03-27-2010, 11:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-27-2010, 07:33 AM by Guilmon and a shotgun.)
Another installment of GMSG's very own Stalker reviews!
Huh? Whats Stalker? H-hey! have you been watching me getting dressed?!
NO! Stalker is an acronym, and a great series of survivalist horror games set in the 30km exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Created by GSC game world, the series has been credited as being very atmospheric and very interactive, despite a fair amount of programming flaws. Call of Pripyat is the third in the series and follows the events from Shadow of Chernobyl.
Plot
Okay, so let me fill you in first on where we stand plotwise. The Zone has been cured, thanks to the actions of Strelok in SOC and the Ukrainian military have deployed 5 of their best Stringray Hind Mi-24 helicopters into the zone, to see exactly what is going on. Unfortunately, all of the helicopters came down over the Zone, which is where you come in.
You are Major Alexander Degtyarev, sent into the Zone under the guise of a stalker; you're to find out what happened to the helicopters and evacuate the remaining survivors. Simple enough right?
Gameplay
Well, for such a simple plot this game is far from short. There are more mini-quests to perform, large open-world maps, artifact spawn areas and stashes.
The new stashes are now set so you pick up the items instead of searching containers; this is a great idea, as it allows for stashes to be from hidden in a pipe, a train cabin to under a low tree branch.
Large open-world maps allow for a greater sense of the size of the zone. It also allows for more unexpected mutant encounters, artifact spawning AND multiple locations to hide out from the emissions! (Unlike in Clear sky where the locations were fixed).
Artifacts and detectors are still present from Clear Sky, but seem to have a nicer feel in this game. Theres also a limited "Svarog" detector that detects a majority of anomalies on it's screen, helping you navigate those difficult anomaly fields. Another impressive feature is atmospheric damage your body can suffer in anomaly fields, ranging from the usual crumpet of radiation to psychic, fire and chemical damage. So don't think you can stick around just because the anomalies haven't got you yet.
Mutants are still as kickass as ever, with the Burer (dwarf) and Chimera making their first official appearances, alongside a new type of ghost mutant known as the Pyrogeist (basically the fire version of the electric poltergeist). They also now employ tactics; Bloodsuckers will only attack in small groups, but will use stealth and hit&run tactics, Snorks fight guerrilla style, moving around in large groups and keeping to the shadows. Keep a shotgun handy.
Trading, Weapons, armor and upgrades have been changed too, with a more limited choice on what armour you can use. Some suits can also be combined with a helmet of your choice, whereas some like the SEVA come with a preinstalled helmet. Weapons come with their own attachments, with the silencer now limited to only certain weapons.
The weapon upgrade trees are alot more personalised, where you are to sacrifice some factors for others e.g. if your weapon has the options of +30% accuracy and +25 fire rate next to each other, you may only choose one. You also get the option of upgrading fire modes for pistols, shotguns rifles etc and attaching a multitude of electronics from enhanced zoom scopes, Nightvision and Enhanced Targetting Display scopes and scanners; the ETD allows the player to zoom in on targets with the scope, see what colour the target is represented by the outline. This was originally part of the binoculars and integrating it with weapons is a great upgrade to have.
However, this all comes at a small problem. The techies have no tools, so it's your job to go out there and search for them. The best thing about this is that the basic and good tools are located in the first two areas, with the fine tools hidden in the monolithic buildings of Pripyat.
Scare Factor
Still got the eerieness of SOC in some places, but it's not frequent. I won't give much away, but there are at least 3 situations where i have been scared in this game and that is what makes it so frightening. People talk about Dead Space being scary and of course it is, you expect it to be. In Stalker, you're not EXPECTING a scare whereas Dead Space already indicates that it's going to TRY and scare you. That is what made SOC better then other horror games, the fact that the player wasn't expecting to be lead into an underground lab full of screeching mutated creatures with weird rattles and clangs going on. Many Gamers lost pairs of underwear to Lab X18.
Problems
- Medic not appearing glitch means a certain mission cannot be completed, as NPC doesn't show up. EDIT: Found out that this is part of the mission. When you search for Gonta at the cranes, be sure to search everywhere, especially near the dead body in the hut.
- Some degree of lag when playing, the game may freeze briefly to load items, enemies etc and this can be a problem if you're forbidden from an NPC's land or mutants spawn nearby. This also effects stashes and can render the items unobtainable until a freeze occurs. EDIT: Found out that this is due to my performance. Lowered it to Low and it works really well now, i might even consider raising it slightly.
All problems have been found to be because of performance and part of the game.
Q&A Session: Will it eat my Hard Drive? Can i get it on any other consoles? Will we ever meet Strelok?
1. No, Call of Pripyat can be used with the modern directX features, but all graphics and quality are customisable to suit performance, so that normal computer users as well as hardcore gamers can enjoy it too. I've recently discovered my lag was due to the high graphics settings, so once i lowered them down it was working fine and the graphics are still pretty decent at Low.
2. Actually yes, GSC game world bought the rights to develop games for the 360 in November 2007 and stated that they will port stalker to other consoles, but only after Call of Pripyat is released worldwide (due to lack of manpower)
3. Sadly, I don't think so. Strelok has left some stashes behind though, of which the coordinates are in a secret location, somewhere in Yanov.
My Verdict
Well, i have yet to finish it because i'm still too scared to go through X8 alone (Trust me, when you hear the shit i've heard down there you'd be scared too), but the game has an awesome soundtrack, a very well balanced gameplay, wonderful graphics and a decent price. Overall, the problems aren't that bad and you learn to live with them.
Call of Pripyat seems more refined then it's two predessesors. It feels wholesome and friendly...it's the only one thats actually made me purposely go out and hunt for artifacts, or go out to just look at the landscape. The inclusion of a freeplay mode at the end of the game is also a brilliant idea, because surely playing the game is for the enjoyment factor of the zone, not completing missions.
Overall, i give this game a thumbs up, and recommend it to ANYONE who loves stalker, FPS/RPG and survivalistic horror. It's price is under £30 and if you buy the special edition, you get a free map of the zone with 2-3 photograph like artwork cards.
If you ever get stuck on anything, ask Google or check this place out http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Stalker Wikia can tell you where to find weapons, armour, tools, stashes etc as well as provide you information on what the weapons are like to upgrade.
For now though, here's a collection of the new 'friends' you'll make and i hope you buy and enjoy this wonderful game as much as I have!
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20...uckers.jpg
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20...tCOP01.jpg
Huh? Whats Stalker? H-hey! have you been watching me getting dressed?!
NO! Stalker is an acronym, and a great series of survivalist horror games set in the 30km exclusion zone surrounding Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Created by GSC game world, the series has been credited as being very atmospheric and very interactive, despite a fair amount of programming flaws. Call of Pripyat is the third in the series and follows the events from Shadow of Chernobyl.
Plot
Okay, so let me fill you in first on where we stand plotwise. The Zone has been cured, thanks to the actions of Strelok in SOC and the Ukrainian military have deployed 5 of their best Stringray Hind Mi-24 helicopters into the zone, to see exactly what is going on. Unfortunately, all of the helicopters came down over the Zone, which is where you come in.
You are Major Alexander Degtyarev, sent into the Zone under the guise of a stalker; you're to find out what happened to the helicopters and evacuate the remaining survivors. Simple enough right?
Gameplay
Well, for such a simple plot this game is far from short. There are more mini-quests to perform, large open-world maps, artifact spawn areas and stashes.
The new stashes are now set so you pick up the items instead of searching containers; this is a great idea, as it allows for stashes to be from hidden in a pipe, a train cabin to under a low tree branch.
Large open-world maps allow for a greater sense of the size of the zone. It also allows for more unexpected mutant encounters, artifact spawning AND multiple locations to hide out from the emissions! (Unlike in Clear sky where the locations were fixed).
Artifacts and detectors are still present from Clear Sky, but seem to have a nicer feel in this game. Theres also a limited "Svarog" detector that detects a majority of anomalies on it's screen, helping you navigate those difficult anomaly fields. Another impressive feature is atmospheric damage your body can suffer in anomaly fields, ranging from the usual crumpet of radiation to psychic, fire and chemical damage. So don't think you can stick around just because the anomalies haven't got you yet.
Mutants are still as kickass as ever, with the Burer (dwarf) and Chimera making their first official appearances, alongside a new type of ghost mutant known as the Pyrogeist (basically the fire version of the electric poltergeist). They also now employ tactics; Bloodsuckers will only attack in small groups, but will use stealth and hit&run tactics, Snorks fight guerrilla style, moving around in large groups and keeping to the shadows. Keep a shotgun handy.
Trading, Weapons, armor and upgrades have been changed too, with a more limited choice on what armour you can use. Some suits can also be combined with a helmet of your choice, whereas some like the SEVA come with a preinstalled helmet. Weapons come with their own attachments, with the silencer now limited to only certain weapons.
The weapon upgrade trees are alot more personalised, where you are to sacrifice some factors for others e.g. if your weapon has the options of +30% accuracy and +25 fire rate next to each other, you may only choose one. You also get the option of upgrading fire modes for pistols, shotguns rifles etc and attaching a multitude of electronics from enhanced zoom scopes, Nightvision and Enhanced Targetting Display scopes and scanners; the ETD allows the player to zoom in on targets with the scope, see what colour the target is represented by the outline. This was originally part of the binoculars and integrating it with weapons is a great upgrade to have.
However, this all comes at a small problem. The techies have no tools, so it's your job to go out there and search for them. The best thing about this is that the basic and good tools are located in the first two areas, with the fine tools hidden in the monolithic buildings of Pripyat.
Scare Factor
Still got the eerieness of SOC in some places, but it's not frequent. I won't give much away, but there are at least 3 situations where i have been scared in this game and that is what makes it so frightening. People talk about Dead Space being scary and of course it is, you expect it to be. In Stalker, you're not EXPECTING a scare whereas Dead Space already indicates that it's going to TRY and scare you. That is what made SOC better then other horror games, the fact that the player wasn't expecting to be lead into an underground lab full of screeching mutated creatures with weird rattles and clangs going on. Many Gamers lost pairs of underwear to Lab X18.
Problems
- Medic not appearing glitch means a certain mission cannot be completed, as NPC doesn't show up. EDIT: Found out that this is part of the mission. When you search for Gonta at the cranes, be sure to search everywhere, especially near the dead body in the hut.
- Some degree of lag when playing, the game may freeze briefly to load items, enemies etc and this can be a problem if you're forbidden from an NPC's land or mutants spawn nearby. This also effects stashes and can render the items unobtainable until a freeze occurs. EDIT: Found out that this is due to my performance. Lowered it to Low and it works really well now, i might even consider raising it slightly.
All problems have been found to be because of performance and part of the game.
Q&A Session: Will it eat my Hard Drive? Can i get it on any other consoles? Will we ever meet Strelok?
1. No, Call of Pripyat can be used with the modern directX features, but all graphics and quality are customisable to suit performance, so that normal computer users as well as hardcore gamers can enjoy it too. I've recently discovered my lag was due to the high graphics settings, so once i lowered them down it was working fine and the graphics are still pretty decent at Low.
2. Actually yes, GSC game world bought the rights to develop games for the 360 in November 2007 and stated that they will port stalker to other consoles, but only after Call of Pripyat is released worldwide (due to lack of manpower)
3. Sadly, I don't think so. Strelok has left some stashes behind though, of which the coordinates are in a secret location, somewhere in Yanov.
My Verdict
Well, i have yet to finish it because i'm still too scared to go through X8 alone (Trust me, when you hear the shit i've heard down there you'd be scared too), but the game has an awesome soundtrack, a very well balanced gameplay, wonderful graphics and a decent price. Overall, the problems aren't that bad and you learn to live with them.
Call of Pripyat seems more refined then it's two predessesors. It feels wholesome and friendly...it's the only one thats actually made me purposely go out and hunt for artifacts, or go out to just look at the landscape. The inclusion of a freeplay mode at the end of the game is also a brilliant idea, because surely playing the game is for the enjoyment factor of the zone, not completing missions.
Overall, i give this game a thumbs up, and recommend it to ANYONE who loves stalker, FPS/RPG and survivalistic horror. It's price is under £30 and if you buy the special edition, you get a free map of the zone with 2-3 photograph like artwork cards.
If you ever get stuck on anything, ask Google or check this place out http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Stalker Wikia can tell you where to find weapons, armour, tools, stashes etc as well as provide you information on what the weapons are like to upgrade.
For now though, here's a collection of the new 'friends' you'll make and i hope you buy and enjoy this wonderful game as much as I have!
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20...uckers.jpg
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20...tCOP01.jpg
UnknownH Wrote:We do have soap and smarter doctors nowYay!
