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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. -- do not buy and why

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Herr Rogers

Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2005
Jesus christ...where do I start? This game is AMAZINGLY horrible. It's like they thought of all these good ideas to put in the game and just overloaded it with crap. There's 10 different types of food that all do the same thing. Each enemy drops an insane amount of loot. You can only carry a certain amount of loot. Money becomes useless because of how much stuff drops. You are not told to save. NPCs don't die. You can use a whole clip on someone and they STILL will not die. You probably read two novels worth of text per hour. I mean seriously EVERYTHING is just overwhelming and bad and half-assed. Your quest log becomes completely filled with stuff. You aren't really informed on how to go about doing things....

Sorry this isn't a well thought out post, but seriously, do not buy this game. Save yourself. I can't believe I spent 20 bucks on it :(

EDIT: What is a game on steam with a long single player campaign? Finished COD4 in two days :(, but loved every minute of it...
 
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Dont forget that on release it was full of bugs and they didnt patch it for a LONG time claiming "there is no bugs, those are features"
 
I thought the game was fun. It was not worth the $40 dollars I paid, but I think you can get it for about $19 now. The missions/quests are a little all over the place and seem to be really non related, money is basically useless and I too believe they need better balance on the armor of the enemies. When you go against Monolith, those guys take alot of ammo to take down, even head shots from a sniper rifle (please).
 
It's an OK game once you get used to all the 'features' .. I've had it for maybe 6 months or something and I've still got no idea how the map scrolling feature works. Sometimes I scroll the mouse wheel up and the map zooms in, sometimes it zooms out. No idea what's going on there. Agree on the quest system too - things sort of appear and disappear at random from the PDA.

As for people taking too many shots to kill, try going for head shots. People in the zone tend to wear a lot of body armor ;)
 
While I didn't find the game horrible, I did find that it tried to do too much. It wanted to be an RPG, then an FPS, then a TACTICAL FPS, then a MUMORPUGA. Unfortunately, instead of picking one of those and doing them really really well, they chose all of them and did them really mediocre. That's what turned me off of it.

It's a good game for the obsessive-compulsive crowd, but for normal people, it's just too much to swallow.
 
Well since I brought up my old post on why this buggy game made me want to give up PC gaming you would think I would be in agreement Herr.

But I am not.

Yes the game takes a while to figure out and is difficult at first. By the 4th hour though. I was good.

As far as weight? I turned on a trainer and removed the weight restriction. Game is way more fun and you can figure out what you need to carry. I am at the point(Leaving the bar) that I know what I need and dont need. Also since you don't need money you don't need to carry stuff.

You didn't mention the tedious time it takes to cross the map. Again you can use the trainer or find artifacts that boost your endurance....you'll get across the map in minutes if you sprint.

You are not told to save.
You should know to save often, I think thats a given. After entering every level and more. Further more your decisions matter! What you decide to do effect's the whole game...great replayability.

NPCs don't die. You can use a whole clip on someone and they STILL will not die.
When you get close and/or get further on and get scopes. Headshots give instant kills. Further into the game you become so bad your unstoppable. Have you used single shots from your rifles for accuracy?(9 key to change ammo)

I like this game because its hard and has a steep learning curve. You get to think about the problems you encounter and problem solve.

I put this game aside for a year till I figured it had enough patches to run.

So clearly I am biased towards hating it...but strangely I am enjoying it more then I did Crysis.

Try the trainer or find a couple mods you like.:beer:
 
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I thought the game was pretty awesome. Just try some realism mods for it, there are a bunch I think.

Yeah, mods make the game alot better and apparently it's EASY to mod!
It's not a typical FPS/RPG in alot of ways, but there are 6 different endings and the re-play value is good because of all the different choices you can make. I've already beaten it a couple times so i'm going through and playing it in " Fallout " style, kill everything and everyone!!!

Stalker "Clear Sky" will be out and we'll see if they learned from "Shadow of Chernobyl".
 
Everyone has their own opinion, but I don't agree with you on STALKER. I found it to be the most immersive FPS I've ever played. It's not just a simple go here, do this kind of game. There are tons of side quests and hidden bonuses, along with an innovative loot system (stashes).

I do, though, agree that it is not the most polished game. The accuracy and damage modifiers are not that great and some parts of the game have an unrealistic amount of enemies (that have insane aim). But, there are mods out there to help correct these issues. For your specific complaints though:

There's 10 different types of food that all do the same thing.

As opposed to real food, which gives you super powers?

Each enemy drops an insane amount of loot. You can only carry a certain amount of loot. Money becomes useless because of how much stuff drops.

If I were in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, I wouldn't be leaving my good stuff in some hole. Everything I owned would be on me.

On the easier difficulties, you will have tons of cash, but once you hit Pripyat on Master (I think that's the highest diff.), you'll quite low on cash trying to afford the good armor and ammo.

You are not told to save.

I don't understand what you're meaning here.

NPCs don't die.

You can kill every person in the game, except those necessary to continue the storyline (bartenders and traders).

You can use a whole clip on someone and they STILL will not die.

I do agree that the damage modifiers are a bit off, but there are mods to correct that.

You probably read two novels worth of text per hour.

You can skip everything and just look at the mission briefings.

I mean seriously EVERYTHING is just overwhelming and bad and half-assed.

I can't give a response to that, but for being the first massively non-linear FPS, the game was pretty good.

Your quest log becomes completely filled with stuff. You aren't really informed on how to go about doing things....

You'll have, at most, about 5 entries at a time from the main storyline. Everything extra is something you've added yourself.

Sorry this isn't a well thought out post, but seriously, do not buy this game. Save yourself. I can't believe I spent 20 bucks on it :(

Download the demo next time and try it before you buy it.
 
Welcome to last year. I didn't think it was a bad game, but I never beat it. I might play it again now because it'll probably run a lot better on this computer then the one I was playing it on at the time.
 
I loved STALKER, one of my most favorite of recent games The atmosphere and eariness is unforgettable. I have played through it twice. Also if you are mad about the ending, then is means you got the BAD ending because you screwed up. There are like 6 false endings. I cannot wait for the Prequel! STALKER: Clear Sky. WOOT SON!
 
Get mods.

Or can you not use them because of Steam?

Either way it was fun to mess around in until I crapped my pants so hard I didn't want to play again.
 
Jesus christ...where do I start? This game is AMAZINGLY horrible. It's like they thought of all these good ideas to put in the game and just overloaded it with crap. There's 10 different types of food that all do the same thing. Each enemy drops an insane amount of loot. You can only carry a certain amount of loot. Money becomes useless because of how much stuff drops. You are not told to save. NPCs don't die. You can use a whole clip on someone and they STILL will not die. You probably read two novels worth of text per hour. I mean seriously EVERYTHING is just overwhelming and bad and half-assed. Your quest log becomes completely filled with stuff. You aren't really informed on how to go about doing things....

Sorry this isn't a well thought out post, but seriously, do not buy this game. Save yourself. I can't believe I spent 20 bucks on it :(

EDIT: What is a game on steam with a long single player campaign? Finished COD4 in two days :(, but loved every minute of it...

I don't see how YOUR opinion on this game warrants it being called bad. The whole community of game reviewers gave is a solid 80%+ with it's only problem being bugs on initial launch, which are now fixed with the 1.0005 patch.

Your ignorance only shows why you think this game is bad...

There's 10 different types of food that all do the same thing.
The food gives minor healing. The point of food is that you HAVE to eat. Otherwise you get "Hungry" and slowly will lose health.

Each enemy drops an insane amount of loot.
I don't know what enemies you are playing or what difficulty, but most enemies will drop usually, a box of ammo and some kind of bandage. I don't see how that issues "insane" amount of loot.

You can only carry a certain amount of loot.
Yes, you can only carry 50KG, or 75KG if you use an exoskeleton. And this is GOOD. I don't see how you can carry 1000+ rounds of ammo for three different guns and 50+ med packs. I am always underweight. I keep my primary weapon with 400-500 rounds, secondary weapon with 100 rounds, 15-20 med packs. There are stashes for a reason. You can also drop items on the ground and they will not disappear. I have a HUGE stash in front of the bar with all my extra med-kits, artifacts and other weapons/armor.

Money becomes useless because of how much stuff drops.
Money is REALLY necessary in the beginning. Since you don’t find many health packs or ammo, it is really needed in the first half or so in the game.

You are not told to save.
F6 is quick save. I don't see how this is a negative? If a game doesn't tell you to save, it's bad? There are also AUTOSAVES...
NPCs don't die.
Because they are pertinent to the storyline. Why would you want to kill NPC's anyway?
You can use a whole clip on someone and they STILL will not die.
You realize most wear flak vests just like yourself? Aim for the head :beer: I have never had a problem taking down enemies. The ballistics in this game are the most REALISTIC I have ever seen. 3-4 round bursts, use sights, and control recoil.
You probably read two novels worth of text per hour.
Heaven forbid you need to READ a little to understand a story. Your laziness shouldn't be a drawback to a game like this. I guess you assume Amazing games like Oblivion was also terrible too?

I mean seriously EVERYTHING is just overwhelming and bad and half-assed. Your quest log becomes completely filled with stuff. You aren't really informed on how to go about doing things....

Overall, I think your opinion on this is flawed because you don't really understand the game, and it's purposes. Play it through on a hard difficulty, and actually TRY it. I thought this game was the most immersive, detailed, atmospheric game I had ever played and warrants another look.
 
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