|
|
 |
|
|
|
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Review (continued)
More User Submitted S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Reviews
Date: 2007-10-22
A BEAUTIFUL INNOVATIVE GAME FOR...THE NEXT GENERATION OF PCs
This is the poster-game for innovative ideas, good intentions, and even better vision, that got somewhat lost in the way of development.
The original concept, the crossing-over of game genres, the beautiful graphics, the distant horizon, the RPG feeling (missions, NTCs, journal, etc) of this beautiful FPS game, get mostly ruined by endless glitches of laggings, freezings and overall unfinished development. Luckily, all of the above shortcomings can be fixed by a serious patch.
STALKER introduces a number of very smart gaming ideas, features beautiful environments and manages to create a realistic atmosphere in our room. Nevertheless, this still being an FPS after all, the gameplay is so unbalanced that it feels like swimming in thick syrup: a lot of effort adds up to only little progress.
Nice new weapons that jam all the time. When they don't, it's almost impossible to replenish their ammo. Enemies that seem to absorb bullets like cartoon characters: they go down only after repeated shots!
Your character gets tired and hungry, sure, adds to the realism of the experience - but isn't radiation suppose to cause fatigue as well? None of your enemies seem slowed down one iota...No, I am complaining about the difficulty of the game - it's the unleveled fields that got to me.
Playing STALKER made me nostalgic of the original UNREAL (another game which revolutionized the atmospheric environments at its time). UNREAL however was exceptionally balanced: a head shot with a snipper's rifle would take off both your own head as well as any enemy's head.
Now, I have a pretty decent system (P4 at 3.2MHz with 2GB RAM and a 512MB nVidia 7600GT on an ASUS P4P800), well beyond recommended requirements, yet it was impossible to play STALKER longer than a couple of hours before either the lagging eventually got to me or the whole thing just crashed. The requirements for RAM alone are staggering...
My advice: wait until the next big Patch is available (mind you, patching does NOT support older saved games...)
Recommended only for the next generation of PC systems
(unfortunately, my copy is gathering dust as you are reading this, waiting for my next system).
Date: 2007-10-05
Best PC game I've ever played
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
Date: 2007-10-02
Great but glitchy
STALKER is a great PC game. Every good thing about this game has a flaw that pulls it down but the game is just too great to be pulled down too far.
The graphics are fairly good. They could be much better. I noticed a fair amount of stuttering but everyone's computer is different. It doesn't even come close to the graphics of Bioshock but it definitely is good enough to not take away any feel from the game.
Mods add a lot to PC games and there's no exception here. Things like vehicles, altering of how much weight you can carry, and changing how long you have to complete a quest add something new to the game. Patches are released every so often and while they fix things they also disabled some mods so hopefully things like that will get worked out.
The AI is intelligent with their fighting tactics but you'll find they constantly walk right into fires or anomolies that kill them. They just stroll right through and take hit after hit of electricity without turning back. (NOTE: You cannot have mods installed to play on multiplayer servers unless that server also has those mods).
The weapons and gameplay in STALKER are what make this game a worthy purchase. The feeling of being in a deserted place like The Zone is great. Searching for weapons and food to survive the harsh baron zone and its deadly anomalies and creatures while also balancing weight. The sound adds to the deserted and lonely feeling. A free roam no quest feature will be put out eventually and that's great because following the laughable story just to be able to explore The Zone is annoying. Although the story is lacking the gameplay is not.
AI glitches, stupid story, and a bland multiplayer bring down STALKER but wonderful gameplay, a large assortment of weapons and ammo, and the feeling of trying to survive a radiated Chernobyl filled with bandits, mutated creatures, and anomalies brings the game right back up. If patches can resolve some of the glitches and get rid of the requirements of doing the story STALKER will only be getting closer to perfect.
Date: 2007-09-15
It's great to be a stalker
I loved being a stalker. Sure it's dangerous and sometimes the guys with guns come after you, but there's so much to see and so much stuff you can bring along with, it's just so much fun. For only $40 you can be a stalker too. I like to bring a couple of different guns, not too much food, some of the better artifacts, and lots of ammo and spend long times out and about as a stalker and getting into all the different places. So in the end I highly highly recommend playing stalker, fun fun fun...one of the best times I've had and especially late at night after I come home from work, rest a bit and don't have anything else to do.
Date: 2007-09-15
Meh its an ok game
Deployed to Iraq, and i borrowed a international version of the game. i liked the game play and figured i'd go ahead and buy my own copy of the US version. Removed the old game completely and installed this version, plus all the patches. Game is now laggy and unstable, it will crash to desktop. No amount of tweaking will fix this issue. I'm running it on a tricked out Alienware M9700 with XP operating system so its not my computer its the game. Personaly i don't think it likes my SLI graphics. Oh well the box is good for covering my noodles in a cup till they are ready, and the disk makes a stylish coster for my beverage while i play Oblivion at max rez.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl Reviews Page: 10 of 10 Prev<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
|
|
|
|
