I mean where do i even begin, its good but its also really bad? Like the fact that it even exists and is a huge mod in itself is a grand achievement but at the same time the whole "realistic" approach to progress is so ???, thankfully you can tweak all of that shit out, there are tons of add-ons out there and those are one of the main reasons of what makes this game so good, its the main modding platform for all 3 games but i still consider Call of chernobyl (or call of the zone) to be superior simply for the fact that its way more stable and crashes alot less, it just sucks that its not getting any support anymore.
>iron man mode
>1 extra life per day survived
yep, its gaming time

Pulled from my full retrospective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGd-vhg0AZE

S.T.A.L.K.E.R., as I’ve come to see - and more or less appreciate it, is an impressive waste of time. Everything it boasts, from the gunplay and the realism to the immersive systems and the atmospheric open world, is all just a space to exist in for however long you see fit, until you get bored with the loop and find something else to do. It presents a wild, open world full of infinite possibilities (of things to kill, or things that will kill you), and a list of mechanics and systems that you’re seemingly not supposed to understand without trial and error and frequent quick-saves. It requires a lot of time and patience and commitment, and I feel that I gave it the amount of time it deserved before giving my thoughts a three-year-deep conclusion.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (the game), is little more than an aesthetic, comparative to its genre peers. It implies a deeper message, but only through its proximity to these other works, considering its title and setting. What S.T.A.L.K.E.R. seems to aim for thematically is on par with Fallout’s frontier-fantasy; isn’t it mysterious and sexy to have full reign over this barren landscape that used to be a civilization? Isn’t it fun to think about returning to zero, carrying nothing but a backpack and a gun into the wide unknown? Here we’re shown less the effects of war on society, and more a wonderland for grizzled gun-toting men, survivors who are here for the same mechanical reason as the player - they like shooting things too. Inherently, as a piece of interactive media focused more on open, immersive mechanics than a linear story, it seems more interested in being a military simulation in a “cool setting” than a rumination on why that setting exists in the first place, much less what it symbolizes. It’s a reaction to the aesthetic trend of nuclear media, the allure of tragedy and the speculation around the effects of nuclear energy, and the inevitable horror genre tropes that fill in the gaps and begin to form the fear into something shiny and profitable.

“The zone” is often as beautiful as it is ugly and static, and I found myself getting enraptured by Anomaly’s weather effects and skyboxes as often as I was disappointed with the emptiness and ugliness of an area I thought I’d take the time and resources to explore. The world is also incredibly hostile to its inhabitants, in a way that pursues “realism,” but in the process loses track of why it exists at all. The openness is presented as a space of limitless opportunity, but for what? The answer, of course, is to “be a part of the world,” which is enacted through the game’s verbs by walking for a period of time, then shooting a gun, then walking somewhere else. This openness, also, provokes a classic form of open world burnout. You’re provided with so much to do (in the form of walking, shooting, and then picking things up) that you quickly lose yourself in the loop of trying to make your numbers go up (namely encumbrance, which translates to money). With a higher number (money), you can build up equipment that allows you to go further without having to reload a save after getting one-shot - or at the very least mortally wounded by anything you come across, or anything that (thanks to the immersive world design) comes after you. This is an expensive process, both for you as a player and “you” as a stalker, and will necessitate running back and forth across several maps doing fetch quests, finding filler items to sell (that might be useful, or might just have flavor text that alludes to being useful, we’ll never tell), and trying not to get encumbered.

I’ve done my time in the zone, I’ve lived in it for a period, explored its secrets, even if I haven’t “beaten” S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in whatever form it wants to be beaten. I will probably still think about it, maybe gratuitously return to it for a few hours, try and see if there’s anything else hidden in its world. In the end, maybe this version of the zone just isn’t for me, maybe I’ll never find what I want hiding somewhere deep inside it, and maybe it wasn’t ever meant to be any deeper than “just a game.” Given S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s upcoming release, the developers’ lack of reservations about NFTs, and the series’ target fanbase of hunter-killers, maybe no zone will ever live up to the ruminative fantasy I keep in my head and heart. Perhaps Chernobyl’s exclusion zone is fated, ironically, to be a constant mystical battleground, an aesthetic backdrop for yet another survival shooter game, an untouched, unruled place full of limitless violent possibilities. In the meantime, in the real world, maybe we can continue to cope with the doors that cannot be closed behind us, and hopefully learn from our mistakes and our history of violence, and prevent such a prospective future from befalling us before we inevitably get another triple-A post-nuclear frontier survival experience for the cost of $70, a thousand layoffs, a handful of crunch hospitalizations, and our dignity as artists.

STALKER is one of those game series which has got a huge number of mods for. STALKER: Anomaly is one of the most popular and comprehensive ones. There isn’t even any need for the vanilla games to play it, just download and play. To add on to that, it’s also free. Hardly a bad deal in my opinion.
Anomaly is a combination of all STALKER games, cut content and ideas that never made it. It follows a storyline similar to vanilla if story mode is chosen and does away with the pre-made player character. Can it stand on its own? It lacks the charm of the vanilla games, so I would recommend playing them first. Even if you don’t, you will still have a fun time with Anomaly.

Story
I noticed quite a few similarities between the story of anomaly and vanilla, so I didn’t feel the same need to follow the main quest as before. I honestly can’t remember much about it. I should mention that I didn’t to complete everything. Furthermore, I stopped playing in the middle of the second of 3 “main quests”. I already had the best gear; an incredible amount of money and it was a slog to keep going, so I stopped playing.
Obviously, that’s just my experience, yours may differ. Still, I would not recommend Anomaly for its story.

Mechanics and gameplay
As this is technically a mod, you can change almost every aspect of the gameplay to fit your playstyle. Personally, I didn’t bother with that and just stuck with vanilla Anomaly.
The first new addition that can be seen is the inclusion of a character creator that allows you to play as any faction and start in many locations. There you can also choose story or warfare and others part about your playthrough.
The largest change this mod brings is the combination of all the maps and more. This made the play area so massive that I didn’t manage to explore it all. Also, the FPS aspect is majorly improved, to the point that I’ve seen some complaints that it’s turning into a mil sim.
The warfare mode is worth mentioning. It can be a little unfair. By that I mean I was fighting off waves of hundreds of monolith forces while watching all other locations being overrun. Still, it was fun.
Overall, Anomaly is better than any of the STALKER games in terms of gameplay.

Graphics/Artstyle
Graphics are also pretty good. Still looks like STALKER, but its obvious effort has been put in to make it look as good as possible.

Atmosphere/Immersion
I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I wasn’t as immersed in Anomaly as in the other STALKER titles. It felt as if I was a player in a game, rather than a stalker in the zone.

Music
Didn’t listen to soundtrack that much. Seems like mostly dark ambiance, just as before. I don’t have a favourite.

Final thoughts
I can’t wait for all of my STALKER reviews to be outdated the moment STALKER 2 comes out.

é fácil para mim dizer que essa é A MINHA experiência definitiva de stalker, você adicionar a atmosfera e ao gameplay de stalker elementos de roguelike e afins e remover (opcionalmente) o elemento narrativo do jogo você esta basicamente me dando um presente de natal, aniversário e dia das crianças em um só. não que a narrativa/lore/plot de stalker seja ruim, eu só não sou muito de me importar ativamente com isso, eu prefiro muito mais estar na zona, explorando livremente, com um personagem de criação própria em um mundo aberto. eu aprecio muito a possibilidade de investir em um personagem em um jogo punitivo e casca-grossa, me equipar, pisar em dead city e um monolith silencioso esgueirar atrás de mim e estourar meu cérebro sem eu conseguir nem reagir, respirar fundo e pensar oh bolas! hora de começar de novo

Pros
- A stand alone game/mod for STALKER so the base games aren't required
- All the maps from the 3 games are present jammed into one,
- You can play as other different factions as well. Monolith, Duty etc
-You can customize your own experience before you start or in the settings to have the gameplay you want


Cons
- Playing the Trilogy is somehow err.. required in order to get the grasp of how STALKER is played, Oh and since it uses the same maps you can get familiar right away

this is my stand in review for all (conversion) mods for stalker games i played. probably played anomaly or something based on it.

anyways they all are free and, as far as i saw, never required any of the original games but are so good i ended up buying the other 2 stalker games besides shadow of chernobyl which was my first stalker game, just so i give back to the original developers/asset creators somehow after playing those mods what feels like several hundred of hours combined...probably i should give the modders also some money speaking off...

if u want a sandbox freeform rpg, as hardcore/tactially/survivally as u'd like single player experience and enjoyed the core mechanics of the stalker games (not everyones cup of tea), u should definitely try some of the stalker based mods