S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

[Fixxxer]

I don't recall a thread for this game being posted, and if there was it obviously wasn't that popular, but I'm making one regardless.

I've played 30 or so hours of the game so far and I haven't gotten terribly far in it. I've mainly been doing my own thing, just checking out the mechanics of the game and getting into trouble. But up until now I haven't really seen the game for everything it is.

I've mainly been up against bandits, the military or a few of The Zone's wildlife, but nothing too formidable. Not to mention, when you're playing a game based around the worlds largest nuclear disaster, you're expecting it to be a bit more scary.

I guess I just hadn't been in far enough because today I finally made it into the Lab which is located in the Dark Valley. Now, this was more of what I was expecting. But I suppose being exposed to the more frightening aspects of the game right away would have taken all the fun out of it, and I think they did some of that on purpose. I'm really used to being able to at least tell how many opponents I'm up against simply by tracking the signal from their PDA. With mutants, that's not possible, so you have to really on the more basic methods, always looking over your shoulder.

I've had really good experiences in the game so far, and it's been tons of fun, but now I'm excited to be getting into the more dark and sinister parts of it.

It's a shame the game took so long to come out, because it's a really amazing game that I think most who were interested in during it's production kind of soured. Oh well, I think it's fantastic, though, and I'm looking forward to the Clear Sky Prequel.

[MindlessOath]

i was going to buy this game for 20$ at target.  but i didnt have the cash in pocket at the time.  think i might go and get it now.

[Fixxxer]

Yeah I grabbed it for around $30.00. I would have picked it up sooner but I just recently upgraded my PC to something a little more capable of running it (read: capable of running it with everything maxed out).

[Dr.Jeckyl]

i blazed through it my first time through so i think i got a little less of an experiance but one of my top 5 for sure. i think i'll reinstall soon.

[Fixxxer]

Yeah much like Morrowind and Oblivion, I do pretty much everything but the main storyline. So far I've just been exploring, raiding bandit camps, searching for artifacts and so on. I'm really looking forward to Clear Sky because the one thing I don't like is that when your armor or weapons are broken you can't fix them, but you will be able to in Clear Sky.

[Zazoo]

I really liked this game.
Great atmosphere, great story, and a great combat system.

~Mike

[MONOLITH]

I'm tempted to re-install, but I couldn't get it to run on my system for some reason. Mike, what are your specs, because I thought they were pretty low.

[Dr.Jeckyl]

it was mine:

[Zazoo]

I'm tempted to re-install, but I couldn't get it to run on my system for some reason. Mike, what are your specs, because I thought they were pretty low.

The specs I had when running it were 2.8ghz Pentium 4, 1024 MB DDR, and a 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro.

The only part I had a lot of trouble with was the final level (rooftops). It ran very choppy.
~Mike

[MONOLITH]

I might give it another try.

I was/am a P4 2.4 ghz. 1 gig ram, X1950 pro.


I seem to recall though that the game really recommended a dual core cpu.

[Fixxxer]

I don't think anyone should pass up this game. It's like Deus Ex in that it combines the best aspects of both an FPS and an RPG. Being able to choose your own path, multiple ways to complete your objectives and being able to customize your abilities, or in this case, your weapons.

The only thing that sucks right now is your armor and weapons aren't repairable. I found a nice modified AKM 74/2 with better handling and a higher rate of fire than the unmodified version, but every time you fire it, it degrades the weapon. Same with armor, every time you get shot, walk into an anomaly, get clawed at by a beast, the defenses of whatever your current suit protects you from becomes less effective.

So if you're wearing a Stalker Suit that's only at 50% durability, a Merc Suit that has 100% durability will protect you better. But the Merc Suit and the Monolith Suit don't have night vision, but it's hard to carry around an extra suit due to weight problems.

That's the other thing, you have to be somewhat conservative when it comes to how much ammo you carry and how many types of weapons. I try to carry an assault rifle, a submachine gun and a pistol, but I can't carry much ammo for the pistol and submachine gun. I think in item boxes I have about 5000 rounds for my pistol scattered throughout many different item boxes because you just can't carry as much ammo as you would like. I try to keep around 800 rounds for my AR and only around 300 for my pistol and SMG.

I should probably ditch the pistol altogether, but I keep thinking what if I run out of my AR ammo? I'd rather have a weak gun than no gun at all.