STALKER- does it get better?

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57210788

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So I bought both the origianl STALKER and Clear Sky off of steam way back (it think it was like $5 or something) but didn't play them right away.

I started playing them a few days ago and so far hate it big time. In the original game I'm in a sort of wrecking yard near "garbage" and in clear sky I'm a few missions in as well.

Please tell me if I gut it out these games get better. So far all I'm doing is basically killing people to collect items to bring to the trader to get some money to upgrade. Thrilling.

Or else I'm killing dogs. Thrilling.

I thought it was a FPS.

Do I ever get to actually check out Prypiat (I'm sure I'm spelling that wrong), or do I just walk around in the bush and tall grass?

I totally love the idea of a game set in the zone, but so far the execution blows.

Do these constant trips to the trader end at some point or is the whole game so RPGlike?
 
If you progress through the storyline quests you'll go to more interesting places like Pripyat, the Red Forest etc. I thought the game was reasonably good on my first play through but the second time I noticed so many more things and got a hell of a lot more out of it.
 
The game is not for everyone.

STALKER is indeed a dry game, but despite it's terrible bugs, it's great if you are the type of person who likes to imagine surviving in the wilderness/surviving in the desolate post apocalyptic wasteland. The game is very much about "realistic" survival at it's core. So no, you are not like the Wanderer in Fallout 3, gibbing anything at a whim. You are weak, slow, jumping and running tires you out, you get hungry and sleepy, being shot causes you to bleed and lose health gradually, weapons are trash, and taking cover is extremely important.
Granted, it's by no means super realistic, but it gives a more realistic sense of survival in the wilderness.
I could be wrong, but I think that's why some people really like it.

As the game goes on, it does get more intense and frightening.
 
You stop going to the trader. Hell, you can even ignore him altogether and go do your own thing. That's the beauty of it.

It starts off a bit eh, but if you can get through that it gets great.
 
It doesn't get much better.

Stalker needed to be given a better developer to finish off. Wonderful premise let down by bugs and clunky archaic combat.
 
Everyone seems to be put off a bit right from the start, but most people I know come to love it once they really start getting into it. No guarantee that its the same way for you, but you are still very early in the game. I'd say at least play through the Lab X18 part, and if you still feel the same way, the game may just not be your thing.
 
Sounds to me like you are trying to categorize the STALKER games. Wroooong. STALKER is a unique game EXPERIENCE, not any average FPS. Take the bugs and glitches in your stride and savour it as one of the last, if not THE last, made-for-PC gaming legends. No it isn't as polished as Halflife, but it is easily on a par with it in terms of scope and intelligent originality.

The setting and storyline along with the off-the-scale atmosphere in a free roaming world is second to none. With mods, the first game is easily the best, however Clear Sky offers a lot of graphic improvements and a more cohesive mission structure - I found it more satisfying to play than the first, which took a lot of patches and mods to make work at all, but it was let down by dumping you in pretty much the same locations as the first, robbing it of any originality it could've had. Call of Pripyat on the other hand moves away from the the first 2 by quite a big distance and even takes several steps back in atmosphere, graphics, and originality.

Though bugged to hell and back and sometimes flawed in gameplay, my hat off to the developers for creating one of the all time great PC game experiences ever.
 
As stated above, there's some underground labs, which are definitely worth the visit before writing the game off.
 
I just got into Pripyat, with CoP and I'm still loving it - not sure how much I'm going to love having to take on Monolith again, but its all part part of the fun.
 
I found that the most interesting parts of the game are when you go into the underground places and crazy shit is happening. Personally that stands out for me more than any other game with similar environments. I mean you go in and it's creepy on it's own, but then you never really expect just what crazy shit's gonna be in the next room. Most anything on the surface is fairly weak... though there was a badass storm thing going on once and I got in a firefight. It's really a game of moments... not a full-force action fest. That's just the way of free-roaming game-types.
 
Oblivion Lost + hunter's shotgun + slug rounds = good hunting, Stalker.
 
You don't play stalker, you live it. If getting immersed in the world doesn't interest you then it's going to stay dry. The labs and yantar are genuinely creepy, but they are just more of what stalker is all about. Meticulous exploration and atmosphere with brief intense fighting.

Play it long enough to get used to the mechanics and get some decent equipment. If it doesn't grow on you by then, it's not going to. I HATED stalker the first time I tried it. Then I gave it a second chance and it's become one of my top 10 games.
 
Just some genuine awesome moments that are unique to different people. You get some Stalker fans together and they can talk for hours telling the awesome things that have happened to them in the Zone.
 
:S don't ask me how but i managed to skip the whole lab quest the first time i played....got to the outskirts later where you are constantly being psychically attacked and didn't have that psi helmet or wtvr
 
Sliver said:
Just some genuine awesome moments that are unique to different people. You get some Stalker fans together and they can talk for hours telling the awesome things that have happened to them in the Zone.
Click to expand...
This is the best part of Stalker.
 
I didnt like the game at first, but i gave it a good try. Once i got further into it i enjoyed it a lot, especially when you go into abandoned underground facilities (scary as hell), but then i got to a point where i would die from radiation no matter what, and i rageuninstalled the game.

I dont have enough will to install it again.
 
Both games have very boring starts, but then quickly picks up.
 
Ravioli said:
I didnt like the game at first, but i gave it a good try. Once i got further into it i enjoyed it a lot, especially when you go into abandoned underground facilities (scary as hell), but then i got to a point where i would die from radiation no matter what, and i rageuninstalled the game.

I dont have enough will to install it again.
Click to expand...
you let a little heat stop you?
 
The radioactive and psy active zones are built that way on purpose - you have to get the right equipment to pass them, which means engaging certain characters and completing certain tasks. You can certainly get to those parts and, well, die trying, but that's a pretty sketchy strategy.
 
The engine sucks. When you move your character, it feels like he is walking underwater or something (kinda like how movement in Bioshock is murky, but 1000 times worse).
 
Change it in your .ini. Thats what I ended up doing.
 
ya kno what i hate...all the care package glitchers in the game when......

o wait.....

seriously though I got so bored of it, then saw someone playing it and started again, then got bored again, then played again, then got bored again and haven't played it since.

I got very close apparently to the end, but one of the last areas you are constantly being psi attatcked, so I thought i could just pass through if I used enough medkits. well i kept dying and eventually found out I had missed some quest were I get psi armor that stops those attacks a long time ago. So I went back to the lab to try and get the quest but the scientist didn't have the option o_O
i ended up starting a whole new game....i still have that save file if it's no too late though!
 
How could you manage to miss a main quest? Did you skip all the text?
 
If you don't like it so far it won't get better for you.

It'd be a much better game if the enemies didn't cheat by seeing through walls etc. You can't really use stealth properly.
 
taviow said:
How could you manage to miss a main quest? Did you skip all the text?
Click to expand...

I could see how he could miss something. The game is pretty poorly translated. There were a lot of times where I didnt know what the **** to do for a mission because I couldnt understand the broken english in my questlog.
 
You guys are all wrong, the best part of the game is....














Get out of here, Stalker.

Get out of here, Stalker.

Get out of here, Stalker.

Get out of here, Stalker.
 
STALKER was okay, but...it was a bit dissapointing. And, as someone already mentioned, the poorly translated english detracted a lot from the experience. It had decent atmosphere, though.
 
i don't understand how the translations could be bad, you'd think they could afford to run it buy a primarily english speaking person before shipping it out, ya know?
 
Have you seen many primarily English speaking people's writing? Its usually pretty awful.
 
I too failed to get past the early stages despite some very memorable moments, but I have once again booted it up, and I am giving it one more chance.
 
The Call of Pripyat loyalty deal is almost too good to pass up. Once I have, you know, $20 I'm definitely jumping on it.
 
Just remembered one of the most frustrating parts of this game. There is just never enough ammo for the AKs, and considering the pistol is just utter wank and the shotgun is useless unless you are face to face with the enemy, then when you are outside against soldiers with full armor then there is just no way past.
 
I'm playing Clear Sky. I don't get what the whole faction thing is, I'm not right at the beginging, but I'm still pretty early in the game. Do the factions play a role in gameplay? Do you get squads, or can you join different factions other than Clear Sky?
 
Shift said:
Just remembered one of the most frustrating parts of this game. There is just never enough ammo for the AKs, and considering the pistol is just utter wank and the shotgun is useless unless you are face to face with the enemy, then when you are outside against soldiers with full armor then there is just no way past.
Click to expand...

Never enough ammo?

By mid game I had about 16 spare mags in my backpack.
 
Well from where I am, its very scarce. And its strange how the soldiers seem to fire on your constantly and when you search their bodies there is about 5 bullets left on them lol. But I did just explore and underground facilities looking for some documents, there was some dodgey stuff down there, properly jumped a few times..
 
Shift said:
Just remembered one of the most frustrating parts of this game. There is just never enough ammo for the AKs, and considering the pistol is just utter wank and the shotgun is useless unless you are face to face with the enemy, then when you are outside against soldiers with full armor then there is just no way past.
Click to expand...

You get plenty of AK ammo. It's when you first get NATO guns and have no ammo for them is annoying.
 
My biggest problem regarding ammo was the fact that I kept buying out all the traders' stock constantly. It's far too easy to get filthy rich in unmodded STALKER.
 
Biggest bitch so far in Pripet is finding nightvision, nighttime is something to sleep through till then.
As far as money goes, with all of the upgrades I feel I need to do in this game it's hard to get rich. Not to mention they don't buy crap weapons from you anymore, and you will probably want to repair the ones you have. They found out about the money problem alright.
 
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