Thoughts on the stalkers games (beware spoilers might come D:)

kozeph · Post by **kozeph** » Thu Dec 03, 2009 8:34 pm

I always had a curiosity about what the serius rpg players thought of this series of games. I personaly and strangely enough love them even if they have bland and superficial stories and massive bugs, there is something to these games from the atmosfere to the stalker playing his guitar on a camp that grips me (actualy makes me want to play the guitar)

so shoot from critics to praises to things you like and would like in these games, and engaging moments or frustations. and if you have something to say about the lastest of the series please do, i havent even found a review about it so im kinda hanging in the air about it.

bushwhacker2k · Post by **bushwhacker2k** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:04 pm

Ah, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, fun stuff.

I played a nice bit of one of them and enjoyed it immensely, I think some game makers could learn a lot from it.

Actually recently I've been thinking of redownloading and replaying it, as it was a ton of fun

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 4:22 pm

Buggy, strange AI and three quarters of the story is told just before you finish the game in one long dialogue.

Also, during the development a much more dynamic world was promised, with cars, regular blowouts and a larger game world, not unlike Oblivion. I seem to remember a fair bit of previews talked about this game being an RPG, but all it does is present an item management system. That's Bioshock and that just doesn't cut it at all. The development cycle was also too long for coming up with this shrunk down version of their original idea. It bordered vaporware for quite a few years.

I liked the post-industrial setting of the game, it is really something that hasn't been done a lot by games. I think I scoped out every major building.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 1:45 am

I enjoyed it, but never played past the first few quests, because I was appalled by the long travel times. If it had quick-travel between the mainareas, I'd finish it.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:31 am

GawainBS wrote:I enjoyed it, but never played past the first few quests, because I was appalled by the long travel times. If it had quick-travel between the mainareas, I'd finish it.

*smacks GawainBS across the face*

Noo! They took another one! Damn you Bethsoft, damn you!

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:51 am

Tricky wrote:*smacks GawainBS across the face*

Noo! They took another one! Damn you Bethsoft, damn you!

Let's be honest: insta-travel isn't the sole domain of Bethsoft. Apart from that, it's a gameplay *addition*, not a distraction. We didn't walk our guys in BG every inch from Nashkell to Baldur's Gate, did we? We selected the area, and *swoop*, we'd be there. My idea of a fun gameplay experience isn't drutching 10 minutes, six times per sessions, through the same landscape, with *maybe* a savage dog attack.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 3:55 am

I agree actually, but I only wish they would have fixed that by adding vihicles (like they said they would). We would have been able to cross every map relatively quickly.

Also, I am a bit of a hiker. If the scenery is worth it, I don't mind to take my time for something.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:41 am

Tricky wrote:I agree actually, but I only wish they would have fixed that by adding vihicles (like they said they would). We would have been able to cross every map relatively quickly.

Also, I am a bit of a hiker. If the scenery is worth it, I don't mind to take my time for something.

Vehicles would have done the trick too. It just gets terribly boring to constantly retrace your steps.

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:14 am

Weren't the vehicles included to the game as "mod" by developers?
I remember reading such thing not long time back.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:17 am

GawainBS wrote:Let's be honest: insta-travel isn't the sole domain of Bethsoft. Apart from that, it's a gameplay *addition*, not a distraction. We didn't walk our guys in BG every inch from Nashkell to Baldur's Gate, did we?

Um...actually, we did walk our guys in BG every inch of the way, because that's the way BG1 was made: free movement over all terrain (save for hidden areas), with no shortcuts. I liked this feature better than the way BG2 (and its successors) have handled matters, but obviously I'm not in the majority.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:29 am

Actually, in BG1 you only had to walk everywhere the first time -not unlike Oblivion. After that you could fast travel, but with the chance of a random encounter.

Kipi wrote:Weren't the vehicles included to the game as "mod" by developers?
I remember reading such thing not long time back.

Hm, I didn't know that. Might be worth checking out for I remember a lot of the terrain was very suitable for driving.

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:30 am

fable wrote:Um...actually, we did walk our guys in BG every inch of the way, because that's the way BG1 was made: free movement over all terrain (save for hidden areas), with no shortcuts. I liked this feature better than the way BG2 (and its successors) have handled matters, but obviously I'm not in the majority.

Not comparable. Yes, you had to discover the intervening areas. But they were only certain areas, not every single step of the way, and after doing them once, you could skip them. Moreover, they were intresting. I assume you don't enter & exit every single area you encounter, each and every time you make a transfer from say, Nashkell to the Gate area?
BTW, I prefer the BG1 approach too, instead of the BG2 approach.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:49 am

GawainBS wrote:Not comparable.

You misunderstand me. I wasn't making a comparison; I was correcting an error. You wrote:

We didn't walk our guys in BG every inch from Nashkell to Baldur's Gate, did we?

...but we did just that in BG. Every inch of the way, because there were no shortcuts in the first game of the series. If you wanted to get from, say, Beregost Temple to Nashgel, you walked through each of the areas between the two that had those locations.

Or am I misinterpreting your remark, above?

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:18 am

Tricky wrote:Hm, I didn't know that. Might be worth checking out for I remember a lot of the terrain was very suitable for driving.

Okay, it seems that the actual mod is not made by the devs.
Transport Mod, Stalker Downloads, Stalker Vehicles

WHat I gathered though is that the vehicles were implemented, but eventually taken out by the devs, and the mod just reimplement them to the game

GawainBS · Post by **GawainBS** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:30 am

Yes, fable, you are misunderstanding me.

First off, you only traveled a select few areas of the entire road. They were "highlights" so to speak. The Black Isle didn't code every little step of that long way. Again, after going through them once, you could skip them.
To wrap up: insta-travel is good, when used to avoid tedium. (BG, Morrowind, ...)

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:45 am

Kipi wrote:Okay, it seems that the actual mod is not made by the devs.
Transport Mod, Stalker Downloads, Stalker Vehicles

WHat I gathered though is that the vehicles were implemented, but eventually taken out by the devs, and the mod just reimplement them to the game

Ooh, thank you for looking it up. I'll give it a whirl later today.

DesR85 · Post by **DesR85** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:26 am

Well, I played the original STALKER and found it a good open-world game (though one could say that it is more like a few large levels joined together) with some scary moments, albeit unoptimised and with some bugs, including one serious bug which resulted in a crash because I took two conflicting quests.

Story is nearly non-existent so if you're looking for a game with some semblance of a story, you'd better look elsewhere. Not to mention that it can get repetitive after a while of playing. For me personally, I just decided to just focus on finishing the game once and for all when I was near the end of the game with little to no idea as to the story/plot progression until that dialogue sequence. Managed to finish it, but I doubt I will replay it in a while.

fable · Post by **fable** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 10:32 am

GawainBS wrote:Yes, fable, you are misunderstanding me.
First off, you only traveled a select few areas of the entire road. They were "highlights" so to speak. The Black Isle didn't code every little step of that long way. Again, after going through them once, you could skip them.
To wrap up: insta-travel is good, when used to avoid tedium. (BG, Morrowind, ...)

Point taken. I do like the option to move through connected areas, though--in fact, I think user-available options are great, in general.

kozeph · Post by **kozeph** » Sat Dec 19, 2009 2:31 pm

I liked the atmosfere the first one had it was pretty creepy the first time the sewers and then in the underground infested lab. didnt mind walking through levels but instant travel could help they did it with the second one but they charged to much and there where chances of the game crashing

the second one was ok i guess (for a series of buggy and no plot) what i didnt like about this one was the broken faction warfare and this one didnt had creepy undergroud areas

im thinking about getting the newst one purely becouse its appearntly set in pripyat and I love what they did with it in SoC

kozeph · Post by **kozeph** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:16 pm

Got my hands on the latest stalker, call of pripyat. been playing for two days every moment I can spare. can defenetly say this is by far the best one. It corrects many of the problems with the previous two and builds on the good parts of its predecesors. combat is still pretty much the same the ai human is smart enough the mutants are waaaay better and more cunning using hit and run tactics going for the back or flank ect ect. new mutants add more diversity. the story is well good enough it can be waaay better but for me its atleast more intriging than the first or second game. side quest are now a bit better and not so much go there kill that loot here come back type, they now have more supstance some are really have neck breaking moments SPOILER

Spoiler

sneaking past a den of bloodsuckers was an intese moment for me

.

the games has the atmosfare which is one of the strong points of this series, the zone feels more deserted and lonely than before giving the atmosfare and sounds more power. autotraveling has been added and refined you can travel to key locations in the maps when you find the ocacional group of stalkers or hire a guied for long trips between areas yaaiiiii.

The voice cast is extremely annoying and the "especial" stalkers are just a pain. voices in russian sound better and more fitting than their english counterparts (not that I undestand russian) the protagonist so far is the better one than the previus two he actually has a dialogue!

this one is very polish compare to the first one and cant be compared with the second one, so far ive only runned into one major bug and about two minor ones

this is for now my opinion of the game, for now i recommend it to fans of this franchise, and well its so far the better game of the series so if you could stomach the first one or not get frustated by clear sky and its overcrow and infested bug this one is by far what the STALKER games should be ofcourse its not the cream of la cream in shooters or RPG hybrids but its a good one as far as it goes