Chade on 2/12/2008 at 00:29
Hi all,
I borrowd SoC from a friend a while ago, and played for around 3-4 hours (it's probably more usefull to say that I just got up to the point of leaving the first area), before realising I didn't really have the motivation to keep on going. If it seems wierd to stop before finishing the first area, please realize that 3-4 hours is about a months worth of gaming time for me, so I don't want to play another 3-4 hours "just to see if it gets better".
The main problem I have with the game so far is that it feels like I haven't been presented with any interesting decisions. As a result, I have so far been playing mostly on autopilot, and needless to say it hasn't been very engaging. Stuff like choosing the appropriate range and angle to start combat, choosing when to run away and try a different angle, crouching so that my gun is on the same horizontal plane as the dog's heads, etc etc etc ... it's all pretty basic and I don't seem to have any interesting tactics available to me.
So I guess my question is: what sort of challenges lie ahead? Do I get more interesting tools? Do the environment's get more interactive? Do the AI behave in more interesting ways? Perhaps I've not seen some interesting tactics which are already available to me? Basically: is it worth playing on?
I am playing an unpatched unmodded version on the second hardest difficulty, btw ...
Aja on 2/12/2008 at 01:02
Yeah I'm wondering the same thing. The game has nice atmosphere, but the actual gameplay is not very fulfilling. It's quite a chore, actually. And since the bandits respawn so damn quickly I never feel as though I've completed anything. I spend twenty minutes using all my resources to clear out a complex only to find they're all back a minute later.
Koki on 2/12/2008 at 08:24
Quote Posted by Chade
3-4 hours is about a months worth of gaming time for me
Try Tetris.
@Aja: It's all mod-dependent, though there seem to be places which get respawns as soon as you enter the level, like the infamous levelchanger to Agroprom.
I wish AMK added more levelchangers, like CS had.
242 on 2/12/2008 at 10:13
Chade, it's hard to say if you will like it more or not further on.
Me, I wasn't impressed from the very start, I didn't watch its development and decided to try it rather half-heartedly, but this game ended up as my second absolute favourite game of all times, after Thief. (I don't like Clear Sky nearly as much though.) All I can say, it will become somewhat easier (as you will get better equipment and experience) and sinister further on. AI won't behave in more interesting way, what do you mean anyway? A-Life is one of the most complex AI systems I've ever seen, I guess you didn't see it all in the first 3-4 hours. But it's hard to say really if it's worth to continue for you or not. If you like mostly genuine RPGs and don't like shooters, you probably won't like it; if you like action/shooter games which deviate from canons of the genre, have some RPG elements and sinister atmosphere, you probably will like it. Also, the game opens up in its full glory not sooner you return to the Bar after X18.
DDL on 2/12/2008 at 11:59
I think Stalker stands out amongst 'shooter/RPG' type games as having a "lethality level" set so high that you actually have to play it like your character is you, and not some uber armoured marine from a deathworld, or whatever.
Combat becomes less about running and gunning and more about hiding behind trees, firing wildly in the general direction of bushes, and hoping to god you can somehow flank them before they flank you.
And then there's the all the extra crap like the wandering packs of dogs, random anomalies and the like which add up to produce wonderfully non-scripted moments (like hiding behind a tree, hopelessly outgunned by soldiers, and then discovering that the soldiers are now being attacked by a random group of monsters, allowing you to run away).
But yes, it does require time to get the most out of it, and 3-4 hours a month is not even near enough. Hell, I spent half an hour stuck on a rock waiting for a circling pack of wild dogs to lose interest in me. And loved it, to be honest.
Muzman on 2/12/2008 at 13:30
The accountancy of choices thing strikes me as really weird. I guess it's fair enough, but if that's not usual for someone and they're doing it right off the bat (as opposed to, you know, enjoying it) I'm inclined to think the game is a bit of a lost cause for the time being.
If people aren't really past Cordon or even Garbage, you've still got a bit of a slog ahead before things open up more. Stalker's a game where you've got to co-exist with the landscape, so to speak, rather than beat the game to get the most out of it. Sure it's poorly balanced at the start, don't let it off the hook there, but it ain't COD4. You can't "win" against the game's environment. So after some initial annoyance you get used to the idea that those bandits are going to keep coming back. They don't seem quite as prevalent later on and you've usually got a much better gun by then so they aren't as big a deal. The choices you make are all about how you cover the distances and prepare your load out for long travel and return, the thrill being from the slew of unknowns you have to consider.
At any rate the game doesn't get a really big hub type area until after you finish the Agroprom underground and get to the bar. It'd probably worth trying to get that far even though it's very hard and however you're finding it now it's going to stay that way for a while yet. If the scenery and the sense of adventure aren't doing it for you then it's got a bit of an uphill battle. Measuring it against some sort of reward gameplay standard that proper games are supposed to have will probably fail it, like a lot of classics and influential favourites of old too.
mothra on 2/12/2008 at 17:00
good summary. I had similar problems on my first try. started on hard, died often, found the grinding repetetive but loved the scenery. once I got past the bar I was sold. I restarted the game and played it 2 times in a row. then i joined the gsc forum, got a little active there and installed numerous mods and played it on and off through the last year without ever stopping or really ending the game. just being there is much more satisfying :)
Chade on 2/12/2008 at 21:45
Umm ... ok, this is a bit bizarre. Perhaps I should check my difficulty settings ... there's no equivalent of the TDS difficulty bug, is there?
I have oodles of ammo, money, health packs, and am leaving stacks lying around because I can't carry them all (and I don't feel like legging it back and forth from the store all the damn time) ... particularly after I decided to assualt the military camp in the south of the first map.
Speaking of which, maybe I have already made more interesting choices then I realize ... is there a faction system worth speaking of in this game? Will being on the bad side of the military bite me in the ass later? Should I have avoided a confrontation with them?
Muzman, I am not sure what you mean by accountancy of choice. Do you mean my choices have consequences? Are you talking about relationships with the various factions? I don't see how it applies to the shooter aspects of the game.
As far as A-Life goes, I haven't been too impressed so far. I haven't noticed anyone doing anything other then randomly wandering around and sometimes choosing to attack one another. Is there stuff I am not noticing? Will it get more impressive if I go further into the game?
So far, my opinion is that they dropped the ball with that. It doesn't really add to the "survive in the wilderness" feel, or at least it hasn't yet. It feels more like a random death match. I think one major problem is actually the environments. You tend to see creatures long before you hear them, and you get plenty of oppurtunity to plan and remain firmly in control. If the player had less visibility, and sound played a more important part of the game, I think it would work a lot better (it doesn't actually have to be sound - as long as there is some way of telegraphing the presence of monsters without giving away their exact location).
EDIT: Don't worry about spoilers, btw ... if some cool mechanic gets added in later in the game, let me know about it!
Actually, I should make this post a bit clearer ... it's not that I never die, it's just that I never use as many resources to accomplish an objective as I gain by accomplishing it. So again: it's not really giving me that whole "surviving by the skin of my teeth" feeling.
Well, I certainly have a very different opinion about ideal game length then I used to!
(Sorry for the continual edits, btw)
242 on 2/12/2008 at 22:35
Well, it doesn't make much sense to look for motivation to continue your play through. I mean what's fun in forcing yourself to do something? If you don't find anything worthy enough after 3-4 hours, if you aren't involved and impressed with scenery and atmosphere at all, I guess you should try something else... Also, you should have patched the game from the start.
Chade on 2/12/2008 at 23:09
Some games start of small and get better ... I am, after all, still in the first area. How many people wanted to quit DX after the first few levels? It looked like STALKER had potential to get more interesting.
Regarding patches: are there any gameplay changes? I am not having any problems with bugs.
