If you were to only play one S.T.A.L.K.E.R game, which one?

[Mischief Maker]

Time is more valuable than money to me at the moment and I want to play one of the STALKER games. I've heard arguments for Shadow of Chernobyl (scarier and you actually go to the reactor) and Shadow of Pripyat (Tighter gameplay and smarter AI, but also much easier).

Which do you recommend as a standalone title, and why?

[Some-Mist]

couldn't finish Pripyat, but Shadow of Chernobyl was awesome. I think I also wanted to finish Shadow of Chernobyl because it's loosely influenced by Tarkovsky's Stalker (which is influenced by roadside panic). The atmosphere is pretty spot on.

I'm sure someone who has completed both can weigh in with a pros/cons list.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The real question seems to be which mods. I intend to play through unmodded Shadow of Chernobyl soon, but even that's more configurable than the menus would have you think.

[Daigohji]

IIRC, the original Shadow of Chernobyl is the only one that isn't saddled with one of the worst versions of Securom DRM. Even were it not, I'd still recommend going for the original. The inaccuracy of the early weapons can make for many frustrating deaths, but it's an atmospheric and memorable experience. My one recommendation would be to check a walkthrough for the esoteric requirements for the game's true ending. You can end up with an abrupt and crappy alternative ending otherwise.

[drauch]

IIRC, the original Shadow of Chernobyl is the only one that isn't saddled with one of the worst versions of Securom DRM. Even were it not, I'd still recommend going for the original. The inaccuracy of the early weapons can make for many frustrating deaths, but it's an atmospheric and memorable experience. My one recommendation would be to check a walkthrough for the esoteric requirements for the game's true ending. You can end up with an abrupt and crappy alternative ending otherwise.

Completely agree. Buggy as all hell, but it was the only one I've been able to run flawlessly. Pripyat chugged horribly on my more than proficient PC, regardless of settings, but supposedly a patch has been released at this point. Regardless, of what I did play, I prefer the original. Phenomenal experience for FPS fans that prefer "survival" elements.

[Khan]

I really enjoyed Shadow of Chernobyl it was one of the few fps games that ive played where the atmosphere really creeped me out, i just installed call of pripyat despite owning the game for a few years on steam will let you know which is better in the next week or two when im done with it.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Both Shadow of the Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat are fantastic experiences which shouldn't be missed, so it's definitely a bit of a dilemma which one to recommend, but if I had to go with just one, I think it would be the latter.

All the gameplay improvements and minor interface tweaks aside, the biggest change that Pripyat brings to S.T.A.L.K.E.R lies in how the map is structured. SoC featured a branching, but fairly linear world map segmented into small to mid sized areas separated from each other by load times which gave you an impression that you were playing through the game on a level by level basis. CoP does away with that by giving the player a map with three very large areas to explore. The total amount of the traversable space may not have increased by much(if at all), but the feeling of being in vast, hostile environment is amplified times fifty.

CoP, I feel, is a grander and a much less focused experience than SoC, overall. It literally just drops you into the game's world without giving you much in the way of directions or reference points and lets you explore the zone's landmarks(which are plenty in CoP) and learn the basics of survival on your own without any unnecessary hand-holding.

The most memorable(and perhaps scariest) moment in CoP for me was when I stumbled on an abandoned research institute in the game's second area. It was night outside and it was raining heavily, the frequent strikes of lightning illuminating the wrecked interiors of the building. I was going from room to room, floor to floor routinely searching for supplies, upgrades and documents. There wasn't a soul anywhere. Then, my flashlight caught a barely discernible outline of what looked like a human at the end of the hallway on the third floor. I moved a bit closer. The person was standing in the doorway with his back turned to me, only half of his body visible. "Probably some random stalker or a bandit" - I thought to myself. I started walking toward the stranger to confirm my supposition as he disappeared into the room. I casually followed him in there without giving it much of a thought. A few seconds later... I was face to face with a *controller. I jumped so high that I lost control(no pun intended) for a moment or two. By the time I pulled myself together, it was game over.

*don't go googling him if you're intending to play the game as it will ruin the moment of your first encounter with this creature.

Shadow of Pripyat (Tighter gameplay and smarter AI, but also much easier)

Not really. But if you find even the highest difficulty level insufficient for your tastes, you can always resort to using mods. Some of them will enable you to be head-shot from the other side of the map even from short-range pistols and OHKO'd by monsters on touch.

The real question seems to be which mods.

Didn't you ask this last year or is this a rhetorical question? Either way, the answer is the 'COMPLETE' series of mods.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I still don't have a really new computer, and since the most praised mods (I imagine) require a nice bit of processing brawn, I might just play it unmodded for the time being. It's been the single most anticipateed computer game in the history of my computer gaming, so I choose to savour anticipation.

[Mischief Maker]

Shadow of Chernobyl got the most recommendations, so that was the one I got. I'm playing it with the complete mod. Some people say it dumbs the game down, but as far as I'm concerned, if I want a challenge, I'll play a shmup.

Anyone who's worried about DRM, the whole trilogy just came out on GOG last week.

[Daigohji]

Shadow of Chernobyl got the most recommendations, so that was the one I got. I'm playing it with the complete mod. Some people say it dumbs the game down, but as far as I'm concerned, if I want a challenge, I'll play a shmup.

Anyone who's worried about DRM, the whole trilogy just came out on GOG last week.

That's good to know. The DRM was what put me off buying Call of Pripyat until now.

I hadn't heard about that complete mod before. I've downloaded it for SoC and am giving it a go. It looks promising initially, but has already caused some game-breaking graphical glitching once for me. I guess your mileage will vary depending on hardware and drivers.

Remember, what happen in Zone, stay in Zone.

[Some-Mist]

complete mod is the only way I played through SoC and it was an incredible experience. I should probably play through vanilla to compare tho

[ciox]

Shadow of Chernobyl, with the mod AMK 1.4 installed.
This option may change once Lost Alpha comes out however, since by now it qualifies as a game.

[Jonathan Ingram]

Ahh, yes, the Lost Alpha. It's been such a long time since it was announced that I completely forgot about it.

[mortified_penguin]

Having spent more time with this series than about anyone I know, I'd say if you can only play one make it Call of Pripyat. You'll miss a nod or two to previous characters but the story is self-contained and it's just an all around smoother experience.

For the love of all that is good and holy DO NOT use the 'Complete' mod on any game in the series outside of Clear Sky. That one needs it for the bug fixes but outside of that Complete ruins more things than it fixes and has a habit of totally destroying game balance.

[Daigohji]

For the love of all that is good and holy DO NOT use the 'Complete' mod on any game in the series outside of Clear Sky. That one needs it for the bug fixes but outside of that Complete ruins more things than it fixes and has a habit of totally destroying game balance.

How does it break game balance?

[mortified_penguin]

For the love of all that is good and holy DO NOT use the 'Complete' mod on any game in the series outside of Clear Sky. That one needs it for the bug fixes but outside of that Complete ruins more things than it fixes and has a habit of totally destroying game balance.

How does it break game balance?

Not sure exactly how it happens but after a blowout you'll find piles, (and I mean literal piles), of high tier guns laying around. So an hour in you have access to all this OP loot and it totally destroys the economy. I had it happen way back when Complete was new and exciting and I saw it happen last year when my girlfriend did her first playthrough.

I'm assuming it has to do with where NPCs are allowed to go along with their loot tables being modified. They get caught in the blowout and bam! You're carting 30 AS VALs back to camp. In a game that's entire premise is survival and slowly building up your equipment it pretty much ruins the entire point.

That and I'm pretty sure it dicked with scopes making them near impossible to use properly let alone the changes to the ballistics, (which where fine to begin with).

tldr: Makes the game piss easy.

[Mischief Maker]

So this AMK mod is the way to go?

Pity. I was kind of hoping for the upgraded graphics of Complete. But I have to admit starting out with an anomaly detector does kind of screw with the experience.

[ciox]

AMK is a pretty rare type of mod in that it reactivates a lot of stuff meant to be in the game in the first place, most noticeably enemy behaviors, I can't imagine playing without it.
One of the most striking things I can remember is how far-reaching this "NPCs can also loot stuff, not just you" change was, it made it so friendly guards defending a checkpoint and getting in a lot of battles with beasts would now automatically loot the beasts for body parts (grody), so suddenly there's a point in you talking with those guys, seeing how many beast parts they've racked up and deciding whether it's worth buying the parts off them in bulk and going on a dangerous expedition to the scientists' bunker where you can sell it all for a profit. It breaks up the original mod's linearity a lot.
Not to mention the blowouts and random monster spawns which are a lot scarier and more likely to distract you from your objective than in CoP. A situation can develop where monsters swarm to one level and it makes you wonder what the hell is going on in there, the dynamic communications usually report on this if it happens so you know what's up.

Basically a lot of CoP features are in and not necessarily because GSC got inspired by AMK but because both the dev and the mod team were aiming to get closer the original STALKER design, with this in mind I prefer the original's levels so it's an obvious choice for me. That armor/weapon customization in CS/CoP is nice though I'll admit.

[Ed Oscuro]

So Lost Alpha is the new incarnation of the Paradise Lost idea?

Also, does anybody know a way to get Call of Pripyat working without the DRM? Hopefully something forum-friendly and DMCA-legal.

[ciox]

Lost Alpha was worked in pretty much in parallel with that mod I think, at any rate it has a distinct advantage as its makers gained access to the source code from the original devs and have modified the engine and renderer extensively, like I said it will pretty much count as a game and at some point it was even rumored it will be released comercially if it meets certain standards set by GSC.

[Ed Oscuro]

That's very interesting. I will get on it then. From my reading, Paradise Lost appears to be intended as more than just a revert to the original game plans, but also an improvement mod. Lost Alpha seems the same...so was one a "fork" of the other? PL doesn't seem active, but LA does.

[Jonathan Ingram]

HG101 posted a fairly expansive article on the series, its origins and inspirations:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/stalker/stalker.htm

[Xyga]

I bought this on Steam years ago for 1€ and never downloaded it.