Yeah, with the exceptions of the very creepy underground labs, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. doesn't do linear shooter action all that well. It's the same with the more linear parts of the later 2 games, and in my experience Clear Sky was the most guilty of that. Call of Pripyat handles those parts much better and there's some really good ones, but they're still not up to par with classic story-driven shooters. It's just obviously not one of the developers' strengths, and it's also obvious that they're trying to pull off some AAA-shooter-style sequences with only a small fraction of a AAA art budget and a finicky home-made game engine. I actually wish they left the game world open instead of forcing you to that ending.

There's definitely mods that deal with it a bit, mostly by opening up later parts of the game to more free-roaming, but most still leave those linear final levels, because you sort of have to go through them to finish the story.

The "undergound lab" parts of SoC are definitely the most stressful: the claustrophobic fear factor is very high. At least outside you can run for cover in just about any direction.

I've yet to discover just how different is CoP, since I've been busy with my sh4 u-boat expansion, but I'm going to have to apply some consideration to these mods you guys have helpfully provided.

There's also the Lost Alpha mod which is more of a standalone game. Maps are nice but overall it has more cons than pros.

Thanks; noted...

There's actually a few new story mods out there! I haven't played a lot, and I think many of them are not translated from Russian (the biggest Stalker fanbase is still Russian speakers), but they do exist.


And yeah, the labs/bunkers is something stalker games usually do extremely well and are genuinely scary. I think the cool thing about them is that they're confusing and tricky to navigate, and instead of having obvious parts loaded with tons of dumb enemies to shoot, they're mostly dark and empty, and only have a small number of enemies that are EXTREMELY deadly and hard to kill in that confined environment (snorks, burers, controllers, poltergeist). The dread I always feel walking into an empty dark bunker in Stalker is always palpable - and the best part is that many bunkers in the game are actually empty or not very dangerous. But the game scared me so much with the ones that weren't empty that it actually made me develop a phobia of bunkers :haha:

Indeed: if you knew there was going to be a bogey waiting in every darkened room, where would be the suspense?

There was a particular section (may have been lab "X18") where somebody suddenly shuts you in, and the ONLY way I could engineer an escape was to start again but this time dumping the NBC-suited body of a worker in the hatchway, so that it was effectively jammed open. I don't know whether this was the intention but it seemed impossible to escape otherwise.

The sounds add greatly to the atmosphere too, suggesting all kinds of freakish creatures prowling nearby (some of whom you meet, of course). I think by far the worst of these are the Snorks, but the giant mutant rats are pretty good value too!

Do you know, I've never played any of the three games with mods.

You should give them a try! If you suddenly have exorbitant amounts of time, at the very least try Misery, mostly because it satisfies a certain itch that normally only simulation games can get to - as in, it's fundamentally unfair and overly-detailed, but more than makes up for it when you overcome that unfairness and detail to actually accomplish something and get out alive. Kind of reminds me of playing something like SH4 with TMO, or something along those lines.

You may or may not have seen the film "Chernobyl Diaries". Pretty scary, it does show that Stalker's rendition of the town of Pripyat is pretty spot-on...

Chernobyl Diaries wasn't filmed in Pripyat. :O:

Indeed, it was filmed in Gravesend, the most appropriate setting for it. :yep: :03:

Ooops, is that right? I thought those apartment blocks looked just like the ones in the game, and the ferris-wheel.

+1. Just getting to the ship the first time was an adventure in itself. Misery is the closest thing I've played to what I envision Stalker to be. Highly recommended, but not for everyone.

Thanks: very much appreciate the recommendation, Threadfin...

No problem mate. Here's a link.

http://www.miserymod.com/

It is a completely different experience. You will approach everything differently. It's the only Stalker I've played where I really just want to live in the world, as opposed to move the story forward. But it's pretty hardcore. And at the beginning, very difficult.

But as I said, it's very close to what I envision the Stalker world to be. Everything is much more deadly, scarce and bleak.