This review is of Stalker with
the game completely patched up and using Stalker
Complete 2009. This is my first play-through,
so I can't compare it to what was originally
released by GSC, but going by the feedback from
critics it was apparently horrendously buggy
in it's unpatched state. And even patched but
without Stalker Complete 2009, I can't imagine
how frustrating this game must have been having
enemies all re-spawn constantly. Stalker Complete
2009 is a huge 700mb mod released to fix the
games various issues and heavily update the
graphics.
But I'm not reviewing the mod,
I'm reviewing the game. Stalker was a love/hate
game for players, but most loved it. It was
a big hit from a fairly new developer, at least
in the first person shooter market. Everyone
loves an underdog, although it was quite an
anticipated title, so it got rave reviews on
release. Mostly rave reviews, excusing the bugs
that were mostly fixed with patches.
Still, I can't help feeling
I was expecting better than this. It's a big
game, with a massive world and tonnes of unique
ideas to the shooting scene, with only a few
games like Deus Ex, Oblivion and Bioshock tackling
similar ideas. Stalker merges the typical action-shooter
with RPG elements. But let's assume we all know
what kind of game Stalker is, otherwise I'll
spend an eternity explaining it. Instead I'll
tackle what I disliked about the game and what
it gets right or wrong.
This is the first game I've
played (yes I skipped Oblivion) which had a
true sandbox world where you could go anywhere
you want. Unfortunately there are slow levels
loads, even on a super fast PC, they take time.
Quickloads also take a good ten seconds, and
you'll be doing it often! But excusing the levels
loads it's quite fantastic that you can go wherever
the hell you want in the game. The downside
is the large amount of walking around in repetitive
scenery, which takes time even when you sprint.
The game is also still fairly linear in progression,
with tasks done in a set order and new levels
opening up as you go. So you can't just skip
right to the end. In some ways that's a good
thing; I like to know exactly what I'm supposed
to do next. Frankly, I like linear games. But
I'll ignore that bias here because Stalker is
not supposed to be linear at all.
The missions themselves feel
completely random and plotless. I'm spending
my time collecting documents from labs, turning
off machines. Things that don't really move
the plot along much, of what plot there is.
There's a single cutscene at the start which
seems intriguing, but Stalker went nowhere with
the story after that, and no more cutscenes.
There's various factions, but I know very little
about them. In fact I know very little about
anything in the game; there's just not much
of a story being told beyond the random shopkeeper
harping on your radio sometimes, and usually
you don't even have time to read it.
Stalker also has plenty of
side missions, keeping the game very replayable.
And I applaude this aspect, even though some
of the side missions are a bit pointless. I
skipped most of them, and then some that I did
complete I had no idea where I was supposed
to collect my so-called reward so there it sat
clogging up my PDA tasklist all game long. But
at least they're there and give the game some
different activities and longevity.
Segue to one major flaw in
the game; the PDA/inventory, whatever it's supposed
to be called. Basically one of the big RPG elements
of the game. These RPG elements needed major
tweaking. Your carry capacity is an infinite
source of fucking around trying to manage your
items as not to overload. Overloading means
you're stuck and can't move. But your capacity
really isn't that big once you progress through
the game and I got sick and tired of having
to manage it. Supposedly a lot of players ditch
items in areas then return later on to pick
them up once they've made the room. That would
require patience, which, unfortunately, is something
I do not have when playing games. So, a really
easy three line modification to the settings
had my capacity nearly doubled; and I still
had that filled up by the end of the game! By
increasing my load, it gave me the options to
have several different weapons, but even then
I felt like I just had a great collection of
crappy ammo-less weapons.
By the time I sprinted through
the frustrating Red Forest with it's radiation
crap annoying the hell out of me, and get to
the underground to turn off some random machine,
every single weapon i've got has no ammo. Apart
from the shotgun, which is the most frustrating,
slow and innaccurate shotgun in any game i've
ever played. It's completely useless at a distance
and takes an eternity to reload it's two shells.
You've really got to make sure you pick up ammo
from dead bodies as you go. And the amount of
times I quickly tried to pick up ammo in the
cumbersome inventory while an enemy suddenly
appears and kills me within a blink... well,
it was a lot.
On top of this, the enemy combat
can be frustrating sometimes. Many times it's
fine, but then you'll get to a firefight where
you've got little ammo and have to put tonnes
into an enemy to drop them, yet they'll kill
you in a single shot as soon as you come into
sight. The sad thing is that there were times
where it was far easier just to sprint past
enemies than bother killing them. It's basically
pressing a 'skip' button on a battle, meaning
I'm not really enjoying myself.
I believe my experience may
have come down to my individual playthrough
while other gamers will find it different if
they used different weapons. Perhaps I just
happened to have the incorrect guns all the
time. Watching walkthrough's on youtube, players
seem to drop the tougher enemies at the end
of the game with just a few bullets if they
make headshots. None of my weapon were that
good at all, and I certainly didn't have any
with a scope! As such, I guess I just went through
the game and got to the end with completely
the wrong weapons, but it's really the developers
job to make it clear which weapon I SHOULD have
in my limited inventory.
Then matters aren't helped
when, in the Red Forest and final level you're
constantly running out of radiation treatment
and using up healthpack after healthpack. Am
I alone in thinking that the radiation feature
in the game, while it makes sense in a game
based in Chernobyl, was ultimately one of the
most annoying features in any game, ever. And
all the barely visible instant deathtrap radiation
anomolies were a further kick in the nuts.
Back to the combat, there were
some highlights to the enemies you face, in
particular the underground levels where you
go up against mutants. They're tough, take a
lot of ammo, and can be frustrating, but they
really are quite scary! And this is what survival-horror
is all about, another genre that Stalker claimed.
So in that respect, they did succeed.
Another feature of the game
was it's day/night cycle, where it'll slowly
turn to night and back. I haven't experienced
this feature in a game before, so it was refreshingly
brilliant. I really loved all the different
weather effects. Sadly, night time was nearly
pitch black apart from the tiny flashlight in
front of you, yet enemies seemed to have normal
daylight-level vision. Stealthily sneaking in
the shadows doesn't work as you'll be getting
shot and you can't even see where it's coming
from. It took me a good couple levels, over
an hour of playtime, before I figured out that
you can sleep in the game and wake up in daylight
(if you sleep for long enough). Fantastic! Except
if you haven't eaten and the game doesn't make
it clear at all that you'll die if you sleep
without eating. That was another 15 minutes
of "throw the goddamn CD at a wall because
I keep dying whenever I sleep for no reason"
until I read on a forum that you have to eat.
Yes, there's shit-all in the way of a tutorial
in Stalker, so it'll be a slight learning experience
if you're new to RPG's like me. Eating and sleeping
is probably regular RPG-fare for more experienced
gamers.
I haven't even covered the
design yet, but it's actually all very good.
Some players said it's outdated and compared
it to 2004/2005 games, but at least with Stalker
Complete 2009 the game provides good competition
against other 2007 titles. Especially at dusk
or dawn or some of the extreme weather conditions.
Detail isn't at a Crysis level, but still all
looks impressive and has the feeling of a nuclear
ravaged land. There's plenty of details everywhere
and things to explore. My only complaint is
the wilderness and paths between towns can start
to look a little bland and repetitive, but that's
only minor.
I wrote this review just after
the frustrating Red Forest, and told myself
I'll return to it and tweak it once i'm finished
the game because I shouldn't write a review
when a particular level has put me in such a
bad mood. Everything up till then wasn't too
bad. I did fight through it and built my ammo
level back up, enjoyed Pripyat. But then Chenobyl
ruined my enjoyment completely. More radiation
crap with nothing to counter it, weapons clearly
not suitable for the final level and the final
nail in coffin... I find the secret room in
Pripyat but search everywhere and don't see
any secret stash. So I continue, with no room
for whatever is contained in this stash anyway.
Little did I know that an hour down the track
I need the decoder in this room, and without
it I can't finish the game. Nor can I run back
through Chernobyl to get it because the game
won't let me. I'm completely fucked and can't
finish the game. Are you fucking kidding me,
GSC?!
Stalker is a game with a lot
of depth, and a lot to do. With such a big scope
it's bound to get some things wrong. It might
sound like a negative review, but it does suceed
in creating a great non-linear post apocalypic
world. There's tonnes of replay value here.
But even with Stalker Complete 2009, the carry
capacity and speed of the PDA/inventory needed
work, combat needed further tweaking and a storyline
at least to the level of Half-Life would have
been welcome, especially for an RPG-shooter.
It's a game that I'm not really
surprised a lot of people love, but for me,
personally, my patience wore thin and I found
it a little tedious, if not boring, after a
while. I'd probably enjoy it much more on a
second playthrough as I'd know what to expect
and what to focus on, and to get better weapons!
But it's been 15 years since a game was released
that I played more than once all the way through
(yes, it was Quake). There's too many great
games out there to bother playing a barely average
game through again hoping to enjoy it more.
