Thanks for the detailed impressions, Tim. My computer wasn’t up to the task of playing through Lost Alpha but I’ll probably give it a go the next time I upgrade.
I really, really wish they hadn’t bothered with cutscenes. I can understand having an intro and outro but the best stories in STALKER are always the players story and the world itself. Hopefully the director’s cut tone down on the scripted content and instead focuses on more emergent AI and improved stability overall.
Got the itch to dive back into the original STALKER and see what mods are cool these days. Ended up using the Autumn Aurora 2.1 mod and it made the game look the best I’ve ever seen it. Totally gorgeous.
Finished up the game tonight, besides the visuals the mod is pretty good overall. There is more realistic damage if that’s your thing. I liked having to be really careful and being able to put people down quickly, but they can also do the same to you. It pretty much screws up any scripted combat though so if you are like me and don’t want any of your buddies to die you’ll have to be savescummy. Pretty much from Pripyat to the end it’s hellish due to the lethality of the enemies.
Nights are brutal too. Night vision doesn’t do squat and the darkness doesn’t seem to have much effect on enemies. There is no sleeping bag like in Complete, but you can use beds in certain areas. I liked it that way rather than just having a sleeping bag since you learn quickly to plan your excursions. Artifacts are awesome, didn’t really need many bandages/energy drinks/anti rads since my artifacts took care of those things. I played through the trilogy in vanilla and I think I never managed to kill anyone with a grenade. In Autumn Aurora 2 grenades are basically bombs. Very satisfying when you blow up 4 or 5 guys with one, not so satisfying when one is thrown at you with pinpoint accuracy and you cannot escape the blast in time. They also removed the English voice acting entirely. I didn’t really care for that change, it’s part of the charm. Not hearing “Get out of here Stalker” was a bit of a bummer. Wish there were more weapons, but there is a Autumn Aurora + AMK mod which looks like it does that. I heard there was problem with save files being corrupted due to the random blowouts in AA2 so a couple days ago they released a version with the blowouts disabled. I never had a problem with any saves being corrupted and the random blowouts were pretty cool, so if you play that version be sure to keep separate saves.
Call of Chernobyl is another mod which was released a few days ago for Call of Pripyat. It combines all the maps from all three games into a giant sandbox. Watched a bit of it on twitch where the person was doing ironman runs and it looked pretty cool. You choose what faction you want to belong to and have at it. Gonna have to try this one out soon. Going from a Call of Pripyat zone to the Cordon from Shadows of Chernobyl sounds awesome.
Thanks for the update Bandersnatch. I played SoC with the Complete mod a few years ago and I wasn’t aware of Autumn Aurura. Your writeup, and some videos I watched inclined me to re-install the game and AA mod this weekend; as if I don’t have tons of other things to play! I can’t wait to see my old friend, The Zone, with a fresh coat of paint. There is something special about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. though that keeps bringing me back.
-Todd
The STALKER mod teams release major mod packs faster than I can play them.
Call of Chernobyl is a freeplay expansion for Call of Pripyat. It sounds like the open world FPS-RPG experience I always thought Call of Pripyat could be.
Released in 2015, it won ModDB’s mod of the year thanks to a major content expansion last year. The mod even has its own addons.
I’m still waiting for MISERY 2.2 first. Maybe I’ll dive into Call of Chernobyl in a couple years for the ultimate STALKER experience.
Lost Alpha is getting a directors cut:
It’s still free I assume? Not sure I will bother if it’s just stability fixes and polish. I’m kind of done with that story I guess.
Two years ago I said I’d like to check out the final version, but now I’m not sure why I would. Maybe if you can jump straight into freeplay mode.
I’ve never played Lost Alpha so I’m really looking forward to this. My SEVA suit is ready.
I’ve played through CoP just as I’m about to do the Pripyat tunnel stuff, and, you know, I’m not sure why I bothered, even considering the historical context. It’s just not that great of a game. Vast open areas that actively discourage exploration (since there’s no point), boring binary gunplay, and boring enemies.
The first STALKER was pretty good because it did stuff no shooter ever did before, but they sure have aged.
Woah. I am legit shocked, good sir. Care to explain your dissatisfaction with the game in more detail? Especially pointless exploration and binary gunplay. I’m sure there are some mods out there that would fix the issues you’re having and it’s such a great game that it’d be a crying shame if you’d give up on it.
Sure. I will, for example, mosey over to that substation marked so prominently on the map. When I get there, do I find a nifty artifact (or even a not-so-nifty artifact?) Nope. Do I find anything but an empty room? Nope. And as for gameplay beats, the big build-up and reward of, say, Jupiter plant is: wander around a sparsely-decorated bunch of buildings. Pick up some documents. You’ll get ambushed by aimbot enemies when you pick one of them up. Then wander over to a crashed helo, shooting some bullet-spongy things on the way. Pick up some more documents telling you that you need to go back to find the tech to turn on the generator. And that’s it. That’s a typical CoP “showpiece”. CoP is full of things like that. Things like waiting around to loot bodies is better than the loot the game gives you.
Maybe it’s just that old tech, but I think we’ve all conflated the STALKER series’ world-building in our minds.
I remember eventually getting a kick out of SoC when everything finally clicked for me, but it really was an odd fish at the time.
Well I can’t help but recommend Misery Mod at this point. The quests stay the same but the gameplay changes turn CoP into a real survival experience and with them comes a much more interesting exploration.
The Jupiter plant was a bit of a letdown. I was hoping it would reach the highs of SoC. But I still appreciated it for tricking me into thinking somehong dramatic would happen. Great anticipation.
I always thought CoP was an excellent skeleton for an FPS-RPG where you could wander around looking for artifacts and completing quests.
It sounds like the Call of Chernobyl mod does that.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl celebrated its 10th anniversary this year on March 20th!
I’ve been back in the Zone once again for the past few days working my way through a new story mod called Wind of Time which came out last month. It’s also a standalone mod, you don’t even need the games to play it. I’ve put about 10ish hours into it so far and it’s really good for the most part. The English translation is godawful, but it looks like there is a better translation coming out soon. The premise is pretty cool with you going back in time in order to prevent a massive blowout that devastated earth. The first couple maps are Limansk and Red Forest from Clear Sky which are pretty cool to see. It has been so long since I’ve played Clear Sky I’m not sure what’s old and what’s new.
The quality of the missions is hit or miss. I’ve had a few that were I had to talk to one person, and then they sent me right back immediately. Others have been really cool and original. I got to the Bar last night and it’s completely redesigned, really fun place to explore. Also spent most of the night in Lab X-19 which I think is completely new, and pretty freaky as it should be. One designer got a bit overzealous with the tunnel system there and decided to put in about 200 fruit punch anomalies however which was a bit of a chore. I’ve run into one major bug where I’ve been given a psi-helmet which doesn’t work. I was able to get through the sections without it, but one part especially was pretty difficult and made even more so thanks to it not working. I’ve also had several crashes in the Bar area. I saw they released a patch so maybe that will help. Overall though I’ve been having a blast with this mod and it’s definitely one to try out, though maybe wait for the better translation.
Not sure how long Wind of Time is but I haven’t played through CoP in years so I was thinking of trying SGM 2.0 Geonezis after I complete it. Looks like it takes the base game and adds a bunch of stuff to make it longer. Heard lots of good things about it.
I also need to get around to trying Call of Chernobyl eventually. Looks like that’s become quite a beast these days with tons of addons and extra content.
And I’m still patiently waiting for Misery 2.2 as well as the Gunslinger mod. I never really put much time into Misery and I’m looking to sink my teeth into 2.2. Love the Stalker mod community, every time I come back there is something new to try out.
If anyone hasn’t played, the whole trilogy is on sale for $10 on Steam.
Only 10 years old? I was sure it was older but checked Wikipedia and you’re correct.
Didn’t this have a torturous development? I’m sure I remember following it’s development on some gaming forum in 2001/2002, but can’t for the life of me remember which. Perhaps one of the various Fallout ones.
No, you’re thinking of Stalker. I remember seeing all of the XRay engine stuff back in those days and then just completely forgetting about it until it was released in 2007 (where it quickly became one of my favorite games ever).
How does Wind of Time compare to Lost Alpha? I found that to be rather uneven as well.
I somehow never got around to trying out Lost Alpha. Now that the Developer’s Cut is out, I should give it a shot some time. I think Lost Alpha probably has more new areas.
Been putting more hours into Wind of Time and I hit one section that crashed a ton on me. I was helping Duty assault a base and grab some documents. The area loaded and 2 of my 3 team members were already dead, the third lasted a few seconds. Tons of enemies and a helicopter, which on top of constant dying and crashing wasn’t too much fun. I set everything to low quality and was able to get through it. I’ve still gotten a few crashes past that, but not as much. There is also a bug where after I kill a controller I can still hear the sound it makes. Loading a save won’t make it go away, you have to quit to the main menu and then reload your game.
Despite its warts, it’s still pretty good. I had a somewhat morally gray quest which reminded me Witcher quests. Had a good time doing both branches of it and both were completely different. I’ve also seen a few new enemy types, one of which scared the crap out of me appearing at the perfect time.
Apologies if this is well tread ground but for a first play-through of Pripyat would people recommend Pripyat Complete, Misery, or something else?
I’ve played Stalker:SOC multiple times now and loved both Complete and Autumn Aurora.
Misery is a major gameplay mod. You’d want one that updates the graphics and tweaks a few minor things. Maybe Complete? There might be a better option.
I would not recommend Complete, it makes the game too easy. Misery is phenomenal, especially if you like your games a little more on the simulation side. In fact it’s so good that I can’t take other STALKER mods seriously. Pretty much ruined the series for me.
Thanks for the recommendations! Gives me something to think about before my install.