What's your opinions on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series?

What's your opinions on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series?

FIRST ONE IS GREAT WITH MODS, NOT SO MUCH WITHOUT

CLEAR SKY SUCKS ALL AROUND

PRIPYAT IS GREAT ON ITS OWN AND HAS GOOD MODS

ALSO JUST PLAY CALL OF CHERNOBYL IT IS LIKE ALL OF THE GAMES TOGETHER COOL RIGHT

SoC is fine without mods as long as you patch it.

Just started Clear Sky, really not what i would call balanced.
My first playthrough of SoC was unmodded and unpatched.

Fucking masterpieces.

Includes Clear Sky if you're into it, I guess.

I've played hundreds of hours of these games, but still I don't understand why people go into the zone. It might as well be a fucking deathwish.

Do artifacts go for millions or something? I would totally read a story about a guy who finds the Firefly artifact which supposedly causes, canonically, near regeneration from death's door.

CLEAR SKY IS GARBAGE I CANT DEAL WITH THAT GAME

RECENTLY PLAYED SHADOW WITH ZRP AND THE END GAME WAS RETARDED. RAGE QUIT AT THE NPP BECAUSE OF TIGHT HALLWAYS PACKED WITH SNIPER-ACCURATE MONOLITH SOLDIERS. THE UNMODDED GAME IS JUST TOO UNBALANCED AND BROKEN TO RECOMMEND BUT I RESPECT YOUR OPINION.

I've only played SoC and CoP, both unmodded.
Shadow of Chernobyl felt like some kind of unfinished alpha build and really wasn't fun to play at all because of how ungodly broken everything was.
Call of Pripyat is one of my favorite FPS games of all time, despite still being kind of a mess in a few places.

Why is it that the most loved games in Sup Forums are also the buggiest?

What ending did you get?

Some games are so good that the bugs generally don't detract from the experience.

I RAGE QUIT. LIKE DIDNT FINISH. FUCK THAT.

PLAYED IT A LONG TIME AGO THOUGH AND GOT THE SHITTY MONEY ENDING. READING A WIKI AFTERWARD BLEW MY MIND.

Why are you capitalizing everything?

I actually made it to the room of the c-consciousness, but i didn't know what to do, so i just went to the wish granter and got the shitty ending with getting crushed.

Clear Sky would be a little better, if it wasn't for the unfair enemy Ai, annoying ally Ai, and performance issues.

Same as me.
Their glass thingy took so much shot (with a random weapon because i had no ammo left) to destroy i thought there was a bug or something.

A lot of games are buggy just because the developer is lazy. But every now and then there's a game where the budget couldn't quite keep up with the developer's vision, and the inspiration behind the game is so strong that it shines through even with the bugs.

Don't really know who they would sell artifacts to besides scientist, i mean, who would want a cancer ball in their house?

Boring, overrated, but not as bad as Fallout 3 and beyond. I would say it is that specific done as right as possible.

Wow, i guess you are honest about your opinions at least.

SoC - great
CS - flawed, but fixed up by mods to make it good
CoP - tedious and dull

Since i started Clear Sky, should it stay vanilla on a first play, or should i just install mods for sake of difficulty.

that specific genre^

Yep. Don't care for it in the least, but I've given the whole specific "post apoc / open world" thing try after try. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series seems to be the best of something I hate but don't want to.

Because ambitious devs making a unique game aren't usually blessed with high budgets and patience/respect on the sides of the publishers.

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.

it's the vanilla game that IS balanced. Just about every major mod fucks up the bullet physics and cranks up damage values to heavens.

CS is THE one game that really needs all the fixes it can get. Download its Starter Pack, and you should do fine.

NPCs make passive remarks to "collectors" who just like owning their own little chunks of radiation I guess.
Otherwise, I just assumed most of the people in the Zone were just criminals or exiles from society, and just came to the zone to live off the beaten path.

SoC is the best all around

The only fun I ever had with CS was with a mod that turned the faction system up to 11.

CoP is my personal favorite out of the box because of how open it is, though it does suffer from it.

CoC is the GOAT stalker experience.

I've gotten used to the shooting mechanics, but i swear, the fucking bandits will chuck like 3 grenades at me, and i have to run in the open to just escape them.

Cheeki Breeki

Hes from /k/, the real question is why isnt he speaking in broken english

We need more games like them.

Also Ray of Hope needs to release already

It's a separate continuity, but in the novel artefacts are widely sought after items on the black market.

One 'battery' artefact can power a car permanently if the car is modified to use it.

CS is often called "Grenade: Grenade Grenade" for a reason. It's one of the game's silliest details you just gotta learn to live with.

Bandits are the zone's #2 explosive experts, right behind any RPG unit

How the fuck would i modify an engine to use a ball made from radiation found in Chernobyl. What if i'm pulled over?

All I know about CoC is that it turns the game into one big sandbox that combines all three games. Is it worth checking out if I love the series, but also like to have a little bit of direction in my sandbox?

I only have 10 dollars on steam, so i'm just waiting for CoP to go on sale, is it worth it?

The novel was written before the Chernobyl accident and the Zone is the result of extraterrestrial visitation.

Nothing in the novel is radioactive so much as it is weird and might kill you for reasons science can't explain.

Honestly I first played CoP the second it was released and had an absolute blast with it. Like other people in the thread have mentioned, it's pretty solid out of the box and a decent bit more open than the other two games right from the start.

I would definitely say it's worth it. The whole series is great, even with Clear Sky being a weak entry.

Oh, for a second i thought you were talking about that novel that was sort of a sequel to the games that no one ever read.

I was immediately sold on CoP entirely due to the animations on the starting AK.

The way he unfolds the stock when he takes it out satisfies my autism too much.

Still, they never leave the extra round in during a mid-reload.

ZRP mod has an addon which reduces nade spam.

That's not how it is in vanilla, you must have been playing a mod

SRP*

Eh, i'm already at the garbage, don't want to restart.

There's a story mode that is available for a majority of the factions that starts you off with objectives to turn off the miracle machine and brain scorcher.

But what if you are a monolithian?

You're right, my memory is fucked

I recently rage quit Clear Sky because of the machine gun at Cordon again. I know you can avoid it by taking another route but the game obviously intends that you use the exit by the machine gun.

Tried CoP again and am having much more fun this time around. Artifact hunting and the more open nature of the game early on is lots of fun.

No military, bandits, or monolith.

Has the stability improved since the beginning of last year?

I liked it a lot, but it was very buggy and kept crashing.

Awwww, it would be nice for a monolithian story line.

tried to get into it, liked the atmosphere, but the gameplay just didn't click with me

has a pretty good fanbase on Sup Forums

Somewhat, but it's still best to quick save before changing areas