STALKER - Reviews

[EvilNed]

Er okay then, I shall give up all hope. Good. Now I get the evil ending.

[MinionZombie]

I'll be heading into the Red Forrest today ... then Pripyat either later or tomorrow or something ... I'm expecting oddles of "oooh ... ahhhh" as well as "ARGH!!! YA F*CKER!!! RUN AWAY!!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!" I'm gonna try and explore as much as I can in the later areas, see how it compares to the video footage I've seen on Chernobyl 'fan sites' (so-to-speak, folk that go exploring and documenting). Even when you do plenty of exploring, you suddenly think to yourself that you still haven't been looking closely enough, just taking the time to stand around for a bit and really look at the detail of this desperate and hopeless world you now inhabit - which is the main point of the game, not seeking out jokes and humour and all that like which *sigh* GamerTV was seemingly expecting - it's a game set in and around the area of the 'greatest' nuclear power tragedy in history ... tell me, where is the right place for jokes and humour? Nob'ed GamerTV reviews... Finished watching the Tarkovsky film by the same name, this afternoon ... interesting stuff. Perhaps it'll give me some help when it comes to the final choice in STALKER (don't give anything away ya bastards! ) ... you know, in a way of better understanding The Zone and how to respect it etc... Went to the Red Forrest today, I see what you mean Ned, just a long pathway of death really, just loads of shooting, it'd help if you were a mate with Freedom and Monolith ... I'll remember that for next time. Anyway, was expecting a Forest, but didn't get that at all ... hmmm ... still, that's been the most consisten action in the game thus far, but on the other side, not the best area in the game. Anyway, on to Pripyat next, hopefully there's something to actually explore there, rather than the pathway of death in the forest...the Monolith is calling me ... perhaps I'll see the ending soon ... then I can watch all those videos I downloaded off YouTube, haha! Still loving the game though, I'm itching for another sesh right now actually...

[MinionZombie]

*yet more* Finished STALKER today, just went straight on to the Monolith and made my wish (I was expecting a list of ambiguous options, rather than just pressing the Use Key...anyway...) - *sigh*, I thought I'd been a good STALKER, but I got the "I want to be rich" ending, where 'gold' (nuts and bolts) rains down on me - and then the ceiling caves in and crushes me. Watched the other endings that I'd downloaded from YouTube though ... good stuff, although I might be missing one, not sure, might seek out a guide to show me what's what. Now don't go barking down my throat anyone, I cheat in Single Player (f*ck off, Lou was using a trainer for the game as well) - but I never cheat in multiplayer or online, so I'm only cheating myself, and I don't care about that... Anyway, even with the trainer on, I still got killed sometimes - what the fudge is that about?! And when I go in search of whatever is 'behind the door' (and, presumably anyway, fulfill that "kill the strelok" task from the beginning) as soon as I'm shot I can't do squat to bandage myself up or heal myself, I just bleed and bleed and bleed until I die - you-f*ckin-wot?! Zero sound/visibility option didn't work either, they still saw me and killed me - even with Invincibility apparently enabled ... bloody random. Anyway, the inside of the Sarcophagus was rather impressive, very creepy, the very centre of all the chaos and you're alone, walking around in it... Didn't get much time to explore Chernobyl, there was chaos everywhere and something about a 'blow out' in 5 minutes, so I had to haul ass and get inside, so I didn't really get to snoop around that much, if it 'blows out' when you're outside, I think you die ... so how can you get to have a good look around the area? Very strange. Pripyat was good, even though it was mostly killing merceneries/freedom/monolith folk (can you get monolith on your side? surely you can...), I saw most of it, but cos it was a lot of shooting, you don't get to appreciate it as much. Strange that the main focus of the advertising/previews for the game is Pripyat/Chernobyl, yet it's where you spend least time...hmmm. Over all, 8/10 ... this game truly gave me some scary moments, and a lot of shivers up my spine, my hair was almost always on end and rendered going to sleep a much harder task than usual...

[capncnut]

Over all, 8/10 ... this game truly gave me some scary moments, and a lot of shivers up my spine, my hair was almost always on end and rendered going to sleep a much harder task than usual... Thank f**k, now we got the review it finally looks like we can move on with our lives.

[MinionZombie]

Thank f**k, now we got the review it finally looks like we can move on with our lives. Piss off, yeah? You could've unsubscribed from the thread if you'd wanted, but you're just as much a whore for inside knowledge on STALKER as everyone else in the thread.

[Tricky]

So was it worth the wait and money then?im kind of disappointed that you've all finished it within a week & that it doesnt sound as open as we expected Is there an online version where you exist in the gameworld in a similar way to warcraft or something?that would be cool

[capncnut]

You could've unsubscribed from the thread if you'd wanted, but you're just as much a whore for inside knowledge on STALKER as everyone else in the thread. I have never subscribed to a thread in my life at HPotD. And indeed, I am a whore for S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I'm just being a cheeky obnoxious bastard.

[MinionZombie]

WoW style STALKER? Er ... no. I started playing it on March 23rd, finished yesterday, and that was after putting in at least 20 hours, most likely more than that. I did quite a bit of exploration and side tasks, but far from all of them and I didn't explore everywhere either. The Red Forrest/Pripyat and then Chernobyl is where you rush around like a looney shooting at loads of things, so it's a lot of lead up and then a quick finish ... a smidge disappointing, but only in that kind of way where you're totally aiming for a flat-out-porno-facial-of-Peter-North-proportions, but you get too excited about that prospect and instead lube up the lass' calf ... ... just off the top of my head, it was the funniest comparison I could dream up right now. So you still get to spoodge, but it could have been a better ending ... although it's still all good anyway. When you're inside the CNPP (Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) and the Monolith is calling you in this deep, Russian voice, it's really spooky... GSC blatantly bit of WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too much in one bite, and a lot of ideas were far too RPG, and wouldn't have worked too well in the FPS environment...the content of STALKER is more suited to FPS gaming anyway, in terms of the locale. I wish they'd scaled back sooner or had the foresight to realise they had too many good ideas that were too disparate to all link together, from the off ... but alas they didn't, hence the long wait. I was busting a nut for this game throughout my time playing it, and I'll be going back - BLATES. Definitely worth playing, and I think you'd probably enjoy it. I'd say it's definitely worthy of earmarking along with other highlights of the FPS genre - Doom, Half Life, COD etc... Some rough edges here and there (make sure you patch it before playing, which I'll do next time through), it is annoying that vehicles aren't there, but it is understandable why they took them out. If you're driving hell-for-leather, what happens if you hit an anomaly? It totally makes sense why they took vehicles out, just a shame because at times a vehicle would be really useful. Excellent sound design, right up there with Doom 3, better even. The setting is superb, really creepy, lots of areas to explore, lots of scares to be had. Some things could be tweaked (like when running, why can't your guy avoid stepping on - for example - a railway track, or a corpse - why can't the guy manage to place their footage in-between/over these obstacles? Because when you're running and you cross a railway track, for instance, your pace gets off-set for a moment, which can be really annoying - but it's just one of those little things you get used to, you'll find yourself doing a bit of a hop-skip-jump over such things, haha. Some of the expansive elements (or RPG elements really) aren't as polished or well-realised as you might have possibly expected, but there's nothing to really slap your cock back, because the overall experience inspires you to forgive the game of it's minor faults. It really is a worthy entry into the FPS genre and gives the player something they haven't seen before. I hope that STALKER will inspire the FPS genre in the future. As for the speed of going through it, entirely depends on how you play it. If you only follow the main storyline, and just barge it, you'll cut through fairly swiftly. However, if you do as the game would prefer, walk around, go "ooh and ahh", explore all the areas, even the nooks and crannies, read through your PDA, do side missions, talk to people, do some more visual gawping and so on ... it'll be a much longer playing sesh. Finally, speaking of such things, this probably isn't the sort of game you'll find yourself playing for mammoth sessions, it's 1 or 2 hours at a time, spread out to a few times a day ... so it's a game you commit to for a while and just chip away at, rather than barge through like a retarded monkey on speed...this most definitely isn't like the linear-quick-relief of Doom3. Over all, 8/10 ... like a Labrador ... a bit stupid from time to time, occasionally cuts a fart near you, but it's just too lovable to do without or find lasting criticism with. Check it out on Play.com, you can snap it up for £18, definitely worth it.

[EvilNed]

Playing the game through for the second time. I pretty much immediatley proceeded on towards the Freedom base and now I'm doing missions for them. In my previous game, they were constantly my enemies. Now they're me friends!

[MinionZombie]

I wonder if you can be matey with Monolith as a result of working with Freedom? Or perhaps they're always going to be your enemy. One of these days I'll bash through it again, but not for a while, let it settle and digest ... and I'm too busy at the moment...so much porn to watch.

[EvilNed]

No, I can confirm that Monolith is always your enemy. I just did a mission for the Freedom guys where I had to fight them. And they were tough! I'm currently doing quests for Freedom without joining them. That way, the Duty guys won't expell me from the central bar area! I haven't even gone to X18 yet, and I've already got the assault rifle I had when I BEAT the game last time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_G36 That one it is. I love that gun. You can zoom in and it's easy to aim with. As for being busy, I finished my essay on italian zombie flicks today, so I sat down with STALKER then.

[MinionZombie]

Oh yeah that gun is awesome, accurate, easy to handle, got a good scope, ideal really. I used that one the most. Next time I play through I'll act like a complete dickhead and hang out with Freedom as well...

[EvilNed]

Well, I'm sad to say that in the current version, 1.0001, the Freedom Questline is broken. You can do four of their "main" quests and then you can't do anymore because they won't acknowledge that you completed the last one. In general, several of the questgivers in the Freedom camp seem broken. Skinflint is the name of their trader. He gave me a mission once, but after that he won't even talk about missions. As well, one of their guys is called Max. He gave me a mission too. After I completed it there was noway to get him to talk to me about it. So the time went out, eventually. I hope they patch that quickly. I like just roaming around doing random quests.

[MinionZombie]

This is a reason why I'm waiting a while till I play again, so that they patch stupid little glitches like that, I have to say that the side-quest glitches were annoying in the game, I didn't realise it was there initially, then I read about it and went "oh yeah" ... lol, perhaps some radiation leaked out of the game and made me braindead, eh?