S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

This game is extremely atmopheric and delivers the more oldschool flavor of a tactical shooter that is often missing in games today. On Master difficulty, both you and the enemies will die after a few shots even with good armor, and headshots always kill, so you need to take care not to get hit. The world is very immersive, NPCs go about there buisiness independently and the enemy AI is pretty good, with occasional hickups. It's not truly "open world" though, as there are loading screens between the different areas, those areas are fairly large though. STALKER SOC isn't really a game you can just install and play though. You'll need to invest some time into looking at different mods, editing configuration files, editing shortcuts, that sort of thing. Sure, the game is playable out of the box now, but you will not see it's full potential, neither grafically nor gameplay-wise. Fortunately, many things you may not like about the game can be tweaked by editing text files, or maybe someone already made a mod/fix for your paticular problem. If possible, I'd install this on a SSD, otherwise loading times may be very long.

For me the best one has to be Shdow of Chernobyl. It's the one that got me into the series It's the one I bought first. I love this game. It has it's issues, but I love it. The atmosphere is second to none. It's just right on the balance of terror and not full on horror like a horror movie. The game is tense, but in a good way, I was frightened more than scared, though at times that became a bit of a thin line to tell. The shooting is great....after the beginning. the The hunt for artifacts is great. They're odd parkour challenges and they're quite enjoyable for me. They aren't as good or as creative as the ones in Pripyat, but they're fun nonetheless. I also like that a lot of SoC is green. As in, there're trees and grass. it's not as wasteland-y as Pripyat. Perhaps it's nostalgia to blame for why I prefer this one over the others. I'll just have to replay it and find out! :D If you like shooters, don't hesitate to try it out. just be warned, the beginning can be a bit of a slog until you get to the next area/s and get a better weapon, and you should play on the hardest difficulty available. The difficulty changes the ammount of bullet damage and health there is across hte board. so on lower difficulties, the enemies simply feel spongy. It doesn't improve or lower AI. I recommend the Highest difficulty. It's the best option, and the most authentic one.

STALKER does one thing incredibly well: making the dreary, irradiated, anomalous world of the zone feel real. It does it so well, that I forgive it for everything else it does wrong. And there are many things it does wrong: glitched quests, bugged respawns, dialog loops, broken narratives, a rushed nigh-incomprehensible ending... things that would in any other game get me to lose interest and move on. But STALKER just lets me shrug off those issues, because it captures such a unique atmosphere and is incredibly satisfying to live through. The game absolutely nails the pacing. It's a slow burn that builds in tension and intensity the further you venture into the zone, all culminating in the delirious rush of seeing the Chernobyl sarcophagus for the first time; looming enormously over the fragmented battles being fought for it. That moment of eerie exhilaration (simultaneously terrifying and exciting), and other moments like it are what make STALKER special, because they don't feel forced, or cheap. The game earns those moments by building an atmosphere of authenticity, and it pays off. It's the best kind of game, even with its flaws.

Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. And plenty of bugs. But still a masterpiece, well worth playing. Adequate graphics (best played in 4:3), bad sound. Atmosphere and the setting trump all the deficiencies.

I remember these days when Stalker came along with Doom 3 which caused me to upgrade my PC due to the hardware requirements of these games. Today I replay Stalker on 2560x1440, played 20h already. Sometimes I think it is a forerunner to Metro 2033 concerning the atmosphere. However one of the best games I am just playing.