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Best PC game I've ever played

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: October 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Graphics, plot, weapons, characters - almost perfect.

I wish it wouldn't be such a resource hog though. 3.3Ghz single core Intel, 2Gb RAM, 512Mb nVidia 7600GS AGP just barely make it. Gameplay stalls at maximum settings and is a bit choppy at "fine". Time to upgrade I guess

Amazing Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Wow, this game is great! The shear size of it is amazing, it's gigantic in terms of land area and it is not empty land either, plenty of abandoned buildings and typical countryside with realistic weather and day/night cycles as well. Just when I was almost out of videogames another landmark one comes along and pulls me back in! This is what a sandbox is at it's best outside of the online massive multiplayers, although this is online as well but I stick to the single player to not get too hooked on playing.

There are so many great things about this game I can't hope to list all of them here, the game is so immense and overwhelming when you first start. It's a little weird at first, like it feels genuinely spooky like HL2 did and has many different types of enemies as well as friends/neutrals. One bad thing is that the directions/instructions are very minimal and not well done, without the online FAQs and walkthroughs it would be easy to get frustrated and just give up playing altogether. It almost feels like this came directly from it's Russian makers through a bad translation, the booklet and in-game help is what I am referring to here.

I personally also use the trainers available as I don't have unlimited time to sit and work my way up to get everything and believe me one could spend hundreds of hours trying to do all the side missions and trying to get all the items and weapons not to mention the main storyline. This game is truly a great achievement, it has elements of almost every type of game and has some of the best graphics I've ever seen, on par and maybe better than HL2. It takes a lot of space understandably, 10 GB, and can tax my mid-range system at times with it's environments with some lag. Another thing is that you spend a lot of time just getting around, vehicles would have been really nice, maybe they are in there I estimate I'm about 25% done with the main storyline.

In short for the price it is definitely worth it and should not be missed, this one feels like the next generation every one has been talking about for a while now, ironically it's not one of those silly overpriced consoles!!

Not quite there

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: May 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is very innovative, and if melded with the likes of Half-Life 2, it would have been completely amazing. However, I find myself getting bored and annoyed with it.

1. The load times are unforgivable and after many hours of play, I'm finding it very difficult to kill all the baddies. It isn't even a matter of them having good armor. For example, I snuck up behind a "newbie zombie" and blasted it point blank in the head and chest five times with the automatic shotgun before it went down. In the beginning of the game, a clip from the simple handgun would do the trick. It wouldn't bother me so badly if I could enjoy the same measure of invulnerability. I've had guys shoot me from across a small valley and kill me with two shots. The same shot back at them usually requires 10-15 shots with the most powerful gun I've found. I get it that in real life etc. you have to hide and strafe and stuff, but if I'm wearing the same armor as they are, I should enjoy the same protection.

2. The lack or difficulty of headshots is driving me crazy. I'll sneak up on an enemy camp, scope out a great sniper place, lie down, line em up in my scopes, and pop them in the head (as demonstrated by a red spurt), only to have them turn around and start shooting at me, which puts me in the same position I would have been in if I had just charged in.

3. I'm also annoyed by the fact that if you kill a faction member anywhere, all the others in the whole game know about it and call you enemy.

4. Next, there some of the quests are buggy, and yes I did install the patch. For example, one guy wants me to go get his rifle that he dropped. I go to where it is supposed to be, as shown by the minimap, but it's either not there or it's inside a train car that is sealed. Maybe I'm not getting the puzzle, but it's still lame.

5. Some of the voiceovers are horrible. For example, when going down into the bar, the guard shouts at me in an endless repeated track, "I said come in! Don't just stand there! I said come in! Don't just stand there!"

6. Zombies are better shots than the normal guys. So I'm into the zombie areas and they're stumbling around like you'd expect of zombies. Then they see me and they bring their rifles up and shoot at me as expertly as any other stalker. Add to that the fact you have to hit them something like 20 times to bring them down and you don't have a zombie, you have a tank.

7. I know the game is set in Russia, but I'm getting so sick of hearing men screaming at me in Russian. A little of that for color is great, but the constant babble is driving me crazy.

8. I hate the reappearing bad guys. If I clear an area, I want it to stay cleared, at least for a little while. I killed all the soldiers guarding the gap under the bridge, ran and sold my stuff to the trader, then came back to cross under the bridge again not ten minutes later. Unfortunately, the Russian military had magically transported another squad into the area who promptly cut me down in an admittedly cool ambush. Of course they would send reinforcements, but not so quickly. The same goes for the swamp area by the scientists. I've cleaned that place out three times but every time I go back through I have to wade through zombies and the jumping critters.

9. The weight system, while kind of cool in a realism setting, is stupidly low. I only carry two guns, sufficient ammo, grenades, medipacks and the other health stuff, and I'm never less than 47 pounds. Considering 50 pounds is the threshold where you start becoming overburdened, it's easy to understand how I spend an outrageous amount of time juggling my inventory. Pick up a gun and loot the corpse, unload the looted gun and drop it, move on. I'm so sick to death of the loot and drop thing.

So with all these complaints, why do I keep playing? Because there are some somewhat redeeming apects:

1. It's been a VERY long time since a game has made me shout out loud in surprise at an ambush and this game has done it to me twice. The first one was my first glimpse of the jumping critter underground with him leaping out of the shadows onto my face.

2. The environments are very believable. The houses, machinery, and vehicles are all decayed and rusted. Unlike most FPSs, it's very easy to believe you're running around a real city or town. Add to that the fact that several of the locations are based upon the actual towns, and it's a lot of fun to run around in them.

3. The anomalies are a fun concept. Some people have written that they hate them, but it's pretty unique. It is annoying to get caught in a vortex or a flamer, but you should have been watching where you were going. On a similar topic, I love the minefields. I was sneaking up on an army post hoping to slip in and out and ended up tripping a bunch of mines. It was a nice touch.

4. I like the team battles where you join up with a bunch of neutrals to take out a common enemy.

5. The concept of equipping artifacts is interesting.

Anyway, it's a kind of fun game if you can live with all the things I complained about. I'm probably going to set it aside for a while until I finish some other games, but it's definitely one that I intend to finish - eventually.

unacceptably flawed - do not waste USD50

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 13
Date: October 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

wait for the bargain bin-thq decided to publish the game without going through debug/testing the result is an endlessly frustrating experience I fell cheated out of me money. It is just unfair. Too bad cause the game had massive potential but greed and poor programming gave birth to a substandard product

Amazing FPS no matter what way you look at it.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've played almost every FPS out there such as F.E.A.R., CS, both Half-Lifes, the Battlefield series, and many more. Stalker blows them all away when it comes to a fun, engaging game. The A.I. is absolutely astounding, much better than I expected ( I got killed by surprise more times than I would have been alright with). Fighting is realistic. The guns are for the most part inaccurate like modern day weapons. You won't be able to kill someone 100m off with a few sprays of your gun. You have to get fairly close to do damage, and if you spray the body and don't aim for the head, your enemy will most likely not fall. Yes the graphics are a bit dated, but they are good enough and do not take away from the experience in any way.

I have not experienced any crashes or major bugs at all while playing (I've played well over 30+ hours since release). The only problems I have seen are a few enemies (about 5 total) that have stood and done nothing when I'm in their face. I did have a few problems with saves not completing. It didn't phase me due to the fact I overwrite my save file every 10 minutes or so. Make sure you save regularly and do a full save. Don't use quick save or rely on the auto save.

I don't know what those who have rated this game low have experienced while playing. I hope they can find the answers to their problems with the game so they can experience it in the fullness it deserves. Definitely one of the best games I have ever played.

Great Game!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is a lot of fun! Its totally different than any other 1st person shooter that I've played, and thats a good thing! Give it a try. I highly recommend it

Very nice change of pace

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you go into this expecting one thing...expect something completely different than you have ever played before.

This is NOT your typical FPS. It is not all about killing. Its about survival. As a rookie stalker I've learned to run away from any fight with more than 4 people against me unless they have really crappy weapons and you have really good cover.

Unfortunately, survival doesn't always make for the fastest paced most exciting game.

Pros: innovative, huge, beatifully designed, pretty good ai, amazing attention to detail, did I mention huge?

Cons: graphically intensive, somewhat slow start to gameplay, not the most immersive story line, a little buggy, clumsy unpolished UI.

Excellent Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If there is one word to describe this game, it is "atmosphere." I've never really been happy with most shooter-type games on the pc, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is on par with such titles as those from the System Shock and Half-Life series.
The day-night cycle, weather effects (creeping through the environment while chain lightning and lightning flashes illuminate an otherwise almost pitch black night), light and shadow effects, anomalies, hostile animal life and human/mutant enemies, and near photorealistic graphics make for an intense gaming experience.
Now, I've read there were some significant bugs, but I've been playing the patched version, and haven't experienced any troubles myself, so I can't comment on the overall stability of the game for everyone. We also have a fairly new pc, so it runs smooth with the graphics cranked up.
If you enjoyed Half-Life 2, then you will likely enjoy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. And it goes a bit futher than your typical shooter, incorporating a PDA, maps, diary, mini encyclopedia, and an inventory and barter system characteristic of role-playing games.
Get the patches, then play it with the lights out and earphones on to really draw yourself into the game.

Excellent Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing this game for a week to ten days, and I just can't get enough of it. I haven't enjoyed a computer game this much in a long time. The reason I'm giving the game 4 stars overall instead of 5 is that there are still bugs even after the second patch.

The graphics are very good, though I can't run them at their highest level. I'm running this using an Athlon 64 4000+ and a 7800gtx 512 at 1920x1200 one notch lower then the highest setting. Night, day, a lot of rain, haze, glare looking towards the sun, it all adds up to lend realism to the game. You can even hide in the bushs as long as you're quiet about it. Just make sure you don't try to hide in a bush between two buildings while the soldiers are running around looking for you. Been there done that, and it's a nasty surprise for both of you.

I don't think the game mechanics are bad at all. I hate games that don't shoot where you aim, and Stalker does that, but it explains it by showing how accurate the weapon you are using is. Keep at it and you will have highly accurate weapons in a fairly short period of time. I'm playing at the veteran level and I don't think the bandits have any better aim then the players, in fact they don't seem to be able to aim as well. The soldiers are much better shots and, take my advice, don't cross Duty. They are well armed, good shots, and usually come in groups. Besides that one of them hangs out in the bar and dealing with the bartender can get a bit sticky if you're on their bad side.

I haven't had the game crash to the desktop, but there are bugs. For some reason, even after the second patch, some events don't get reset. You either have to keep completing that task over and over again every time you visit that certain area or the game will eventually notify you that you have failed that mission, even though you've already completed it. The game also keeps resetting your current task, so you might have been following your map to one task, and find out that while you were on your way it reset your task and directed you elsewhere, often to a task you've already completed.

Bugs aside I think Stalker is well worth the money. You can't take on every enemy head on right from the start, and that is what makes it so much fun. You have to earn the weapons and other gear you need to take on those tougher, smarter enemies. It makes the game a lot of fun, and with all the jobs available besides the missions you have to complete this game will keep you playing for a long time.

I like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, even though it's far from perfect.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: August 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Some of the biggest complaints about the game seems to be about the graphics, I think they are fine. There's no way I can run the game with the settings maxed out without turning the game into a slide show, but that's ok.

I am an old gamer. I've played games made up from 8 bit blocks so the gfx is not all that important to me. I want a game that is fun and different. Something I can play for hours and hours and not get bored with it. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ia that game for me.

I play it maxed out in res with full dynamic lighting and everything else set pretty low on a Vista run system. I have SLI enabled with 2 6800's with only 256 of RAM. The game runs pretty smoothly most of the time.

What I like about the game is it reminds me a lot of Fall Out. If Fall Out was done as a FPS, it would be a lot like this. Of course FO would have actual RPG skills incorporated into it as well but there is still some resemblence to me. I'm a big FO fan so this is a plus for me.

The game is not one you can pick up and master in just a few minutes either. It's got a sharp learning curve. In the beginning, players can expect to die and die a lot until they learn how to move and spot hidden enemies (your binoculars are your friend, use them)and take advantage of duck, cover and sprinting.

Some people have pointed out that some maps are just over run with enemies and they can't win. The answer is simple, do what you'd do in real life, sprint. Run away! I have found the enemies have a very hard time kiling me if I am running and zig zagging across a map. You do not have to kill every bad guy on the map unless it's part of a mission.

The game also sports a wide range of weapons, armor, and other items to chose from. Many of the rifles can be fitted with scopes and grenade launchers. Learning to hit someone with a sniper scope was hard for me at first but I am getting the hang of it now. Killing someone at range is so much better in my opinion. Hit them before they can hit me.

I could go on and on about how much I like Stalker (do we ever learn what the letters mean?) but I don't want to sound like a rabid fan boy.

The game is hardware intensive. If you don't have a top of the line system with the best drivers possible, you will never see the gfx maxed out. Set everything low and test the game. Then up all the sliders a bit and see if performance has dropped off too much. Repeat until you get something you can live with.

The load times are horrendous. This is especially true after the gfx settings are changed. I have found that with lower settings, it has to load less data so it speeds up some.

All the walking around is tedious. It's not that much fun running back to camp (especiallywith those load times when zoning) to sell my stuff or confirm mission completion. They have walkie talkies, they should use them. Which reminds me, you can complete a mission but still fail it if you don't turn it in before the timer runs out. This only happens on side missions though. The main story missions have no time limits thank God.

After 3 patches, the game plays well but it's still buggy. Missions still show on the map even though they are done, stashes show up even after they are looted and empty, enemies sometimes go all Hellen Keller and can't seem to find me even though I am right next to them, sometmes they just get stuck, and sometimes custom key bindings just stop working for no apparernt reason.

There sems to be a lack of female S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s in the game. Just where are all those Rambimbos? It would be interesting to see some of them in there.

Oh one last thing, like many games today, this one is highly MOD-able. There are a lot of downloadable MODS that players have made that fix a lot of the bugs in the game or make it more interesting. I suggest playing it through once without many MODS first though. Some of them can make a starting character almost God-like compared to the early enemies.

All in all, the game is fun but not for every one. I've not played the Multiplayer part of the game but I have heard it's way to buggy to be much fun. All of my comments were about the single player game.

If you are the type of gamer that wants to play with maxxed gfx, then you will need a lot of hardware to pull it off. If not then pass on it I guess. The game is said to be anti-Vista but I didn't know that when I bought it and after a rough start it's fine. The game after 3 patches with a 4'th due out soon is buggy but still a lot of fun and playable. It has a lot of area to explore and lots of stuff to kill or blow up(red drums!) I will keep me busy for quite a while.

V^^^^V

Oh, almost forgot something else. They use Steam as the game loader. I'm not a big fan of Steam but it's a neccessary evil these days I guess.

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