In the middle of the development of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, a few crucial creatives started 4A Games in Kyiv. They weren't the first studio to schism from GSC Game World, and they weren't the last, (because, it seems, Sergiy Grygorovych is a donkey), but by now it seems 4A has taken the prize as the chosen spiritual successor studio for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. lineage or whatever, even though S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is coming.
I have never played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (I'm getting sick of typing that out, there's so many punctuation marks), but I am given to understand it has this gameplay/vibe, just more open-ended. And by this gameplay/vibe, I guess I mean the Big Roadside Picnic Energy game. You know what I mean; post-disaster- no apocalypse necessary, but it's preferred; an overwhelming Slavic atmosphere that if I could pin it down is somewhere between pure dread and dogged determination in the face of increasingly long odds; uncanny monsters and anomalies. You know it when you see it.
Although this game has certain kinks added to that formula, probably from the source material. Both Communists (not the cool type, the Marxist-Leninist type) and Nazis (there is no cool type of Nazi) are besetting the poor bastards who are just trying to survive. Most iconically, bullets are currency, although specifically high-quality bullets. The cheaper, post-collapse-of-all-professional-munitions-manufacture pills are worth nothing, which makes sense.
Mechanically, the game is sound. Before it was remastered it was probably less sound, but as of right now, the game is sound. There are often, throughout the extremely linear campaign(which is to its benefit, given the subway theming, because mission by mission, on the loading screens you see your particular route through the titular Moscow Metro), moments where stealth is incentivized, although not mandatory, and this probably lends it some replayability, alongside the generous difficulty options. The real thing that makes this game special is the atmosphere and the tension; at any moment, you feel like, you could end up in a dangerous tangent, whether it's the enemies cornering you in a cell and then pulling a trigger in your head, or the monsters killing you, or the weird alien fellas killing you. It all boils down to feeling like time is running out, basically.
That's due to the linearity to a great extent, but it's also due to the story; you are a 24-year-old guy in Exhibition who has up to this moment been your average survivor. Orphaned, yes. Living on a knife's edge, yes, like everyone in this hell the world has become, but so far not slipping off. Anyway, the station gets attacked, and you're forced to get help in Polis from a faction of good guys. That's a simple premise, but the trick is in the experience, the moving on down the line (and above the surface, God help you), the forward momentum, the world that is constructed around you by the developers. Even in this sort of jank state, the developers show a great understanding of narrative and environmental design (the latter looking better in this remastered state than it did before, probably). This was a wild ride, and I am dying to know how they improve on it with the other two games.
I have never played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (I'm getting sick of typing that out, there's so many punctuation marks), but I am given to understand it has this gameplay/vibe, just more open-ended. And by this gameplay/vibe, I guess I mean the Big Roadside Picnic Energy game. You know what I mean; post-disaster- no apocalypse necessary, but it's preferred; an overwhelming Slavic atmosphere that if I could pin it down is somewhere between pure dread and dogged determination in the face of increasingly long odds; uncanny monsters and anomalies. You know it when you see it.
Although this game has certain kinks added to that formula, probably from the source material. Both Communists (not the cool type, the Marxist-Leninist type) and Nazis (there is no cool type of Nazi) are besetting the poor bastards who are just trying to survive. Most iconically, bullets are currency, although specifically high-quality bullets. The cheaper, post-collapse-of-all-professional-munitions-manufacture pills are worth nothing, which makes sense.
Mechanically, the game is sound. Before it was remastered it was probably less sound, but as of right now, the game is sound. There are often, throughout the extremely linear campaign(which is to its benefit, given the subway theming, because mission by mission, on the loading screens you see your particular route through the titular Moscow Metro), moments where stealth is incentivized, although not mandatory, and this probably lends it some replayability, alongside the generous difficulty options. The real thing that makes this game special is the atmosphere and the tension; at any moment, you feel like, you could end up in a dangerous tangent, whether it's the enemies cornering you in a cell and then pulling a trigger in your head, or the monsters killing you, or the weird alien fellas killing you. It all boils down to feeling like time is running out, basically.
That's due to the linearity to a great extent, but it's also due to the story; you are a 24-year-old guy in Exhibition who has up to this moment been your average survivor. Orphaned, yes. Living on a knife's edge, yes, like everyone in this hell the world has become, but so far not slipping off. Anyway, the station gets attacked, and you're forced to get help in Polis from a faction of good guys. That's a simple premise, but the trick is in the experience, the moving on down the line (and above the surface, God help you), the forward momentum, the world that is constructed around you by the developers. Even in this sort of jank state, the developers show a great understanding of narrative and environmental design (the latter looking better in this remastered state than it did before, probably). This was a wild ride, and I am dying to know how they improve on it with the other two games.