Poll: Stalker is 12 years old

[BFG10K]

So I just finished replaying Stalker Clear Sky. I last played it ten years ago; the graphics and gameplay are still top-notch:

Spoiler

Shadow of Chernobyl is 12 years old. It started off the great atmosphere of exploration and isolation when deep in the zone, something that's unique to the series. My main gripe is the lack of fast travel which made returning to previous zones a bit tedious.

Clear Sky was brutally hard to start off but made up for it with great artifacts and gear upgrades later. It was also rewarding to barely make it out of dangerous anomalies, clutching your new artifact and checking your inventory to see what you got. My main gripe is the faction system put too many human combatants in the zone. I think the region should be more sparse and mainly about mutants instead.

Call of Pripyat was more streamlined and simpler to play because the UI and map was better. You also started off with a decent weapon and armor so you didn't have to struggle as much at the start. And there was a base in the middle of each zone, so you were always reasonably close to safety when out in the field.

I think my favorite is Call of Pripyat. I hope one day we see Stalker 2 and it's a worthy additional installment to the series.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

It's very hard for me to pick between SoC and CoP. Mechanically, CoP was simply a heck of a lot better then SoC, with weapon mods and repairs. SoC was a lot better at atmosphere though - CoP had some good moments, but nothing like that first lab in SoC, I think X-23 or something like that? It was genuinely hard on the nerves in a way CoP never really managed to be. I slightly favor SoC I think, though I'm much more likely to replay CoP then SoC.

 

[Artorias]

My favorite would be Chernobyl though only slightly over Pripyat, the third was the most polished game-play wise and the weapon system was nice. Though the firsts atmosphere was much better especially the underground bases. With the right mods Pripyat can still look amazing visually, especially the blowout events. As for Clear Sky I liked the swamp, Limansk, and Red Forest map.

 

[Zenoth]

Yeah, Lab X-18 in SoC... the atmosphere in there was incredibly tense and heavy on the shoulders (and mind). The very first time I went in I had to take it very slowly. It's probably the most foreboding place in the whole game. If I went back in today I'd probably have a smile on my face but back then yeah, it was quite something.

Today, SoC is still good enough with mods; but I did play it again about 2 years ago just vanilla and... well, it didn't age well at all in my opinion. I haven't played Clear Sky pretty much since I completed it (just one time) about 1 year or so after it was released. I still haven't completed CoP to this day. I played it vanilla at first for maybe a week, stayed in the same 2 or 3 maps doing lots of slow-paced exploration and back tracking. Then I started a new game with mods a couple of months later, played that one maybe another week and never touched it again since. Not because I don't like it but because I think it just didn't grab my attention the same way SoC did.

I'll give CoP another go one day for sure. I did like it, but maybe I just happened to play it when I wasn't in the mood for a game like that.

 

[EXCellR8]

Shadow of Chernobyl... just because there was nothing like it at the time... followed the game's development since late 2005. It was buggy as all hell and required a pretty decent machine to run but was well worth the effort.

That lab in the Dark Valley will always creep me out, and the Brain Scorcher area. Seriously WTF

 

[ibex333]

The pure atmosphere of SoC was much harder on me than CS or CoP. The sheer dread of certain places literally sent shivers down my spine. That's the beauty of STALKER, It doesn't need to be outright gory or in your face scary like Doom or say.. Amnesia Dark Descent. It achieves so much more with just the lighting and the music and the environment, that it doesn't need to resort to gruesome imagery to scare you.

Metro Exodus, I think comes somewhat close to this feeling in certain parts, but it's still nowhere on the level of SoC.

 

[EXCellR8]

Don't forget about the floating objects... first time I encountered them I thought the game was broken (because it kinda was, by default). Damn those poltergoosts.

There were plenty of times in all of the STALKER games where I, in a blind panic, emptied an entire clip into basically nothing because I heard something spooky. The Snork roar is always deeply unsettling as well...

 

[Igo69]

Loved all 3 of them. I was playing this recently and it's amazing. https://www.moddb.com/mods/lost-alpha

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I seem to have a hard time getting into these games and the Metro games (which apparently are spiritual successors made by largely the same people if I'm not mistaken). There is definitely that eastern-euro/Russian fascination with all things post-apocalyptic, which is normally a setting I enjoy but I just can't get into it with these games. The fallout games all recognize their inherent camp and play off of it, while these games take their absurdity a bit too seriously for my taste, I think.

The stalker games were also punishingly hard, if I remember correctly, and were VERY unforgiving for novices or people who might need to have their hand held a bit at the start.

I've started and quit on Stalker: SOC and Metro 2033 an incredible number of times. Everytime the concept and the praise the games get makes me think "I just wasn't seeing it clealy last time" and every time I start and feel like I'm in some sort of half baked survivalist fan fiction.

Or maybe I just suck at games who knows.

 

[local]

After that one lab in SoC that scared the crap out of me I was done. Loved the idea behind the game but my nerves just couldn't handle it. Actually ran through some of it with my eyes closed and my wife telling me where to go, she gets weirded out by people not things so she couldn't do left 4 dead. I have Metro but never played it due to all the SoC comparisons.