Today I got a call from EB Games Elizabeth that my copy of STALKER was in store so I proceeded to pick the game.
Came home, had dinner and then sat down on my laptop to install the game.
Installation was a breeze, and after about 10 minutes I was ready to play the game.
Game starts with some really nice ingame footage, and after that you are ready to start playing.
You can't do much in the beginning as you are limited with your fire power (you only have a pistol at first), but once you start completing a few missions/errands you get better guns.
I really like the day to night transition and the lighting as well is pretty cool.
I wasn't expecting much from the game, but I was pleasantly surprised how well the game is thus far.
One problem I found was, that when I was using the full dynamic lighting render, when it rained and there was lighting in the sky, the rain drops would form grey triangles that looked crap. I changed the render to objects dynamic lighting, and that fixed the problem.
It's probably video card drivers or the game needs a patch.
You are given objectives to complete, but you don't have to do them straight away. You can roam the country taking in the scenery, but in the beginning you just don't have the firepower to do that.
I wouldn't call it revolutionary, but normal gameplay with extra freedom.
Turn the dynamic resizing off, and it will make it a bit smaller. Still you can't hit shit from far with the crosshair. You have to bring the sights up (right click) to do any damage.
First patch released.... be warned that patching the game deletes any saved games.. (great move eh) so If your anyway advanced in the game you'll have to start again !
Well i played this throught as it was a great deal of fun. Plus the whole experience of night with lightning storms broken by bursts of tracer fire. (looks like a very nice tasty breakfast).
As for revolutionary gameplay, its not much that we havent seem In "Oblivion",.... BUT it is new to the FPS genre, and it was nice to see a large bunch of bandits or army working together, some lay down cover fire while others flank you.
Plus the underground sections where pretty intense when you cant use a light for risk of alerting everything in the tunnels. So with stealth and bursts of night vision you slowly work your way down a tunnel only to be killed by a damn invisable mutant.
Plus the pysic mutants where awsome to fight the way they messed with your vision and the game mechanics showed this greatly!!!
You can see they have worked many hours in making the game close to the real world, looks and location wise. I gurantee i could go to Pripyat and not get lost.
*BTW poonda food is in the game for a reason, eat it and save your poor stalker from starvation!
It's a good game indeed, few things could be fixed up, like when playing it at the highest difficulty, having it so you gotta put 10 bullets in the head of a bandit doesn't make the game harder, well not having ammo does but still. And the trading system, man i just walk up to someone, trade, i gotta instant 2 grand for some stuff i found on the road.
But indeeed a fun game to play, and damn those psycic mutants giving me brain hemridges(?) !!!!!!!
Until last night... my impression of this game, while good, it plays a little too linear for my liking, not to mention the weapons are complete junk.
Last night though, after nearly completing one level, some mongrel 'head****' creature appeared at the end of a long tunnel. Head**** is an understatement, it just wonders out, some freaky sound, and you're head ****ed.
Quote from CyphiX;303601: It's a good game indeed, few things could be fixed up, like when playing it at the highest difficulty, having it so you gotta put 10 bullets in the head of a bandit doesn't make the game harder, well not having ammo does but still. And the trading system, man i just walk up to someone, trade, i gotta instant 2 grand for some stuff i found on the road.
But indeeed a fun game to play, and damn those psycic mutants giving me brain hemridges(?) !!!!!!!
that sounds a bit like bio-hazard 4 style but with different monsters, but the whole brain hemridges think sounds cool... kinda makes me think its like haveing a temagochi toy but in a game
Brain Burster or something the call it, i just lobbed twenty grens at it whilst shitting myself, barely crawled up the ladder in time. Im close to the end according to Piggy, but i also didnt do 3/4 of the side missions (just enuff to get cash and Unique items) and ill definitely be replaying on a slightly harder level, after i patch it it ;)
Be warned, patch will delete your saves (sure someone mentioned that before)
nah hitokiri there is along ways to go yet if you are at the first lvl, as far as the guns go do side missions and get far superior weapons... as you go along u can fully customise with scopes and different round types, one of the big sniper rifles is accurate to 500m with tracer and radiation bullets, only one of many guns, have sub machine guns, rifles then scoped ones.. so yeh look everywhere in side missions as they are sneaky with hiding places... tip for newbies .. about 2 or 3 lvls in u get an invite to an arena where u can make big cash killing other stalkers do not not fear when u have lost all ure weapons, you end up at the barkeep and can buy guns and amm, but usually it is weapons that u had on you before, personally id save me cash till you get to the scientist base and buy nasty big guns and ammo.. also a mission ther for a suit u will need to access other radiated areas that will kill you if you dont have one, anyways just a few tips.. thers a walkthru avail if ya get stuck, explains in detail similar to obilvion book, so good luck and watch out for invisible monsters lol :)
I liked it a lot, except for the end sequence, made me want to slit my wrists for playing such an awesome game to a very very lame finale. Still , having said that, ive repatched game and will start on Veteran instead of Stalker and see how i go.
Quote from Eater_Of_Souls;303736: I liked it a lot, except for the end sequence, made me want to slit my wrists for playing such an awesome game to a very very lame finale. Still , having said that, ive repatched game and will start on Veteran instead of Stalker and see how i go.
isn't there like 5 bullshit endings and 2 real endings?
I personally go with a higher skill level when playing a game for the first time, though when i play on the skill of Master, i find that the NPC's are just harder to kill, like 10 bullets to the chest before they come down :( Hopefully later patches with smooth those things out... Otherwisr still going strong in this game :D
i've been playing it for like 4 days now.... kinda dissapointed in it (given i was waiting like 4 years for this game).... still fun tho...
i like the fact that there are many NPC stalkers just roaming around makes it seem more real. also when you see people huddled around a fire and one whips out a guitar that made me laugh soo hard..
some issues i see is: 1) the Main NPC's die while your doing a mission and thats it, u cant finish it. 2) the bandits seem to be everywhere once you get to the second lvl and you never have enuff ammo. 3) you can't carry fuk all... i dunno if it gets better with the amount u can carry but its shit all at the start...
plus the only thing i cant think of while playing it is *cough.... Fallout 3... cough*..
Lol there's a box next to the arena guy where all your items are stored while you're fighting. You can pick everything up again at any time.
Really enjoyed the game (except for the stupid 'false' ending I got). Will patch it and play through it again as soon as my 8800gtx arrives :). I know how to get both of the real endings now so we'll see what they're like :).
Been playing it for a few days. At first I hated it, it was clumsy, the quest interface and tracking was shocking and the computer AI was borderline retarded (shooting through walls).
Glad i persisted with it though, as the Storyline was more than enough to keep me playing. I haven't finished it yet, I just shut down the brain scorcher and am advancing toward Pretonyak (?) to find the Monolith.
Some really scarey parts and the whole post-apocolypse setting is great.
man that brain scorcher freeked me out the 1st time it did the whole zoom thing. /dragon notices person standing at the end of tunnel 40 mtrs away /dragon is now face to face with the monster ?WTF
Haha, yeah those things are fkn nasty. They're not scorchers though, they're called Controllers :)
The Brain scorcher is a Tower-network that like, scrambles your brainses.
I've now got 3 different game endings. I got the 'Rich' wish from the Monolith, I joined C-Conciousness and I destroyed them. Anyone else got something different?
That thing that ****s with your head is called a Controller.
Currently im at Chernobyl making my way into the sarcophagus.
The brain scorcher is past the red forest, the big 4 electrical towers you see, you go in and turn it off, then the monolith ****s storm the place and you have to kill about 100 guys to get out.
Running around chernobyl is fun, i have a HIND helichopper shooting me and snipers everywhere, running out of medpacks! :(
i think the serv is the 2nd best piece of armour, im wearing its equivlant atm. The best is the exo-skeleton which i think you can only find at chernobyl
well i have the psi helm to get past those damed brain scorchers.
the best part about the game ive noticed, being able to just kill someone, taking their guns and selling em of for more powerful weapons and ammo, just go out side the bar in the duty territory kill the dude in the hut. stand behind the wall near the stair case and aim at the only entrance and wait for all of the non important npc's (walking money bags :D) and cash in. the npcs eventually come back too tho i haven't patched yet so it maybe different for others.