Yakoob on 21/4/2007 at 04:54
I just finished stalker and well... this has to be one of the most disappointing endings I've seen (and yes, I mean all of them).
Firstly, the end levels were just horrid. The reactor was more an exercise in luck than actual challanging culmination. With choppers, shitloads of enemies, bazookas and the time ticking there was no time to think, you just had to sprint froward like a madnman, tapping the medkit key every few seconds. Additionally (which may have been a bug) the map does not have your position or the deistination marker, so you are left to run around trying to figure just what exactly you're supposed to do...
Then came the CQB shitloads-of-enemies areas. Hey, lets place a sniper at the end of a long ass corridor with no cover whatsoever, cause' that's fucking challanging RIGHT??? And then if you choose not to join the c-conscience there actually is a nice outdoors change of pace which could've been fun it it didn't last for 3 frikking hours. Rooftops, shitloads of enemies, teleporters, OK GOT IT, LETS MOVE ON!!!
So I hoped the endings would at least make up for those annoyance but... nope. Fortunately you can find all the endings on youtube, starting here: (
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rotp8mA1g08&mode=related&search=)
(just look at the side bar to the right it has all the endings).
To my surprise, all of them suck just as much. I found them either good in idea but horribly executed, or just plain all-out terrible. Let's analyze:
*Joining C-Conscience - you get in a little matrix tube, the thing closes, your friend remarks about you being gone... the end? WTF? That has to be the most inconclusive ending out there, I swear to god. In comparison, Deus Ex pulled a similar thing, but at least it provided enough background info for you to understand exactly what such choice meant. Here... nope, you just get a brief 5 minute conversation with the old dude that is basically half of the entire storyline crammed in the most detailless and disengaging sequence.
* Not joining C-Conscience - this one suffers from a similar problem. It's just felt so rushed and minilaistic. You run into the portal, zap, you are in a totally random room you don't know with some green tubes, then strelok decides to shoot them for god knows what reason and suddenly everything is happy clouds and rainbows... the fuck? Took me a while to realize the tubes were actually the members of c-conscience and by killing them you somehow freed the zone from all evils. But how does killing them solve all the problems? What happened to the monolith? How did Strelok know to kill shoot that crap just like nothing ever happened (yeah he ramrks he doesn't know if it was right, but shit, if you are so uncertain you'd probably think about it for a while than start shooting random crap just because it makes you look cool). And I like how he got magically teleported from a thunderstorm, troop ridden devastated reactor to a beautiful green in matter of seconds. Hooray cliche...
As for the wisher endings, they seem just as equally random and disappoitning.
* "I wanna be rich" - this is the original ending I got, which made me go totally wtf (I hauled my ass all the way here and that's the BEST my character can come up with?) Though, I admit it was a cool concept (you ask for monies, you see things and get killed for it), but it just wasn't pulled off right - something about the movie just didn't quite work for me. Maybe it was the lack of music or the dull and quiet sound effects, but the ending just didn't feel like an ending at all; it didn't have the "OMG CLIMAX!" vibe to it.
* "I want humanity to be controled" - a totally random and vague wish that I just can't really see being connected with the rest of the story. Not to mention the "OMG RANDOM SCARY IMAGES LOL" effect that only makes you go "huh" even more. Ok, how the crap does that have anything to do with your wish really?
* "I want to rule the world" - the monolith absorbs you because it is the monolith that rules the world, haha clever got it.
* "I want the zone to disappear" - everything turns magically awesome yay and then... you go blind? Huh? Ok... so did the zone really go away or was it just an illusion? Wait, so where are you now? what?
* "I want to be Immortal" - you turn into stone... ok clever, I'll give you that.
All in all, I felt the Stalker endings, after the horridly overdone and repetetive final levels, just failed to deliver. Half of them just seemed plain random, having almost nothing to do with the rest of the game and leaving you in a state of complete wtfness. The other ones were so minimalistic that you have to watch them a couple of times to actually figure out what exactly happened and even then you have no idea what happens next. And the actualy "story" felt like it was forced into the last 5 minute conversation, also suffering from sever randomness, ambigouity and inconclusiveness.
Phatose on 21/4/2007 at 05:50
Yeah, the endings sucked. The various "I wish..." ones really should suck, as it's a way of saying "Which part of Meet Guide didn't you fucking understand?"
The real endings though, just plain suck.
But you know, the sniper in the hallway wasn't a problem for me. I sniped him first. It was the zillion fuckers with superguns coming through the narrow little doorway that gave me the problems.
Yakoob on 21/4/2007 at 05:58
Quote Posted by Phatose
But you know, the sniper in the hallway wasn't a problem for me. I sniped him first. It was the zillion fuckers with superguns coming through the narrow little doorway that gave me the problems.
Heh, I actually found those easy. Just aim at head level and when someone pop up, blam!
Quote Posted by Phatose
Yeah, the endings sucked. The various "I wish..." ones really should suck, as it's a way of saying "Which part of Meet Guide didn't you fucking understand?"
Well, it's not that they are bad because they kill you, they are bad because they just plain weren't implemented very well. I have no problem with my character dying for making a bad choice.
Talgor on 21/4/2007 at 09:11
Remember that this game was made based (somewhat loosely) on the book Roadside Picnic. The endings of the game are actually less... hm... abrupt as the book's ending was, but they are kind of in the same sort of style. I would guess that it was a delibarate choice to go with that kind of style, so I wouldn't say they are "badly implemented" as such...
Yakoob on 21/4/2007 at 10:17
Quote Posted by Talgor
Remember that this game was made based (somewhat loosely) on the book Roadside Picnic. The endings of the game are actually less... hm... abrupt as the book's ending was, but they are kind of in the same sort of style. I would guess that it was a delibarate choice to go with that kind of style, so I wouldn't say they are "badly implemented" as such...
Just because it's deliberate and follows another model doesn't exempt it from being bad.
steo on 21/4/2007 at 14:37
Quote Posted by Yakoob
strelok decides to shoot them for god knows what reason and suddenly everything is happy clouds and rainbows... how does killing them solve all the problems? What happened to the monolith? How did Strelok know to kill shoot that crap just like nothing ever happened (yeah he ramrks he doesn't know if it was right, but shit, if you are so uncertain you'd probably think about it for a while than start shooting random crap just because it makes you look cool). And I like how he got magically teleported from a thunderstorm, troop ridden devastated reactor to a beautiful green in matter of seconds. Hooray cliche...
Based on what Mr C-Con said, I think it was C-Consciousness and the consciousness sphere thing he was talking about which was keeping the zone intact. They were also responsible for the monolith so in destroying the 'all powerful' c-consciousness strelok also destroyed the zone and all of the wierd physical distubances and other stuff in it, hence the sunny field from stormy Chernobyl NPP. Also, could it not be possible that there was some time, not shown in the cut scene, between destroying c-consciousness and the sunny field.
Given the awesome military and monolith presence all around, do you really think strelok would spend hours contemplating the philosophical implications of destroying C-con? Haste man! Haste!
I actually though the wish granter and merging with C-con endings were pretty good. After all, you either die with the wish granter or you merge with C-con and the zone continues as always leaving Doc, your last living friend, left to wonder about whatever happened to you.
The last ending did seem a little incomplete though, they could have had you reuniting with doc again or something, especially since he's in the other ending.
I thought chernobyl NPP was actually a pretty good part of the game, it definately felt very endgamish with all the mayhem going on outside and the dark, fiercely guarded corridors of the sarcophagus. It was also nice to finally get past the impracticalities of going over the carry cap and being unable to sprint when you're going around with an exo, gauss rifle, Dragunov SVD, VSS Vintorez, FN F2000, two mamas beads and two night stars.
EDIT: The plot could have really done with being explained more gradually through the game rather than most of it being explained in the last five minutes of the game. Rushed to completion I guess.
Jashin on 21/4/2007 at 18:54
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Firstly, the end levels were just horrid. The reactor was more an exercise in luck than actual challanging culmination. With choppers, shitloads of enemies, bazookas and the time ticking there was no time to think, you just had to sprint froward like a madnman, tapping the medkit key every few seconds. Additionally (which may have been a bug) the map does not have your position or the deistination marker, so you are left to run around trying to figure just what exactly you're supposed to do...
All wrong. The map marker's not clear but it does center on your position, and it does show the marker for your destination.
As for the endings, I got exactly what I deserved for my approaches - the money and join c-consciousness endings. I enjoyed looking up the other endings.
What else did you expect? A cheap stray plotline for the sequel?
steo on 21/4/2007 at 20:48
Didn't you get the destroy C-con ending? That was the best one. Does that mean you missed the 'Marked one? What the hell!' bit as well? That was priceless.
GRRRR on 21/4/2007 at 22:06
Well the monolith is a trap after all so all the endings ya get from making a wish explain zilch. Didnt find em bad tho, if only the way the monolith "interprets" the wishes are somewhat strange.
Humanity needs to be controlled placing Strelok in some dark place is supposed to be "Well he thinks humanity is bad so we remove ya from it, have fun". Hmz.
Found the result from the "I Want the zone to dissapear" wish majorly hilarious but thats probably just me <.<
Join C-Conciousness Ending : Ya join them and stay in your tube until you die helping to keep up the mess outside goin its usual way. Old man saying "He will be alright lets go home and watch TV or whatever" pretty much fits with the "That really was useless now" mood of this ending.
Not join : After the teleport fun ya come into this room, Strelok figures "Theres those things outside pumping laz0r crap into the sky causing the zone fueled by the eggheads in the tanks (indicated by the odd PDA as "experiment" here and there), they messed up once with their experiment, they messed up twice by sending me to kill myself, they brainwash people into zombies and fanatics, they made labs with monsters pouring out everywhere to advance their fuckup experiment. Basically all those smarty farty pants did was messing up and put me thru crap so i really feel like killing em now". He kills them, ending their interference with the whatsitagain-sphere of earth, stopping the zone weirdness. Remaining mutants/bandits/etc will probably be overwhelmed by all the stalkers/military, since there will be no more artifacts spawned by anomalies and all thats left of the grand experiment is rotten junk after a while after the rush to the center to pick the remains nobody will care about the ex-zone anymore and piss off and the Chernobyl area will be a plain old radiated wasteland again. Strelok buys a Villa with a butler from all his rubels. Happyish end.
Run-the-gauntlet part of NPP was ass, ok. Would have liked it more if there were small bunkers or something around to hide from the blowout (could have been more appearing at regular intervals even) so ya wouldnt have to run thru dozen of enemies like a tard. After that a VSS and all the extra-AP-fancyness ammo dropped by the monoliths carried me alright thru the rest (Stalker difficulty). Teleport stuff after you decline the join offer is abit tedious but the awesome level made up for it imho.
Strelok was just one of many Stalkers goin into the Zone then running into the Scorcer. The main story of the game was backtracking your steps to where ya "failed" earlier and then optimally finding out what the hell is goin on and stopping it. A second chance by having more luck like the hundred of Monolith/Zombies ya shoot, but this time the phantom hunt pushes you beyond the pure want for riches. Dunno what epic ending could have been tacked onto that.
Strelok, the master of the Zone? Making peace between Duty and Freedom? With the Zone gone their agendas mean shit and they serve no purpose anymore with the last mutant/artifact gone, so i think they just disband sooner or later. Reuniting with old dude? There already was a grand reuniting with him patching you up, saying "you was right, here have this ya forgot, bye". Judging by that the now defunct group probably just was a bunch of guys banded because they could benefit from each others skills, not some tight knit group of hearty friends. Oldtimer probably is just the chummy sort, what could he resolve more than ya found out yourself anyways. Your past? Nobody from wherever or Prince of China. Or he is your father, images of hugs, tears in his eyes and sitting together drinking beer. The world entering a grand golden age because of the wonders discovered in the zone? Cue trumpets and views of majestic cities in the sky with Strelok statues.
Endings may have been short but i didnt feel like there was anything left to explain or wrap up in great lengths or detail. Done and done, the way is the goal or whatever :p
Ew long post
