everyone. i REALLY try to get into it but ive never been able to enjoy it that much if at all, and i feel like most people would like the originals more than anomaly
@@eelyy212 Dude anomaly has more players than all 3 games combined and still has consistent updates.
It doesn't reflect the original gameplay because the original gameplay is clunky outdated garbage with terrible assets and horrible balance. Get over yourself.
@@samithonjames370 anomaly is ridiculously boring.
I'm so happy for you to get a sponsor! I've been rooting for you since your early Anomaly guides and playthroughs. It's so nice to see you grow! Keep it up Cheeki Breeki!
Being a slav and seeing the world discover this amazing series brings tears to my eyes
I know a good number of people in USA who have been aware of the stalker games since they came out. I mean- it's not anywhere near the number who know call of duty, but I'm sure that's the case everywhere, since console gaming is easier to get into/cheaper
great series indeed, greetings from germany
@@DrasticTimesInci hate console peasants
I went straight in with GAMMA. First 3 hours was confusing but I chose to be confused starting with GAMMA and don't regret it Coz I love the game and I like my story in the form of breadcrumbs / lore. I can choose to delve deeper when I want but the gameplay keeps me playing. But I bought the trilogy to support the company
Thats the spirit!
You shouldn't forget the story is not actually there. Its watered down, retcons a lot of stuff and misrepresents the factions a whoooole lot.
Honestly, imo if one just wants the survival experience of GAMMA (my situation) it is actually MORE immersive to have not played the original games and only watching videos about the lore as you progress, since your character in Anomaly is someone you actually does not know anything about Strelok, you're literally a newbie in the zone both in and out of game, so it is more in-line with the character to discover stuff on the fly
I started with Gamma 3 days ago and I am completely immersed in the amazing world.
But I want to learn more of the lore to make the journey more meaningful. I just bought the original games and am starting my new journey today. I will pick back up on Gamma after!
This rabbit hole is actually pretty hilarious. I've never even heard of the series before that drewski video that blew stalker up big time, but it's kind of amazing to see this huge history that I wasn't apart of.
I just started with anomaly around 2 to 3 months ago, and man, even with my constant crashes and issues since I can't stop modding it like it's skyrim, I still cant keep myself away. Pretty much have been playing non-stop since I downloaded it. Great video!
Oh yeah the rabbit hole goes deep! Glad to see you're enjoying yourself!
There are a lot of awesome games that are just outside the spotlight of the mass-market! Souls was also a series that was like that; when Demon's Souls came out people compared it to the King's Field series, which was a really obscure series at the time. People really only played those games when they'd go see what was in the Bargain Bin, or during rentals when Blockbuster was still around. Now, that series is a big money-maker and is beloved by players.
Sometimes these games take a while to catch on, but I can see how real-life events caused STALKER to become more popular. STALKER has true bleakness that is reflected in the war that is going on in Ukraine, it took certain events in real-life for people to see that its not just some grimdark series on the sidelines, it really tried to say something even if most stuff didn't pan-out, and the game released in a terrible state causing game reviewers to either love it, or hate it.
@@CheekiBreekiTv How is it these days? How can I play the SoC story with the best graphics possible?
I'm sad that I wasn't apart of this history until after Drew's video. Now here I am watching the video that got Drew into stalker and I feel complete now. Haha
GAMMA was so confusing for the first few hours but god damn its so much fun. Its like a Stalker RPG, but you're not the main character. You're just another Stalker in the Zone, surviving day to day untill the Zone inevitably claims you. 10/10 everyone should give it a try.
So happy you got a sponsor!!
Cheeki, I say it every video, I'll say it again. You're a blessing to the community and to someone like me, making my STALKER journey for the first time.
Thanks for everything, and I can't wait for more lessons from the zone ;)
Ahahh thank you for the kind words!
As I say at the end of the video this channel has been a passion project for a while, I'm dedicating as much of my free time as I can to it.
All the people watching and commenting on the videos have been extremely supporting and one of the main reason I'm still at it today, and now having a first sponsor is actually a big achievement at least in my eyes!
Anyways, thanks for being here!
I recently started playing STALKER SoC because of you and honestly, It's been a long time since I had this much fun I'm having right now playing through it, the map is immersive and it truly feels like the world around you is alive and real, the game has a great story and a pretty decent variety of weapons for a 2007 game + It's always on sale for like $4.99
I dont understand why so many people say Shadow of Chernobyl looks outdated, first time i played it and finished it was end of 2023 to start of 2024 and it looked preety good, maybe I just have low standards but its fine
I believe it's people being spoiled by AAA games and graphics since like 2014+ when the "Next Gen Consoles" first came out. Some of the best games I still play to this day were released 03-06 and while graphics are "outdated" it's the gameplay and feel that makes the game good.
@@milkdudz3895yeah graphics don’t matter anymore to me once you start adding 4k textures game sizes triple
Older games are usually 1-15gb have full experiences
The old world at war is less than 10gb with all the dlc
Darkest Hour Europe 44-45 is a hardcore ww2 sim with drivable tanks many maps and constant updates and free expansions and is less than 10-20gb and is still going at almost 20 years old
So many old games took little drive space and are arguably better than their modern counterparts
Want to have a hardcore flying sim experience IL-2 1946 easy takeoffs, complex engine management, every theater of war, tanks vehicles and infantry to shoot at on the ground all in a small size from a game from 2000
I don't mind breath taking graphics but when they are taking up more space then ever its time to tone it down
@@Red_Star_robinit's not 4k graphics ruining game sizes, it's bad optimization of storage on the developers side and also it's cause by the sheer level of detail (LOD) they're adding to the graphics
not an excuse though
@@Kaebren i meant to say 4k textures as those take up alot of storage space for games
Glad to have a video like this. STALKER 2 is my first STALKER game and I've been loving it so this video will be mega helpful
I was always of the opinion that you are free to play or not play as you please in regards to Stalker. But you will definitely miss out on a lot of lore ,fun and of course other amazing mods if you only play Anomaly. God I remember the first time I played Stalkersoup back in 2012, was like a whole new game for me.
which is now stalker OP 2.2 with even more stuff in it
@@reter312 op is such a trip
@@rabidredpanda2888 yeah, in both positive and negative way
No no you miss out on a lot of fun by playing the OGs. Unless if you somehow have unlimited time in your life.
@@creriey4945 How? you miss out by not playing them.
I consider myself a hardcore fan of Stalker and have been playing it for years, yet all I've played is Misery, Anomaly, and now Escape from Pripyat. It's amazing how many mods there are.
I'll never forget misery back in the day, especially the cats before 2.2 (I think) lol
well then play also the ogs
@@champagnesupernva9131 nah they are old not worth it
@@vnNeek🤡
If you want to try anamoly , get Dark Signal , gameplay is real close to vanilla with a nice graphics boost and plenty of QOL upgrades.
Yeah Dark Signal is one of these mods I havnt had time to try but keep hearing good thing about, def need to try it out!
Being introduced to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise through Anomaly is like starting to read a book from the very last chapter: you may enjoy the finale, but it has little chance to make sense and will always feel incomplete without the groundwork provided by the previous chapters.
Thats my boi, good to see you over here.
Brother Dugout bringing some well appreciated sense here.
yep, agreed
More like reading another book from the same universe, but your nostalgia is more important so what can I say
its more like watching Fantastic Beasts but not Harry Potter, watch the new Star Trek reboot but not the older series. you lose some context because the world already has been introduced in the past but isnt important for the current plot, if you want you can hunt for information on previous games but its not necessary and you better just watch a summary of the other history.
GAMMA: Stalker hardcore Mode focuses on survival elements
EFP: Stalker hardcore Mode focuses on shooter elements with optional survival
Never played EFP but if it's anything like your average sandbox stalker mod, it wouldn't be good
Gamma and anomaly are not hard-core, they just have terrible mechanics
@@LordTrashcanRulez that's your opinion, most people don't share it
@@LordTrashcanRulez lol u stay true to ur username
@@tmm8837 fun fact, game design is objective, not subjective. The mod is objectively bad, having only 5 mission types is not bad, it's terrible. Not to mention the balance there sucks so you can get a very hard mission that pays like crap, or a very easy mission that takes 5 minutes tops to complete and pays handsomely. This is bad game design, it's not subjective, it's objective.
To whoever said that I'm bad at anomaly, I have two things to say. 1. Good job creating such a unique counter argument, I'm sure that it took you more than 3 seconds to make it. 2. I'm not bad at anomaly, I play it well, I'd go as far as say I'm starting to notice how crap its difficulty is. You don't have to be bad at something to say that it sucks mechanically
I really wanna try efp might download yet another anomaly folder. I’ll have efp anomaly and gamma hahaha
I absolutely recommend playing the first 3 games. The events of those three games are actually canon. As much as I love the hell out of Anomaly/GAMMA, the original games deserve exposure for being the reasons why the latest sandbox S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games and mods exist.
Anomaly may be the smoothest in terms of experience, but it would never have existed if Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky, or Call of Pripyat never existed.
is anomaly gamma a stroy games or what ?
@@brucemohamed5316they are not story games.
"Deserving exposure" doesn't sound like a convincing argument to play them...
Do oil lamps deserve exposure for coming before battery powered lamps?
If the mod is just smoother and better, I don't see a reason to not play the mod.
@@kirbylover37Except it’s not just smoother and better, though is it, that’s why this whole debate exists. I love Anomaly and Gamma but they are lacking in one major department - story. Not all gamers care about it, and that’s fine, but the original games deserve their stories to be shown to those who are and not the modded ones that are absolutely - no disrespect - not up to the original trilogy’s standard, and that’s fine, they’re not supposed to be. They should be appreciated to, of course, but I am saying the original world and works of GSC are a wonderful time too that can easily compete with the likes of Anomaly with just a bit of modding, that you’ll be doing anyways. Don’t play if it’s not your piece of cake but it’s more than just a debate on what is “smoother”. They’re all smooth, these are old games lmfao, ultimately like the video says play what you want, but I don’t see the point in arguing against the valid opinion that the original works should absolutely be given a chance.
@@kirbylover37Also not even touching the plethora of story mods created from the older games that are amazing experiences in themselves, that are also being outshone by the sandbox experience that is much different to the roots of stalker. And again that’s fine; but the differences absolutely should be shown and appreciated.
I'm really happy that You made this video. I've recently pulled a random person from the Internet into STALKER, and I've tried explaining to her how she should begin her adventures in the Zone, but Your video did a much better job of that (I of course sent her the video, duh) :D
I saw Drewski's video about Anomaly and that's how I originally got into the STALKER series. This is all pretty recent. I started with Anomaly, and much like you said I was COMPLETELY lost as to what was going on, but it really only took looking through the PDA and doing a little bit of research to learn what I ultimately needed to know for it. It was definitely an experience on it's own but it got me deeper into the game enough that I have now bought the 3 original games. I'm glad I saw this video because now I know about the specific mods for the original games that fix a lot of issues. I started Shadow of Chernobyl last night for the first time and got to the Railway bridge and basically gave up there for the time being because I cannot for the life of me figure out where my shots are going. I can sometimes be at 20m and go for a pistol chest shot and the NPC wont even react, as if I did nothing at all. Same issue with the AKS-74U and whatnot. I'm hoping the mod you mentioned for it will fix the gunplay at least a little bit because that is what is kind of gatekeeping me from playing the game. If I can't hit you without basically being on top of you that's absolutely ridiculous. After that I jumped straight to Call of Pripyat since I know that's the original game that Anomaly ultimately came from and that is definitely a better experience from the get-go but still has a learning curve with the gunplay. Personally I find that to by far be the weakest point of the original STALKER games. Especially when coming from something like Anomaly or GAMMA, dated is an understatement. It was dated even for it's time. To be honest, I was actually surprised at exactly how different Anomaly/GAMMA is compared to Call of Pripyat. The similarities are obvious, however the differences are even more glaring. I look at Anomaly/GAMMA as completely different games that are just based in the same universe because ultimately, that is what they are. The experiences really cannot be directly compared.
Personally from my experience combined with what you mentioned in the video, I would say starting with something like Anomaly is probably fine assuming that if you do have a question, you just look hard for the answer and don't bother actually asking it yourself. It is really unfortunate that it seems the STALKER community has some of the worst gatekeeping of any series that I know of. Either way, I'm loving the series so far, even the original games I'm seeing and enjoying the vision they had for it. I do MUCH prefer Anomaly/GAMMA because of the open world aspect, as well as the SIGNIFICANTLY better gunplay. While I do find myself immersed in the stories in games, I do actually prefer the concept of being far from the center of attention with the ability to essentially craft my own story rather than having to follow a specific narrative.
After watching this though, I'm going to try installing ZRP, SRP, and PRP to the 3 original games and probably leave it at that, and then give it a try. Still gonna hop on GAMMA in the mean time as well now that I've gotten the hang of it lol.
TL;DR: The original games are pretty cool and if you're into lore, absolutely play them. If you prefer a more free and open world style of game, go for Anomaly. Play it as is, and decide if you like how it is, then think about mods or modpacks you might want to add on. Ultimately, you don't really NEED the full lore behind the original games to understand what's going on in Anomaly though it definitely would not hurt. It just takes some research both on the internet and within your PDA and you'll be fine.
Have fun with the original games! You'll see how interesting the lore is, and in the end it will make any Anomaly/GAMMA/EFP... run you do even more enjoyable!
@@CheekiBreekiTv It definitely is nice having SOME direction thanks to the storyline that's for sure. Again my only real complaint, at least with SoC, is the gunplay but from what I've now read, ZRP does help with that. When I first started with Anomaly I was shocked at just how fast they throw you to the wolves with absolutely no guidance in sight.. that is unless you start as a Loner and do the sort of tutorial quest there, which itself is hard as hell when you're new! 😂
IIRC, the difficulty is tied in with weapon damage for everyone, so you have to play on the highest difficulty to get highest damage output out of your weapons.
@@ecayeta I have recently gone back and tried them again. Beat SoC and am working on Clear Sky now. I figured out the gunplay a bit. Damage was never my issue. It was getting my shots to land anywhere even remotely close to where I am aiming. The RNG based bullet trajectory is the absolute worst. It took a bit of practice but in SoC I managed to get a hang of it. It seemed pretty consistent that with high accuracy weapons, shots were either on target, just above, or up to the right.
Clear Sky is a different story.. so far it just seems completely random. I have struggled to predict where my shots may go. I went back and played around in the start of CoP to find that it is mostly "fixed" I would say. I actually feel like I have control over where my bullets go.
Anomaly/GAMMA did it a lot better for sure. I have high hopes for Stalker 2 as the trailers have reminded me more of the modded variants in terms of mechanics.
Relatively new Stalker here (1 month actually)
Knew the series thanks to Anomaly, wanted to try it, friends told me to play the original three, and that’s what I did
As for mods the only things I really had were ZRP, SRP, and PRP, and weapon reanimation mods so it doesn’t deviate so much from the vanilla experience
Recently just finished Call of Pripyat too, and I have to say Shadow of Chernobyl still is my favorite due to it being the most simple of the three
Oh so you did it perfectly, your friends give you good advice! Time to dive into the mods now :D
@@CheekiBreekiTv yeah, I'm in Anomaly now and a lot of mods I have for it are qol - you're kinda responsible for getting me to know what mods to get, lol
@@ryon5174 hey yo good to see you here vanilla friend
From all 3 games, the I actually changed a bit when it comes to graphics/gameplay was SoC, I installed the Autumn Aurora 2 mod, which was beautiful. The rest were only the basics: Atmosfear + Absolute Nature + Gunslinger.
@@gabrielrodriguez8539 I didn’t really change anything in terms of graphics for me, I was pretty satisfied with all of the vanilla graphics and the lighting really helps with it
The only thing I really dealt with was the weapon animations and OWR for SHOC/COP and FWR for CS covers that for me
Gunslinger I might give a try but I’m not a fan of the mod turning my hud off by default when on master, it’s sort of the same reason why I could never get myself to play Metro on Ranger Hardcore
Keep it up bro! so glad you got a sponsor bro, happy to see your channel grow!
In the future I'd really like to see a critique of some of the more story driven stalker mods, explaining the way in which they build upon the pre-existing lore and tell a compelling story (I really want to see how they build upon the existing world of stalker in their own unique way). I'm from the western audience who's only played the trilogy (+anomaly) and hasnt explored much into the story driven mods, I only recently started playing spatial anomaly alongside gamma :3
Old-ass STALKER fan here.
Long story short: there are no story mods for STALKER. Nada.
And the new "generation" of STALKER plebs just jump straight to mega-mods like CoC or Anomaly, that remove any and all resemblance of story and campaign.
Goldsphere, Wind of Times, Trapped, OGSR, Oblivion Lost…and dozens of more. They are better than any sandbox mod or modpack.
100 percent agree, I played the first game years ago and got back into it with GAMMA. The subreddit for STALKER in particular is literally the most negative gaming space I have personally visited on Reddit. So many people hating just because someone hasn't played the original trilogy, or is asking questions about the games/modpacks, etc. For being a legitimate "STALKER" a lot of them sure haven't fucking touched grass.
Yeah it quieted down a bit and mostly reasonable people ended up on top with all the crazy negative posts downvoted after a while, but the very first hours after the Drewski video were crazy.
Never seen so much negativity on the subreddit. Made me honestly worried for the community when Stalker 2 is gonna come out.
there are a lot of people just jealous of this whole success that stalker is having with many people coming in the zone, they wanna be the "veterans" just because they played many years before anomaly went popular, i'm one of these people but i'm just happy that stalker is getting so much attention and modding support thanks to newcomers, there's no reason to hate them really, my only worry is that they could twist the actual lore of the game (just like the hd models pack i hate), that and the graphic mods that actually are going to give the white tarkovish unrealistic feel, that's bad
This. I visited the subreddit just to see if there is somekind of guide to Anomaly and every thread I see have at least 1 reply like this "maybe play the OG trilogy first". Like, no and go fuck yourself. We are asking something and you tell us to do something else.
I hate those people man like the stalker community should be happy that we got a bunch of rookie stalkers interested in the zone.
They don't like you because another 500 people came before you asking the exact same question, what i gathered so far is that the new crowd are braindead sub 80iq zoomers who don't know how to use google. The hate is well deserved, take the hit and move on.
Congrats on the sponsor :) I only got into stalker in the last year in part because of your vids and started w a lightly modded SOC. It’s been a blast and actually just started CS like 3 days ago
Ohh I'm curious to know what you think about CS! It's definitely is a different experience
haven’t made it out the swamps yet but I like the faction war system! added a few visual mods this time and really enjoying it so far!
I started with Clear Sky couple years back, just completed a playthrough of it recently. Now playing GAMMA and I am absolutely addicted with it. Stalkers atmosphere is just too perfect to pass up on experiencing.
Trop fier que tu es un sponsor, bien jouer, ça fait un moment que je te suis, c'est vraiment inspirant !
Wonderful! Thank you for explaining all this. Last Stalker game I haven't finish is Clear sky and it's bugs is the reason why. Liked and subscribed!
Though I largely agree it's important to keep in mind that not all gatekeeping is bad, I've seen more then one community like stalker cater to the new people too much and change for the worst. Dark Souls is a fine example of gatekeeping that's done good, anyone can get into the community and even get help to beat the games but anyone who tries to push for changing of what's core to those games is shutdown or ignored.
Not sure about the point you're trying to make.
- Please explain what the Gatekeepers in DS complain about
- Please explain what the Gatekeepers in Stalker complain about
- Please explain to me how the two are in any way related, because I can't see it right now.
I had always heard of stalker and never really consumed any content on it picking up the og 3 playing shadow of chernobyl amd had a blast despite the age, the atmosphere is i credibly terrifying i love it
bro i havent see the video yet but already liked it because it was what i needed 3 months ago. this will help all the new stalkers so much
stalker Soup gang
Thanks for the video, as a new Stalker player i was thinking about this for many months but didnt know where to start
Drewski showed me anomaly 2 years ago. i never even noticed the stalker series in stores as a kid i remember seeing the games but never actively investigating them. greatest overlooked trilogy of all time. my answer is play all of them non stop
Memories of the Zone for Shadow of Chernobyl is a great honorable mention. That was my first STALKER experience and honestly my favorite. There's a great guide for installing it too on the steam community
I played the original trilogy about 6 years ago for the first time and found them to be very interesting lorewise, but as you mentioned slightly dated, which is fine with me as I play other games which are even older than them (I'm in my 30s so some games I play are older than some fellow S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s But mods like Anomaly, EFP and Gamma also have a big merit in my eyes.
The original 3 games were other people's stories, whereas with Anomaly for example I'm free to make my own stories. Making different characters in different factions you can make your character have their own goals and impact on the world, even if it's limited to just your playthrough. Whether you're a Merc trying to make it rich, a scientist trying to understand the Zone, or a faithful warrior of the Monolith, you can mold the Zone with your actions. And that's (personally) why I keep returning to the game.
Great video. 👌 And since you mentioned it @12:07 : you should make a vid on the 2 groups in the community (east & west). You could answer common questions like 'will they ever get along?' And 'should they?' 🤨
I've been a Stalker since December 2021. I strongly recommend first playing the original trilogy, not to understand especially the story, but to understand the gameplay, the way of how the Zone works.
If you have to use mods for fixes, like i used for Clear Sky, use them. But first and foremost, play the 3 original games vanilla.
After that, you can use all the mods you wish; you can play Anomaly, Gamma, Escape from Prypiat.
What i am trying here is those ones who are new in this world to not have an unenjoyable experience when playing the Standalone mods.
Have a nice hunting, Stalker☢️
Regards from Argentina
gracias por el tip paa, empecé en Anomaly y la verdad q estoy re perdido. Voy a hacer eso, me voy a bajar los primeros juegos y voy a ver q onda. Saludos desde los campeones del mundo's country 🇦🇷
@@elFrankklin Estoy igual que vos JAAJAJAJA, queria empezar con el primer juego pero esta re bugeado, mejor proba ponerle el starter pack, que es un mod que saca una bocha de bugs y encima mejora la experiencia sin sacar ni agregar nada del vanilla. Por que siempre somos lo Argentinos los que llegamos ultimos jajaja, saludos.
@@Rayitolaser569 Jajajajaj, toda la razón. dale ahi me baje los primeros 3 juegos. les bajo los parches y a viciar 🤑👍🏻
Was trying to figure out which game to get during the steam sale, thanks for clearing up lots of unknowns and concise overviews along with mod histories!
Thanks for this video, as a lifelong gamer who missed STALKER completely, this is a massive help!
I've been playing call of pripyat and exhausted all the mods that could function on my old potato and stumbled upon your vid after starting shadow of cheronbyl and these mods have helped me enjoy the vanilla experience more ty
congrats on the sponsor mate, after finishing your invictus run of GAMMA i look forward to your next hardcore series.
Thanks!
Congrats on the sponsor! Been watching you for a while and it's nice to see your efforts giving fruit. I remember telling you you were in a good spot for it a while ago, I'm glad to see it happen.
Discovered anomaly thanks to you Mr Breeki, and now I'm totally hooked on GAMMA. It's been a wild ride. played the original SoC back when it released but I think it's time for a revisit now before stalker 2 releases
These comments always make me happy. My pleasure :)
@@CheekiBreekiTv Keep doing your thing good sir!
Fantastic video Cheeki, I have just started Shadow, this video has been really useful, Highly appreciated ☢
Congrats on the sponsorship, Cheeki! The channel is really growing! Looking forward for the growth even more when S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 comes out.
Awesome Cheeki Breeki! Love your content bro
Thank you for everything you do on your channel. I'm a fan of the first hour since the E3 2001, and I find your videos very interesting and relevant. I'm French and I can say that the community is very small.people here know more about the Metro series.but this is changing with the arrival of stalker 2 and the dayz rp servers modded on the term stalker.
Wavey's gaming adventure also uploaded a similar video coincidence?
Playing vanilla SoC at least once a year since day one and it is not that bad. I still like it. It is like the baseline of Stalker
This video saved me alot of time and researche, really appriciate it, good work
Thank you for shining light to new players in this community!
Anomaly and then Shadow of Chernobyl with only Autumn Aurora mod is how I started with Stalker, easy to install and SoC-AA plays and looks great.
Dude that's the best video I've ever seen, I'd upvote twice if I could. I'm also very happy you finally got a sponsor because you 100% deserve it! I'll keep following you till the end of time, I wanna be here for the whole journey to 25k followers and then 1 million and every milestone in-between. Keep having fun, take care, see you soon bruh =)
This video is extremely helpful. I came here to explore the games that inspired Tarkov, and you got me going in the right direction for the Stalker series. I have now started Stalker with ZRP.
I already owned Stalker from back in the day but now bought the rest. They're on sale at Steam right now.
I was trying to find out the mods, the differences, which ones are recommended, after pages and pages of reading being lost, I just found your video.
And thank you very much for your explanations, I see it more clearly and I can better (re)launch myself in this incredible adventure!
Good luck to you, thank you again from France!
congratulations on the sponsor bro! nice video as aways
Your videos are always top notch mate, it’s good to see you get a sponsor congratulations mate 😊
I love your content dude, very clear and well made. Thanks for this.
Good job, this kind of video was much needed
lets go cheeki, thanks for this video!
Bless up!
Great vid mate and well done on the first sponsor cheeki breeki 😁👍
I learned about Stalker and i started with Anomaly, i then went deep into the lore, learned the most i could to enjoy the universe of Stalker even more and now i am deep into GAMMA with a few adjustments and addons added by myself to grant me the experience i want, i simply love Stalker games regardless and the community, as intense as it can be at times, is one of the best community i have found for a very long time.
I did not know there were mods which contained all the levels from the 3 original games and finished the original games first before messing with mods. I don't regret it. Without finishing the original games and seeing the story, I wouldn't have liked the mods either. The original games have such great atmosphere and story that while playing the mods such as anomaly, I can see the referances and always compare them to the original. I recommend everyone to play: 1-SOC, 2-Clear Sky, 3-COP first and then start playying either by modding the original games or installing anomaly mod pack since it still has that original feeling. Mess around with the difficulties and different factions in anomaly then you should probbably play the heavily modded packs like gamma.
Merci mec , je me permet de te répondre en français car avec ton accent à couper au couteau, y a pas de doute que tu sois francophone. Bravo pour ton taff , c'est un plaisir à suivre. Et félicitations pour le sponsoring.
Merci
thank you man, it help me a lot to get rid confusing :(
As someone who had basically no knowledge of the story or environment of stalker beyond the Ssethtzeentach video, and just jumped right into anomaly, I loved it. Barely knowing anything about the story and world made it feel super authentic and organic to just wander the world, knowing no more than my character!
Try a modpack for an anomaly called gamma, its megapack of 368 add-ons, its very modular and you can enable disable what ever you want to fit your gameplay style, by default is much harder than anomaly since vendors dont sell weapons or armor, so you need to fix everything yourself, besides condition now you have gun parts that wears of and needs replacement, saves can be done near campfires, i personally disabled all these things because i like anomaly style gameplay, besides that graphics are much better, sounds, ui, you have now limb health besides normal health etc..
Do play the originals at some point as well, glad you're enjoying anomaly.
Thanks a lot man! This video is exactly what I needed!
Congrats on the sponsor man. Glad to see it.
Thank you friend, that's exactly what I needed!
Huge congrats on getting a sponsor mate!
This is the video I was looking for! I'm stalker educated now !
I just finished the trilogy, all 3 games with SRP+ZSP, what should I play next? I'm looking to play rich story telling, story driven mods before jumping to Anomaly. So, there's Wind of Time, Vector of Alienation, mods at 5:25, and even Anomaly has 4 chapters. But in what order to play the first few?
Thanks a lot for this video! I bought all 3 games (Kinguin has good prices for the steam versions). I'm done with Shadow of Chernobyl with ZRP, starting Clear Sky with SRP now =)
if you play anomoly first and are willing to read even a little bit here and there of the wiki which you'll inevitably end up at anyway with questions about gameplay. This doesn't take that long you'll figure out the story :there is also one or two youtube channels out there that summarize the lore really well in videos i would imagine also if Stalker 2 ever releases half of its sales will be people who only played anomoly and then went from there this is llike Tarkovs phase when it really started to blow up and people wanted to gate keep it. History repeats my friends great video too.
This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!
For me personally the best way to enjoy stalker series now is to play Clear Sky LFO which brings lots of new things while still being close to vanilla experience, after that Radiophobia 3 and Gunslinger for CoP. Still everyone should enjoy these games the way they like it. Great video btw
Excellent video, so glad to see you're just gettin biggera nd bigger
I remember people strongly pushing Complete mods for people playing the games for the first time. Saying it only change visual and not mentioning gameplay changes.
Still waiting for proper translation of NLC so people can enjoy its glory. This is where "saving at campfire" came from to Anomaly btw. Oh and recently Goldsphere was translated, one of the coolest Stalker mods.
Finally, another NLC fan. I have literally seen zero mentions of NLC on any stalker modding video even in the comment section. Mod beats anomaly and gamma straight out of the water and into orbital space in terms of actual hard-core difficulty instead of relying on poor game mechanics and skyrim "stuff is tanky" difficulty.
@@LordTrashcanRulez Not surprised since there is no good English translation for NLC. There's a lot of text in there and arsenal isn't plentiful. Also it's hard as ball and rarely fair with little options to deal with challenge. And even more small details and mechanics to learn if you want to survive.
@@SpecShadow I wouldn't say it's the translation, the average gamer, including people who play stalker anomaly, just won't be able to handle it
thanks Cheeki, very good vid I'll link my friend to !
Indeed, health and good vibes of the community is important : )
Cheers
I guess I'd be called a purist since I started with all original games unmoded, then I watched the movie and no I haven't read the book - I'm probably illiterate. Vanilla shadow of chernobyl is full of glitched time-sensitive repetitive quests that are forced on you (not accept, just pops up for no reason), small bugs like glitching map/minimap, meaningless tooltips, descriptions and dialogue in some places. RMA: Autumn is the best mod keeping the original stalker while vastly improving weather and graphics on the dated engine. OGSE is not a mod but an overhaul of everything basically, definitely great for a second round of SoC. And for mindless fun Stalkersoup is my go-to right now - a buggy as hell mod soup that is way too fun to play. If you don't like fun but like a challenge CP2/OP2 grew from the same branch as stalkersoup, has tons of content but provides a highly polished experience that will kill you with its economy, lack of ammo and OP mutants. Still, I'd recommend these over Lost alpha, Anomaly, Misery or any other mod out there. As for Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat, I'd recommend playing vanilla.
PS Fuck RAID.
Love the videos, mate!
I'm just diving into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the very first time after being a total Escape from Tarkov addict since it launched in closed Alpha. As I really want to jump into this world and soak in the OG feeling of the game I'll just go with the unmodded trilogy first and then checkout the Anomaly standalone. The realistic weapon behaviour mod which reminds me of EFT is insane. Can't wait to play this mammoth, thanks for this info video. Made my decision way more easy.
3h played and saved the game without manually saving because it showed me the little floppy icon.. then I had to quit the game because I received a call and couldnt tab out - joined back in and all progress is gone. I love that OG feeling 😅
Why would playing the original trilogy unmodded bring "pain and frustration"? That comes later with mods. Misery, Anomaly, Gamma etc. are all built on pain and frustration as design choices, and they make the original trilogy look like a casual experience by comparison.
Because the "pain and frustration" in the older games aren't a design choice and have nothing to do with difficulty. They are hard dated jank.
Because they barely work on modern operating systems and modern hardware.
Playing shadow of chernobly even with ZRP still crashed like every hour for me playing it, not enjoyable at all.
@@samithonjames370weird I played the entirety of SoC in vanilla with no crashes or major bugs
Yo, c'est vraiment cool ce que tu produis. Je prend parfois plus de plaisir à découvrir ton contenu que celui des jeux en eux mêmes. La narration est bonne, tu arrives à créer une très bonne ambiance avec le mélange astucieux de musique mélancolique ainsi qu'une voix douce mais assurée qui pourrait rappeler celle d'un stalker expérimenté voulant bien nous partager un peu de ses tuyaux...
J'avoue comme ça on dirait que je veux te pécho mais c'est pas le cas, je veux juste te donner de la force pour continuer à produire ce genre de contenu.
Ciao !
Merci! Ca fait toujours très plaisir de lire ce genre de commentaires :)
Started playing stalker after seeing Drewskis videos during Covid. But I knew I couldnt go unmodded OG so I went Anomaly. Its a one- stop- download, the new engine just works and I had zero crashes and just a few bugs in a year of playing it :) Of course I watched countless reviews and story discriptions about the OG´s here on YT to have atleast some context.
why couldnt you go unmodded og
you could go unmodded og you just chose not to lol
Im happy to hear youve got a sponsorship cheeki
What I tell anyone interested in STALKER is to ignore Anomaly and everything associated with it like Gamma and EFP. Play the unmodded original trilogy first (maybe some light bug fix mods only), then play some of the "first wave" mods like Oblivion Lost 2.2, AMK, ZRP, LURK, etc. then move to some of the more popular mods like OGSE 0692 (0693 is very different, play 0692 first), SGM, Misery, then moving to the modern stuff like Dead Air. Anomaly should be last, the people who start playing STALKER on Anomaly/Gamma/etc are not true STALKERS, they are zoomers who have been brainwashed by the Monolith.
Special mention to OP-2, also called Cumulative Pack 2 or Joint Pak 2, I recently beat this and it was incredibly stable for the largest STALKER modpack ever created. It has a lot of very annoying missions such as anything to do with finding hidden stashes or invisible portals, but there's so much content and things to do. Anomaly etc. is just gun porn on the xray engine, OP-2 is the true STALKER experience for masters.
I always love watching people explain something about STALKER. Reminds me of the old days when I started playing 😌
Мr. Cheeki, you are great! Thank you for this video and for the amazing channel that is helping me to navigate the Stalker rabbit hole.
Wish me luck I’m staring my stalker journey today hopefully this video helps me just recently got my first pc so also new to modding
Great job cheeki, you rock hermano.
Hello there. My First SoC Run, i running the Mods ZRP, Absolute Nature/Texture, OWR and Shaders Max. Dynamic Shaders is to much of Graphical Effects
People should not forget that in sandbox versions (Anomaly/Gamma) we're playing as "yet another stalker", not an all-knowing lore master, so it's quite fitting to go in blind. Later, if the newbie falls in love with the game he'll dive into the universe retroactively. Knowing everything about the Wish Granter kinda kills a part of the mystery.
I remember getting back into STALKER because of Nikolai’s videos, I remember when there was no Anomaly and only a few quest mods to compliment AO3 for CoC.
Thank you Cheeki for making this video!
I just got into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Iceberg starting of with GAMMA and have watched a lot of beginner guides , including yours, to get into the game and all the lore around it and i found it extremely hard, but i guess that is part of the experience.
What I have been missing in GAMMA is the story and to get into that and dive deeper in the lore this video came just in time!
Now I’m going to start of with the original triology to get a better grip on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. before i move on to Anomaly and GAMMA.
I would not recommend using mods like Analmeme nor Gamma as your first mods either.
There's tons of mods for each of the three main STALKER games as well.
Just getting into the game, this helped. Thanks!
Personally: Autumn Aurora is the smoothest way to play Shadow of Chernobyl itself. Clear Sky LFO. And of course Gunslinger for CoP.
All the freeplay mods are cool but they're not Stalker so much as big survival sandboxes that happen to run on Xray and use Stalker's assets.
1:06 two of them with the merc flair. They were just posting in character