S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

[Great Rumbler]

STALKER Storyline









The idea of using Chernobyl as the setting for an FPS where you fight zombies, mutants and other such things is a great idea. About an hour ago I came across this site that has pictures from an exploration this woman made into Chernobyl not too long ago and that place looks creepy as heck. It's a huge town that's just completely empty and in decay. Hopefully they can pull this off because it has a cool Half-Life 2 look about it.

[Great Rumbler]

Oh come on! I know at least one person here besides me has to be slightly interested in this game!!

[OB1]

I don't like most FPS's.

[Great Rumbler]

...

[A Black Falcon]

Genres like the FPS and the RTS, in their standard forms, are getting old... not that the games aren't good, but there are just so many of them...

[Great Rumbler]

That doesn't mean that there aren't some that are really good.

[A Black Falcon]

True, but my intrest in FPSes is pretty limited as it is... the setting in this game is cool, but it's not like I'll be getting it.

Oh yeah, not exactly new, I first heard about this game quite some time ago...

[Great Rumbler]

:shake:

[OB1]

I don't care for mindless FPSs. Give me something unique!

[A Black Falcon]

The setting here at least is a bit unique, but the gameplay won't be I'm sure...

[OB1]

The setting doesn't look unique. It looks incredibly generic.

[Great Rumbler]

How about this?









If the gameplay is anything like Half-Life 2, I'll be more than satisfied.

[OB1]

I like the first shot, but overall it still looks like the cloudy wartime theme used in games like Ghost Recon.

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.worthdownloading.com/game.php?gid=291

trailer(s)

[Laser Link]

I have a friend who has been super hyped about this game for over a year now. From what I've heard it sounds like they will be doing a lot to make it different from your standard FPS. I think that there is a NPC who is stalking you at the same time that you are stalking him, and it's not at static points in the game like Metroid Fusion. If you are slow in accomplishing a certain mission, the other guy might do it first and get the reward you were expecting, like a new weapon. Stuff like that. If they pull it off it could be fun.

[Great Rumbler]

I like the first shot, but overall it still looks like the cloudy wartime theme used in games like Ghost Recon.

That IS what Chernobyl looks like for the most part.

I have a friend who has been super hyped about this game for over a year now.

Some PC magazines have been saying good things about it too.

"...a blueprint for a revolution in the FPS genre..."
PC Zone

"...Stalker is certainly going to be a feast for the eyes..."
PC Format

"...S.T.A.L.K.E.R is unlike any first-person shooter you've ever played or imagined..."
PC Gamer

Whether they're right...well, we'll just have to wait until it comes out.

[OB1]

I have a friend who has been super hyped about this game for over a year now. From what I've heard it sounds like they will be doing a lot to make it different from your standard FPS. I think that there is a NPC who is stalking you at the same time that you are stalking him, and it's not at static points in the game like Metroid Fusion. If you are slow in accomplishing a certain mission, the other guy might do it first and get the reward you were expecting, like a new weapon. Stuff like that. If they pull it off it could be fun.

Well that sounds neat. Kind of like what they wanted to do with Fable. GR never mentioned that.

That IS what Chernobyl looks like for the most part.

So? Who forced them to set the game in Chernobyl? That's like saying that it's not a developer's fault for making a game take place in a city dump because that's what actual city dumps look like. Um....

[Great Rumbler]

GR never mentioned that.

I don't know about that either.

That's like saying that it's not a developer's fault for making a game take place in a city dump because that's what actual city dumps look like.

Okay, so Ghost Recon and Stalker do have somewhat similar settings, but I like Stalkers looks of dereliction rather than war-torn and I think it works great for the time of game it, which appears to be heavily influenced by Half-Life 2.

So? Who forced them to set the game in Chernobyl?

When you want radio-active zombies, its Chernobyl or nothing. Besides, Chernobyl is a great setting, it's a big, empty, run-down town in the middle of nowhere.

[OB1]

I'm sick of games with drab art though. I like everything in moderation, and most FPSs use what I like to call (starting... now) the GBB color palette. Grey Brown Black.

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13293

Pictures of the real town of Chernobyl (click, it's interesting). I think they got the 'derelict' style down pretty well (in the game)...

[OB1]

[Great Rumbler]

Grey Brown Black.

Stalker has more than just that.





























And anyway, this is Chernobyl not fricken' Candy Land.

Check this out:

[Great Rumbler]

In equal periods blowout waves of gravitational nature together with an increased psychotropic influence pierce the Zone. It is deadly dangerous to stay in the Zone at that time. A man without special equipment dies immediately. The ground starts shaking with a number of flashes to follow. The sky gets glowing and the whole world is black-and-white. The eyes can't withstand the blinding sun. During the blowouts, one can see phantom formations and haze in the places of gravitational formations.

Zone. Lake Amber. Blowout.
Booming earthquake and flashes of lightning. The sky gets covered with black boiling clouds. The stalker hardly makes it for the house and the blowout sets in. Prolonged tremor shakes the house, sprinkles the dust, garbage falling off the shelves. The room is lit up by an extremely bright flare which seems to last forever. The world goes two-coloured. Through the open door the stalker can see a dead dog, lying on the ground. A violent gale hurls the garbage sprinkling clouds of the dust. The toughest moment of the blowout is coming. The earth goes mad, the light is beyond all bearing� flashes of lighting with things trembling on the floor. The stalker hides in the corner of the room covering his eyes. And now is the moment of the blowout peak. The last and the most devastating tremor shatters the ground breaking the trees and making the world go dark for a moment. And then very bright light and howl of the insane Zone make the stalker pass out...

Anomalous zones pose great danger to stalkers. Getting into an anomalous zone nearly always results in instant death. There is only one way to oppose such zones, that is to avoid them! A problem here is to detect an anomalous zone, for the majority of them are invisible and can be detected with special devices or by inconspicuous indications.

Gravity concentration

Gravity field with differently directed acceleration.
Tears entrapped living creature apart.
Visual indicators:

* Dents in the ground
* Bent metallic objects
* A stone thrown inside a gravity concentration patch changes flight trajectory

Rusty hair

All the metal grates and rods acquire rusty hair through time. Touching rusty hair causes the body to smoke and blacken.

Fog

Unprepossessing fog corrodes skin, hair, eyes, leaving a scorched corpse. Getting into fog without protective suit or oxygen mask leads to death.

Meat-mincer

A trap which gradually stocks a charge, discharges on a living being and on a special device - discharger. It is absolutely harmless when uncharged.

There is a wide range of vehicles introduced in the game, from a car to helicopter. Most of the machinery can be used to move around the Zone and transport things faster. You may purchase, find or snatch it away. All vehicles require fuel.

World

The world of the Zone is a huge derelict territory of half-ruined buildings unruffled for 20 years, woodlands and anomalous greenery. The Zone world features neglected underground and ground laboratories, dead military bases and proving grounds for new technologies. Radioactive land is covered with ulcers of scorched earth, poisonous fogs, deadly gravitational anomalies. This is the world of a disastrous industrial and ecological catastrophe. And in the hub of this man-caused hell the wreckage of Chernobyl atomic facility rests.

We create the Zone based on reconstruction of Chernobyl atomic power plant and the 30-kilometer zone around it. Players, while progressing through the game, will see the Dead Forest, cities of Pripyat' and Chernobyl, sneak inside the Chernobyl atomic facility sarcophagus, go through the memorable areas, really existing in the epicentre of the tragedy to have occurred some 16 years ago.

We do our best to reproduce the atmosphere of industrial and ecological catastrophe of Chernobyl in detail, so, undeniably, all the zone sights will be easily recognizable. Photos and video materials acquired during our trip to Chernobyl provide ample of information to meet this very purpose, ensuring the textures and architecture are of utmost realism.

Gameplay

The player travels over immense world of the Zone, its all locations joined into one global map. He can choose any route and will not be limited in his traversing the Zone. The player will be offered free exploration full of generated and scenario-imposed tasks, participation in the eerie events of a murky world.

The player will become a stalker, a guy who earns money from shoveling embers out of infernal oven of Chernobyl Zone. Returning from the radioactivity-blazing Zone, he will sell anomalous formations to underground dealers and scientists in research camps on the Zone border.

With the money procured, the player will purchase equipment, weapons and protective suits allowing him to reach previously inaccessible areas.

This is a role-playing game without growing experience of your character, without changing characteristics and levels. We want the player to develop his real mastery, moreover Stalker is an FPS/RPG game and much depends on his ability to fight. Changing characteristics, levels and player's experience, to our mind, would destroy the realism we try to create. As far as the rest is concerned, this is almost a normal RPG game where players travel the Zone, collect artifacts, weapons, reveal anomalous zones, communicate and trade with NPCs etc.

Artificial Intelligence

We see AI in our game as a system of realistic character behaviour. Game characters live in a world the player can only drop into, they have their own joys and sorrows. We thoroughly work out artificial intelligence for the player never to feel artificiality of the happening. This principle basically refers to our approach in general, and not only to efforts on AI. We work out all the possible actions of the player and prepare natural reaction of characters to them. As character would react in life, so as he should react in the game. If the player attacks and kills one of the guards, the rest will go to seek hiding, radio their headquarters, and won't stand still, or what's worse, run out towards the player.

Communication with NPCs

The Player's communication with the game characters will serve an essential part of the gameplay. By means of communication the player will find out important information, acquire tasks, trade or make deals to accomplish a task co-operatively. Apart from humans, the player will also be able to communicate with sapient mutant creatures.

The game will be strongly influenced by communication and NPCs' attitude towards the player. For example, under a bad attitude, trader will refuse to trade or will charge an exorbitant price, and stalkers will open fire as soon as they recognise the player.

Trade

Trade will be realistic, as you are given a chance to purchase, exchange or sell everything: ammunition, equipment or artifacts. You can trade with the army, dealers, stalkers and scientists. To give you an idea how this will look in the game: the player comes across with a veteran stalker in the Zone, they greet each other, agree to remove weapons, then come closer to each other and start trading. They exchange phrases through a communication system. Soviet roubles will go in the game as the currency.

The whole world living its own life:

* Man-made calamity, corrupt nature, psychological and physical threats, anomalies, odd deadly phenomena, mutated creatures, stalkers, military cordons, scientific camps.
* Vast territory of the Zone.
* Absolute freedom of movement with imperceptible level loading.
* Dynamic day-night switching system
* Dynamic weather effects as rain, wind, fog, etc.
* Generation of events, tasks, artifacts
* Anomalous energy blowouts, peaks of anomalous activity, migrating anomalies.
* Anomalous areas

Unique creatures and characters:

* Unique abilities of creatures as group intellect, telepathy, telekinesis etc.
* Behaviour and life simulation for creatures and characters.
* Characters and creatures move around under control of global intellect.
* Impressive script.
* Non-linear storyline.
* Several endings of the game.
* Events happening regardless of the player's actions.
* Game time system

Equipment

* over 30 types of weapons
* Unique weapons and their influence on enemy.
* Weapon upgrades.
* Devices and protective suits.
* Trade in weapons, artifacts and equipment.

Engine:

* 300.000 - 3.000.000 polygons per frame
* Dynamic shadows and lighting
* Characters are correctly shaded by objects
* Powerful physics engine, i.e controlling vehicles, detailing objects, bullet ballistics, skeleton animation, etc.
* Realistic AI, i.e characters' behaviour is adequate to environment and events happening around. Soldiers patrol the Zone perimeter. Stalkers travel the Zone independently of the player collecting anomalous formations, trading, communicating and fighting. Mutants increase their population, migrate in Zone, eliminating stalkers, soldiers and each other.
* Motion capture animation

"...We rejected the linear level-to-level passage in favour of such freedom of action and movement as seen in 'Elite', 'Daggerfall' and 'Fallout'. Players will travel an immense territory of a zone stretching for 30 square kilometers, explore it, gain money and experience, move along a free "non-stiff" story line towards the game final..."

If all that doesn't make at least a little bit excited, then there's simply no hope for you.

[OB1]

Those last screens are a lot nicer. Some of those buildings remind me of Croatia. :D

[A Black Falcon]

Communist block housing, OB1... lots of concrete. :)

Looks like some parts of Lljubljana, too, in a way... not the derelict-nuclear-explosion-area thing, but the architecture. :)

[Great Rumbler]

And here's what it looks like when there's a "blowout":

[A Black Falcon]

I think that's enough screenshots, GR... :)

[Great Rumbler]

They still have a few more on the site though...

[Great Rumbler]

This game is definitely going to come out someday. Maybe.

[A Black Falcon]

Right after Duke Nukem Forever?

... which WILL come out someday! Darnit, I believe in 3DRealms... :)

[Great Rumbler]

Duke Nukem Forever isn't coming out until 2389. We've been over this a thousand times!!

[A Black Falcon]

And, at long last, after six years of development it finally is finished...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6166678.html

[Dark Jaguar]

So then, with this game out, and me still not very interested in it, we all wait, for Duke Nukem.

At this rate they should pack in all the old Duke Nukem games, runnable in Windows, with Forever. We deserve it, because we didn't do anything for 10 years, I mean waited.

[Great Rumbler]

This thread has been around for a long time.

[A Black Falcon]

Yes, and it originally had a lot of screenshots in it... those links died quite some time ago (not that I miss them, nice as they were). :)

Why make a new thread when I could bring back an old one that shows, if incompletely, how long this game has been delayed? I know it's nothing like DNF's development cycle, but it's definitely on the long side... we'll see if it's good enough to live up to the hype.

[Great Rumbler]

Previews from various sites have been positive, so I have hope for it.

[A Black Falcon]

The developer doesn't have much of a track record though, but yeah, impressions have mostly been good, even if the game isn't as ambitious as originally planned (that often happens with these big, ambitious projects...)...

[Great Rumbler]

I played STALKER today. Pretty incredible, huh?

[A Black Falcon]

It got 8's in reviews, from what I've seen (five or six reviews, all in the 8 range)... good, but with some flaws. But yes, it actually got released...

There's hope for TeamFortress 2 and Duke Nukem Forever yet! :)

[Great Rumbler]

There's hope for TeamFortress 2 and Duke Nukem Forever yet!

Team Fortress 2? Yeah, that's coming out this year as a free pack-in with Half-Life 2: Episode 2.

[A Black Falcon]

I know, I meant how those three games have been called an 'unholy trinity of delay', and now one is actually out, one is coming this year, and the other... well, I still trust Apogee/3DRealms. Next year at the latest, I hope! :)

[Great Rumbler]

Stalker really is one of the most fun experiences I've had with a FPS in a long time, probably not since Half-Life 2.

It's not a perfect game, there's the story [which kind of doesn't make a whole lot of sense], the voice-acting [which isn't all that good], and the dialogue [which is pretty bad]. Those things aside, the world in which your character travels is diverse [within reason] and well crafted and the gameplay is very solid, i.e. guns feel like real guns and shoot-out situations can get pretty intense at times even on the lowest difficulty level. Plus, you also get to find undead zombies, horrifying mutants, wild animals, and bandits. Fun stuff!

Also, it's one of the most genuinely creepy FPSs that I've ever played. See, what Stalker does is pretty much the exact opposite of Doom 3's horrible broken approach to manufacturing cheap thrills.

The Doom 3 Formula:

1. Every single room is pitch dark.
2. To bring up your flashlight you have to lower your gun.
3. To bring up your gun you have to lower your flashlight.
4. Enemies constatly respawn.
5. Enemies constatly respawn right behind you.
6. Lots of scripted events where things burst through walls at you.

Creepy, yes, but very artificial in approach.

The Stalker Formula:

1. Give you realistic guns that fire with realistic accuracy.
2. Create an enviroment of dread and paranoia.
3. Throw in lots of terrifying enemies that leap at your face.
4. Force you to scavange for supplies.
5. Toss in some amazing sound design.

And there you have it! The recipe for successfully creating a very creepy game.

Man, I love this game.

[Dark Jaguar]

The thing is, I'm getting tired of the ol' "work your way from point to point, and that's IT" mechanic. Where's the Perfect Dark style games where you can actually do stuff with your world, and NEED to?

No, stacking crates to climb things doesn't count.

[Great Rumbler]

Stalker's just about exploring a broken and ravage world and doing lots of fun things like fighting monsters and getting neat weapons and items, no need to overly complicate that experience.

It's kind of like Oblivion. There's no real obstacle to progression, because progression isn't really the main point of the game.

[A Black Falcon]

Post-apocalyptic Oblivion-style FPS?

... Fallout 3's ideal model! :p

[Great Rumbler]

It's reminiscent of both Oblivion and Fallout, for various reasons.

From Fallout: Post-apocalyptic wasteland, warring factions, mutants, conservation/scavenging of equipment, and multiple "levels" that make up a larger map.

From Oblivion: Lots of exploration of 3D enviroments, fetch quests.

I'd say it favors Fallout more than it does Oblivion, except that the dialogue is really bad and you don't really have any upgradeable skills.

[Great Rumbler]

Old thread is old, but STALKER is still pretty awesome, especially with the 2009 Overhaul mod which I am currently using. I'll be playing it off and on until Call of Pripyat finished downloading through Steam.

Also, Fallout 3 is similar to STALKER is similar to Oblivion. Circular!

[Great Rumbler]

Y'all are losers if you don't play Call of Pripyat. Yeah, I said it.