Though this is a much more noble attempt to fix the wrongs of the original devs, it still feels like I'm missing out on something here. Like am I just playing a different game from everyone else or is this really just a "follow the mission marker, find out you can't access the area, walk into an anomaly, die to a status effect you can't find in the HUD guide menu?"
Like, I enjoy difficult design if there's a purpose to it, but these games still feel kind of more like "wander around til you're bored" mixed with "the menus and items are as inaccessible as possible because uh that makes it feel deep?"
Edit: I gave it another chance and played a few more hours, all of which were spent stumbling into an anomaly hidden in a bush then reloading my save only to turn around and wander into another anomaly hidden in another bush, only to reload and to get one-shotted by a group of mutants who had wandered into the main road and snuck up behind me. It feels more often like the game doesn't want to reward exploration, which totally devalues the entire formula.
Like, I enjoy difficult design if there's a purpose to it, but these games still feel kind of more like "wander around til you're bored" mixed with "the menus and items are as inaccessible as possible because uh that makes it feel deep?"
Edit: I gave it another chance and played a few more hours, all of which were spent stumbling into an anomaly hidden in a bush then reloading my save only to turn around and wander into another anomaly hidden in another bush, only to reload and to get one-shotted by a group of mutants who had wandered into the main road and snuck up behind me. It feels more often like the game doesn't want to reward exploration, which totally devalues the entire formula.
3 Comments
you're fully right, my complaint is more about the display of those accessibility issues as a "core component of what makes STALKER so great," mixed with the fact that the world isn't super interesting to me. I love stuff like Pathologic and Soulsborne games where the inaccessibility is a mechanic that actually plays more like a puzzle where you have to learn the systems and navigate them with rhythm and patience, but even in Anomaly my core complaints about STALKER as a series kinda boil down to "why should I spend the time exploring if nothing I explore gives me any value or sense of wonder as a new player, and why should I take the time to learn these complex systems if you're not even going to make the learning part accessible?"
I want to like it, it checks off so many boxes of things I like in games, it's maybe just a series I need to revisit in a few years with a fresh perspective. I appreciate what they did with Anomaly a LOT, it's really cool, but the issues I have are just with STALKER as a whole, after having spent a solid chunk of time in three of the games and nothing clicked.
apomdoker
2 years ago