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

I will admit,i brought the whole bundle and its not a game for me,BUT i can also see how someone can like it.The atmosphere just drips of dreariness,and bleakness,the creatures are intimidating and the world truly feels dangerous due to how easy everything can kill you.The graphics are also pretty good for the time it came out(better than fallout 3),and the soundtrack is amazing.However this is a game aimed towards fans of hardcore survival horror,and is NOT a very polished experience.Janky animations,horrible gunplay,and brutal difficulty makes this honestly a 2 out of 5 experience for me,but since i see this is a well done game for the audience its going for its fair to rate it a 3 as a way of acknowledging that if you are a fan of this type of game it could be a 4 or 5 for you.

This is the original, and graphically, well it shows its age, but it's as good a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as any, and very much worth playing while waiting for the new 2024 generation!

Short review: -Solid shooting and gameplay that actually benefits from playing on higher difficulty (enemies become damage sponges on lower difficulties, and accuracy is messed with for both parties) -Amazing lighting and AI. Often invites just sitting back and watching things play out. -Active and varied mod community. AMK, ZoA, OGSE, Doom's Mod Merge and many, many others all show new sides to the Zone. Complete mod, while looking good, cheapens the whole Zone experience in the long run.

Even though this game is not made for linux, I was still able to get it to work if I use WINE. The game runs fine, the only issue is it crashes after I save, which is a pretty small problem. The game itself is amazing. Exploring and taking missions is fun, the atmosphere ranges from anticipation of bandits attacking to the eerie feeling that a mutant is about to sneak up on you. To top it off the guns feel fairly realistic. The voice acting isn't the best, but in my opinion, it adds to a David Lynch kind of atmosphere. I can't recommend this game more to fans of: First Person Shooters, survival horror, or open world games (even if you play on linux ;D).

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is one of those series that you keep hearing good things about, even from your non-gamer friends. So, naturally, I picked up the first game, 15 years later, and yeah... boy was I disappointed... The first thing to note is that the base game (vanilla) is hardly playable. Ridden with bugs and filled with a lot of technical and balance issues. This is such a big issue because when someone is talking about this game, they are probably talking about a highly modded version or a "total conversion", which makes the overall rating system pointless. SoC is not a typical FPS by any means. It's specifically engineered to give the player a bad time. For example: - weapons have an accuracy rating, influenced by a lot of factors, which makes shooting feel like a total lottery - damage is totally inconsistent across the game, raging from one-shot kills to unloading a full shotgun at point-blank and still having the enemy walking. The same can be said about your armor. - there is a carry limit which drastically limits your inventory. This is paired with a stamina system which makes going from A to B, a total nightmare if encumbered. - ammo weighs a lot - stealth is almost nonexistent with the sole exception of using a "stealth" head-shot. Anything beyond that will be impossible as loading a save will load all enemies in a alert state, basically knowing your every move. - enemies respawn after a few hours and sometimes they spawn right near you The list goes on and on but there's a character limit to this review. There are two positive aspects though: the ladder climbing mechanic (which is probably the best up to that period of time) and the music, and especially the guitar songs. In order to have a somewhat good time, playing this game with gameplay mods is essential. Going vanilla (or ZRP mod) up to a point would let you better appreciate various community tweaks. My rating is for the vanilla version, so your experience may vary wildly based on your mod choice.