I hate it when people upload a Stalker video like "Stalker is the best game" or "Why i love stalker" and then show a Anomaly modded into oblivion to a point where it looks as colorful as Borderlands. Or just GAMMA people..
@@monolith4653 Don't tell me you're that Fedora guy from Reddit Otherwise you guys really have copy pasted opinions Why do you "hate" when people like the same game as you do? When two fans of Skyrim meet each other, do they wank each other on how unmodded their game is? SMH...
@@monolith4653it's one thing if youve played the games. But the modding community has taken Stalker to new heights, and has kept it relative today. Anomaly and CoC to say a few, Gamma and EFP being mod packs for anomaly are great for your gunfighting style or zoner life. But if anything the modded stalkers are great and can almost be an entirely different game.
Yo we taking it to rostok with this one. I have no idea who you are but I’m always happy to see someone doing a Stalker video. Keep up the good work dog man.
Same here. I find new quality niche essayists by checking almost every english speaking videos bout the stalker universe be it roadside pic, videogame or movie related content!
Speaking of savescumming, back when i played CS (it was the first stalker game i had EVER played) I used to save after each individual kill in a fight so youd scroll through my saves and see: swamps fight 1 kill swamps fight 2 kills swamps fight 3 kills swamps fight 4 kills swamps fight finished
I just started playing a few months ago on the hardest difficulty and this was absolutely me Gives me a good laugh when I found I've already made a save with the same name 😂
honestly, i was kinda upset when stalker won the instagram poles and not terraria, but while watching the video, i got so excited about the worldbuilding of this game, the kung never fails to deliver!
1:03:25 In regards to the Clear Sky MG nest at the entrance to The Cordon, it IS possible to get by the military outpost alive, but you have to keep jumping cover to cover behind rocks and trees before gunning it down the round, which can still leave you open to get shot up. Took me like 15 attempts, but it is in fact possible
Yeah, Clear Sky made me laugh my ass of @ being punished for having the gall to try & continue the game. Like “yeah I’ll go speak to Sidorovich. I miss my old..OMG WTF they have an MG42 now WTF?!?!” Made me use my binoculars and plan my path before trying 2 more times, both of which were white knuckle, toe curling-ly terrifying. Made the Zone feel like a forbidden place fr.
Oh, you played with a version, when GSC put back the option to kill the gunner. Originally it wasn't meant to be the way and even if you somehow managed to kill the gunner, the MG kept firing on it's own. Then they received a ton of complaints so they make it possible to silence the gun by killing the gunner. Then another patch came in, seemingly from some team working on other issues what overwrote the earlier patch concerning the gun. Then complaints arrived again and they put it back. Then another patch came in, some guy noticed that the design documents said the MG should not be silenced and "fixed" it, causing even more people to rip off their hair. Then it got fixed again. I don't even know how it is in the final version, because most mods just give you the option to kill the gunner. The idea behind this bullshit section was, that you were supposed to sneak from cover to cover, without the gunner noticing you. But sneaking in Stalker is broken as fuck and never worked (AI either can spot you through the other side of the map or never see you even if you stand next to them), so instead you have to run from cover to cover and run away. The dear fucking ret@rds at GSC even put up this fence running next to the tunnel, to make sure you can't just turn left and walk away, while making the stalkers at the bridge instantly hostile to you if you want to circle around using the way recommended by most youtube vloggers (best option is sprinting as fuck, jump under the fallen tree, wait until the gunner gets bored, then run to the hills until the gunner looses sight of you). As I said, originally you were not meant to be able to silence the gun, you were meant to run away. This is just one instance of Clear Sky design being an utter mess.
The "drone" sound in Shadow of Cernobyl during the doc cutscene is here because you didn't kill the controller during your first agroprom underground mission.
lmao i was wondering because when i backtracked the way to doc i remembered which manhole you leave the underground from so i could snipe the controller head-on
@@kcjcusbc5004 @owenkung5000 sorry if I came across as crude. Hope you keep learning the little things that are different between cultures, the big things that are the same, and of course, learn to laugh along the way.
@@benjaminnickerson3961Tbh, the US is literally the only true world superpower, so Americans don't really have a real necessity to "conform" to anything other people do outside the country. They're literally the New Romans, they dictate the terms of the world...not the other way around. I know Europeans especially like to cope and deny this, but it's true and everyone knows it even if they try to use anything they can to dump on Americans for this or that
@@Particle_Ghost untrue. It's much closer to Ezio trilogy of AC. All games are standalone, and Clear Sky/Call of Pripyat aren't smaller than Shadow of Chernobyl by much, and mechanically have big enough differences - different shooting, AIs, A-life iterations, survival mechanics, approaches to quests, etc.
@@Particle_Ghost Story wise yeah I get it. The others games didn't add much. Even though they added mechanics I liked. Which can be mostly modded into SoC anyway.
Roadside picnic is really one of the best books ive ever read and its pretty short so everyone should give it a read (or listen to an audiobook rip on youtube) . Its actually crazy how this book has inspired unique but still equally good pieces of media. like the book, the stalker movie, and these games are all some of my favorite works of art period.
There is a whole series of official STALKER novels. Back when the games were new, GSC partnered up with a russian publisher to release dozens of novels based directly on the games. The quality varies, some are barely a step above fan fiction, while others are written by prominent russian & ukrainian sci-fi & combat fantasy writers and are thus quite good. None are canon, each author has their own separate "STALKER universe" (although there is some limited cross-referencing), and even the basics like how anomalies, mutants and artifacts work vary dramatically between authors. Still, I inhaled these things as a kid, I read like one of those per week. Dad still has ~40 of those novels in the attic. My favorite is "Firing Line" by Vasiliy Orekhov, a story that follows a veteran stalker Hemul through a frantic chase through the Zone, set in the 2020s. The only issue is - they are all in russian, with only a couple translated into german.
1:38:00 If you talk to the bandit leader, there's essentially a skill check, where if your equipment is good enough you'll intimidate him into not demanding interest (otherwise you just get attacked).
Lol yep. But it's a shit section to stealth through as well. You don't really have access to silenced weapons at that point and doing melee only is fucked. I managed to do it once, but once you reach the files I think it always triggers the alarm.
The weird thing is is that the section seems like it was designed with stealth in mind, there's a video on youtube (look up "agroprom stealth") showing someone taking a specific route through the base undetected, and the design of this route can really only be explained by the devs wanting to add a stealthy option. It really sucks though since stealth in the og trilogy is ass
"Dutyer" is probably a janky translation quirk. "Duty" is called "Dolg" in russian, and a Duty member is called "dolgovez". The "-vez" suffix works exactly like "-er" in english, so whoever translated the game to english just followed the same process - "duty" + "er" = "dutyer".
This is absolutely stellar my man! I'm not even halfway, and I'm very happy with it. STALKER is such a interesting series, and I'm glad to see a review that's this long and isnt just basically restating the plot!
Well, Scar not appearing ever again didn't age well. Today, 23rd of August 2024. GSC released a Stalker 2 trailer where Scar is confirmed to appear in Stalker 2
26:45 you actually can join freedom in SoC but it's bugged and quite hard due to you having to do freedom's missions in a certain way because otherwise dialogue doesn't load. If you join freedom, bandits will become friendly while duty hostile. Also you can access freedom's room with a lot of resources.
The freeroam you mentioned Shadow of Chernobyl is only included with ZRP I think, because i dont recall it being in vanilla. Anyway great vid. Earned a sub.
Funfact about that stalker that saves your life after the death truck crash. He´s modeled after the Stalker from the original movie. Reddish hair, similiar face a calm and mellow saviour. There´s tons of therories about how he might be scar, or later on might´ve become Charon (the monolith leader in prypiat) due to his relatively rare VSS which only appears on like three people in the whole series.
I appreciate you playing these with very minimal modding i see too many people get turned off from the game for being too hard and i find a lot of that comes from the mods they get recommended that are meant for vets to play with once the basegame isn't enough anymore
Only a short while into the video, but as a Stalker veteran, thank you for actually explaining for new people how the difficulties work. Used to think that master made bullets do more damage, until I actually heard other people discussing it and realised for myself that it's total bullshit.
I want to thank you for this review. You got me to actually play the games and I can’t stop (I won’t lie Shadow of Chernobyls ending almost filtered me). I played them all back to back over these last two weeks and am currently installing Anomaly to give me more of the Zone. I have not been this inthralled by a game and it’s world since I played the og Dead Space on its release.
@sci_ent_ificsui_neg9236why did you fake pretending to be another person when you clearly are the same person @shardell and hopped on an alt. You literally hopped on an alt to pretend that you were someone else defending the original post 🤣🤣🫵🏾
Bless you for bringing up the popular myths about difficulty levels in Shadow of Chernobyl. As someone who personally dug around in config files for hours, I tried to convey this simple fact multiple times, but a lot of people just ignore the proof right there in the code.
It’s still hilarious to me that I found your TH-cam channel as a 23 year old grown man completely independently of when I was like 17 shitting my pants laughing at your meme account (I haven’t had social media in years now)
brother for context I was older six years ago than you are now. You stop calling yourself grown man at some point and try to find the little things that bring you childlike joy and wonder, it's too easy to lose.
@@autismofinn3144 I’m not saying anything negative or anything, just distinguishing between the two very different points in my life I discovered and enjoyed his kungtent
Really nice vid. CoP is my favourite OG S. T. A. L. K. E. R game. I played SoC and CS when I was like 7-8 y/o and just couldn't understand wtf was going on. Then when I was maybe 11 I randomly bought CoP at some local games shop for like 150 rubles and fell in love with the game. After playing trough all vanilla games I can say that CoP has the most interesting side quests and side characters in the series. I also love attention to details and the world kinda reacting to your actions. Like how Topol's group becomes a cool science research group with top-tier armors if you keep all of them alive during ecologists' quests. Another example is how you can mention lots of things to Zulus when you're drinking with him(like how you've found the Oasis, cleared the bloodsucker nest and etc. Although some things in the game feel really undercooked(I really don't like that most of unique guns are just ordered from Nimble and aren't used as a reward for quests or loot from named NPCs). I also love Anomaly and Anomaly modpacks because they can provide the "some random stalker living in the Zone and doing some chores for Sidorovich" experience (peak Anomaly for me is literally hunting mutants, cooking their meat and going on artifact hunts).
I just found your channel by youtube algorithm and it’s been a while since it recommended me a channel so worthwhile, loved your cometary, loved your gameplay, thanks for such a great video
Shadow of Chernobyl Combat Perfect Call of Pripyat Combat Perfect Clear Sky Combat Get slapped bleeding, already low health, and takes every bandage and medkit to get healed
I always find it a bit mindboggling that literal post-CoD4 kids are now old enough to make YT video documentaries. But I'm still glad that more people are finding out about the wonders of the Zone... and NOT using a pile of mega-mods right off the bat (looking at you, Anomaly kids). I personally have been blasting digital foes since the original DOOM, and STALKER still is one of the most memorable, most unique and engaging FPS games of all time. And for the longest of time, they were some of THE PC exclusives people raved about. Also, is it just me, or did you play SOC on the DirectX8 mode, the "Static Lighting" setting? That instantly makes it look 10 years older than it truly is. Truly bizarre that so many newbies make this mistake. Also: ALL the three STALKER games run on the exact same X-Ray engine. CS and CoP only got minor DX10 and 11 upgrades; the differences really diminish if you switch SoC to DX9 mode.
Ill never forget when Shadow of Chernobyl came out. It was the answer to the itch left since the original Resident evil PSX Trilogy. It got me into hardcore FPS and Action RPGs. Its hard to believe its nearly been 20 years since then. Im still playing with my Steam Deck
I would not say that STALKER is based on Stalker (movie) and Roadside Picnic. Those are for sure inspirations for the series, but the game world and story are way different to those stories. Themes too. In fact, the reason the NPCs mention Klondike so often is because the Klondike Gold Rush is another massive influence on the game world too. The AK is an AK 74 variant so it is 5.45, not 7.62. You missed a Stalker suit and Fast SHooting AK in Strelok's stash. For Clear SKy - use the Sky Reclamation Project bug fix mod. For the machinegun in Cordon - it is possible to get the high-end Clear Sky armour before going there. It is even better than the Berill. You need max Clear Sky reputation for it but it is a life saver. This makes it easier to pass the machinegun. Anti-Radiation artifacts in Clear Sky are super powerful. So you can ignore that damage type with 1-2 high to mid range ones. And stack lots of other ones for combat. I personally like CoP but the least out of the series. Its a good game but I dislike its map design. Call of Pripyat has the most mods.
Shout out big man Kruglov Dude is the only guy in SOC to genuinely ask you how you're doing Everyone else is a hello or some superficial how's it going. Kruglov asks "how's life" He a real one.
The first game didn’t really grip me at first. That first area where you’re just going to derelict small buildings to help some rookies, finding another set of buildings that are empty. Once you get to the garbage though (immediate next area) it really starts to pick up. I’m probably only halfway through but areas like the institute, the bandit camp into the lab, and the wild territory with the scientist are very memorable moments. It’s got me insanely hyped for the rest of the game, and for the sequels after. Can’t wait to play 2 when it drops!
The first game which is Shadow of Chernobyl is technically the only game in the series, the other 2 are smaller spin-off titles and kind of serve like expansions, but they are not nearly as detailed and use far less locations. CS reuses many of the assets and mostly focuses on factions, not being able to aim down your handgun iron sights is just a ridiculously bad decision, it was also made by a different team. COP is extremely small in comparison of the other 2. Stalker 2 I have pre-ordered and I'm taking a week's vacation for it. It's absolutely going to replace the 3 previous games, there is no point of having them installed ever again after Stalker 2 drops. Obviously there's some people talking junk about it saying it looks too much like a shooter, but that's because how far technology has come. Stalker 2 is going to include the Zones included in the previous titles and far more.
your footage of the first stalker game is a gameplay on dx8 renderer (because only this one had a shadow casted by the player), it is legacy renderer for weak pcs without a lot of fancy stuff, and even that one manages to impress you. the pretty graphics is on dx9 fully dynamic renderer for Shadow of Chornobyl, and dx10 for clear sky and call of pripyat. at its time, stalker engine, called x-ray had done a lot of things that were quite rare for its time - one of the first deferred renderers capable of rendering dozens of dynamic shadows on screen, mixed with static diffuse lightmaps for imitating global illumination, and it looked quite well. in later games were added other effects: parallax occlusion mapping, dynamic surface wetness during rain, using oclusion mapping to keep places under roofs dry, volumetric sun rays and more stuff. mods like stalker anomaly dont even have new visual effects. they are fine tuning what was already present in the engine in 2008.
Anomaly might not have added anything new per se, but the upgraded engine and swap to 64 bit is what allows those graphical features to be used to their fullest potential. They did a lot more work than some fine tuning.
Im glad that someone take a journey to Sralker series imo its one of most unique games u will ever play the atmosphere while of this game is topnotch , i watched the entire video and bring me memories of this golden serie u did amazing job explaing and editing through the video. Btw u finished the whole series and not knowing that there is quick healing shortcut and peeking mechanic in the game which it will make ur engagement way easier by pressing "E" and "Q" .
1:00:15 They did the pistol zoom thing, because they saw Fallout 3 doing. No other reason. After they got a ton of complaints about it, they decided to put it back for CoP. That's it.
The modder for stalker is truly some of the best wizard I’ve seen I’m constantly in awe from what they manage to do from a 16 year old engine, truly putting some triple A company to shame.
I've played the original stalker games + anomaly and gamma. I'd highly recommend both anomaly or gamma depending on how hardcore of an experience you want with your game but it'll be a pleasant surprise playing them. Anomaly by itself is a great experience that can still be enjoyed casually. Gamma is both beautiful and brutal. The amount of mods they have (I think current gamma is like 439 mods?) really brought a polish to the game you almost don't believe is possible. They've even added mantling to grab onto ledges in the most recent update. Whilst both anomaly and gamma I'd say are more hardcore versions of stalker they still have that sandbox aspect of them. Almost every option can be tuned ingame to find the perfect gameplay loop for you. By default they are pretty challenging to get good or serviceable loot but you can tweak it to be more fair for you. Gamma will never have the original games beat for the story since it's not it's focus but the overall experience of Gamma is something of beauty and I hope you get to experience it.
I slapped better drop conditions for more experienced stalkers with masters having mint gear, made the midgame flow less grindy to me and I think it fits well having serious stalkers taking care of their shit, and rookies trying their bestest with broken toz's
@@Lake_Claire the tacticool stuff is what I hate the most about gamma even though I like it a lot. I wish you could just outright disable BaS without breaking everything. And I started with shadow of chernobyl on my first gaming laptop sporting ati x600 graphics, managed to run that bad boy with surprisingly good settings but man was it rough. Then updated my computer and went down oblivion lost -> amk -> lurk pipelines and so on so forth, was hooked. No need to go all monolith and make stalker fans fight eachother
Not sure if anyone pointed that out yet, but that military checkpoint you gotta cross in the Clear Sky - that was completely intentional design. The idea was that you had to run from cover to cover while dodging the incoming enemy fire, but due to a mistake in the game code, the weapon has mismatched ammo type, I think it was the sniper one, which conveniently penetrates anything you can use as a cover. The guy manning the gun is named Вова Вист, who is pretty infamous in the community for just how ridiculously hard he makes it for the player to cross Cordon. And yes, it is still completely possible to run through, if you know what you're doing.
hi there... old timer here. first off, good video, always love it when someone covers the genre. some notes; - difficulty, also affects loot found in crates - it's "si-doro-wich" or "si-dro-wich", not "sido-rowich" - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - the acronym is widespread, but made up, it doesn't stand for anything - the bridge in cordon; most common rookie mistake. fps trained us to "shoot first, ask never" - but in stalker there are some situations when talking to the enemy is totally an option - probably a bit more, but i just started the video and don't wanna be too picky if you want to explore the series further, i highly recommend the lost alpha from dezowave, it is a standalone game and tries to recreate the game as original intended with lots of cut content like the Sins faction or driving vehicles, another ending, etc.
Nah Lost Alpha is garbage, I finally played and finished it, after quitting 5 times. You run around back and forth way to many times, the ending is lackluster, the NPP part is incredibly bad, Sin faction was annoying forcing you to run through that empty territory after every mission they send you. The removed that darkstalker for some reason, the hills location and the invisible bridge loot is cringe. Lost Alpha was way overhyped.
The realization that there is a 2 hours long video of one of my favorites series from all time, and almost 230 k people had seen it before me, its part of what makes me hope about our world. cheers. Great Vid, seen it in three sits. Im jumpting right know to the oblivion video.
6:08 it doesn't stand for anything. Scavengers, trespassers etc. is wildly used fan translation of acronym. It was made into acronym to evade lawsuits from Stalker film.
for the call of prypiat tibit, you dont need to choose who get the tool for your craftmen. Both zone (zaton and yanov) got two full set of low level and intermediate level tools for both craftsmen, and, Prypiat got two set of advanced tools for both gits.
Aaahhh you Cheeky Breeky! Well done with the highly entertaining reviews! I played the Stalkers first time this year, and they easily became one of my favorites! The setting is very interesting and unique, the gunplay / challenge is top-notch. I heard lot of praise for them back in the day, but missed them. Perhaps my PC was lacking etc. My other favorites include Fallout & Fallout 2, Disciples 2, Silent Storm games, Seven Kingdoms etc. When it comes to the gameworld / story / ending being reactive to player actions and choices, Fallout & Fallout 2 rank extremely high here. When it comes to gunplay, around those times F.E.A.R. was highly regarded and probably is today. Legends then, legends still i say. I haven't played it, though. Ok, back to the review. I wonder is there mods to nerf the AI grenades and squish bugs for Clear Sky? I'd like to think so. Regarding Call of Pripyat; First time i remember "cheesing" through the sleeping bloodsuckers by standing behind my fellow buddy / corner / something and just throwing grenades like crazy at them and shooting like hell. Very tough, and very memorable! Regarding the room with 4 hooded big guys, same strategy there. Lots of grenades and shooting. In Pripryat, there was one certain big complex. Aften completing the game, i went there for some aftergoodies. The complex would be eather occupied, or soon to be. So it great strolling with my boys there, often they would end up there. If the complex was occupied, then clearing it and keeping the complex as ours was challenging. If it was empty, then holding the line and keeping the complex as ours was fun too.
01:03:38 It is possible to get past the military checkpoint without getting killed although, you have to be quick about it. You basically want to run towards the second rock down the hill and crouch until they stop shooting. Then, once they stop shooting, make sure that you fully regenerated your stamina and run to the left. There should be a gap between the barbed wire and a bush, once you make it past that, then you just run for it and hope you won't get killed. It took me a while but eventually made it past them.
1:07:40 - this guy was supposed to be stereotypical armenian who talks with pretty thicc accent plus enjoys to twist words and talk with bazar-trader proverbs and weird little sayings. In original version he's pretty colourful character. Slightly offensive (to armenians), but colorful. He also has multiple trash talk fights with other guys from Freedom over the speeker outside on the base. Some conversations go pretty suggestive, like: -- Eey bruthas, how bout you have a looky-look at that Thing i have? -- How about you look at My Thing? Can you see it from here? -- Sorry, pal, i don't have a microscope, lol.
For anyone interested, both the book and the film are really great. Especially the film, which also has a ton of interesting (and sad) history surrounding its creation.
Definitely enjoyed watching this, it was well paced and had thorough coverage of each of the games. Hope you do a GAMMA review and one for STALKER 2 someday.
I enjoyed Call of Pripyat so much at a time. What a game. Other games were great as well, but I enjoyed it the most I think. I can't wait for Stalker 2.
This video was very yes and hella funny (only problem was the use of the word clip but that just because i a big gun nerd but it's still a good review)
I've been playing a ton of stalker lately since it released in the trilogy pack, and I've always been partial to Tactical shooters over every other style of shooter genre. And there's not that many tactical Shooters on consoles even to this day, so when seeing this game on the PlayStation Store I immediately bought the first and the third one. I played call of pripyat first because all of the reviews said it was the best of the bunch. I then played the first one and immediately thought the first one felt better to control and the Gunplay was fantastic, it also does artifact equipping a lot better in my opinion. However after about four hours of playing I started getting burnt out with how much combat there was, the atmosphere is fantastic in the first one but for me personally the early hours have way too much combat and not enough lonely moments. So I went back to the third one and I appreciate how much more freedom you have and how toned down they made the actual gun fights in the game. Don't get me wrong the third one still has some fantastic and intense battles, however they are just spaced out more and you're not quite as tough in the third game. The first game still does a lot of things better like having more endurance and having better overall combat. I also like how you can see your character and how easy it is to break the game just by exploring and picking up everything you can and selling it. But the third game does have a better atmosphere and the more impactful struggle of trying to get stronger items. The stash system I think is also a perfect way to provide the player with something to look for but also keeping the player from getting to overpowered without having to fight for it. It also makes hunting for gear a lot more exciting when you know that if a stash opens up you need to find it quickly otherwise it will vanish, because not only can you get it but every other stalker in the game can collect it as well. And I didn't think the world would feel as lived in as it does, but the third game has a more Dynamic World while the first game has a more crafted world. Both games have a really interesting world to explore, while I do love the world in the first one better, the third one is leagues above just in terms of more to explore. I do say if you don't mind the abundance of combat and be more difficult combat challenge overall, the first one is definitely something to play. But if you want something that has more atmosphere it allows you more time to soak in that atmosphere, while also having a moderate amount of challenge and a stronger sense of exploration, the third game might be the most refined feeling aside from the weird feeling combat in the first few hours. I just can't believe that GSC has done this good of a job porting them to console with his little bugs as they have, and I've only had one crash in the first game after 10 hours. And the third one has been running flawlessly so far, which is such a stark contrast to another game I've been playing that I love but released in a completely broken state- Warhammer 40K chaos gate demon Hunters😅
You CAN crouch down, go under the fallen tree (break the box if necessary), hug the fence on the left and sneak through to the rookie village in Clear Sky. Scamorovich will be very impressed once you've done so. I got it first try when I played CS for the first time too. Didn't even think that I'm supposed to go through the other route.
I finished all 3 games myself, though... SoC only once, where CS and CoP I finished 5 times each haha. CoP 3 times + 2 times modded with MISERY mod. And of course got countles hours in Anomaly. Fun fact is... a friend told me about a gun in CS l never found.... you can take the MG from the tank in Red Forest, has 2k rounds in it, so can shoot for a while. I just had PTSD from that place, so l ran always through as fast as possible. As for the Renegades, the difference between them and Bandits is, that Bandits has a hierarchy system. So there is 1 boss, who all Bandits follow and got well... some rules. Renegades on the other hand don't have this, they are kinda like Free Stalkers, minus Sid or Wolf, no leader and everyone does what they want. Or well, they might been also ex-bandits who didn't like the "rule" part.
Also fun fact, which l didn't knew for a while... In Red Forest, by the tank with the Teleporter (or time anomaly) there is an RPK machinegun called "tank gun", l think. With 2000 rounds mag.
Seeing a 2 Hour Stalker Retrospective makes me Happy as someone who plays these Games for well wayy to long tbh xD. This Video actually made me reinstall the Games again
1:03:48 - it IS possible. And you could do it much easily because you played it during a sunny day. There was a path to the left near the fallen tree, and you should run that way as fast as you could. But when you play it during a night (like i did), when can't see that path, it could turn into like 5 hours of trial and error.
I loved this review you did. Great work. I definitely think you should give Anomaly or Gamma a go, they’re a huge step up for the games and practically a necessity in my opinion for a modern experience.
Very well made video, you managed to fit 3 games in 2 hours without missing any important details or plot points. Good job man, cant wait to see you play GAMMA! Subscribed!
a tip for anyone frustrated with the minefield: Mines work like anomalies do with bolts if you throw a bolt, and you hear a loud click sound, your bolt hit a mine, so throw another bolt until it rolls without making a click, and then walk in the way that the bolt rolled continue until you reach the heli! good hunting fellow stalkers!
I played all 3 of the stalker games the last year and I enjoyed all of them. Imo the best part about stalker was the exploration. Searching for items in an abandoned house while it's raining outside (in-game), was awesome. I am really excited for the new entry this year.
1:53 I had no ammo in any guns but my pistol at this area, so i just sprinted ass-first into the controller and spammed right click with the knife and spammed F1 to heal
I experienced a bug in CS, around the time I got to Limansk, that caused all dead bodies to disappear except for the last killed one. It was like a ultra-hyper-hard mode because even though I could rely on weapons left on the ground for some extra ammo, I couldn't get any extra medkits, bandages or radiation med for the final stretch of the game, since I couldn't loot bodies. I didn't feel like restarting, so I soldiered on, but man, it was brutal...
Keeps recommending this video after every single S.T.A.L.K.E.R video I watch, this makes the 7th tike I'm watching this. It's a real banger, so I'm not mad at the algorithm.
I recently discovered that it's actually piss easy to pass the cordon machine gun in clear sky. Just imagine it's not there and run to the hole in the fence without any hesitation. The machine gunner always takes a second or two after seeing you the first time to start firing, but shoots immediately next times, so hiding after he sees you is a guaranteed death sentence, but if you just run without ever stopping you have just enough time to safely pass through his line of fire.
For me, SoC was the best episode that laid down everything CS was the best looking stalker game, in fact better than CoP. But there were few new features and the faction wars was a mixed bag. But the few new locations were top notch. CoP was the most polished, some cool new features, but the new locations I always found underwhelming. For me the ultimate stalker experience is Lost Alpha. It has some minor flaws yes, but all in all its the best mod for a stalker fan by far. I played Anomaly its basically a free roam stalker game made from the original maps. True stalker is a scripted game. Lost alpha is however something different that catches the true stalker vibe and puts it in a larger scale. So if you are a true stalker fan give it a try, you may not love it but if you do it will deliver an experience the first game did back in the days.
You can recruit Stridder even if you don't join any faction in CoP. But you need the Achivments "Diplomat" and "Mutant Hunter". The second one is easy, you just need to finish all the hunting quests (a bloodsucker lair and one chimera hunt in the two first maps). The first one is tricky as you need to complete the two Loner/Bandit related missions in Yanov without resorting to violence. So paying off Vanos's debt and paying the ransom for Mitay. These achievment will give you just enougth reputation with both faction (if you did not killed any of them in Yanov) to make them recruit Strider.
The sound you were hearing when Doctor explained you were Strelok came from the controler you didnt kill when you entered the underground for the first time
>Stalker retrospective
>Isn't running 50000 mods
We will be watching
I hate it when people upload a Stalker video like "Stalker is the best game" or "Why i love stalker" and then show a Anomaly modded into oblivion to a point where it looks as colorful as Borderlands. Or just GAMMA people..
@@monolith4653 shameless self promo but I did a video on vanilla SoC m.th-cam.com/video/nXzQP1ijKYY/w-d-xo.html
@@monolith4653 Don't tell me you're that Fedora guy from Reddit
Otherwise you guys really have copy pasted opinions
Why do you "hate" when people like the same game as you do?
When two fans of Skyrim meet each other, do they wank each other on how unmodded their game is?
SMH...
@@monolith4653what’s wrong with gamma
@@monolith4653it's one thing if youve played the games. But the modding community has taken Stalker to new heights, and has kept it relative today. Anomaly and CoC to say a few, Gamma and EFP being mod packs for anomaly are great for your gunfighting style or zoner life. But if anything the modded stalkers are great and can almost be an entirely different game.
Yo we taking it to rostok with this one.
I have no idea who you are but I’m always happy to see someone doing a Stalker video. Keep up the good work dog man.
Same here. I find new quality niche essayists by checking almost every english speaking videos bout the stalker universe be it roadside pic, videogame or movie related content!
This man is based as hell doesnt mod the games to a point it changes the game great job going through all vanilla games
we making it out the red forest with this one
Fdreeki brdeeki
Speaking of savescumming, back when i played CS (it was the first stalker game i had EVER played) I used to save after each individual kill in a fight so youd scroll through my saves and see:
swamps fight 1 kill
swamps fight 2 kills
swamps fight 3 kills
swamps fight 4 kills
swamps fight finished
I just started playing a few months ago on the hardest difficulty and this was absolutely me
Gives me a good laugh when I found I've already made a save with the same name 😂
honestly, i was kinda upset when stalker won the instagram poles and not terraria, but while watching the video, i got so excited about the worldbuilding of this game, the kung never fails to deliver!
Who cares about Instagram polls?
@@mina7572 the owen kung community is mainly from his instagram page, so yea its relavent
@@mina7572the instagram poles decided what the topic of the video is, if terraria had won the video would be about terraria.
laugh at this nerd he likes terraria
@@rexross4847 oh yeah? how about uhhh the unmmmm yeah, your mom (i win the arguement)
I’m like 100% sure you can zoom the map using the scroll wheel, it’s just the opposite direction of what you’d expect. It trips up everyone lol.
That was added into anomaly.. unusual but yeah
@@Roblessed722 No it's actually in SoC and probably the other games, I know this because I'm in the middle of a SoC playthrough
@@Roblessed722 False
@@Roblessed722 not true, you can absolutely zoom in the map - I beat vanilla SoC last week
After 5 hours in call of Pripyat can confirm
1:03:25
In regards to the Clear Sky MG nest at the entrance to The Cordon, it IS possible to get by the military outpost alive, but you have to keep jumping cover to cover behind rocks and trees before gunning it down the round, which can still leave you open to get shot up. Took me like 15 attempts, but it is in fact possible
Yeah, Clear Sky made me laugh my ass of @ being punished for having the gall to try & continue the game. Like “yeah I’ll go speak to Sidorovich. I miss my old..OMG WTF they have an MG42 now WTF?!?!”
Made me use my binoculars and plan my path before trying 2 more times, both of which were white knuckle, toe curling-ly terrifying.
Made the Zone feel like a forbidden place fr.
Oh, you played with a version, when GSC put back the option to kill the gunner. Originally it wasn't meant to be the way and even if you somehow managed to kill the gunner, the MG kept firing on it's own. Then they received a ton of complaints so they make it possible to silence the gun by killing the gunner. Then another patch came in, seemingly from some team working on other issues what overwrote the earlier patch concerning the gun. Then complaints arrived again and they put it back. Then another patch came in, some guy noticed that the design documents said the MG should not be silenced and "fixed" it, causing even more people to rip off their hair. Then it got fixed again.
I don't even know how it is in the final version, because most mods just give you the option to kill the gunner.
The idea behind this bullshit section was, that you were supposed to sneak from cover to cover, without the gunner noticing you. But sneaking in Stalker is broken as fuck and never worked (AI either can spot you through the other side of the map or never see you even if you stand next to them), so instead you have to run from cover to cover and run away. The dear fucking ret@rds at GSC even put up this fence running next to the tunnel, to make sure you can't just turn left and walk away, while making the stalkers at the bridge instantly hostile to you if you want to circle around using the way recommended by most youtube vloggers (best option is sprinting as fuck, jump under the fallen tree, wait until the gunner gets bored, then run to the hills until the gunner looses sight of you). As I said, originally you were not meant to be able to silence the gun, you were meant to run away. This is just one instance of Clear Sky design being an utter mess.
Once you learn how to do it once you can get through in 1 - 3 attempts
I was just holding sprint key until i was out of range
@@Harbard369it’s a pkm not an mg42
The "drone" sound in Shadow of Cernobyl during the doc cutscene is here because you didn't kill the controller during your first agroprom underground mission.
LMAO. Stalker moment
lmao i was wondering because when i backtracked the way to doc i remembered which manhole you leave the underground from so i could snipe the controller head-on
1:44:06 10.00kg "The gas weighs ten pounds" peak America moment
I knew meters and yards were exactly the same, but kg and lbs too? What a coincidence
Let people make mistakes, help them instead of making crude remarks.
@@kcjcusbc5004 @owenkung5000 sorry if I came across as crude. Hope you keep learning the little things that are different between cultures, the big things that are the same, and of course, learn to laugh along the way.
@@benjaminnickerson3961Tbh, the US is literally the only true world superpower, so Americans don't really have a real necessity to "conform" to anything other people do outside the country. They're literally the New Romans, they dictate the terms of the world...not the other way around. I know Europeans especially like to cope and deny this, but it's true and everyone knows it even if they try to use anything they can to dump on Americans for this or that
@@jiaan100 meters and yards are not the same.
Somewhat big news fellas: the 3 stalker games is now on console(PlayStation and Xbox) so now if you like stalker you can play it on console
There is only one Stalker game, SoC, the other 2 are just expansions of the main game.
@@Particle_Ghost untrue. It's much closer to Ezio trilogy of AC. All games are standalone, and Clear Sky/Call of Pripyat aren't smaller than Shadow of Chernobyl by much, and mechanically have big enough differences - different shooting, AIs, A-life iterations, survival mechanics, approaches to quests, etc.
@@Particle_Ghost Story wise yeah I get it. The others games didn't add much. Even though they added mechanics I liked. Which can be mostly modded into SoC anyway.
@@PrivateCitizen84 Call of Pripyat definitely felt like a dlc
Launched on Switch today too
Roadside picnic is really one of the best books ive ever read and its pretty short so everyone should give it a read (or listen to an audiobook rip on youtube) . Its actually crazy how this book has inspired unique but still equally good pieces of media. like the book, the stalker movie, and these games are all some of my favorite works of art period.
Every STALKER fan must read that book.
The movie is also good
i really wanted so much more of roadside picnic the book was over too quickly :,( but a classic awesome book non the less
There is a whole series of official STALKER novels. Back when the games were new, GSC partnered up with a russian publisher to release dozens of novels based directly on the games. The quality varies, some are barely a step above fan fiction, while others are written by prominent russian & ukrainian sci-fi & combat fantasy writers and are thus quite good. None are canon, each author has their own separate "STALKER universe" (although there is some limited cross-referencing), and even the basics like how anomalies, mutants and artifacts work vary dramatically between authors.
Still, I inhaled these things as a kid, I read like one of those per week. Dad still has ~40 of those novels in the attic. My favorite is "Firing Line" by Vasiliy Orekhov, a story that follows a veteran stalker Hemul through a frantic chase through the Zone, set in the 2020s.
The only issue is - they are all in russian, with only a couple translated into german.
@@subrezon Just looked that up. They also are rare collectors items in german, price average at 50€.
1:38:00
If you talk to the bandit leader, there's essentially a skill check, where if your equipment is good enough you'll intimidate him into not demanding interest (otherwise you just get attacked).
24:20 "I could never get too far without getting spotted" -has headlamp on the whole time- gee I wonder why
I literally played through this couple days ago and it was the same for me but I didn't have my head lamp on. The stealth in SoC just sucks ass.
Nah I just don't ever try stealth in the Stalker games...shits jank man
@@jerbear938 Trying to be stealthy is only good for a jumpscare when you get one tapped
Lol yep. But it's a shit section to stealth through as well. You don't really have access to silenced weapons at that point and doing melee only is fucked. I managed to do it once, but once you reach the files I think it always triggers the alarm.
The weird thing is is that the section seems like it was designed with stealth in mind, there's a video on youtube (look up "agroprom stealth") showing someone taking a specific route through the base undetected, and the design of this route can really only be explained by the devs wanting to add a stealthy option. It really sucks though since stealth in the og trilogy is ass
This is a kung classic (the vids are really good keep posting them)
Thanks so much man! You're one of my main inspirations big dog
Ghost gum wtf 👋
glad i found this channel
this is the content i need
glad i found parker fitzgerald
this is the owen i kung
"Dutyer" is probably a janky translation quirk. "Duty" is called "Dolg" in russian, and a Duty member is called "dolgovez". The "-vez" suffix works exactly like "-er" in english, so whoever translated the game to english just followed the same process - "duty" + "er" = "dutyer".
This is absolutely stellar my man! I'm not even halfway, and I'm very happy with it.
STALKER is such a interesting series, and I'm glad to see a review that's this long and isnt just basically restating the plot!
Well, Scar not appearing ever again didn't age well. Today, 23rd of August 2024. GSC released a Stalker 2 trailer where Scar is confirmed to appear in Stalker 2
26:45 you actually can join freedom in SoC but it's bugged and quite hard due to you having to do freedom's missions in a certain way because otherwise dialogue doesn't load. If you join freedom, bandits will become friendly while duty hostile. Also you can access freedom's room with a lot of resources.
The freeroam you mentioned Shadow of Chernobyl is only included with ZRP I think, because i dont recall it being in vanilla. Anyway great vid. Earned a sub.
yea vanilla sends you back to the main menu
Funfact about that stalker that saves your life after the death truck crash. He´s modeled after the Stalker from the original movie. Reddish hair, similiar face a calm and mellow saviour. There´s tons of therories about how he might be scar, or later on might´ve become Charon (the monolith leader in prypiat) due to his relatively rare VSS which only appears on like three people in the whole series.
Scar looks even more like the Stalker than the guy that saves you in the intro does
Scar is confirmed dead or turned monolith.
He looks more like Redrick Schuart from the original Roadside Picnic novel
Why would Scar save you tho? If he was alive he would just cap you again
Source on him being modeled after the stalker from the movie? Would be really cool if true.
Fr the most underrated TH-camr rn. Entertaining AND your vids are in depth/interesting? Yea, get this guy a million subs rn.
clearly you are not into the owen kung lore
I appreciate you playing these with very minimal modding i see too many people get turned off from the game for being too hard and i find a lot of that comes from the mods they get recommended that are meant for vets to play with once the basegame isn't enough anymore
Also the persona plot joke got me good 😂
Only a short while into the video, but as a Stalker veteran, thank you for actually explaining for new people how the difficulties work. Used to think that master made bullets do more damage, until I actually heard other people discussing it and realised for myself that it's total bullshit.
I feel you I fell for it too. After over 10 years of stalkers I found out it was just bullshit :D
I want to thank you for this review. You got me to actually play the games and I can’t stop (I won’t lie Shadow of Chernobyls ending almost filtered me). I played them all back to back over these last two weeks and am currently installing Anomaly to give me more of the Zone. I have not been this inthralled by a game and it’s world since I played the og Dead Space on its release.
P.S fuck Rail Guns and fuck the wish granters dialogue looping LMAO.
Stalker doesn’t stand for anything btw, it was literally just to avoid copyright with the film. The acronym was fan invented.
No
@sci_ent_ificsui_neg9236why did you fake pretending to be another person when you clearly are the same person @shardell and hopped on an alt.
You literally hopped on an alt to pretend that you were someone else defending the original post 🤣🤣🫵🏾
But didn't the movie maker die long before the game were made
@@XooxyBoo bro that is NOT my alt lmfaooo
Just checked the box for SoC its been an acronym from release
Bless you for bringing up the popular myths about difficulty levels in Shadow of Chernobyl. As someone who personally dug around in config files for hours, I tried to convey this simple fact multiple times, but a lot of people just ignore the proof right there in the code.
It's so moving and beautiful. It's like a snapshot of a time just passed.
It’s still hilarious to me that I found your TH-cam channel as a 23 year old grown man completely independently of when I was like 17 shitting my pants laughing at your meme account (I haven’t had social media in years now)
brother for context I was older six years ago than you are now. You stop calling yourself grown man at some point and try to find the little things that bring you childlike joy and wonder, it's too easy to lose.
@@autismofinn3144 Too true
@@autismofinn3144 I’m not saying anything negative or anything, just distinguishing between the two very different points in my life I discovered and enjoyed his kungtent
Really nice vid. CoP is my favourite OG S. T. A. L. K. E. R game. I played SoC and CS when I was like 7-8 y/o and just couldn't understand wtf was going on. Then when I was maybe 11 I randomly bought CoP at some local games shop for like 150 rubles and fell in love with the game. After playing trough all vanilla games I can say that CoP has the most interesting side quests and side characters in the series. I also love attention to details and the world kinda reacting to your actions. Like how Topol's group becomes a cool science research group with top-tier armors if you keep all of them alive during ecologists' quests. Another example is how you can mention lots of things to Zulus when you're drinking with him(like how you've found the Oasis, cleared the bloodsucker nest and etc. Although some things in the game feel really undercooked(I really don't like that most of unique guns are just ordered from Nimble and aren't used as a reward for quests or loot from named NPCs).
I also love Anomaly and Anomaly modpacks because they can provide the "some random stalker living in the Zone and doing some chores for Sidorovich" experience (peak Anomaly for me is literally hunting mutants, cooking their meat and going on artifact hunts).
How will this video affect Owen Kung’s legacy?
"... and review them the only way I know how
poorly"
This got me good 😂 No, bro, its quality! Keep it up
I just found your channel by youtube algorithm and it’s been a while since it recommended me a channel so worthwhile, loved your cometary, loved your gameplay, thanks for such a great video
Shadow of Chernobyl Combat
Perfect
Call of Pripyat Combat
Perfect
Clear Sky Combat
Get slapped bleeding, already low health, and takes every bandage and medkit to get healed
I have never had issues with CS when it comes to bandages and medkits. You guys are exaggerating.
I always find it a bit mindboggling that literal post-CoD4 kids are now old enough to make YT video documentaries. But I'm still glad that more people are finding out about the wonders of the Zone... and NOT using a pile of mega-mods right off the bat (looking at you, Anomaly kids). I personally have been blasting digital foes since the original DOOM, and STALKER still is one of the most memorable, most unique and engaging FPS games of all time. And for the longest of time, they were some of THE PC exclusives people raved about.
Also, is it just me, or did you play SOC on the DirectX8 mode, the "Static Lighting" setting? That instantly makes it look 10 years older than it truly is. Truly bizarre that so many newbies make this mistake. Also: ALL the three STALKER games run on the exact same X-Ray engine. CS and CoP only got minor DX10 and 11 upgrades; the differences really diminish if you switch SoC to DX9 mode.
Ill never forget when Shadow of Chernobyl came out. It was the answer to the itch left since the original Resident evil PSX Trilogy. It got me into hardcore FPS and Action RPGs. Its hard to believe its nearly been 20 years since then. Im still playing with my Steam Deck
I would not say that STALKER is based on Stalker (movie) and Roadside Picnic. Those are for sure inspirations for the series, but the game world and story are way different to those stories. Themes too. In fact, the reason the NPCs mention Klondike so often is because the Klondike Gold Rush is another massive influence on the game world too.
The AK is an AK 74 variant so it is 5.45, not 7.62. You missed a Stalker suit and Fast SHooting AK in Strelok's stash.
For Clear SKy - use the Sky Reclamation Project bug fix mod.
For the machinegun in Cordon - it is possible to get the high-end Clear Sky armour before going there. It is even better than the Berill. You need max Clear Sky reputation for it but it is a life saver. This makes it easier to pass the machinegun. Anti-Radiation artifacts in Clear Sky are super powerful. So you can ignore that damage type with 1-2 high to mid range ones. And stack lots of other ones for combat.
I personally like CoP but the least out of the series. Its a good game but I dislike its map design. Call of Pripyat has the most mods.
This is a comfort video for me
I just got this on my Xbox and it’s like far cry meets fallout and metro. That is the best way to describe how the game feels to play
Shout out big man Kruglov
Dude is the only guy in SOC to genuinely ask you how you're doing
Everyone else is a hello or some superficial how's it going.
Kruglov asks "how's life"
He a real one.
came from the ironic instagram account and didn't expect such a great video from it. Very nice stuff mr kungle keep it up
The first game didn’t really grip me at first. That first area where you’re just going to derelict small buildings to help some rookies, finding another set of buildings that are empty.
Once you get to the garbage though (immediate next area) it really starts to pick up. I’m probably only halfway through but areas like the institute, the bandit camp into the lab, and the wild territory with the scientist are very memorable moments.
It’s got me insanely hyped for the rest of the game, and for the sequels after. Can’t wait to play 2 when it drops!
The first game which is Shadow of Chernobyl is technically the only game in the series, the other 2 are smaller spin-off titles and kind of serve like expansions, but they are not nearly as detailed and use far less locations.
CS reuses many of the assets and mostly focuses on factions, not being able to aim down your handgun iron sights is just a ridiculously bad decision, it was also made by a different team. COP is extremely small in comparison of the other 2.
Stalker 2 I have pre-ordered and I'm taking a week's vacation for it. It's absolutely going to replace the 3 previous games, there is no point of having them installed ever again after Stalker 2 drops. Obviously there's some people talking junk about it saying it looks too much like a shooter, but that's because how far technology has come. Stalker 2 is going to include the Zones included in the previous titles and far more.
I love how natural your commentary sounds! Love the video! Keep it up!
Just wanted to say this review was extremely well done, and I love your upbeat delivery. You've earned yourself a subscriber.
Great video man, love your Insta page and its cool seeing you do this longform content. Your scripts are getting better with each video, too!
your footage of the first stalker game is a gameplay on dx8 renderer (because only this one had a shadow casted by the player), it is legacy renderer for weak pcs without a lot of fancy stuff, and even that one manages to impress you. the pretty graphics is on dx9 fully dynamic renderer for Shadow of Chornobyl, and dx10 for clear sky and call of pripyat. at its time, stalker engine, called x-ray had done a lot of things that were quite rare for its time - one of the first deferred renderers capable of rendering dozens of dynamic shadows on screen, mixed with static diffuse lightmaps for imitating global illumination, and it looked quite well. in later games were added other effects: parallax occlusion mapping, dynamic surface wetness during rain, using oclusion mapping to keep places under roofs dry, volumetric sun rays and more stuff. mods like stalker anomaly dont even have new visual effects. they are fine tuning what was already present in the engine in 2008.
Anomaly might not have added anything new per se, but the upgraded engine and swap to 64 bit is what allows those graphical features to be used to their fullest potential. They did a lot more work than some fine tuning.
That was a really good video, going through the original games in great detail, super high quality, keep it up
Im glad that someone take a journey to Sralker series imo its one of most unique games u will ever play the atmosphere while of this game is topnotch , i watched the entire video and bring me memories of this golden serie u did amazing job explaing and editing through the video.
Btw u finished the whole series and not knowing that there is quick healing shortcut and peeking mechanic in the game which it will make ur engagement way easier by pressing "E" and "Q" .
1:00:15 They did the pistol zoom thing, because they saw Fallout 3 doing. No other reason. After they got a ton of complaints about it, they decided to put it back for CoP. That's it.
The modder for stalker is truly some of the best wizard I’ve seen I’m constantly in awe from what they manage to do from a 16 year old engine, truly putting some triple A company to shame.
I've played the original stalker games + anomaly and gamma. I'd highly recommend both anomaly or gamma depending on how hardcore of an experience you want with your game but it'll be a pleasant surprise playing them. Anomaly by itself is a great experience that can still be enjoyed casually. Gamma is both beautiful and brutal. The amount of mods they have (I think current gamma is like 439 mods?) really brought a polish to the game you almost don't believe is possible. They've even added mantling to grab onto ledges in the most recent update. Whilst both anomaly and gamma I'd say are more hardcore versions of stalker they still have that sandbox aspect of them. Almost every option can be tuned ingame to find the perfect gameplay loop for you. By default they are pretty challenging to get good or serviceable loot but you can tweak it to be more fair for you. Gamma will never have the original games beat for the story since it's not it's focus but the overall experience of Gamma is something of beauty and I hope you get to experience it.
and if you dont like the grindy aspect of gamma escape from pripyat aka EFP is your friend
Shadow Of Charnobyl is still the best game out of them all - best vibes and no tacti-cool cringe
I slapped better drop conditions for more experienced stalkers with masters having mint gear, made the midgame flow less grindy to me and I think it fits well having serious stalkers taking care of their shit, and rookies trying their bestest with broken toz's
@@Lake_Claire the tacticool stuff is what I hate the most about gamma even though I like it a lot. I wish you could just outright disable BaS without breaking everything. And I started with shadow of chernobyl on my first gaming laptop sporting ati x600 graphics, managed to run that bad boy with surprisingly good settings but man was it rough. Then updated my computer and went down oblivion lost -> amk -> lurk pipelines and so on so forth, was hooked. No need to go all monolith and make stalker fans fight eachother
It's a brutal experience, but if you survive long enough, you will adapt to the brutal gameplay in ways you never thought of before.
Not sure if anyone pointed that out yet, but that military checkpoint you gotta cross in the Clear Sky - that was completely intentional design. The idea was that you had to run from cover to cover while dodging the incoming enemy fire, but due to a mistake in the game code, the weapon has mismatched ammo type, I think it was the sniper one, which conveniently penetrates anything you can use as a cover. The guy manning the gun is named Вова Вист, who is pretty infamous in the community for just how ridiculously hard he makes it for the player to cross Cordon. And yes, it is still completely possible to run through, if you know what you're doing.
Well a M60 shooting cal .50 ammo is not unusual^^
hi there... old timer here. first off, good video, always love it when someone covers the genre.
some notes;
- difficulty, also affects loot found in crates
- it's "si-doro-wich" or "si-dro-wich", not "sido-rowich"
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - the acronym is widespread, but made up, it doesn't stand for anything
- the bridge in cordon; most common rookie mistake. fps trained us to "shoot first, ask never" - but in stalker there are some situations when talking to the enemy is totally an option
- probably a bit more, but i just started the video and don't wanna be too picky
if you want to explore the series further, i highly recommend the lost alpha from dezowave, it is a standalone game and tries to recreate the game as original intended with lots of cut content like the Sins faction or driving vehicles, another ending, etc.
Nah Lost Alpha is garbage, I finally played and finished it, after quitting 5 times. You run around back and forth way to many times, the ending is lackluster, the NPP part is incredibly bad, Sin faction was annoying forcing you to run through that empty territory after every mission they send you. The removed that darkstalker for some reason, the hills location and the invisible bridge loot is cringe. Lost Alpha was way overhyped.
I’m digging many of your videos. Your channel will become huge!!!
The realization that there is a 2 hours long video of one of my favorites series from all time, and almost 230 k people had seen it before me, its part of what makes me hope about our world. cheers. Great Vid, seen it in three sits. Im jumpting right know to the oblivion video.
I miss how op shadow of chernobyl endurance artifacts are. infinite sprint
I have never heard someone make a joke about Haemophilia in media, as a severe Haemophiliac I salute you sir
33:39 - "Sahar" part in Saharov's last name literally means Sugar. So i guess you can call him Sugar Daddy.
6:08 it doesn't stand for anything. Scavengers, trespassers etc. is wildly used fan translation of acronym. It was made into acronym to evade lawsuits from Stalker film.
for the call of prypiat tibit, you dont need to choose who get the tool for your craftmen. Both zone (zaton and yanov) got two full set of low level and intermediate level tools for both craftsmen, and, Prypiat got two set of advanced tools for both gits.
You are the entire reason I even started playing stalker games lol
I ain’t even watched it but I know it’s gas, keep it up mr kung 👍👍
Aaahhh you Cheeky Breeky! Well done with the highly entertaining reviews! I played the Stalkers first time this year, and they easily became one of my favorites! The setting is very interesting and unique, the gunplay / challenge is top-notch. I heard lot of praise for them back in the day, but missed them. Perhaps my PC was lacking etc. My other favorites include Fallout & Fallout 2, Disciples 2, Silent Storm games, Seven Kingdoms etc. When it comes to the gameworld / story / ending being reactive to player actions and choices, Fallout & Fallout 2 rank extremely high here. When it comes to gunplay, around those times F.E.A.R. was highly regarded and probably is today. Legends then, legends still i say. I haven't played it, though.
Ok, back to the review. I wonder is there mods to nerf the AI grenades and squish bugs for Clear Sky? I'd like to think so. Regarding Call of Pripyat; First time i remember "cheesing" through the sleeping bloodsuckers by standing behind my fellow buddy / corner / something and just throwing grenades like crazy at them and shooting like hell. Very tough, and very memorable! Regarding the room with 4 hooded big guys, same strategy there. Lots of grenades and shooting. In Pripryat, there was one certain big complex. Aften completing the game, i went there for some aftergoodies. The complex would be eather occupied, or soon to be. So it great strolling with my boys there, often they would end up there. If the complex was occupied, then clearing it and keeping the complex as ours was challenging. If it was empty, then holding the line and keeping the complex as ours was fun too.
Great video, wish NFL iceberg didn’t get nailed by TH-cam. I liked it a lot . Merry Christmas Kung!
01:03:38 It is possible to get past the military checkpoint without getting killed although, you have to be quick about it. You basically want to run towards the second rock down the hill and crouch until they stop shooting. Then, once they stop shooting, make sure that you fully regenerated your stamina and run to the left. There should be a gap between the barbed wire and a bush, once you make it past that, then you just run for it and hope you won't get killed. It took me a while but eventually made it past them.
1:07:40 - this guy was supposed to be stereotypical armenian who talks with pretty thicc accent plus enjoys to twist words and talk with bazar-trader proverbs and weird little sayings. In original version he's pretty colourful character. Slightly offensive (to armenians), but colorful.
He also has multiple trash talk fights with other guys from Freedom over the speeker outside on the base. Some conversations go pretty suggestive, like:
-- Eey bruthas, how bout you have a looky-look at that Thing i have?
-- How about you look at My Thing? Can you see it from here?
-- Sorry, pal, i don't have a microscope, lol.
for anyone wondering the console versions of the games are really good and rarely crash
Love your style of commentating. Keep up the good work, brother.
For me COP is the favorite one because of excellent soundtrack, openworld and interesting side quests(youve missed few)
In 8:35 they all just say to you to holster your weapon if you want a humane talk except the second last guy who was saying at the moment something.
I really enjoy your review style; it legit sounds like a friend explaining a game to another friend.
For anyone interested, both the book and the film are really great. Especially the film, which also has a ton of interesting (and sad) history surrounding its creation.
Thanks for covering this Ukrainian game. Also check out STALKER: Lost Alpha
This guys gonna be huge mark my words. Wish he had more content.
Definitely enjoyed watching this, it was well paced and had thorough coverage of each of the games. Hope you do a GAMMA review and one for STALKER 2 someday.
Clear Sky is the most underrated part in my opinion, both graphically and plot-wise.
I enjoyed Call of Pripyat so much at a time. What a game. Other games were great as well, but I enjoyed it the most I think.
I can't wait for Stalker 2.
This video was very yes and hella funny
(only problem was the use of the word clip but that just because i a big gun nerd but it's still a good review)
That’s my bad, it’s just too easy to say…
@@owenkung5000" mag" lmao but it's fine common mistake but keep the good content up
I've been playing a ton of stalker lately since it released in the trilogy pack, and I've always been partial to Tactical shooters over every other style of shooter genre.
And there's not that many tactical Shooters on consoles even to this day, so when seeing this game on the PlayStation Store I immediately bought the first and the third one. I played call of pripyat first because all of the reviews said it was the best of the bunch. I then played the first one and immediately thought the first one felt better to control and the Gunplay was fantastic, it also does artifact equipping a lot better in my opinion. However after about four hours of playing I started getting burnt out with how much combat there was, the atmosphere is fantastic in the first one but for me personally the early hours have way too much combat and not enough lonely moments. So I went back to the third one and I appreciate how much more freedom you have and how toned down they made the actual gun fights in the game.
Don't get me wrong the third one still has some fantastic and intense battles, however they are just spaced out more and you're not quite as tough in the third game. The first game still does a lot of things better like having more endurance and having better overall combat. I also like how you can see your character and how easy it is to break the game just by exploring and picking up everything you can and selling it. But the third game does have a better atmosphere and the more impactful struggle of trying to get stronger items. The stash system I think is also a perfect way to provide the player with something to look for but also keeping the player from getting to overpowered without having to fight for it. It also makes hunting for gear a lot more exciting when you know that if a stash opens up you need to find it quickly otherwise it will vanish, because not only can you get it but every other stalker in the game can collect it as well.
And I didn't think the world would feel as lived in as it does, but the third game has a more Dynamic World while the first game has a more crafted world. Both games have a really interesting world to explore, while I do love the world in the first one better, the third one is leagues above just in terms of more to explore. I do say if you don't mind the abundance of combat and be more difficult combat challenge overall, the first one is definitely something to play.
But if you want something that has more atmosphere it allows you more time to soak in that atmosphere, while also having a moderate amount of challenge and a stronger sense of exploration, the third game might be the most refined feeling aside from the weird feeling combat in the first few hours.
I just can't believe that GSC has done this good of a job porting them to console with his little bugs as they have, and I've only had one crash in the first game after 10 hours. And the third one has been running flawlessly so far, which is such a stark contrast to another game I've been playing that I love but released in a completely broken state- Warhammer 40K chaos gate demon Hunters😅
You CAN crouch down, go under the fallen tree (break the box if necessary), hug the fence on the left and sneak through to the rookie village in Clear Sky. Scamorovich will be very impressed once you've done so.
I got it first try when I played CS for the first time too. Didn't even think that I'm supposed to go through the other route.
Insanely good video man. You should play anomaly, and make a review of you want. ❤❤
I finished all 3 games myself, though... SoC only once, where CS and CoP I finished 5 times each haha. CoP 3 times + 2 times modded with MISERY mod.
And of course got countles hours in Anomaly.
Fun fact is... a friend told me about a gun in CS l never found.... you can take the MG from the tank in Red Forest, has 2k rounds in it, so can shoot for a while. I just had PTSD from that place, so l ran always through as fast as possible.
As for the Renegades, the difference between them and Bandits is, that Bandits has a hierarchy system. So there is 1 boss, who all Bandits follow and got well... some rules.
Renegades on the other hand don't have this, they are kinda like Free Stalkers, minus Sid or Wolf, no leader and everyone does what they want. Or well, they might been also ex-bandits who didn't like the "rule" part.
Also fun fact, which l didn't knew for a while... In Red Forest, by the tank with the Teleporter (or time anomaly) there is an RPK machinegun called "tank gun", l think. With 2000 rounds mag.
Seeing a 2 Hour Stalker Retrospective makes me Happy as someone who plays these Games for well wayy to long tbh xD. This Video actually made me reinstall the Games again
1:03:48 - it IS possible. And you could do it much easily because you played it during a sunny day. There was a path to the left near the fallen tree, and you should run that way as fast as you could. But when you play it during a night (like i did), when can't see that path, it could turn into like 5 hours of trial and error.
I loved this review you did. Great work. I definitely think you should give Anomaly or Gamma a go, they’re a huge step up for the games and practically a necessity in my opinion for a modern experience.
Very well made video, you managed to fit 3 games in 2 hours without missing any important details or plot points. Good job man, cant wait to see you play GAMMA! Subscribed!
a tip for anyone frustrated with the minefield:
Mines work like anomalies do with bolts
if you throw a bolt, and you hear a loud click sound, your bolt hit a mine, so throw another bolt until it rolls without making a click, and then walk in the way that the bolt rolled
continue until you reach the heli!
good hunting fellow stalkers!
I played all 3 of the stalker games the last year and I enjoyed all of them. Imo the best part about stalker was the exploration. Searching for items in an abandoned house while it's raining outside (in-game), was awesome. I am really excited for the new entry this year.
1:53 I had no ammo in any guns but my pistol at this area, so i just sprinted ass-first into the controller and spammed right click with the knife and spammed F1 to heal
I experienced a bug in CS, around the time I got to Limansk, that caused all dead bodies to disappear except for the last killed one. It was like a ultra-hyper-hard mode because even though I could rely on weapons left on the ground for some extra ammo, I couldn't get any extra medkits, bandages or radiation med for the final stretch of the game, since I couldn't loot bodies. I didn't feel like restarting, so I soldiered on, but man, it was brutal...
Keeps recommending this video after every single S.T.A.L.K.E.R video I watch, this makes the 7th tike I'm watching this. It's a real banger, so I'm not mad at the algorithm.
I recently discovered that it's actually piss easy to pass the cordon machine gun in clear sky. Just imagine it's not there and run to the hole in the fence without any hesitation. The machine gunner always takes a second or two after seeing you the first time to start firing, but shoots immediately next times, so hiding after he sees you is a guaranteed death sentence, but if you just run without ever stopping you have just enough time to safely pass through his line of fire.
For me,
SoC was the best episode that laid down everything
CS was the best looking stalker game, in fact better than CoP. But there were few new features and the faction wars was a mixed bag. But the few new locations were top notch.
CoP was the most polished, some cool new features, but the new locations I always found underwhelming.
For me the ultimate stalker experience is Lost Alpha. It has some minor flaws yes, but all in all its the best mod for a stalker fan by far. I played Anomaly its basically a free roam stalker game made from the original maps. True stalker is a scripted game. Lost alpha is however something different that catches the true stalker vibe and puts it in a larger scale. So if you are a true stalker fan give it a try, you may not love it but if you do it will deliver an experience the first game did back in the days.
Playing the S.T.A.L.K.E.R for the first time because it came to the xbox, ive made it to the 3rd game and i just love this world so much! Good video!
Phenomenal video friend!
Keep it up🔥 i love this type of content
Stalker is back. And works fine on console.
Life is better for console players. Much better
Really loving it, only one bad crash session but loading earlier save stopped the crash loop, not had that since 😊 in SoC
You can recruit Stridder even if you don't join any faction in CoP.
But you need the Achivments "Diplomat" and "Mutant Hunter".
The second one is easy, you just need to finish all the hunting quests (a bloodsucker lair and one chimera hunt in the two first maps).
The first one is tricky as you need to complete the two Loner/Bandit related missions in Yanov without resorting to violence. So paying off Vanos's debt and paying the ransom for Mitay.
These achievment will give you just enougth reputation with both faction (if you did not killed any of them in Yanov) to make them recruit Strider.
You also can enroll them to guard scientists' bunker after mercenaries desert it
The sound you were hearing when Doctor explained you were Strelok came from the controler you didnt kill when you entered the underground for the first time
Owen Kung: Shadow Of Fitzgerald
What a well made vídeo, congratulations! I'm definitely going to play stalker tomorrow.
Long one! So hyped