Completed it last night, but got quite a dull ending as I didnt really do any side quests or join any factions.

I think the best shorthand way to describe stalker is "Flawed brilliance".

If you are the kind of guy/girl that dribbles over the industrial pictures in the inspiration & reference thread then you will LOVE this game, its full of old, burnt out, rusting industrial complexes, factories, underground stations, mines and all sorts of things in between. This really is the most gritty and atmospheric gameworld I have ever seen, its really great just to explore and see what you find, virtually every building interior can be entered and explored.

Special mention must go to the lightning storms in the game, they are just amazing :) The lightning flashes light up the entire area casting flickering shadows onto everything as you explore, while the deep thunder rolls and churns creating a very tense atmosphere for you.

Ok so its a visual spectacle and has tons of atmosphere, but what about the actual gameplay?

Hmm well I suppose it is a cross of Counterstrike and FEAR. The realistic weapons and movement, and the downright bizarre influence of radiation and mutants on the zone can create some interesting scenarios. Combat is usually at medium to long range and 90% of the time you will be using your iron sights to pick off enemies with headshots before they spot you.

The human enemies are basicly what you would expect, they work in groups and flank / find cover / use suppression fire etc, its all very convincing and sometimes genuinely impressive as a soldier who you thought you had lost ages ago gets the drop on you from behind.

Fighting mutants is whole other business however. Most have pyschic or visual powers to make encounters more interesting. The bloodsucker for instance has no ranged attacks but can turn translucent which makes it very hard to see until it is right on top of you, usually you spot the bright yellow eyes just before it takes a chunk out of your face :) Scary stuff indeed. Other cool mutants include the blind dogs, who are generally quite passive unless they are hungry or you stray into their territory, in which case they all gang up on you.

Its nice that some mutants can be scared away without actually fighting them, the dogs for example will scatter and run if you fire a burst of bullets into the air when they are close.

The RPG elements are very light indeed, but still there and influence the gameplay somewhat. As you buy/find better armoured suits you can withstand more radiation so can venture into more dangerous areas. 

I just took a look to Stalker official website (i.e http://www.stalker-game.com/ ), and I was very impressed by the screenshots/animations/etc... If this game is as good as DaZ said, and as good as the others said in general Abuse thread, I really have to plan to:
1- find funds to buy a new PC that will support the game
2- buy Stalker
3- spend my nights playing the game...

Nice program actually... :D 

at least wait for more patches and until the game is cheaper and until a pc that runs it with dynamic lights is cheap enough. :)


In the german Radiation Pack there was a novel included. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Todeszone (Zone of Death). I read that and it's very good! 

 

A cross hair icon is most suitable for this (lots of stealth sniping).

Worthy topic, I think. Feel free to keep rambling on about it, chaps :).

My impressions from what I read is that I'll intend to get it, it sounds like it's got some awkwardness to get used to, but is fundamentally interesting and intriguing. 

Sounds like they've done thier own thing instead of making a Halo clone. Also sounds like it can run on mid-spec machines, although sacrificing some (most?) of the visual effects. 

It comes with a DX8 and a DX9 renderer, the dx8 mode runs silky smooth with everything on max details but you lose some very important visual things like the dynamic shadowing and all the normal mapping effects that really bring the game to life.

The difference in atmosphere running in dx9 as opposed to dx8 is huge, in dx9 mode you can almost taste the radioactive dust in your mouth :) 

So, I was playing last night and cleared out a large-ish building and the surrounding grounds and guard towers and so forth, taking probably an hour to do so, and headed up toward the top floor to retrieve some documents.

I wasn't really paying attention to the radar display, and I'm not sure if I had just missed one guy that had been following me for a while (probably) or there was some random trigger that spawned one guy for the hell of it, but I came sneaking around a corner shining my light here and there to make sure I didn't miss anything in a dark corner, and literally ran into a guy. He was crouched down so when I turned the corner his face pretty much filled my whole monitor, and I LOST IT.

I spazzed out like I had been hit with high-voltage, hitting a bunch of semi-random keys with my left hand (causing me to accidentally switch to grenades and fling a bunch of them), and knocking over my drink with my right hand, and damn near falling out of my chair. (And then I giggled like a moron for about five minutes.)

Holy shit. I don't think a game has ever made me jump like that.

GG Stalker.