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

[Pidesco]

OK, time for an alternative view on FEAR: It's an absolutely monotonous experience with really cheesy horror elements thrown in at regular intervals. You spend the entire game trudging through the same extremely linear, greyish office levels, shooting at the same generic-looking soldiers, using the same time slowing tricks over.. and over.. and over.

 

It does, however, have some of the most fantastic special effects going on when there's combat (which is 90% of the time) and it also has really superb (and highly aggressive) AI that actually manages to surprise you from time to time. I love how they seem so ferocious (why is explained in the story)!

 

Basically it's a Doom-like shooter done very well. No brains required.

 

QFT.

[metadigital]

Kaftan's Amazing STALKER mod is under construction! Although its more a rebalancing than a mod, but Ive gotten everything to work so its just alot of tweaking left.

[Tale]

OK, time for an alternative view on FEAR: It's an absolutely monotonous experience with really cheesy horror elements thrown in at regular intervals. You spend the entire game trudging through the same extremely linear, greyish office levels, shooting at the same generic-looking soldiers, using the same time slowing tricks over.. and over.. and over.

 

It does, however, have some of the most fantastic special effects going on when there's combat (which is 90% of the time) and it also has really superb (and highly aggressive) AI that actually manages to surprise you from time to time. I love how they seem so ferocious (why is explained in the story)!

 

Basically it's a Doom-like shooter done very well. No brains required.

 

QFT.

See, I have to disagree with this. The way I looked at FEAR was part puzzle game. Completely unlike Doom, the developers made a point to let you know enemies are ahead of you before the enemies noticed you. They place them in varied configurations. Your job is the take what is available, then blast them all to hell as quickly as possible. And that's what I love about it. It's a puzzle where you're finding the most efficient way to tear configurations apart.

[Pidesco]

Yes, and that was fun. I don't think FEAR was an horrible game, in fact I thought the battles against the AI were great, just not enough to support a whole game. Also, the game wasn't scary. It was terribly predictable, and even if they had managed to pull the scary off, it still wouldn't fit at all with the fact that you're a death-dealing supersoldier who never feels really threatened throughout the whole game.

[Slowtrain]

I've passed through Red Forest and entered Pripyat.

 

Red Forest was not my favorite level in a FPS. A very linear grind, essentially a gauntlet, made more annoying by the pockets of high-level radiation all over the place. You need to be pretty well equipped with gear before you make that run.

 

Pripyat, however, is a great level.

[Maria Caliban]

160+ bandits dead at the car port.

 

*chuckles*

[Slowtrain]

Here's an interesting Q&A with a STALKER dev where he talks about the whole A-life, respawning system. If you want to know more about the system its worth a look:

 

edit: Just a warning on this link: I get a pop-up asking me if I want to install some software from MS. I don't know what it is, so I say no.

 

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=159975

 

 

 

 

I've entered Chernobyl NPP. Its rather difficult. Between Pripyat and Chernobyl I've died more times than I did in the whole rest of the game combined. Way more. A million times more. Helicopters firing missiles, snipers, rpgs, gah. Its totally awesome. It would help if my body armor wasn't hanging off me in shreds and I wasn't loaded down to the point I can't really sprint, but I'm carrying 2 extra sets of high-end armor that I don't want to put on until I get inside the sarcophogus. I may not have a choice though. :/

Edited April 6, 2007 by CrashGirl

[Maria Caliban]

Frustration:

 

Surry gives me a mission to protect the garage from bandits. I kill bandits. I'm told to go to Surry for the reward, no Surry. As I'm looking around for Surry, another group of bandits respawn. I kill bandits. Now I find Surry, but he won't give me a reward because there are bandits left. I kill bandits. After cleaning the area of bandits, I return to find the garage *swarming* with them and a little message pops up telling me I failed the quest because Surry is dead.

Edited April 6, 2007 by Maria Caliban

[Slowtrain]

Frustration:

 

Surry gives me a mission to protect the garage from bandits. I kill bandits. I'm told to go to Surry for the reward, no Surry. As I'm looking around for Surry, another group of bandits respawn. I kill bandits. Now I find Surry, but he won't give me a reward because there are bandits left. I kill bandits. After cleaning the area of bandits, I return to find the garage *swarming* with them and a little message pops up telling me I failed the quest because Surry is dead.

 

 

I wouldn't worry about it. My list of failed missions is huge. I'm even failed some main story missions. The game keeps right on going.

[Slowtrain]

You shouldn't look at this game like most other games. Success or failure doesn't really matter in your missions, only your survival. If you succeed you get nice things and money and some longer term benefits, but there are lots of missions. Some you will succeed; some you won't.

 

This game isn't a pass/fail kind of thing.

 

There are a few key tasks you have to accomplish to discover the truth and open your way to the endgame, but those tasks can't really be failed. You just have to find out where to go to accomplsih them and stay alive.

[Cantousent]

That's true, CrashGirl, but the respawn rate is just ridiculous. It's unrealistic. If the bandits had those kind of resources, they'd already own the whole area.

[Slowtrain]

Here's an example: There's a set of several linked missions that will end with you recieving something necessary to completing one of the key tasks of the game. If you succeed at all of the missions (or you can look at it as one extended mission in parts), the object you get has a higher level of quality and will protect you longer. If you fail at any of the parts the quality of the object is less and you have less protection. Also you can fail the first part, but still succeed at the following parts because the game wil offer alternatives.

 

This is not a game of absolutes relative to success/failure; it is a game of degrees. It makes it much more interesting.

[Slowtrain]

That's true, CrashGirl, but the respawn rate is just ridiculous. It's unrealistic. If the bandits had those kind of resources, they'd already own the whole area.

 

 

True, but when I find myself overwhelmed or too heavily put upon, I usually make a judgement call and run away like a coward.

[Slowtrain]

That's true, CrashGirl, but the respawn rate is just ridiculous. It's unrealistic. If the bandits had those kind of resources, they'd already own the whole area.

 

 

It occurs to me, Cant, that in that sense this game is one of your "unwinnable battles". The game isn't going to let you win (which is fine becuase winning the battle is not required to be successful), therefore your goal is survival, not victory (in any absolute sense). You should be enjoying it!

 

Also, you know better than anyone not to use the word "realistic" when talking about a game. The internal rules to the gameworld are very consistent. There are a couple small inconsistencies that annoy me a bit, such as the fact that enemies appear immune to levels of radioactivty that would kill you in seconds, although enemies are certainly not immune to anomalies in general. But what are you goign to do, no game is perfect.

Edited April 6, 2007 by CrashGirl

[Cantousent]

Ah, just let me complain. :Cant's easy going grin icon: The game is fun, but the respawn rate is still too aggressive. I started at veteran, and maybe my FPS skills are too rusty for that level, but I run out of ammo way too fast.

[Slowtrain]

Ah, just let me complain. :Cant's easy going grin icon: The game is fun, but the respawn rate is still too aggressive. I started at veteran, and maybe my FPS skills are too rusty for that level, but I run out of ammo way too fast.

 

 

d00d, you are nuts. Veteran difficulty is cracked. I tried that and went back to stalker difficulty almost immediately. This is already a hard game, no need to punish yourself. Notch down the diffculty and have some fun!

 

(I believe you can change the difficulty level without starting a new game)

[Slowtrain]

For those who are interested, suipposedly the next patch is going to lower respawn rates as well as change spawning in border areas that cross between zones. This is not official, btw, just the word I am hearing. The next patch is also supposed to be compatible with current (1.1) saves. Again, unofficial at this point

[metadigital]

Frustration:

 

Surry gives me a mission to protect the garage from bandits. I kill bandits. I'm told to go to Surry for the reward, no Surry. As I'm looking around for Surry, another group of bandits respawn. I kill bandits. Now I find Surry, but he won't give me a reward because there are bandits left. I kill bandits. After cleaning the area of bandits, I return to find the garage *swarming* with them and a little message pops up telling me I failed the quest because Surry is dead.

 

 

I wouldn't worry about it. My list of failed missions is huge. I'm even failed some main story missions. The game keeps right on going.

With respect, that's not the point, though.

 

It isn't difficult to have a boolean variable that stores the status of a mission ... having a real-time check on the bandit population (in this case) to see if all the bandits have been cleared (as per the mission) is patently ludicrous, given the respawn rate. Either tone down the respawn, or use a flag.

[Cantousent]

By cleverly learning that I can unload weapons by right clicking on them in inventory, I've found that I have plenty of ammunition now! Woo hoo much better.

[karka]

Interesting

 

http://kotaku.com/gaming/s%27t%27a%27l%27k...fe-2-250475.php

[Pop]

Man, that patch did change a lot of stuff. The enemies are actively rushing me now. During the first mission. It's a lot harder, and I've had it on the easiest difficulty (I usually save harder difficulties for later playthroughs)

[Maria Caliban]

Interesting

 

http://kotaku.com/gaming/s%27t%27a%27l%27k...fe-2-250475.php

 

Stealing is bad. Stealing and not even changing the filenames is stupid.

[Slowtrain]

I've started a new game (NPP was really hard and I am taking a break) and have observed several things:

 

Stashes always have the same loot each time they occur.

 

Stashes appear to be weighted. The less good ones occur often, the better ones occur less. Therefore it is worth looting as many bodies as possible to get the rare stashes. Either that or there's a bug in how stashes are calcualted to occur. Same difference either way though

 

Each time a stash is activated it adds another set of the same contents. If the same stash is axctivated twice without being cleared it will have double the contents. etc

 

If a stash is activated more than once without being cleared the stash marker will remain when you clear it. To get rid of the stash marker, put something like bandages back into the stash, click take all. Do this as many times as the stash has been activated and the marker will clear.

 

Do all the jobs you can find at least once, some of the jobs, even in the first zone, have pretty good rewards that are hard to get anywhere else. For example if you bring the psudodog tail to Sidorovich he gives you dart round for the shotgun. Theses are awesome ammunition, and despite playing through the whole game, I never aw anywhere else to get them. (There probably is though, but regardless they are rare)

[Diamond]

Interesting

 

http://kotaku.com/gaming/s%27t%27a%27l%27k...fe-2-250475.php

"Interesting"? "Shocking" is more appropriate here!

[mkreku]

Since my STALKER game kept crashing at the Army Warehouse, I decided to sneak past the entire thing. When I kept as far away from the Freedom/Duty war, the game was stable enough for me to be able to reach the Red Forest at least. Then I proceeded through the Red Forest too (which I thought was a very cool zone, especially after a while when you started seeing everything in yellow and flying ghost dogs kept attacking) and ended up in Pripyat. Some guys in Pripyat are shooting at me from very far away with something that looks almost like purple lasers though so I decided to take a break.

 

I'm still having a great time in the game. Got some new weapons that really makes a difference in the more difficult battles.