How do I get into this crazy Stalker series?
>>723707841you play soc and stop there
you find something more productive to do, rather than waste time playing stalker in almost 2026
>>723707841you only play clear sky
>>723707841have you tried playing the games
Play originals with patchesIf you find them too ancient then get some mods to modernize them to your likingThen go ahead and try whatever story/freeplay there isIf you're still with us, you'll find yourself at the top of the iceberg staring at OP2
>>723708545*bottom Sorry
>>723707841You don't it sucks.t.35 year old boomer>>723708019This.
>>723707841
>>723707960Literally this. SoC is peak, Clear Sky has this nice church location but otherwise it's just the same game as SoC, Call of Pripyat is just... it sucks. Lacking in content, awful visuals, 80% of the playtime is wasted on sprinting and sipping energy drinks. There's nothing to do in that game.
>>723709117CoP is the best one in the series actually
I’m enjoying stalcraft
>>7237078411. Avoid the shitty, shitty "Enhanced Edition" re-releases.2. Play in the release order. Consult this Starting GuideStart with no mods - only latest patch, OR get the full "Starter Pack" first.Those contain bug-fixers and light visual mods that can help performance as well.Leave big overhauls for later playthrougs. Avoid the "Complete", "Anomaly" and "Gamma" mega-mods.Always play on MASTER difficulty for best realism and atmosphere.Disable crosshair for maximum immersion + to avoid hipfiring.Don't give up in the beginning!The starting gear sucks ass (on purpose) and first area can be a bit boring to some folks that're used to faster paced games.
>>723711040If you're playing no mods, you might as well play Enhanced Edition
>>723707841Play stalker anomaly That's it
>>723711205Why the fuck would you even jokingly claim that?The EE fucks up the graphics, the gameplay, AND censors a shitton of stuff, including ALL of the CCCP iconography and Russian dub.There's zero excuse your wormbox cannot play DX9 and 11 era PC games.>>723711352Shittiest bait ever.
>>723711794I'm serious Anomaly is the superior game
>>723711794I made the pictures on the bottom. They fixed the image blurring issues. And now they added quick slots from Call of Pripyat to SOC and CS.
>>723711846It's not. It's literally anti-STALKER.
>>723712460But they did not fix the restricted modding nor restore Soviet era stuff.Stop giving nu-GSC's westoid homos your money.
>>723713585>Stop giving nu-GSC's westoid homos your money.it's literally free if you own the og games on Steam, gog or pirate
>>723707841Play the first game, play the second game,Play the third game. After that you can look up that pic some anon will post about the various mods. Of course this is all assuming you will like it. Also be aware there are resident spergs that will shit up this thread and any stalker related threads.
>>723713648It's literally NOT free if you don't own any of them, or if you're a console peasant.
>>723714410pirate
>>723714535I already pirated the original 1.0 versions 18 years ago. I also got physical DVDs on my shelf.I still would not touch nor recommend the EE versions.
>>723714747EE were straight downgrades on launch, but after update 1.2 and 1.3 they're ok
>>723716064No need to make do with "OK" when perfection already existed two generations ago.
>>723716207Hardly perfections when UI doesn't scale and as result text is extremely small at 4K.
>>723716502The UI scales just fine.>4KNot my problem, but here's a proof.
>>723717698perfectly readable text
>>723717698>>723718104just look at the ammo counter
>>723708856>>723708019These are gays don't listen. So you dont get gayed too
>>723718172>>723718104That's not how it works on my PC, nigga.Show me your mods.
Alright, weird question here. I enjoy slow ass dungeon crawlers. Will I enjoy stalker?
>>723707841Why bother? Its a series of bad games that people cope about liking by installing giant modpacks that don't leave a single bit of the original game left whatsoever.
>>723720998yes>>723721168your gay
>>723707841play the first game and then download anomaly and mod it yourself or grab one of the many premade modlists for it
>>723720342>If you're playing no mods, you might as well play Enhanced Editioncan't you read?
That is the neat part, you don't!
>>723707841You must unborn yourself first, then reborn as a 90-s kid in Russia. Then you'll need to have your entire childhood spent in post-USSR ruins. It is through this esoteric experience you'll learn to love soviet aesthetic - the aesthetic of a decadent leviathanic beauty.
I mean, if you're a part of a soviet cultural code, then STALKER hits completely different. It isn't just "ruskie tacticool simulator" like you americans see it.
>>723723831>>723724672I may never truly understand but it's this haunting shit that keeps me coming back, sometimes playing feels like an autopsy
>>723725051You'll definitely love Fallout series (1, 2, Vegas), Ashes series (2063, Afterglow, Hard Reset is not as good). Tell me about this haunting shit. Can you describe it? Just what comes into your mind.
>>723725245Sometimes when you run through Pripyat, there may be no monolith attacking but you feel surrounded but ghosts. Like every nearby piece of a mysterious dead age is singing a funeral dirge while you're just some rat, disturbing it, rummaging around for valuables
>>723713526>modding disrespects the original poopoopeepee we must be better posers
>>723725051>sometimes playing feels like an autopsyWhy an autopsy? Russians kept all their soviet elite in power in the 90s and renamed the KGB and communist party numerous times to avoid purging them from government life. The fuck about that is a post mortem? even both Boris Yeltsin's and Vladimir Putin's presidencies were set up by soviet nomenklatura
I just wish the games didn't run like shit.
>>723711794>>723713585They restored the Soviet era stuff. At least on SoC everything was where I remember it being, like both statues on Garbage and CNPP road.Restricted modding capabilities suck, but I had a blast playing SoC for the 430th time, this time on the couch.
>>723725769See, to you it's a funeral dirge, to us (I mean ex-Soviets) it's like some part of us belongs there. Like we are one of those ghosts. It doesn't matter whether you love or hate USSR, because you are a part of it. I guess people who used to serve in the military forces get what I'm talking about. It's like you've never truly left. Like it shaped you, molded you. You're not just a part of the military, you are the military. You are the tarmac, you are the boots, you are the sergeant's screams, you are the barracks - for a moment. And then it all vanishes from your mind and you find yourself back into reality, wondering what was that.
>>723707841Play Stalker Anomaly or Gamma depending on your level of autism. If you enjoyed it, play SoC. If you enjoyed that, play CoP. If you enjoyed that play CS. If you enjoyed that play STALKER 2.
Should my first run actually be on Master difficulty or is that a meme?
>>723713526Youre more of a STALKER in Anomaly than whatever special chosen soldier shit Artyom is on. Its like when a game is called AZTEC CHAMPION and the main character isnt an aztec and was just dropped in the setting to be a hero from outside.
>>723726403>Recommending playing a modded out of the ass freeplay version before someone actually played the base gameShiggy diggy
>>723726130I'll take your word for all that. At the least, the places the game depicts are derelict>>723726358Thanks for sharing that. You're right that I could never understand that perspective on my own. Sounds like it runs as deep as it goes.
>>723726473Almost everything you've heard about Master difficulty is completely false and it's baffling that people are still saying it in 2025.
>>723726752You pretty much can understand that perspective. You are not different from us in this regard. You can have the same experience as I do with stalker if you play Fallout: New Vegas. That's your "stalker experience" - the 50s USA.
did they fix the remasters heh just kidding
>>723727614they pretty much did, yeah, now they're adding patching them beyond original games
>>723727107Maybe, but I never really did feel it playing Fallout. Perhaps because the setting is a bit more wacky and fantastical/removed from reality by a few degrees. Like more of a "fictionalized setting with real-world elements" than the inverse. And it has its own cultural touchstones insulated within the fiction. Maybe also because the time capsule effect is a few decades behind that of stalker's environments. I bet if there were a game in which you do stalkan through a faithfully portrayed abandoned 70's/80's americana town, I could feel it though.
>>723727962It isn't a fictionalized setting, well, not more than STALKER setting. It's a collection of dreams of the future from the past. Every element is someone's vision of the future that never came to be. But it was planned and all of it is based on reality. It's a collection of "what ifs" from the past.
>>723709117faggot>>723709392correct>>723707841the only ones to avoid are clear sky and 2
>>723726821>another game ruined by factshate to see it
>>723726584The "vanilla" games are unstable, ugly and obsolete.
Hear me out:>lean left should be bound to E>lean right should be bound to Q
>>723728975
BTW early SEVA suit is on "Wild territory" in a train station building in one of the crates. Makes SoC almost easy.
>>723707841I only played the first one and it was both amazing and annoying to play. The game would crash a lot and sometimes the saves would become corrputed so I would have to create multiple saves. But when the game worked and with mods installed man it's a truly immersive game. I remember playing the game and literally disappearing for like a week just playing the game. But the unreliable nature of the game eventually killed my interest in playing the other ones and modding games in general.
