S.t.a.l.k.e.r.: Shadow of Chernobyl (impressions video inside)

[Slowtrain]

Factory? What factory? I'm at the car port. It's the very first mission.

 

So you're telling me that no matter how many bandits I kill, the car port will never be free of bandits? It's one thing to have no clear cut solution, it's another to be given a goal that's inherently unreachable.

 

 

Carport/factoryits the same thing.

 

The goal is only to clear the area once to get the flash drive from Nimble. Technically, It doesn't even matter if he is dead or alive. Take the flash drive off his corpse if you want. Once that is done you never need to go back there again, unless you want to.

[Maria Caliban]

Infinitely respawning bandits is not a design decision I support.

[Slowtrain]

Infinitely respawning bandits is not a design decision I support.

 

 

Fair enough. But that is the nature of the gameworld. Your goal is to survive as you work to uncover the mysteries of your amnesia and the zone itself. SOmetimes you fight, sometimes you run, always looking for anything that will give you an edge. You will never win. The zone is bigger than you. You survive by slipping through the cracks. Its an approach to game design that is somewhat unusual. I find it fascinating. Very little is "set in stone".

 

 

Anyway,

 

Technically the car port / factory mission is 2 missions.

 

The trader wants the flash drive. That's all. Period. Probaly you could run in, shoot nimble in the head, loot his corpse for the drive and take it back to the trader without ever fighting the bandits. I've never tried it, but I'm quite certian it would work.

 

Wolf wants the factory cleared. He doesn't care about the flash drive. WHether Nimble lives or dies, he won't care.

[Xard]

I'm quite sure I'm going to get this game someday (preferably soon ) and I know this isn't RPG, but just one question: How much predeterminated your character background is? I thought you were just yet another stalker, your background completely free. However, after hearing about player being "Marked One" who suffers from amnesia I (reasonably enough) gathered some suspicions.

 

Don't spoil the game, just say yes or no. Is players background pre-determinated?

 

Thank you

[Tale]

Yes, the background is completely pre-determined.

[Spider]

Infinitely respawning bandits is not a design decision I support.

 

Although to be fair, the trader (I think, or maybe Wolf) does tell you that the bandits always come back to the factory, regardless of how many times they are drive off/wiped out.

 

But yeah, enemies respawn at most places. Killing everything (and having it stay dead) is not an option.

[Maria Caliban]

CrashGirl:

"Fair enough. But that is the nature of the gameworld. Your goal is to survive as you work to uncover the mysteries of your amnesia and the zone itself. SOmetimes you fight, sometimes you run, always looking for anything that will give you an edge. You will never win. The zone is bigger than you. You survive by slipping through the cracks. Its an approach to game design that is somewhat unusual. I find it fascinating. Very little is "set in stone"."

 

You make monotonous grindfests sound so poetic.

Edited March 26, 2007 by Maria Caliban

[mkreku]

How can you call STALKER a grindfest when there's no xp or levels to be gained? Just run past everything you don't want to meet.

 

STALKER isn't meant to be played like a mainstream Bioware please-hold-my-hand-all-the-way game.

[Pidesco]

I'm having loads of fun. I finally managed to take out the bandits by taking the shotgun off the friendly guy's corpse , and shotgunning almost everyone at point-blank range. After that, I've been avoiding bigger fights (like the military guys under the bridge), and doing those easy quests for the village guys. One quest I'm having problems with is the pseudo tail dog fetch quest, as I can't seem to find one, and the PDA doesn't tell where to find it. I did get a blind dog's tail but that didn't help me at all.

 

They managed to get the game world just right. It's immersive. And the thunder storms are pretty.

[Slowtrain]

I'm having loads of fun. I finally managed to take out the bandits by taking the shotgun off the friendly guy's corpse , and shotgunning almost everyone at point-blank range. After that, I've been avoiding bigger fights (like the military guys under the bridge), and doing those easy quests for the village guys. One quest I'm having problems with is the pseudo tail dog fetch quest, as I can't seem to find one, and the PDA doesn't tell where to find it. I did get a blind dog's tail but that didn't help me at all.

 

They managed to get the game world just right. It's immersive. And the thunder storms are pretty.

 

 

I have not yet, and I've killed a buttload of animals, found a pseudodog's tail anywhere. EIther it doesn't exist at all, or its chance of appearing is so small that I just haven't seen it yet. There's on ekind of nasty savage dog thing that hasn't generated a part for me yet. They are somewhat rare so I probably just haven't killed enough. Or its in some very specific location that I haven't found. I'm actually really curious to see what the hell it is.

[Pop]

Factory? What factory? I'm at the car port. It's the very first mission.

 

So you're telling me that no matter how many bandits I kill, the car port will never be free of bandits? It's one thing to have no clear cut solution, it's another to be given a goal that's inherently unreachable.

When you're given the quest, there's a set amount of bandits that you have to kill. Kill them, you complete the quest. Bandits will spawn, but not while you're fighting the quest bandits, so you're not running up an escalator. Does that make sense?

 

This isn't Final Fantasy, you're not punished for not going around and smashing **** up at every turn. You can easily avoid most everything you can fight, and that's probably a smart thing to do in most cases.

[WITHTEETH]

Would you people say that STALKER is a must have game for fans of the genre? Is it interactive, and does the story carry well?

[Spider]

I have not yet, and I've killed a buttload of animals, found a pseudodog's tail anywhere. EIther it doesn't exist at all, or its chance of appearing is so small that I just haven't seen it yet. There's on ekind of nasty savage dog thing that hasn't generated a part for me yet. They are somewhat rare so I probably just haven't killed enough. Or its in some very specific location that I haven't found. I'm actually really curious to see what the hell it is.

 

I got it once. I found it in the first area while checking out a stash or something close to a cave (maybe by the railroad, the side that does not have the lightning anomaly. Not sure though) A dog-like creature came charging out of the cave and I barely managed to stay alive while gunning it down. I didn't even have the quest at the time, but the tail spawned all the same.

 

Would you people say that STALKER is a must have game for fans of the genre? Is it interactive, and does the story carry well?

 

What genre are you talking about? Post-apocalyptic? Then yeah, it's pretty good. The Zone is very atmospheric. The story isn't important (to be honest, so far I don't even really care about, except it opening new areas), but the atmosphere and gameplay are very good. As far as interactivity is concerned, you certainly play the game rather than having the game play you. But if you're referring to branching dialogues and similar, then no there is none of that (or at least very little).

[Pidesco]

Was it that cave where you go for nimble's quest?

[Maria Caliban]

Pop:

"When you're given the quest, there's a set amount of bandits that you have to kill. Kill them, you complete the quest."

 

I completed the quest over a day ago.

 

As I said, I'm talking out a design decision I don't support.

 

mkreku:

" How can you call STALKER a grindfest when there's no xp or levels to be gained?"

 

I'm talking about one aspect of the game, not the entire game.

 

Pidesco:

" I finally managed to take out the bandits by taking the shotgun off the friendly guy's corpse, and shotgunning almost everyone at point-blank range. "

 

There's a certain visceral pleasure in blasting your enemies away at point blank range. As for the pseudodog, I've killed a number of all the different dog types I've found and not gotten one tail. It would be nice if I could tell which one was the psuedodog.

 

Withteeth:

" Would you people say that STALKER is a must have game for fans of the genre?"

 

What genre are you referring to?

Edited March 26, 2007 by Maria Caliban

[Sand]

I would think he is talking about the FPS genre since it is a FPS game.

[Pop]

The pseudodog is actually the big thing that kind of looks like a giant black raccoon, and they're generally nastier than the blind dogs. There's usually one around where you find the perfected suit, in the first area.

[Pidesco]

But he didn't have a tail on him.

 

In fact I think I've killed at least two of those and none of them had a tail. Perhaps you just have to be lucky to get that tail.

[Maria Caliban]

I just got sucked into a tree. And the tree killed me.

 

 

The pseudodog is actually the big thing that kind of looks like a giant black raccoon, and they're generally nastier than the blind dogs. There's usually one around where you find the perfected suit, in the first area.

 

 

Thank you.

Edited March 26, 2007 by Maria Caliban

[Pop]

But he didn't have a tail on him.

 

In fact I think I've killed at least two of those and none of them had a tail. Perhaps you just have to be lucky to get that tail.

Yeah, animal parts are random, which can get frustrating. In fact, I've found that blind dog parts are generally pretty rare too, despite the commonality of the dogs.

Edited March 26, 2007 by Pop

[Pidesco]

@Crashgirl: By the way, you said before that your computer couldn't handle Stalker at 1280x960, but my machine is a bit weaker than yours and it runs Stalker at that resolution just fine. So, it seems to me that you should give it a try at a higher resolution.

[Maria Caliban]

I have been killed twice by a tree. There is no justice in the world.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I'm love'in Stalker so far, but bloody hell is it hard. Probably the most challenging game I have played in ages.

[Tale]

I have been killed twice by a tree. There is no justice in the world.

That's not a tree, that's an anomaly by a tree.

[WITHTEETH]

I thought STALKER was in the FPS genre? How is the engine, do you get good graphics from a midrange system, and still run smoothly?