STALKER: "Genre-redefining"

frissy · Post by **frissy** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:26 am

Triple

frissy · Post by **frissy** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 12:26 am

Triple

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 1:04 am

i think i can handle that.

is killing freedom guys the only way to get 5.56 ammo?

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:37 am

You'll just have to pick it up off dead bodies as the shopkeepers don't keep a lot of ammo. Also take guns from the ground and unload them you can get a little extra by doing that sometimes. Might want to switch to a gun with lots of ammo until you find more ammo that u need.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 3:50 am

yeah, thats what i figured, the issue is just finding the correct type of enemy who carries that ammo. so far ive only found it on freedom guys and the mercs i ran into in the wild territory.

would it be bad to start a fight with freedom? does it matter, is it going to be an issue later in the game or can i just kill them?

edit: ordinarily when i play a game i try to play as a hero with high morals, but in stalker im playing more as a clint eastwood man with no name kind of guy, so i wouldnt really have trouble justifying starting a gun battle with freedom

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:29 am

The shopkeeper in the Freedom base carries 5.56. Also the psi-emissions are dealt with once you complete x18 and talk to the scientists outside x16 again. Oh yeah. Spoilers or whatever.

frissy · Post by **frissy** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:03 am

Well I took out the Freedom guys. Picking a fight with them didn't really change that much, at least for me.

I'm still wondering why the fuck did they add a gauss rifle into this game...nostalgia against Fallout?

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:46 pm

MR Snake wrote:Edit 2: Do I really need to have found Streloks stash? I kind of forgot to get it.

Oww

MR Snake · Post by **MR Snake** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:31 pm

That was the best ending ever.

Seriously.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Mon Apr 23, 2007 11:59 pm

I just got to this damned underground lab and it looks awefully full of mutants and shits.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Tue Apr 24, 2007 1:24 am

GOGO SUSAN FIRE THE LASERBEAM

Atrokkus · Post by **Atrokkus** » Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:37 pm

would it be bad to start a fight with freedom? does it matter, is it going to be an issue later in the game or can i just kill them?

It doesn't matter at all if you kill them. They are but one alternative way to get to the ending. What's great about STALKER is that you can really get away with killing lots of "key" figures and factions without losing some information for good (there are special NPCs who sell lost info, for instance).

Heh, in fact, I have slaughtered Freedom base even without realizing that it was, indeed, the HQ of Freedom faction. I thought that Duty recon team was just raiding a random small-time Freedom encampment and decided to help them out... Well, I never liked those Freedom scumsuckers anyway.

What sucked was that the Duty strike team is almost certainly destined to die there, so when i slaughtered the whole base there was noone to return to for reward... (im playin on Master difficulty) I coulnd't kill all those fuckers quickly enough to secure the lives of my comrades, because in order to kill the snipers on the towers i had to enter the base from the main entrance, cuz otherwise my view is obstructed with trees. Oh, and I didn't have a sniper rifle myself so i had to take them out with LR-300 (very precise weapon, even longdistance, but lacks killing power). So basically I took out the entire Freeedom force all by myself (wearing Stalker armor and some artifacts) and it wasn't too hard at all. Mostly I used Abakan (AN-94), because at first i was struggling to find more 5.56 ammo, but after i looted the first corpses i had an abundance of it... AND a brand-new G36 (gp37 in unmodded game) rifle! Which is pretty much one of the best rifles out there, second only perhaps to VAL. Had no problem with neither the exosceleton-armored dudes nor with the freedom-armored ones. Also, there are sniper rifles on the towers.

So I really advocate raiding that base as soon as you have Abakan and maybe LR300 (you can get it off the 3 Freedom fighters you meet when you enter the location). And Stalker armor or better.

The only problem is that in less than 10 minutes the Freedom fighters get spawned at the back of the map and they gallop over to their homebase while you're peacefully looting corpses, which is annoying.

WEird that some people consider "Groza" OC-14 to be superior to G36... Not only does G36 cost more (55K as opposed to 30K), but quite frankly i noticed taht G36 does better at long range. I know, it's very unpatriotic of me to pass over the russian Groza in favor of the european G36 but hell it's just such a sweet rifle which even allows me to disregard sniper rifles for the most part, because i can pretty much snipe with G36 quite well.

/edit: i was using LR-300, not SIG550, before gettin hold of G36

Smiley · Post by **Smiley** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 8:46 am

Just got the game.

I don't mind not being able to hit on full burst, I'd never expect to, but you'd think the fucker would be able to hit with at least single shots... let me use at least a *bit* of skill ffs.

Just got to the garbage zone or whatever.

Died three times so far, twice to radiation, to which I still haven't found any "protection". Well, I do have those syringe things, but everytime I find an area which is radiated, I'm already on top of it before I ever get to use one of those things.

Also, I'm a lootwhore, and I hate the weightsystem(give Falche for stalker please. I want 999 weight limit.)

Can someone explain me the stone(artifact) that has "health 200%" on it? what the hell does that even mean? That I get double my hitpoints when wearing it?

Atrokkus · Post by **Atrokkus** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:29 am

Can someone explain me the stone(artifact) that has "health 200%" on it? what the hell does that even mean? That I get double my hitpoints when wearing it?

Item descriptions suck in STALKER. No it does not affect your "hitpoints"; it increases your wound recovery rate and decreases bleeding, that's it.
"Soul" artifact has "health +600%" -- would you honestly believe it increases your hitpoints by that amount?

Instead, it gives you amazing regeneration rate.

Also, I'm a lootwhore, and I hate the weightsystem(give Falche for stalker please. I want 999 weight limit.)

Noob

I don't mind not being able to hit on full burst, I'd never expect to, but you'd think the fucker would be able to hit with at least single shots... let me use at least a *bit* of skill ffs.

What skill are you talking about? If you can't hit the fucker, you lack skill. It takes quite a lot of practice to place good headshots, especially with crappier weaponry. (and on Master difficulty level).

Died three times so far, twice to radiation, to which I still haven't found any "protection". Well, I do have those syringe things, but everytime I find an area which is radiated, I'm already on top of it before I ever get to use one of those things.

Here's a new word for you: Geiger counter. LISTEN to it. There are no such radiation zones that stuff you up with lethal doses at the very instant you set foot there -- it's all gradual. So whenever you hear the Geiger ticking rapidly, STEP BACK FOR FUCKS SAKE. What's so difficult about that?
If you already got radiated, and when you stand in the non-radiated zone, use ONE of those anti-rad drugs and you're completely healed. Of course there's no use in using the drugs when you're in the middle of a fucking reactor.
If you need to pass through rad zone quick, just sprint and try using the drugs on the run, and one more after you have reached safety. However, most of the time, the thickly-radiated zones act like fences and you wont be able to run through them.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:00 pm

Smiley wrote:Just got the game.

I don't mind not being able to hit on full burst, I'd never expect to, but you'd think the fucker would be able to hit with at least single shots... let me use at least a *bit* of skill ffs.

Just got to the garbage zone or whatever.

Died three times so far, twice to radiation, to which I still haven't found any "protection". Well, I do have those syringe things, but everytime I find an area which is radiated, I'm already on top of it before I ever get to use one of those things.

Also, I'm a lootwhore, and I hate the weightsystem(give Falche for stalker please. I want 999 weight limit.)

Can someone explain me the stone(artifact) that has "health 200%" on it? what the hell does that even mean? That I get double my hitpoints when wearing it?

Wow, maybe you should go back to playing Quake 3 or something.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:27 pm

Ditto to both Susan and Attrokus' responses.

Also I just cleared through x16, inside finding ghost's armor which I traded out for the SSP99M or whatever. Better than a fruity orange color, I guess. Very good resistances though. Also My G36 was at like 50% durability so I sold it off. I now wander the wastes with my combat shotgun.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:50 pm

So to make a long story short: Stalker isn't quite what it was hyped to be, but it's still a better than average FPS that has plenty of interesting ideas and an enjoyable atmosphere. For now we can just wait for the modding community to come up with something very nice.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:53 pm

where can i get a combat shotgun?

Atrokkus · Post by **Atrokkus** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:56 pm

Really, it's one of the best singleplayer "classic" FPSs I've ever played, second only to, perhaps, Half-Life 1. (note that I mean "classic" shooters, not tactical/squad-based/realistic ones like Operation Flashpoint, that's a different genre).

STALKER >>>> Half-life 2 (+episode 1) big time, in my book.

Smiley · Post by **Smiley** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 4:54 pm

Atrokkus wrote: Item descriptions suck in STALKER. No it does not affect your "hitpoints"; it increases your wound recovery rate and decreases bleeding, that's it.
"Soul" artifact has "health +600%" -- would you honestly believe it increases your hitpoints by that amount?
Instead, it gives you amazing regeneration rate.

Didn't think so. But nice.

What skill are you talking about? If you can't hit the fucker, you lack skill. It takes quite a lot of practice to place good headshots, especially with crappier weaponry. (and on Master difficulty level).

As in my enemy exactly in the middle of the crosshair, and yet for some reason, I hit somewhere to the side of him, even though I'm single shotting. I could understand if it hit short of what I'm aiming for, but to the side..?

Here's a new word for you: Geiger counter. LISTEN to it. There are no such radiation zones that stuff you up with lethal doses at the very instant you set foot there -- it's all gradual. So whenever you hear the Geiger ticking rapidly, STEP BACK FOR FUCKS SAKE. What's so difficult about that?
If you already got radiated, and when you stand in the non-radiated zone, use ONE of those anti-rad drugs and you're completely healed. Of course there's no use in using the drugs when you're in the middle of a fucking reactor.
If you need to pass through rad zone quick, just sprint and try using the drugs on the run, and one more after you have reached safety. However, most of the time, the thickly-radiated zones act like fences and you wont be able to run through them.

Of course I listen to the geiger counter, but I thought that it wasn't a hazardous area before the radiation symbol began to blink.
I didn't know it reflected my state of poisoning.
Thanks for the advice.

As for the weight system, I see the idea of it, I just think it's not really a "feature", rather than a limit to my playstyle that just isn't fun. I don't like valuing a bottle of vodka over a submachinegun in case I get poisoned.

We all get different experiences out of games.
I like the setting, and so far the story doesn't seem completely rotten, and that's what I'm primarily there after.
The anomalies and radiation "fences" aren't all that good an idea. For me it's like stepping into a minefield rather than just merely avoiding them and more interestingly, using it to my advantadge. So far I've tried to lure the animals and soldiers into them, but it doesn't seem to work.
That could've been fun, but instead it's just a "meh" factor.

Ironically, they do run into them, themselves from time to time.......

This is one of those games where if you had to point all the small details out that could have been so much better, you could fill a book with them. Interesting ideas, great atmosphere and it has a click'n'drag inventory.

A classic? Maybe if it came out 2 years ago.
But for the single reason that it uses far more realistic shooting, rather than point & click, I wouldn't put it next to HL, HL2, FEAR or any game like those.

I give it 2 out of 5 for at least trying to pose as something decent.