Koki on 16/1/2008 at 08:00
In the movie it was actually pretty interesting because other than the last scene(which is unclear anyway) there is absolutely no proof whatseover the Zone is dangerous, magical, or even different. All the time the Stalker is just walking and tossing the metal nuts but nothing ever happens. He talks about dangers and stuff but no one ever gets hurt, and finally when they reach the Wishgranter it's just a normal looking room.
Well, it's easy to say that ending was bad, but at the same time I can't really think of anything else that would work(Other than no ending at all).
ZylonBane on 14/2/2008 at 17:55
I don't see how you people honestly think a random chunk of alien garbage would have been more interesting than an experiment that creates a composite transcendent intelligence which then proceeds to accidentally
break reality.
But then, I guess I was fortunate enough to have already read Greg Bear's excellent (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Music)
Blood Music, which does a far better job of explaining the noosphere concept than the brief, poorly-translated cutscene we get at the end of Stalker.
Cerpin on 14/2/2008 at 23:49
Quote Posted by Koki
In the movie it was actually pretty interesting because other than the last scene(which is unclear anyway) there is absolutely
no proof whatseover the Zone is dangerous, magical, or even different. All the time the Stalker is just walking and tossing the metal nuts but nothing ever happens. He talks about dangers and stuff but no one ever gets hurt, and finally when they reach the Wishgranter it's just a normal looking room.
Well, it's easy to say that ending was bad, but at the same time I can't really think of anything else that would work(Other than no ending at all).
That's a great aspect of the film. The Zone may be nothing more than a ploy to stimulate our natural curiosity, our need to believe in something fantastical. Stalkers in that sense being zealots to the supposed wonders of the Zone. The stark contrast between the black/white industrial dread of the first act and the lush green of the Zones introduction further emphasizes this.
Hidden_7 on 15/2/2008 at 02:05
It's not that Alien garbage would have been more interesting than Magical Emotion Sphere per se, it's just that it would have fit better. We're not really given much during the game, other than the fact that there were some psychic/brain experiments going on in the area, which you know, accounts for the brain scorcher and zombies and your background etc. but to then have it suddenly be the whole reason for the entire zone at the end, due to aforementioned magical emotional field... it was just a little jarring, especially the way it was presented, and up until that point it had all felt fairly hard sci-fi, to suddenly change to incredibly soft. Also it was an explaination that robbed the zone of its mystery. Random alien garbage is an explaination, but it is still mysterious because we never meet these aliens, we don't know what their culture is like, or how advanced it is such that their garbage can do all this stuff, or even if it is garbage or what it is, or what's going on. The idea that the various anomolies might actually be FOR something, something we can't even comprehend, that just seems more interesting than it being some fancy tornado because we fucked up reality. What's a whirlygig for? Aliens say that we can't possibly know, Emotion sphere says nothing. Also the idea that an alien culture has some kind of rock that grants wishes, that might not even be IMPORTANT, the implications there are far cooler than "it's a psychic trap to snag the unwary that get too close." The Nos-sphere explaination also feels incomplete for what it should be able to say. Why the anomolies if you were futzing about with an emotion sphere? Who knows? Well, hopefully the people doing the experiments should...
Also the theme of these desperate men going out into this hell for the chance at one wish, the chance to turn their lives around, the end this exile, self-imposed or otherwise, it's there, but it is kind of a smack in the face to have it all be an illusion. I suppose you got that whole "if it sounds too good to be true..." thing going on, but honestly, the shit you have to put up with to get to the centre of the zone, is that honestly too good to be true? Ahh... who knows.
snauty on 15/2/2008 at 08:47
Yes, it is kinda stressful, but the game's setting determines the pacing towards the end. Made sense to me and actually even added to the atmosphere.
ZylonBane on 15/2/2008 at 15:27
Quote Posted by Hidden_7
Magical Emotion Sphere persay
WTF?
(and it's "per se")
Hidden_7 on 15/2/2008 at 17:34
Ah dang, undone by a foolish spelling error. Those tend to increase the more I'm talking out of my ass.
I don't know, how else would you describe the Nos-Sphere? It's a sphere like the biosphere but composed of all the emotions of the thinking creatures on the planet. I'd say it is absolutely an Emotion Sphere. The "Magical" bit I just threw in there to illustrate my feelings about it, show my general attitude towards it, about how it's rather unexplaiend and far-fetched and wishy-washy given the established world. That's just a thing people do sometimes, I don't know, like someone might say something like "Console tard, nothing to see here" in response to someone saying that they played and enjoyed Metroid Prime 3, or something. The facts of the matter are that they have played and enjoyed at least one console game (I bet a lot of people have) but that person would add on the 'tard' in order to demonstrate how they feel about them. Just a technique some people use, I don't know.
ZylonBane on 15/2/2008 at 18:09
It's not a "nos-sphere", it's a (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere) noosphere. Basically a situation where sentient intelligence has developed to the point where it can literally dictate reality (in some interpretations).
A bit of a heady concept for Stalker to attempt to explain in one or two poorly-translated paragraphs. There really should have been some readables laying around to provide a more in-depth explanation, but I guess they wanted the "Surprise!" of the Zone's true nature more than they wanted people to actually understand it.
Hidden_7 on 16/2/2008 at 11:55
That's really my only issue. The idea isn't inherrantly silly, just silly as it was presented in the game. This isn't a sci-fi concept I'd come across before, so it was hardly as though I could be all "oh, ok, this." It was more "huh? Seriously? Ok, I guess I am fighting a bunch of guys now for some reason, whatever"
GRRRR on 16/2/2008 at 15:25
Buncha guys aka former Stalkers who walked into the brain scorcer and then got brainwashed (like the main character himself as a little icing on the cake). Its mentioned here and there in Diary entries you "find". Example is "Convert in Red Forest" which mentions a Stalker "in transition" (or something like that, cant remember) and you infact find a zombiefied special one (the one with a SPAS and Exosuit) at the start there. Combine this with the bits of rumor you get from other Stalkers and you kinda can piece together that the Monolith troops are a sort of next step up from the "Zombies" and both are "produced" and controlled by the PSI-machine stuff in the labs which in turn are linked to this Monolith being/thing/group. Worked for me at the time.
Agree that the Hologram insta-exposition felt kinda rushy. K now you are here so theres the story noosphere join yes/no? Cant think of a better ending involving aliens tho. The monolith being at the center of the "picnic site" being the golden ball like in the story and it can fullfill wishes for real? Thats more meh than the fabled monolith being a nasty trap and the whole thing being orcestrated by scientists who think they work for the greater good but just mess up royally. Imho :p
