Review - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

[splatzzzzzzzzz]

if anyone is going to flame my comment, let me say i would love to be able to play and enjoy these games, they are very deep and have an amazing settings, i bought them all full price minutes after i discovered them because of how good they looked but i just cant, i will play but not know what to do or worry about not playing optimal, only series i have this concern in, but then will just give up due to lag, getting lost in a quest tree (or bugs), being caught in an

un-survivable situation ect

[masticina]

Mixed Bag right.. eh.. it tried something different something interesting. Didn't really fully get there but the idea yes I like the idea. Then we did get Fallout 3 ;)

[R0YALEBEAST]

WITH MODS the game is one of the best 2 dollar experiences Ive ever had, 1.5 is completely fair because without mods there are so many problems, Clear Sky is WAY WORSE just a warning.

[kingplutoxiao1]

Wow you guys are pathetic, this isn't the patch with official release version -.-, further more UNINSTALL your mods than play w/o patch. DW points taken.

[ColtonaterX]

im am a newr subscriber man and youve probably ben asked this before but are you ever going to review arx fatalis

[DWTerminator]

Yes, I'll review Arx Fatalis. I don't think it's been asked before, actually.

[TheMetalguitarguy]

You can move to Chernobyl in....200,000 years.

[SixGunzBlazin]

Totally agree with the review, this game is pretty bad. For a shooter, the actual shooting is more frustrating than fun. The guns suck, missions are buggy & even the map is a pain to use. Can't it default to center on me or do i have to hit the button & wait every time? Then when you zoom you have to center it yet again. Why do some jobs not let me set a waypoint? Another big pet peeve... "New Game" being the default option in the main menu instead of "Last Save". No excuse for that.

[kalashnikov96]

I play this game on Veteran, (second hardest difficulty?) I manage to keep a good balance between my Ammo, Meds and Food. Food takes up barely any room. I never have much room for loot but i just have stashes all over the place. Game would be too easy if I could carry loads. Shootings not hard for me, I can hit things fine at close ranges its no bother and at long ranges it can take a few shots but if i take my time and single fire I get the shot. I disagree with this review but its your opinion

[DragonEyeStudios]

Call of Pripyat fixes a lot of these problems.

[DWTerminator]

This isn't Call of Pripyat. They say "third time's the charm" but in this case it's pretty absurd. I still won't be getting CoP until I play Clear Sky, and I won't be getting either of them unless I can find both for less than $5 US.

[Phillycheesepuf]

@DWTerminator torrent it

[DWTerminator]

No.

[splatzzzzzzzzz]

@DWTerminator did u get them in the steam sales just yesterday??? idk man id like to hear your opinion on CoP and CS, i own them all but suck at them, can barley make it out of first area in any, mostly due to incompetence and somewhat due to running at a good level of graphics which can cause lag in firefights and stuff, i also find a lot of the mechanics are "realistic" but a huge pain in the ass, i cannot deal with time limits getting in the way of exploring, too much effort for the payoff

[robzombiefann]

Although, I really like this game. You make some very valid points and I respect your opinion. Nice review.

[quesoboy88]

I see nothing wrong with not liking something that the masses do. I do it all the time and find myself struggling to understand why it's so popular. I think people should lighten up on you.

[DWTerminator]

Nothing wrong with it at all. The fanboys/fangirls are the ones giving me hell for not liking the things they do though. The response to this has been pretty tame so far though. Nothing compared to my Team Fortress 2 review, and if I ever did anything on Starcraft I guarantee you it'd bring out the most fanboy rage you'd ever seen.

[quesoboy88]

@DWTerminator Most likely. I've never played it but I've seen stuff from it... I was kinda "eh" about it

[Muz2Envy]

@DWTerminator I'm not a fanboy - I don't even like Clear Sky, which is the sequel. I just think that your rating was harsh - I fould the story engaging and entertaining, I did't have weight issues, and I found weapon accuracy to be mostly fine. If anything, I'm a fanboy of 4A, who superceeded from GCSE and went off to make Metro 2033, which, despite its faults, is freaking epic.

[DWTerminator]

Did you play it without mods? If so, then there's no way in hell you're playing the same game I did.

[puppetmaster532]

@DWTerminator please don't do Starcraft 2 i feel cheated buying it. it even says on the box part 1 of 3 just so they can release a new game every year for another $70 just to add content from the campaign to multiplayer. and all of these problems with stalker you found i am not having problems with. the lighting bug, the weight every thing and i got my copy used at a flea market. i could tell you how to play around most of these "problems" but i wouldn't have enough space to write it.

[DWTerminator]

I wasn't planning on bothering with Starcraft 2 at all. The first one is easily the worst game I've ever played.

[DWTerminator]

I don't review mods. Never have.

[marshyelloh]

The Complete Mod 2009 is said to be on toplist of the 10 best mods ever. It is essential. And that credit should be given to the maker of these mods. -STALKER does offer its modding capabilities, thats what they are made for, and they were part of the original game, not the mod.- but STALKER without, a rating of 1/5 sounds terrible realistic, if someone wasnt ever able to play with this mod, which makes it easily a 4/5.

[web2122]

@DWTerminator I have to agree with you. A good friend of mine kept on saying how amazing it was so I picked it up and I completely regret it. I am just so sick of dieing because I cant carry enough ammunition/health items/food. hell when I aim it feels like I am sliding my gun on ice.

[darklord1294]

I love this game so much.

I like your reviews even though they are extremely cynical,you should play CoP,I'm about half-way through it and it's amazing.

[DWTerminator]

I won't be buying CoP unless I can get it for less than $5. It's that simple.

[darklord1294]

@DWTerminator I got it on steam sale 6$ l0l

[marshyelloh]

@marshyelloh It is absolutely unfair to review this game without this mod, and you know that.

[DWTerminator]

It's totally fair to review it without. Why? Because then I'd be reviewing a mod, not the game. The game is *terrible*. If it *needs* mods to actually become playable, you have a problem.

[SpudAlmighty]

DWTerminator there is a weapons accuracy mod which does the game wonders. You should try it out! It really helps!

[MisterAAnderson]

I don't know about voice acting, the russian one is good. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has no meaning, the one that you told is unofficial and a joke really :P

Accuracy seems pretty good, the start weapons aren't the best, later on when you get better weapons it gets better. Install the patch 1.005. It has good mods yes, but the vanilla is a half of the game to be planned... The builds from the development cycle are free to download, and sometimes stuff is better there then in the final product, strange.

[ZupanicCarr]

for me the biggest disappointment is the fact that if someone were to ever make a game based off of a road side picknick people would think it would have something to do with this terrible terrible game the game itself might have been good if it was based off of the book instead of just the stalkers and a few other things

[DWTerminator]

It's more based on the Russian movie "Stalker" (which itself is already loosely based on "Roadside Picnic") and its novelization than anything else.

[Muz2Envy]

Zzz... Don't play with any mods, just patch with official releases. These fix a lot of the issues your complaining about. Your 'inaccuracy' problem really becomes pointless after you get 'decent' weapons 2-3 hours in, and this game has to have one of the best endings i've ever played through. Furthermore, your 'weight' problem - I was carrying 2-3 weps with 1000+ rounds, with armour, food and meds without a problem. I don't know what you were angry about. I think that 1.5/5 is REALLLLLY harsh.

[DWTerminator]

The 1.5 is because I had *no fun playing this game at all*, but the atmosphere prevents it from going any lower. Harsh? Do you, like the other fanboys out there, want me to give it a 5/5 despite *DESPISING* the game, just because *you* like it? That makes no sense. I'm not IGN

I know your weapons get better. Only problem is that I lose interest before I can get that far. It's hellish trying to work up a drive just to play the game at all. I always went over weight capacity, dunno how you didn't

[Gam0rDude]

@Muz2Envy i agree. though they could have made the beginning weapons a little bit better.

@DWTerminator have you tried the other games in this series? they have really refined and polished the story and gameplay a lot.

[parizak]

@Muz2Envy Yeah I couldn't agree more. 1.5/5 is ridiculous, its not harsh, it's ignorant and retarded. You can't convince anyone to like somethink that you do. But this "review" is just insult to inteligence. Giving Far Cry 2 higher score then this is laughable. Yes it's DWTerminators opinion but it's just bizzare. Ah well, to each it's own.

[DWTerminator]

To say that my score, which is based on how much fun I have playing a game that is WELL-KNOWN TO BE ONLY GOOD IF IT'S MODDED, "ignorant and retarded" speaks volumes about yourself.

[parizak]

@DWTerminator It doesn't need to be modded to be good. Mods expand it, all you need is developer patches to make it work well. You really like to argue on the internet don't you? ;) There were just so many lovely things about this game that you haven't mentioned in your "review" that I'm sorry but the word "ignorat" strikes me right away. I remember you earlier reviews, nowadays you just seem to hate everything. + the russian voice acting is actually pretty good I speak russian a bit.

[DWTerminator]

I don't hate everything (to the contrary, there are plenty of games I like... why else would I still be gaming?). People just request reviews of games I end up not liking. The more I put up with fanboys like yourself, the angrier I get.

But yes, the game *does* need to be modded in order to be good. You say all you need is the patches. Guess what. I went in to it with the latest patches applied. There was nothing good in it apart from the atmosphere. Name ONE OTHER THING that is "lovely"

[parizak]

@DWTerminator hmmm ok, I love stalkers backround, it's story, books, movie, even tho movie and books dont have anything in common exept "the Zone" and stalkers, exploration, finding and selling artifacts ( especially in CoP) btw those artifacts and armor resolve your weight limit issue, I like it's story especially it's endings. Many people including me, love it because of it's blend of rpg/fps mechanics. Sound and music, I love the fact that it's hard, you need to know how to play it

[DWTerminator]

Keep in mind I went into this as someone who'd never even heard of the movie or book until this game. Thus, the only way to know the background would be to read the PDA entries, which I could care less about. Since the game has practically nothing to do with the book/movie, you might as well toss that out.

As I mentioned in the review, the story is a garbled mess of idiocy, sound is all over the place, difficulty isn't fair to the player at all, and neither the RPG nor FPS mechanics work well.

[parizak]

@DWTerminator I figured, not many people have seen the movie, even tho it's make by Tarkowski who was an amazing filmmaker. I know I will never convince anybody to liking it if they don't. I know that I will not nor do I want to change your opinion, I've been watching your reviews for quite a while now, and on most of them I agree, ( Oblivion ). But I think that your reviews are just getting more and more angry and not really thought through. That's all, I mean no harm :)

[DWTerminator]

I'm an angrier person than I used to be (the world tends to do that to people). My threshold for tolerating total bs has diminished to the point of near-nonexistency.

Still, the simple fact of the matter is that I had no fun with this game. That's always been the way I've done it: if I don't have much (or any) fun with the game, I explain why and give it a score on the lower end of the spectrum. If I do have a decent amount (or tons) of fun with it, I give it a higher-end score.

[dfvdvdfbvaew]

this game is made for people who don't suck!

[DWTerminator]

No. It's made for people who scour the world for mods.

[dfvdvdfbvaew]

@DWTerminator that too

[juanz888]

i forget in spanish is worst

[juanz888]

yes, i have to install the complete mod 2011 i think no remember so well, to play the game, because it have a lot of bugs, with the mod i can shoot nice, but yes went firts came out the game was a mess,well lets see what have to offer reage..., good review

[offdutyninja007]

ugh, I remember shooting someone point blank with a shotgun and they didn't die. Not to mention the horrible hit detection.

after that I couldn't play anymore.

[piggingaround]

i saw this in my subbox and i was all like :D

[Tiars666tiamat]

I never played it more than an hour. But kinda looks like a poor man's Fallout 3, not that I like Fallout 3. I mean if the gameplay is not amazing and the story is crappy, then why should you play it? For exploration and the setting? I think that gets old after a while.

[DWTerminator]

It's more like what Fallout 3 would be if it were a straight FPS... only worse because the gameplay is totally broken as opposed to mostly broken (seriously, if you can't do better than Bethesda these days, that's completely pathetic).

[Eroseth]

@Tiars666tiamat imo it's the most atmospheric and immersive game ever made. so obviously it's very different from fallout 3..

[menohaveaname]

Did You ever have a problem where it froze up a lot, it takes at least 5-10 minutes to load, and the pause menu takes just as long? Thanks! Great review!

[DWTerminator]

Nope. Never had that. Either they eventually fixed it or my hardware is powerful enough that it doesn't have any trouble.

Glad you liked the review.

[menohaveaname]

@DWTerminator Hmm... Okay. Thanks! Must just be it's not compatable with my computer. It's supposed to be pretty good. =P

[TheAntman2006]

played the crap outta it back in the day, never completed it.

[Omegawolfstudios]

DW, why are you always so angry?

[DWTerminator]

Because I have to put up with an immense amount of garbage in my day-to-day life as well as crappy games and the bullshit from their fanboys when I give low review scores.

[Omegawolfstudios]

@DWTerminator I noticed that u seemed to be much more happy in your earlier reviews.

[DWTerminator]

The world hasn't been kind to me. -_-

[Omegawolfstudios]

@DWTerminator Like how?

[DWTerminator]

Like "going through university sucks."

[Omegawolfstudios]

@DWTerminator Worse things could happen, such as losing a job. MANY people have a tough time at university, not just u, and you will eventually get out of it :).

[DWTerminator]

Considering I don't have a job and the US economy's pretty much collapsing, that doesn't make me feel any better. -_-

[Omegawolfstudios]

@DWTerminator What I'm saying is that, you are going to get over this, but you cant be a pessimist the way throughout.

[Omegawolfstudios]

@DWTerminator Hey man, be happy that you ARE in university. Don't u know how may people would kill for that?

[Trusteft]

Interesting review. Though I wouldn't say I agree with your grade, I wouldn't give it much more. What you said about requiring mods is so true. I hate it when people support a game and how good it is, IF you mod the shit out of it. I mean, like, wtf? Are they serious?

Anyway, the major question that people will probably going to ask is, when are you going to review the even buggier first sequel? :p

hahahahahaha

sorry, but, good luck with those requests.

[DWTerminator]

When I'm going to review Clear Sky and eventually Call of Pripyat is anyone's guess. First I have to get the game, which, after playing this one, I imagine won't be for a VERY long time. They rarely go on sale anymore, and even then it's never for under $5.

[Trusteft]

@DWTerminator From what I understand CoP is the best in the series, but yet again full of bugs. Frankly, (I hate using that word but meh), I don't plan on touching the series again. I rather stay with Fallout.

[DWTerminator]

I'm told that as well, but based on my experience with SoC, I won't be grabbing it until it's under $5.

[Whiteblade9999]

The review is fair. A game should be reviewed without mods and STALKER is a mess out of the box.

Doesn't stop me from liking it modded up though, just like Oblivion.

[sonyman135]

You know, I agree completely with you, yet I still find it fun although I don't quite know why. Great review :)

[xX96AcesXx]

nice review

[DOSDestroyer]

LOL just like Duke Nukem.