What makes STALKER such a great game?

Maybe its the atmosphere, maybe its because there is nothing like it, maybe its the dificulty, but there is something that make me forget the obvious flaws of this game, its like NewVegas, you either like it or hate it

There is a proper amount of complexity. Not as annoying (wonderful) as e.y.e but it isn't a theme park ride like [insert ubisoft/bethseda/square here]

Because realistic gameplay + unrealistic setting is the best combination.

The Zone is the main character, not Strelok

Enemies yelling in russian.

I can never understand why I liked stalker until i start playing again, then that atmosphere just sucks you in.

Plus its got a fantastically designed map thats compact and filled with content rather than every other shitty open world game like ubisofts thats overly large and just recycles the exact same shit over and over.

This and Clear Sky is the worst one imo

Also, the Zone is very unforgiving on harder difficulties. Makes it fun.

Which difficulty setting is best? I've only played on the hardest one and died repeatedly.

Just played SoC for 2 hours and to be honest it wasn't as good as people make it out to be.

Always play on Master.
Difficulty affecting damage goes both ways, meaning on lower difficulties both you and the enemies will be bullet sponges.
On master, a headshot can take you out as easily as it can the enemy.

I stopped playing it after 48 or more hours since it was starting to get boring

As a guy that fucking adores STALKER, this sounds about right.

Give it a year and you can pick it back up with some new mods and enjoy another 50 hours.

The only mod i installed was Autumn Aurora 2 it had extended my playtime to about 25 hours before i had to fucking cheat at the x-18 part since i had little to no ammo

Why the memes of course

They're scarier than many "true" horror games released in past few years.

They look prettier than some much later released multiplat titles.

They make games like Far Cry 3-4 feel like horribly dumbed down, handholding kiddie games.

They are fairly realistic, but not simulator-level. There's real bullet physics and stuff like bleeding and hunger, and one shot to the head can kill anyone.

They are VERY long lasting games. One playthrough in vanilla can last well over 25 hours at calm pace, but I've spent a good two WEEKS in all three of them on my first playthroughs. And later a lot more with numerous mods.

They're not perfect games and have their few issues, but in the end they are like "rough diamonds": totally worth investing time and effort in. They are just not afraid to kick you in the groin and call you a bitch - which is quite rare in modern games.

cam_inert 0.1 to the console.
Usually helps a lot.

Also, get FOV Switcher to make field of view actually widescreen friendly.

Here's the rookie guide for all the basics you may ever need.

I sure hope you did not start with fucking AA2.
Also, buy more ammo, cuck.

> Installed the Call of Chernobyl mod
> Attempting an ironman mode run (hardcore, one life, save files deleted on death)
> Raid the military post next to the starter village and find my favorite sniper rifle.

I'm so scared to die now. You'll never feel as much stress and fear as you can with only one life.

i had basically 10 cents and no i didnt

I've sunk 200+ hours into SoC and 150+ into CoP. Generally play for 50-100 hrs, then break for months/years, pick back up and play 50-100 more.

Tried to pick back up lately, but the crashes were even worse than usual, absolutely could not play the mod I wanted to try without either crashing every 5 minutes or a game save breaking glitch occurring. A crash every 30 mins or so is fine, that's STALKER, but I have my limits.

Would 100% pay $300 for a magic version of ShoC that never crashed regardless of mods

Anyone know how to change the alife spawn radius? Enemies are spawning right on top of me.

post hardbass already

I played through CoP once. It has great atmosphere, but a weak story. Not sure I see any reason to replay through the story mode again unless mods are added. Been playing CoC instead.

I always enjoyed the AI in gunfights. They flank ,hide, move around so well.

It has a sort of unique European style matched only by E.Y.E and Pathologic. I think the small amount of english voice acting is actually a plus in these games.

I agree

For CoP, SGM was a nice, if overly silly (too overpowered weapons/artifacts) mod that had the main benefit of being stable. I only crashed a few times the whole way. Once you become too godlike you can just switch on Alpha Squads and start fearing being hunted down by them. Was a good way to kill ~40 or so hours in CoP.

But yes, ShoC remains the best game overall and the one with the best mods overall. CoC just doesn't have any content (at least, last I checked) to motivate me...isn't it still just totally barren and buggy faction wars? I tried to bring glory to the Monolith in it a while back and it seemed kinda dead, patrols bugging out and game's basically over once you pop some poor Duty or Freedom guy in the back and steal all his gear.

sounds like a prime example of why rookies should NOT use overhaul mods on their first run. You just cannot run out of money and gear in vanilla.

CoC is pretty much sandbox, but there are plenty of addons to it, like th DocX quests mod to add some content.

I fell for the stalker meme. Game is shit and overblown on Cred Forums. Fuck you guys.

Got some classic ukranian farming memes for you.

>These few casuals that come here and say "I fell for it Cred Forums! What a meme game!"
>The rest of us talk about how great the games actually are.

Not sure what to tell you besides git good.

Yea I've been trying CoC but I guess the actual absence of a MQ just doesn't do it for me. I think I might just go back to AMK SoC or CoP since I've never finished either anyways.

>played SoC last year
>went to lab X13
>get out, go to Agroprom to help fellow stalkers fend of army
>massive shoot out
>only me and one soldier are left, can't see him anywhere
>crawl around the first building near the entrance looking for him
>he pops out silently out of the bush
>I lose my shit and flinch, throwing my mouse across the table in the process
>the mouse hits the wall with left click and my character shoots 3 bullets from his AK
>hit the soldier in the face
>pick up the mouse
>take a deep breath and continue stalking

No other game got me so immersed. Even after all these years it can still scare me.

Ironman mode in CoC! You must do it.

It's stressful knowing at any time you can lose everything you found with one mistake. You'll learn to actually be careful in the Zone instead of going all gung-ho.

What're the best CoP mods? I think I have one of the more popular ones installed, been too long to remember. Wanna pick it up again.

After a moment of research and checking this thread, SGM looks very good. Penny for you guys thoughts?

They managed to struck gold with the design of the Zone whish is an extremely fine balance between everything trying to kill you but at the same time other lifdle thrives there.

If you just blindly walk around like in most open world games, you will most likely find yourself burnt, electricuted, melted into a puddle or ground up into meat paste by an invisible black hole. So the zone keeps you on your toes and make sure you pay attention to your surroundings. Then you realise that there is only 1 true haven and you have to plan all your expeditions into the zone properly or you won't make it back. Its not like Elder scrolls or Souls where you have checkpoints so you have to balance between loot and over extending yourself. Artifacts being in anomaly fields also means that to get rich, you need to pay attention to the most dangerous but also the most alien ajd interesting locations. The fact that everything in Pripyat and the labs are authentic recreations of spooky places lends the game world a believable and haunting beauty

The A-life system also makes it seem like the world doesn't revolve around you. You hear gunfire and investigate and it could be a friendly squad that needs your help or it could be a bunch of rookies that were slaughteres by bloodsuckers and now they are huntinf you. You stumble on a camp fire and maybe some veterens invite you for boar chops. Or maybe they were Mercs and just filled you with lead. Even quest givers were not immune and sometimes the struggle to save them from the A-life is better than the quest itself.

Everyone plays CoC.

What addons are good for that?

Never played this game but this thread has me intrigued. Should I check it out?

If you have the spare dosh and time, don't see why not?

Did you like FO3 but you wanted to actually feel like you were in a grounded setting with realistic weapons and combat? Do you want to experience the depressing lifestyle of the average Russian? Maybe you enjoy it.

lets just say its rough around the edges and a bit glitchy sommetimes, but its genuinely one of the only games on par with the Metro series that gave me the impression I wasn't the "I'm invincible and badass because plot armor suck it bitches hero" but some random guy who wants to get by like th others and fears death, play it on master dificulty, for more realism, always look around for blury air pouches (also known as anomalies), theese are DANGEROUS and should be avoided, use your bolts to trigger/detect them, use your binoculars, dont carry more than you need, put your spare suplies in crates, dont hip fire, aim for the head, and go prone, stay in cover, good luck at the start as the "hobo" phase will be the most chalenging, once you get some real weapons, you will do much better.