S.T.A.L.K.E.R thread

Thinking of picking up S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Is it worth it?
Which game is the best?

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>is it worth it?
rhetorical question, or just a new fag?
Of course it is fucking worth it! And SoC is the best game.

To get the best start with the series, Consult this Starting Guide,
then see the /vg/'s huge Stalker General for more tips and links: Play in the release order. Start with no mods - only latest patch, OR get the full "Starter Pack" first; these contain bug-fixers and light visual mods that can help performance as well.
Leave big overhauls for later playthrougs. Avoid the "Complete" -mods. Always play on MASTER difficulty for best realism and atmosphere, and disable crosshair.

Don't give up in the beginning! The starting gear sucks ass and first area can be a bit boring.

Am I the only one that noticed the shadow looks like a gorilla?

rly mks u thnk

...

Most people say Shadow of Chernobyl is the best, but Call of Pripyat is the most polished, even if it has a less important main story line. Kind of like New Vegas vs F3. SoC = better main story, while CoP has better gunplay, fighting, factions, etc.

Get SGM mod, best mod for CoP. Misery is hellishly hard and not worth it for first play through.

There's nothing positive about F3 so I dunno what the hell you're getting at.

But I totally agree with you. For some reason CoP is so fucking comfy.

You can basically go two ways, I'm gonna be not so objective here because I liked option two.

Option A.
Play all the games in order, all unmodded so you can later on appreciate the mods. Even people who say this often say don't play Clear Sky, since it's a pretty lackcluster game and uses the same areas as SoC, but it's somewhat new content I guess. I can't really talk about the plus sides of this option, since what I'll say about mods in option B, and you don't really have to know the story from the previous games to play the others.

Option B.
Play CoP, since it has the best mechanics, best engine and instead of having:
Straight line of about 400 meters -->Loading screen --> Straight line of about 400 meters that goes 2 different ways --> Loading Screen --> a small, open hub --> repeat with some locations on the sides of the straight line. This is what SoC is like.
I would say play with a complete overhaul mod that adds difficulty and new content/mechanics. I used MISERY 2, people will argue which is the best. NOT COMPLETE THO. The reason for this is that eventhough there are some side quests, even CoP that is 3 big areas instead of the type of design I just explained, but it's still pretty linear, you're gonna be going to mostly the same places on every playthrough. In the end, Stalkers are pretty inperfect games. Some of the design choises aren't that great (mission structure, enemies are bulletsponges, feel on some weapons, inventory system, artifact system), it's the atmosphere that makes the game something special. And playing the game for the first time is very special, it has a whole different atmosphere. You're basically playing as a newbie on the zone, what your character pretty much is, everything is scary. And having a great overhaul mod first time really amplifies this. Imagine playing it vanilla first time to appreciate the mods, then starting a modded run straight away. You'll just run trhough it.

Play SOC and then play COP. CS is shit, don't even bother with that.

>STALKER
>PS2 graphics
>poor AI
sure it's a b8, but damn...

CoP is the most boring and the piss-easiest game in the series tho'.

>enemies are bulletsponges

t. fag who doesn't play on Master.

>Get SGM mod
where do fucks like you come from?

I could- I AM jacking off to those tiles.

>even comparing STALKER to Fallout
and fuck you, F3 was the only tolerable 3D Fallout game.

STALKER = the ultimate brick staring simulator

I gave my opinion, there really isn't an objective way to run Stalkers, some like it vanilla first, some modded. That's why theres a fight about it around here. You're free to share your opinion on why going vanilla first is better.
Still were bulletspongy enough
Maybe we played it differently, atleast in MISERY the game was hard. SoC was hard modded too, but for me a bit easier than CoP. Misery makes looting guns and selling them not a thing though, maybe that affected it.

>F3 was the only tolerable 3D Fallout
Peddle your wares somewhere else, Todd. I already bought your shit so you would stop shitposting here. What more do you fucking want, man?

Slav magic, user.
How do they do it?

Fallout 3 is still playable.
It's not the Fallout sequel you wanted, just as Fallout 4 wasn't, and 5 won't be.
But they're still playable games, especially if you just like looting like me.

wtf omg

>Maybe we played it differently, atleast in MISERY the game was hard.
yeah, shows you've never even touched the vanilla.
this is why I hate people who jump straight to overhaul mods.

by doing work, instead of outsourcing and marketing out their entire budget

I''ve played all of the STALKERs in vanilla, but I always do a modded run first to not waste my first, magical experience.
What's your problem, people can't play the game a way you don't like?
I try to stay reasonable in these threads, since unmodded vs vanilla is the same as Fallout 3 vs New Vegas. There's never a solution, everyone just goes
>No I am right because fact X
>No but me because fact Y
>No me because look at this opinion Z

>I always do a modded run first to not waste my first, magical experience.
That's so counter-intuitive, my mind is literally full of fuck now

Bad Rats is also playable so again, I don't know what the fuck you're getting at. If you enjoy smearing shit all over your face, that's alright, just don't tell us it's not shit you're smearing.

>playing with mods first
>"not ruining the first run"

Dude, come on

>playing an inferior version first time with less content, more bugs, easier difficulty (debateable), less atmosphere, less mechanics
Or should I go
>Oh boy that sure was a pretty good game unmodded
>Anyways, time to install this difficult overhaul mod, because I wanna get to playing this right away, since I was looking forward to it, but Sup Forums told me to play it vanilla to appreciate this
>Hmm, this isn't hard at all, I know where to go, what to loot and what to do
>I don't feel unwelcome in this hostile world at all, since I already know all these places

stalker sucks because shit shooting mechanics. very atmospheric with great music though.

youtube.com/watch?v=b3Hqqh3CwXU

What am I ruining by not running vanilla first? Actually curious.
And don't say to appreciate the mod, since I won't be appreciating the mod if I just feel bored playing pretty much the same content right after finishing the vanilla run

What do you mean?

>rock OST
No, this is the true OST
youtube.com/watch?v=KRRGYEFZF4A

it has the same shitty mechanics that borderlands 1 has where all guns have terrible accuracy and don't even work properly.

Its because you play on the easiest difficulty fucking retard.

>terrible accuracy
not really, just avoid spraying like a dumb ass, even then they aren't that bad
>don't even work properly
?

Play modded, resolves the accuracy problem.
And yes, it's the same excuse as Fallout games. Mods will fix it.
Dunno what you mean on them not working

you're extremely delusional.
yea the only reason i played modded.

I played stalker rather heavily for quite a while, I'm just relaying my own experiences

>What am I ruining by not running vanilla first?
-potentially introducing brand new problems (bugs, bullshit events, unbalanced weapons...) that didn't exist in vanilla.
-not being able to distinguish default features from the stuff the mod adds or changes.

>...since I won't be appreciating the mod if I just feel bored playing pretty much the same content right after finishing the vanilla run
I've played each of the STALKER games dozens of times, with and without mods, and I still haven't gotten bored of them.

>it has the same shitty mechanics that borderlands 1 has where all guns have terrible accuracy
yeah, no. You just literally cannot aim for shit, and think that the rookie gear represent the entire game's arsenal.

Every single one of these ""realistic weapons"" mods just throw the bullet physics and weapon-tiers out of the window, and crank up the damage values, thus making it pointless to ever throw away that first AK you find lying around.

>you're extremely delusional.
He's not. You're just apparently worse STALKER player than my wife.

>can't aim for shit

time to install and show off how terrible the gun accuracy is

Most big overhauls are bug free at this point though.
What difference does it make if I distinquish the mod features? That's literally just "So you appreciate the mods"
Also I don't mean that I get bored on Stalker just like that, especially CoP. What I ment is, that if people tell me to play first to appreciate the mod, I probably wanna play the modded version pretty soon after, to see what the buzz is about, and it's gonna be a watered down experience like that one guy in the thread said, not feeling that same fear/being unwelcome in the zone as you play, because you already know what to do, making the whole point of the difficulty overhaul invalid

You do that, thank you.

>inb4 a fucked up WEBM with some jackass trying to """snipe""" a soldier from 100+ meters away with a Makarov
Learn the maximum effective ranges, and utilize the weapons accordingly. Also, low-crouch + ADS + single-shot firing mode = easy head-poppings.

>Most big overhauls are bug free at this point though.
There is literally NO overhaul mod without bugs. Most of them actually only introduce brand new bugs and issues.

Well, mostly bug free. It's pretty hard to make a bug free mod ontop of Stalker

Gunplay sucks dick, especially at the beginning when you don't have decent guns and only way to kill someone is aiming for the head and when you trying to do so bullets would fly whatever fuck they want from the sight because random dispersion lol. Underground labs are the most fun part of the game btw, just wait for it :^)

play modded

I'm replaying SOC with autumn aurora, this game still looks amazing

You're just a retard fuck off