mothra on 15/4/2010 at 16:45
Quote Posted by Vernon
Just finished right now - absolutely beautiful game. It won't top my favourite game of all time (SoC) but it is up there. The dialogue, story and interface were sublime. Oh and THE INCREDIBLE BALLISTICS SYSTEM. Soooo atmospheric and mysterious, and beautiful art direction. Absolutely blown away, so much so that I can even forgive the fact that the game is TOO BLOODY EASY
My main criticism is that it was far, far too easy (loot, number of enemies, huge reward for artifacts that are too easy to retrieve, and you can just stroll through anomalies etc). Someone mentioned how easy it was to eat. Yes, it should have been harder as with most of the other mechanics of the game. Also imba suit upgrades so you can carry the kitchen sink into battle is a bit annoying. I went into the game thinking I would be lucky if I could invest in one weapon tops. I had a massive arsenal all upgraded to tier 2 - I didn't even get to the tier 3 weapon upgrades, which brings me to my second criticism.
The game was
WAAAY too short and the ending was sub-par. The fact that I hadn't yet hit tier 3 left me thinking there would be
an enormous SoC-style CNPP-difficulty endgame after meeting Strelok (what the fuck was he doing showing up all goodie-two-shoes to the USS anyway). I finished Zaton and Yanov completely before reaching Pripyat
(where you get tier 3 afaik) so maybe I shot myself in the foot with that.
The ending of SoC was one of the greatest set-pieces in recent memory and there was nothing like it in CoP, in my opinion.Advice for those who haven't played it yet:
* Play on master difficulty (yes, it is hard for like the first hour of play but after that it's a fucking walk in the park)
* REAL MEN USE IRON SIGHTS TURN OFF YOUR CROSSHAIR OMG
* Find Nimble ASAP (I missed him until I got to Yanov)
* Don't fuck about go straight to yanov and pripyat and jump between them and fight everything.
* Disable all the UI helper shit to make life difficult - you'll thank me by the end of the very short time for which this beautiful game lasts
* Do every quest (skip the military shit and save it until you are sick of the side quests and are fully upgraded)
* Find the calibration tools and get tier 3 ASAP so you can not be a fool like me and use it in the game proper :mad:
* Avoid getting the exoskeleton and Strelok's SIG SG because the combination of the two is pretty much insta-win
how didn't you get to the final upgrades ? they even send you back to zaton after pripyat which screams for a visit to the mechanic. and the first thing you do in every STALKER game is to find a "realistic" weapons mod that makes your enemy actually dangerous instead of a boring bulletsponge and drunken shooter. then all that COP offered was concentrated awesomeness. I loved the creepiness and emptied out streets of pripyat. once it was over I thought as well that the big monster encounter or setpiece is missing but getting the last docs and fighting to the helicopter was appropriate. and nothing beats artifact hunting in COP. it's the best realized variation of the mechanic since it was omitted in SOC and reintroduced in CS.
I think no old stalker fan will play the game on anything than master and everybody else should not since the game needs a different approach for firefights than ... say, FC2 or MW2
Muzman on 15/4/2010 at 22:51
This game highlighted my dislike of theft, apparently. Yes, I gave Tuna the stupid artifact, like an idiot. It's fun following along to see what happens. I was so mad I waited for an opportune time to exact my revenge, some days later.
Then the Snag plot comes up later and boy was I mad. You bandit fuckers can't have him. He's mine!
The Snag story is one of the cooler things I've seen in an RPG-ish game, incidentally. I thought it was over, but it keeps going. It's quite complicated but they don't shove it in your face. In fact you can probably miss it entirely if you don't do certain things. I love when games do that.
From the sounds of it there's quite a few little sub plots you might never see depending on how you behave in the game. It's all class. (I still can't find bloody Joker though)
I agree the ending is hardly a great climax. It throws a whole lot of major stuff at you and then you have to make a run for it. It's disappointing given how well laid out the rest of the game is. Great game in general though.
Vernon on 16/4/2010 at 02:15
Quote Posted by mothra
how didn't you get to the final upgrades ? they even send you back to zaton after pripyat which screams for a visit to the mechanic.
By the time I got to Pripyat I had already beaten everything up to that point. I heaved an exoskeleton through the tunnels with me! I didn't look for the calibration tools because I thought I would come across them before the ending of the game
The Snag plot was really cool - what a little bastard! I had to heave all my stuff with three trips using upgraded exo and hercules back to yanov lol
Quote:
(I still can't find bloody Joker though)
Yeah me neither what the hell. Are you in freeplay at the moment?
A good mod would:
* Leave the incredible ballistics system completely untouched but give all enemies more HP
* Stop you from getting the SPAS tactical shotgun and TRs-301 at pretty much the start of the game
* Increase repair & upgrade cost - should have cost three or even four times as much to repair gear
* Nerf that ridiculous barrel-loader shotgun because you can kill just about anything with it when it is upgraded and scoped
* 24000 for selling an artifact? lol
* Make burers and chimeras and whatever that huge, apparently unique tank thing was
not the only hard enemies in the game.
Harden the fuck up bloodsuckers seriously. Call your dumb, circle-strafing buddies before you attack me maybe?
* Remove the beacons from all the quests and helicopters and shit so you have to rely on hearsay rather than just tanking in one direction all guns blazing (I know it would be hard due to the dialogue for the beacons and so on, but it made the game a cakewalk).
* Make emissions more dangerous (not always announced or not announced when you are a certain distance from the stalker bases, and more irregular (like happen closer together and for shorter periods))
* Make it less easy to be neutral - Duty or Freedom or both should hate you for some reason - I wouldn't have cared if it was just "I don't like the look of you Stalker pew pew." Why wasn't I getting shot in the ass the whole game? If they were that hard the Stalkers should have to suck up to them the whole game just so they don't get pwned when they leave the station
* Other cool shit that I can't think of
I guess I am pretty masochistic when it comes to games and wanted a sharper difficulty curve than this, but come on this took me a couple of nights to beat QQ
Anyway what the fuck am I going to play now I am done with CoP? I haven't played Clear Sky due to the reviews - is it really that bad? Is there going to be a STALKER 2? When? I am having withdrawals already unghh ungh nnngggh
I'm going to make myself some chamomile tea
edit: looks like my prayers have been answered:
(
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/SADIST;111143)
goons to the rescue once again:
"S.A.D.I.S.T. is based on three simple ideas: Difficulty through arbitrary non-gunplay changes, the zone is a bitch and I hate you."
Koki on 16/4/2010 at 11:07
Quote Posted by Vernon
I guess I am pretty masochistic when it comes to games and wanted a sharper difficulty curve than this, but come on this took me a couple of nights to beat QQ
How many completed tasks and achievements do you have? Chances are you missed a lot on your first playthrough.
Personally I find CoP on Master quite appropriate, but I never use Exo and generally stick to lighter suits because I like to sprint everywhere.
Oh, and difficulty != lenght
[Edit] S.A.D.I.S.T. definitely looks interesting - most "rebalancing" mods do a lot of stupid changes, this one is much more straightforward.
242 on 16/4/2010 at 12:13
Quote Posted by Vernon
Is there going to be a STALKER 2?
Judging by the fact that they still update the official site regularly, they're most probably planning something.
mothra on 16/4/2010 at 12:21
on the gsc forum seems to be the undisputed assumption that there will be a 2nd full-fledged part, only nothing is known about it. It could be an MMO, it will have a new engine although it's rumored that it's a 3rd party engine, not something built inhouse......
Antignition on 17/4/2010 at 04:30
Quote:
I haven't played Clear Sky due to the reviews - is it really that bad?
It's not terrible if you aren't masochistic to a large degree. Unfortunately, I was.
It's alright if you can limit yourself to completely ignoring the faction system. For me, that's easier said than done, and wound up spending hours upon hours upon hours fighting horrible scripting and murdering thousands of duty members to get the freedom exoskeleton; the very same exoskeleton that started *draining* health from me after dumping 100,000 RU into the suit and getting the regen upgrade.
Man I wanted to break something expensive that day...
Anyway, I hear artistpavel, same guy that did Stalker Complete 2009 for SoC, has released (or is very close to releasing) a version of that for Clear Sky. Haven't followed up on it in a while but people had some pretty high hopes IIRC. From what I remember it was making changes to a lot of scripting and what-have-you, but again i'm going off of vague memories here.
Vernon on 17/4/2010 at 05:28
Quote Posted by Koki
How many completed tasks and achievements do you have? Chances are you missed a lot on your first playthrough.
Personally I find CoP on Master quite appropriate, but I never use Exo and generally stick to lighter suits because I like to sprint everywhere.
Oh, and difficulty != lenght
Yeah difficulty!=length but I was complaining about both independently
Looking at the achievement list on gamefaqs, it looks like I got about half of them. Thanks for pointing that out though, I have more of an incentive to replay now.
I just feel like Master wasn't as hard as it was on SoC - as soon as you leave that area with the Freedom base the game gets fucking ridiculous and maintains the difficulty all the way to the end (There were even snipers, weren't there? I forget). CoP didn't have that - I suppose you could say that things had died down since the Brain Scorcher was turned off (so there was less conflict between factions) and that Degtyarev was better trained than The Marked One but I would still have liked it to be harder. Being able to get the 301 and SPAS so early is OP, whether it makes sense or not.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the game. I just wish it had lived up to the original game in terms of difficulty, because the plot and setting were absolutely stunning.
Quote Posted by Antignition
It's not terrible if you aren't masochistic to a large degree. Unfortunately, I was.
It's alright if you can limit yourself to completely ignoring the faction system. For me, that's easier said than done, and wound up spending hours upon hours upon hours fighting horrible scripting and murdering thousands of duty members to get the freedom exoskeleton; the very same exoskeleton that started *draining* health from me after dumping 100,000 RU into the suit and getting the regen upgrade.
Man I wanted to break something expensive that day...
Anyway, I hear artistpavel, same guy that did Stalker Complete 2009 for SoC, has released (or is very close to releasing) a version of that for Clear Sky. Haven't followed up on it in a while but people had some pretty high hopes IIRC. From what I remember it was making changes to a lot of scripting and what-have-you, but again i'm going off of vague memories here.
Wow that exoskeleton bug sounds terrible. edit: looks like this fixes the exoskeleton bug: (
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/Sky_Reclamation_Project;104153#Download)
Looks like there is a release though:
(
http://artistpavel.blogspot.com/2010/01/mod-clear-sky-complete.html)
I'm not terribly keen on the sound of Stallker Complete though because it makes changes like inventory weight and ballistics changes. Maybe I can edit those out I dunno
I think I remember people saying Clear Sky was a prequel - I may have to play that first then hit SoC again before I replay Pripyat. As tempted as I am by that SADIST mod
Koki on 18/4/2010 at 17:01
Quote Posted by Vernon
Being able to get the 301 and SPAS so early is OP, whether it makes sense or not.
There isn't a single gun in the game I could honestly call overpowered. And you get them early because the enemies get good stuff early as well. Not to mention you usually find yourself fighting Bloodsuckers half an hour into the game.
@242: STALKER 2 is in development and for consoles to boot. It's been said in some fan interview I don't feel like digging out.
Bjossi on 18/4/2010 at 22:49
In my opinion the knife is ridiculously overpowered, only a few hits are enough to take out a healthy chimera or a gnome.
Although not overpowered, the shotguns are very good this time around. I have almost exclusively used my Chaser 13 throughout the game. I've read that it is supposed to be hopeless to kill exo-wearing baddies with a shotgun, yet I can take out a group of two or three mercs without even reloading the gun.
