I bought this game during the Halloween steam sale. What am I in for?

I bought this game during the Halloween steam sale. What am I in for?

vodka and borscht

Seems like everyone and their mothers bought the STALKER games in the past week.

Prepare for one of the most memorable, atmospheric, challenging yet ultimately satisfying AND the best survival-type shooters, ever.

To get a smooth landing to 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.

Why does everyone recommend complete tho?

What's the best overhaul mod for each game?

I prefer AMK: Autumn Edition for SoC, and Misery/CoM for CoP.

No one's recommended complete for probably 7 years now, man.

It was practically "all we got" once upon a time, did damn fine job marketing itself as both a "NEXT GEN graphix!!" -mod, and as a "bug-fixing vanilla 2.0 experience". Because internet doesn't forget, people still find decade old threads about it, and some morons who never bothered to refresh their knowledge still recommend that crap today.

tl;dr: It became its own meme, that just won't die away. I've literally seen people make posts like "I won't play the new STALKER game before it gets a Complete mod! :)"

At this point, all Complete-mods are totally obsolete, and still casual as fuck. On top of that, they tend to introduce all NEW bugs and issues.

>What's the best overhaul mod for each game?
SoC: AMK 1.4.1 (original)
CS: The Faction War 3.x
CoP: Misery 2.2

The bit before the Agropom Underground can be a bit boring, but that point is where the game's best aspects really shine imo. Try not to look up too much info about the game, just enough to make it not buggy (it already works fine for most in vanilla but some fan patches like the Zone Reclamation Project help).

Consult the /sg/ general, it has a bunch of pastebins and shit that are useful. Honestly though, just hopping right into vanilla is good enough for your first time.

I have a feeling that Metro Exodus will suck.
Will we ever get Stalker 2?

And by that bit I mean the Underground itself, not the cordon and garbage.

Also, take a little bit of time to understand the story. It's not some super in depth narrative, but if you want a satisfying playthrough without looking things up on the wiki, just pay attention.

>I have a feeling that Metro Exodus will suck.
as if the past ones wouldn't have been horribly mediocre, disposable trash already. They even downgraded the OGs with the extra shitty "REDUX" versions.

>Will we ever get Stalker 2?
No.

A decent game with a crap ending

What's the latest on Ray of Hope? I want some coop stalkin

only if you're a crap stalker

Game's not polished, but it has enough charm that its fans can look past it. Big part of it is getting yourself immersed in the world, so it's a slow start until you feel like you're a part of it.

...

>no primary weapon
Well frankly you deserve to be eaten

Damn. This looks nice

Also, what's happening with GUNSLINGER?

Holy shit, guys actually made weapon upgrades.

Being a good stalker doesn’t make the corridor filled with 5000 monolith any more exciting or challenging unfortunately

...

lol you deserved to die

thats disgusting

Post webms

Cheeki breeki

Has anyone EVER played the multiplayer?

>the blue containers can be broken
WHAT THE FUCK

Master difficulty does not make you deal more damage or make the enemies weaker. It makes them tougher.

get ready for a lot of regret and head scratching at the complete and total overselling of this pile of shit from desperate PC fanboys

You will aim at an enemies head with a scope, but when you shoot the bullet will go offscreen.
Other than that it's a pretty good game with nice atmosphere.

>tfw modded cop so much it crashes on the final mission and I can't beat the game

kuso post

Why does CoP end so abruptly? I had to reload a save from some time ago because I was fighting towards helis, then suddenly I'm leaving the zone for good
Is there lots of side quests in Pripyat I'm missing, or is this a case of unfinished end-game?

No, the METALLIC containers can be broken.
Blue chests are for storing shit.

CoP's ending is known to be underwhelming as fuck. There's a good reason no one rushes towards Pripyat usually.
You can opt to stay in the Zone too, giving you a kinda weak freeroam mode. There is a fine selection of sidequests throughout the game, some which you cannot access unless you take sides with certain people, or perform in certain ways in some other quests.

what a retarded fucking reload animation

looks like the modder was trying to make it look cool instead of look like someone actually in the middle of combat would reload

For clear sky once when it came out in 08

was awful since it was a russian server. everyone was rubberbanding

Steam is working on 1.006 it seems these days for Vanilla. Any change for installing the mod?

Downgrade is practically a must for vanilla-AMK1.4.

There are many user-made "versions" of AMK, like SE & AA-mix, but those are usually pre-configured and/or filled with all sorts of random crap.

My suggestion would be pirating the original 1.0 retail version, and patching it up manually.

It's the thinking man's fallout

Don't give up faggot