Would you recommend this to someone who hasn't played any other Stalker titles and plans on playing it with no mods?

Would you recommend this to someone who hasn't played any other Stalker titles and plans on playing it with no mods?
I don't mind the aged graphics

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/Y-6LSn74z4k
youtube.com/watch?v=UqgAtnS0_bc
rainymood.com/watch?v=KRRGYEFZF4A
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

yes but the first area is kind of shitty because all your guns are terrible. it picks up when you get a rifle.

Do you like an upward slog of monotony that rewards patience, planning, trial and error, and learning actual game mechanics? If yes, play on master and use the unofficial bugfix patches. Good hunting, stalker.

Yeah I heard about that. The makarov and what not.
Someone stated that the difficulty you play in affects the amount of damage both you and the enemies are able to absorb. Should I then just start it on master?

It is the first stalker game, you'll be fine.

Difficulty setting how much damage you both deal ane recieve, so pick the highest because it is easier on expendables.

Master it is. Thanks.

>aged graphics
just the textures and model polys really, it's lighting is still one of the best if not the best I've seen in gaming yet, xray worked slav magic for it's atmosphere.

I'm honestly surprised more games don't use their lighting and shadow algorithm.

Yes. The patches fixed the game to stable and enjoyable state already years ago, and STEAM + GOG versions are auto-patched.

It seems like it's the younger, mostly console-oriented players that seem to be having problems with these games nowadays. Prolly because it really, REALLY does not play like ye typical Cowadooteh, but more like mix of various late-90s and early-00s shooters and PC-RPGs. There's a steep-ish learning curve, and the games really do not hold your hand at all. You try to rambo and fool around ,you get blown to bits in no time. The bullet-physics also tend to surprise kids who've gotten used to hit-scan shooters.

Anyway, to get the smoothest start with this trilogy, 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.

What's wrong with the complete mods?

Shadow of Chernobyl is the original Stalker game retard, yes you should play it first.

And with modding, don't play it with overhaul mods, but don't play vanilla either. Just get the community bug fix patches, the vanilla graphics look great anyways. Just download and install everything in the starter packs.

It's a hit or miss for most people, but I'd definitely suggest giving a try.

>here we go again.
Everything.
tl;dr: They're obsolete and casual as fuck.

pic very related.

Even though the mod is advertised as a graphical mod, it still changes a lot of gameplay mechanics and makes the game very casual friendly.

-Yes. It's amazing game.
-Yes, it's the first game in the series.
-Yes, the patched vanilla's great and looks great even today. It's a fucking 2007 PC title, after all.

Prepare your anus though; there's a reason why casuals call it the "Dark Souls of FPS games".

don't get why people lose interest in the hobo-phase, it actually gives you a reason to get better gear. the payoff when you go back to garbage or cordon with pristine AK's and snipers as you eviscerate bandits is pretty satisfying

Every time I start up a new game, I ALWAYS go for that starting gear that hidden in the first area, inside of an attic in a house. I love the pacing of this game, and how it deals with player progression via new gear.

I don't remember exactly how it works but yeah master is the only difficulty you should play on. It's what the game was designed for and it gives the best experience.

>You see, it turns out shoes have soles.
Made me laugh.

it seems to be a result of modern handholding fad as well. People no longer understand nor appreciate the idea of having to crawl uphill from the beginning.

Just look at the typical CoD and -likes; you get full battle gear right from the get go, almost unlimited ammo, and no gun really plays totally different. Hit-scan also means that once you aim thru' sights, you are certain to hit your target. The minor challenge and variation in these games comes from the set-piece heavy levels that can play very differently, instead of focusing on a single, deep gameplay style.

And then you have STALKER. A mix of System Shock 2, Far Cry (1), and even a hint of both Half-Life, CS, and Fallout (1-2). All games a typical modern gaming audience's prolly never even touched. It's almost a polar opposite sort of experience when compared to shit AAA devs throw out each year nowadays.

Personally, I love the "hobo phase", as it underlines the survival aspect of the games. However, improving your arsenal while learning the ropes of the game is also very satisfying.

>love the pacing
>immediately skip half the early progression right at the start of the game

I am you one week ago and I'm now 45 hours in. Do it! Only, I installed ZRP for the bugfixes only. You have to check the readme to see how to uncheck optional mods.

Have fun.

just use zrp, its a bugfix mod

It's not much of a skip considering you get the same suit almost immediately after leaving Cordon which is barely a tenth of the way through the game.

you don't tho'.

and people with no oldschool map exploring skills wouldn't ever find said stash without every other guy spoiling it up nowadays.

I suggest everyone who goes on /sg/ to just read the OP, find the mods you liked by yourself (the links in the post are 90% of the time outdated) and then just fucking leave. That has to be one of the worst generals in /vg/

I love stalker as well but I'm going to go against the universal justifications the fans will sometimes make and say that certain parts of the beginning are fucky even for the hobo phase. Like how the starter weapons are worthless at every range and basically completely cannot hit whatever you aim at. It's one thing if the starter weapons were to lose accuracy rapidly from a distance, that's logical and reasonable and still would require the player to risk themselves in order to kill an enemy. But when the shotgun basically cannot kill anything even at point blank, that's when you know they've gone full retard with their "realistic" inaccuracies. They really could have at least made the starting weapons work while still being sucky weapons.

That, and a portion of bullets that leave your gun simply *disappear* on lower difficulties. I used to soend a lot of time fucking around modding it and messing around in the game files, i used to remember the variable for it but i forget, a quick google search should turn it up.

>Like how the starter weapons are worthless at every range and basically completely cannot hit whatever you aim at.
Are you people just exaggerating for the lulz, or just seriously bad at games?

youtu.be/Y-6LSn74z4k

Heck, the sawnoff alone is a HUGE upgrade, and very versatile weapon. The starting weapons do "work", they are just sucky weapons.

>you don't tho'.
like the third map you go to there's just a merc suit sitting in some building.

>That, and a portion of bullets that leave your gun simply *disappear* on lower difficulties.
This is false.
There IS this "hit probability percent" thing in STALKER games, that increase with difficulty, but it only affects the NPCs.

On the same note, Clear Sky does have this shitty system which makes your shots disappear at certain distance, unless you have applied accuracy upgrades to your weapon.

Yeah I'm new to stalker, I'm this guy and I went to that general recently to ask a question. Normally I don't go to generals. It was a mistake. I did my research before asking what I thought was a fair question, and I said I was new, but I still got a reply in the vein of "Haha you didn't even know that? You are an idiot". Turns out I should have known it because 1 NPC that you may never meet (because the game isn't linear) mentions it off the cuff.

True, but getting to that point as a rookie can take easily 2-4 hours, if not even more, and still requires you to locate it yourself. And thanks to all the action, it is easy to miss.

Don't play the second stalker game, just skip it, you will miss nothing. It it trash and plays like call of duty. It is linear and incredibly short

Play this first then the third

CoP's MISERY mod is good and you have no taste if you think otherwise.

i love shit like the hidden stash in the bloodsucker tunnels, too bad the modded AK you find there isnt exactly useful

so good that the general had to fucking fix it.

>muh realism
>when in reality a pistol will put you on the ground even with a vest

Ignore this tool, he has no idea what he's talking about.
Just grab every patch for CS and you're good.

don't torture yourself to find all the caches or to constantly finishing regional side quests that automatically trigger when you enter a certain area, if you fail these quests (by not doing them under a certain time limit) you'll lose some rep that has virtually almost no effect on the outcome of the game

there is also a certain way mechanic/programming oversight that lets you repair armor pretty late game if you acquired certain items.weapons however cannot be repaired

some quests will require you to give up unique weapons for rewards, usually these rewards aren't anything special so if you insist on finishing these mission only do it if you are certain you won't need that unique weapon anymore

What kind of patch or mod fixes how short and linear the game is?

Say what you want, but it saved me the monotony of having nothing to do a home with no internet. Smal things like having going to Yanov feel more like an forward base of operations where you can't stay too long without using up all your supplies make for very interesting gameplay changes.

I beat CoP a long time ago on vanilla, and playing MISERY now feels like a breath of fresh radiactive air.

>too bad the modded AK you find there isnt exactly useful
...the fuck are you saying?? You could EASILY beat the whole game with the Rapid AK + scope alone, if it'd last you long enough.

>how short
I spent 2 weeks on all 3 Stalker games on the first time. The games are as "short" as you make them.
>and linear
no more linear than SoC 2bh

How is CoP compared to SoC?

it's OK.
Has all of the new features of CS (upgrade & fixing system for weapons and suits, artifact-detectors...), all slightly altered and improved, and 3 brand new maps that are quite a bit bigger and more open.

However, the game is ridiculously easy and calm for its own good, especially compared to the past two games. You start with great gear, you can get even better for absolutely free within minutes, Bandits start off as neutrals(!), and the bigger, more open maps mean that it's hard to get surprised by hostiles or anomalies (that are often limited to smaller clusters).

I would say its MAPS are alot less linear and overall like the mechanics of upgrading alot more in CoP. Still you should play SoC first.

Just do the first quest at the car park to get SMGS and shotguns, then sneak attack the Military at the bridge to get an AK. It's not that hard.

>actual sidequests that arent just WoW fetch or kill quests
>better gunplay
>far less maps (but there is a lot more to do in them) and is generally much easier
>mutants got buffed

cop is really missing the bad ending trap so many people fall into in soc

Im the only one who doesnt like the artifacts detectors?

I like the way you get artifacts in SoC: you hunt for them when the climate and the hour of the day is the right one.

Finding moonlights in pitch black or fireballs when is rainning feels better that just pulling out the detector and making them appear out of thin air.

the start is pretty shit senpai, do side quests until you get decent weapons, dont be a duty fag

I hate how formulaic the anomaly zones are compared to random anomalies across the map.
>wait for blowout
>go to anomaly field
>whip out detector and grab everything
>wait for blowout

yes. the first game was kinda infantile compared to CoP, but general silhouette of SHoC story is still absolutely fucking amazing. After SHOC give a chance for Clear Sky if you want, but make sure to play CoP. CoP is ultimate form of stalker games, it's the game where devs finally got rid of everything that could possibly be classified as a downside of stalker game and all that's left is pure amazement.

>no mods
that's exactly how every game should be beaten for the first time

Pretty sure it affects everyone. Wouldnt bet money on it, but i think youre wrong.

I'm console/poorfag, and I'm going to build my pc soon, mostly for this series. What's the minimum of running this game smoothly, and is this game at all comparable to the metro series? Tone and gameplay wise?

The only source for bullets disappearing in SoC was one review and there was never any proof for it. Most people have chalked that up to a combination of the low damage/accuracy of early weapons and NPCs seeming unresponsive during the flinch animation.

>minimum
this game was being developed in dx8 times. i remember playing early alpha builds on geforce 2 mx. literally anything that's at least from dx9 times should be fine.

I've beaten shoc on gf6200, just had to disable dynamic lighting.

what the fuck is up with the retards that need to play modded ? all you need is the official patch which fixes some bugs. mods are for when you want a more open world experience after beating the game.

There are a bunch of reviews that bought into the "complete is the definitive way to play it's just bugfixes and improvements" bullshit so now people are having it installed before they even play the game.

I remember the flinch animation made npc invulnerable to any damage when the game just came out and they patch it later.

Also in SoC I think if you shot people in the hand/feet they wont take any damage

>tone
yes and no. metro is postapo, stalker is rather unique setting, combination of modern eastern europe climates and gothic(game)-like society, with camps and groups that try to take advantage of the world they're struggling to live in. metro and stalker bear serious similarities, but in the end it's not quite the same style.

that being said, stalker world with its subtle mystery of the zone and normal people trying to get rich beats extremistic metro postapo alien shit.

>and gameplay wise
shooting is still there, but metro is more of corridor shooter while stalker is arena/open world. approach is kinda different, especially when comparing CoP and metro - one is textbook example of open world, one is more of action shooter.

metro = more action-oriented stalker with way less subtle story.

>What's the minimum of running this game smoothly,
Pentium 4, 3GB RAM, Geforce FX 6600GT 256mb.

That's how I first played it back in 2007, on DX9 mode, med-high settings, at 1024x768 res, around 35fps average.

tl;dr: even a fucking toaster can run these games at 1080p / 60fps these days.

Misery is absolutely retarded. The entire recommit is absolutely fucked so everything is absurdly expensive for no reason, your character becomes a fatass who can barely run and starves to death in a day, 2 added like 15 mutant spawns around every objective just because MUH DIFFICULTY
I mean I get that the game should be hard, but Misery is just cancerous

Thanks a nons. Also, I enjoy the hobo phase, but do you spend the entire game 1 bullet away from death, or does it get easier the farther you go?

Economy goddammit

my 2007 built Core2Duo @ 2.13Ghz, 4GB DDR2 and 8800GT 512MB already had no problems running the vanilla games at 1080p, DirectX9 Full Dynamic lightings.

My 2011 built, current machine with i5 2500, 8GB DDR3 and GTX 560ti can do the same with high settings, forced AA and DX11 mode.

It KINDA gets easier as you go, or rather as you get better gear. However, all your equipment wear down with use and damage, weakening their stats and reliability. Not to mention a headshot CAN be an insta-kill even for you, and you really do wanna avoid some of the nastier anomalies all the way to the end.

it's not really arma, but doing stupid shit results in death. most beautiful way to play this game is sniping, and sniping is being done from behind the cover anyway.

you might quickload from time to time, but it's nothing too annoying. It's still a fun, fast game.

was it a rapid AK? I thought it was just some custom AK with slightly different stats. its been a long time.

yes, it's a custom AK, called "Rapid AK". It's ROF and accuracy make it damn handy and cheap tool of mass destruction.

>My 2011 built, current machine with i5 2500, 8GB DDR3 and GTX 560ti can do the same with high settings, forced AA and DX11 mode.

Hey that's the exact same build that I played Stalker in, and I played it on the same settings, and in 2011 as well.

I really need to replay it sometimes on my new rig.

Just play Call of Chernobyl instead. It's everything STALKER should've been.

What are some good graphical overhauls?

Starter Packs.

Fuck no.
CoC is boring ass sandbox shit with no purpose or goals. It's a total antithesis of what makes STALKER games so good.

Plus, TFW3.8 did the sandbox experience way better, way earlier.

>пpивeт, cтaлкep

youtube.com/watch?v=UqgAtnS0_bc

When I tried to download the starter pack it installed really slow, probably because I was doing it though chrome or something. Is there a different mirror I can install through like Dropbox or something?

coc has a warfare mod that lets you capture bases i think. if it does what it's supposed to do it should fix the most glaring issues with coc.

so ... like any other game on the hardest difficulty?

whats ur verdict on Lost Alpha guys? worth reinstalling the game for?

>it installed really slow
...u wot m8?
Or you mean DOWNLOADED?
Also, there are the torrents you can always use.

Just slapping on mere base capturing won't be enough to make it too special.

is there a mod that fixes the enemy respown?
every time i go to the wild territory there's always 3 mercs on the building and dogs fucking everywhere
also sometimes in the duty base people die randomly

is call of chernobyl separated maps like the first one? I'm playing through the first one right now but I'm curious if they changed anything in the sequels

>What's the minimum of running this game smoothly
It really depends. The game isn't THAT taxing if you're playing vanilla but once you start modding it your computer will start caving in on itself because of all the new effects, items, and NPCs that mods tend to add, which the engine simply can't handle. You're going to need a high class single core CPU (an intel CPU in other words) and an SSD to play some of those bigger mods with a good framerate.

That is the reason the place is called "Wild Territory". It's not a bug.

And nobody just dies "randomly" in STALKER. The A-Life system keeps all NPCs and creatures roaming and interacting even in the areas you yourself are not present at the moment.

CoC is not an official game. It's a major overhaul mod, focused on sandbox freeroam.

The sequels are Clear Sky and Call Of Pripyat. And both have separated maps, just a tad bigger.
Many things did change, but overall, there's a reason why some fans call them as "standalone expansions".

>tfw no stalker 2

I'm playing SoC with AMK+Autumn right now, might go on to play CoC later. What gameplay overhaul should I add to it? Misery looks cool but is it still obnoxiously difficult?

rainymood.com/watch?v=KRRGYEFZF4A

What about Soljanka? Also I still want to know whether Lost Alpha is worth it.

I bought clear sky cause I'm a huge fan of SoC and CoP, I know its a buggy mess vanilla, are there any mods thta fix things up?
or did I waste two bucks

It will always hurt

srp
its mediocre but i played through it just cause i want to beat all the games

Enemies don't become bullet sponges.

Don't waste your time and don't ask the 10~ dedicated fanboys on this shit hole board for advice.

It's legitimate garbage. Don't believe me? Ask them what makes it so good and watch them say

>Muh Atmosphere

In other words - "I don't know any good things it does well objectively speaking".

Story is shit, writing is so bad it's comically funny (so maybe a positive if you're a retard), gunplay is unsatisfying as fuck vanilla and the AI is above average at best.

All in all, it's a clumsy game with half assed mechanics that is better skipped.

>BUT MUH CHEEKI BREEKI
>BUT MUH GUITAR PLAYING SLAVS

Slightly unrelated, but did anybody else here have the issue that weapon upgrades in CS always just disappeared?
I'd upgrade a gun, load a save or something later, and it'd be stock again.

Sky Reclamation Project. Honestly, I wouldn't say CS is worth playing since it doesn't do anything that's particularly interesting (besides the faction system that barely functions and that you'll grow to hate). It also has the least mod support of the 3 games.

>did I waste two bucks
Yes. You should've just gotten the fagzy repack from /sg/ instead.

but user, those are exactly the things I like

ill take the bait i guess

>detailed environments with lots of secret stashes that promote exploring
>top notch bumpmaps and lighting quality even for todays standards
>the difficulty and balance which really added to the immersion
>muh atmosphere (graphics, lightning, sound effects, weather effects, locations, NPCs and enemies)
>all the optional missions and stuff as well as faction system
>the cool albeit underdeveloped anomalies
>AI is actually decent enough seeking cover n shit
>muh guitar playing slavs at campfires during atmospheric as shit looking nighttime with great lightning bringing you straight to the zone

this game just did a lot of things right.

>knowing better than everyone
Even a stalker knows more than you.

Why would you go stealthy after becoming death incarnate?

No you doesn't understand.
You choose A or B after you got death incarnate in time line.

Is there any reason to go Monolith in CoC?

Seems like all you can do is kill people.