Recent reviews by Stray

Stalker 2 is an accomplishment for the developers and a wonderful next step for the series. It's heart warming to see a developer remain committed to an experience over a means to make a profit. I'm happy to see the soul of stalker remains. An often dark but hope-filled story of the human condition when exposed to the extremes. This commitment was proven as I left the tutorial area walking upon a familiar vista, a fence post memorial overlooking the Zone. This once concept art turned loading screen was now realized. An open world stalker game. Bugs and interesting game decisions are easily overlooked when you're exploring this rich, lovingly crafted world. Take a walk, watch your rads and keep buckshot close.

Happy to report that in game cut-scenes and the camera interactions with npcs have improved drastically. I find it infinitely more immersive to engage with named characters and ask about the Zone and get context dialogue now. It helps that Voice acting has improved across the board. Emotional range, depth and tone are markedly improved. There's the occasional deadpan readings but with so many voiced npcs there's bound to be a bad day here and there. This audio quality extends to the rest of the game as well. Guns sound weighty, mutants are spooky and anomalies sound visceral. With so much of the soul of stalker being brought back some of the old mechanical/gameplay blunders do unfortunately rear their head. Inventory management can be unbalanced, game economy is in a strange place and repair cost vs practical use is rough with the amount of money you bring in.

Weapon attachments have improved only in quantity but if you've played stalker in the past you've seen everything before. it's unfortunate that they didn't take the opportunity to bring back player vision upgrades or intractable attachments. Better flashlights, nightvision, thermal, all gone.

AI while not entirely improved has actually remained comparable to the previous games. While the developers use of these assets has improved. They know exactly when to throw a monster at you to create both a challenge mechanically and an impact emotionally. Human enemies while not the smartest we've seen GSC's level and arena design has improved drastically. The development reminds me a lot of the Doom series. Knowing how to use the tools they have to provide the most impact for the player. That being said, the overuse of the bloodsucker was a little sad to see when they've been such a symbol for the game. It would be fine if they weren't such a chore to interact with on the harder difficulties. You'll be running as fast as possible to the nearest waist high prop. I imagine the experience will improve once I get armor that prevents me from being one shot by the handsy bastards.

However well used, it seems scripted monster spawns have become the crutch as the A-life system is not currently active. There's currently what seems to be a weighted percentage event chance that spawns npcs, it's rudimentary but it works. Like I said, it doesn't harm immersion terribly but the world does seem a little smaller for it.

After playing a certain Anomaly Mod it's more then a little disappointing interacting with the current PDA. I mean, we dont even get an encyclopedia?

All this being said If you're even vaguely interested in the setting or if you've liked other games in this genre like Metro or fallout you'd be doing yourself a disservice not playing this game. GSC seems invested in the continued development of this game and mod support for stalker has historically been near reverent so I only see this game improving with time. Give them your money. They deserve it <3


GSC if you're reading this my vodka weighs too much and give me more batteries for my damn flashlight.

With love,

Stalker who wont get out of here <3

-- They've already nerfed the Bloodsuckers! The lonely loner doesn't have to balance on crates anymore to avoid ye old forced suck

Intricate detail, complex mechanics, multifaceted interactions. Banger of a soundtrack. It's not perfect but it has a satisfying game progression and the Colonist AI is smarter then you normally get. Mods allow for a tailor made sim game that is positive to scratch the itch. DLC is on par for what you'd see for these types of games but they lean towards the wait for the sale side of the scale.

If you're willing to overlook the 2D graphics and you find this even vaguely interesting give it a shot. If your interest last longer then the learning curve this will be among your favorite games.



o7

Do not dismiss this game due to it's graphics. This game does an impeccable job of of setting atmosphere and creating high intensity moments. This paired with decent game play make this game stand far above it's peer's. However being a highly intense and teamwork orientated gamed it does suffer from the usual culprits such trolls, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and the like so it's best to play with friends, Where it truly shines. Give this game a go with a group of friends. You wont regret it.

First impressions: I received this game as a gift from a friend. His stated reason was because this game was without mercy, he was not wrong in the slightest. The game is a lot of fun with a friend and provides a lot of open ended exploration with dungeons and caves sort of spread out throughout the area with little to no fan fair. And thus really rewards exploration and and planning. The backpack system is a great mechanic and really ads that much more to the experience. Allowing you to throw it to the ground when times get rough for a boost to mobility. but also limits you to only using what you have in your "pockets" creating this tight rope of what you need immediately and what you might be able to live without.

Combat: The game's fighting mechanics sort of plays out like a mix between dark souls and Knights of the old republic. For those who haven't played Kotor It's a turn based combat game where you can play it in real time if you wish but you still press buttons and wait for the animation to play out. Outward is faster then that but still feels like you're lagging behind every time you press an ability button. There are of course bugs in some of the enemies hit boxes and there have been some frustrating moments. However, the combat get's the job done and is rewarding in it's own way

Progression: You start out with actual garbage and it shows. When you finally get some better garbage the sense of accomplishment is there. It feels good to get new weapons and new loot as each weapon has it's own style of attack and different chains. enough so to make things feel different. Progression comes from getting different skills which you buy with money and through better loot. Which skills you can get are limited only by a rare resource called "Chains" you start out with three and each "class" is restricted behind a key skill that has to be purchased to learn any of the subsequent "class" skills. So in theory you're limited to three "classes"

AI: Completly passable. They will fight each other if they are programmed to do so and they will do their best to dodge attacks which at some times can be entirely effective. As far as planning goes however they're rather basic. If they're classified as melee they will wall straight towards you and do their best to attack you. They can dodge, block, use abilites and attack you. However, if an enemy has a bow out and you enter melee range it will switch it's weapon but wont revert unless you leave melee range. It will not attempt to step back and return to shooting you.

Story: At this point we have completely ignored it without any issues as it didn't exactly draw us in or anything. Although I do see us following it once we get done exploring every nook assuming the game keeps us interested that long.

Survival: You have to eat and drink and their are negatives for avoiding those. The ambient temp also plays a factor. as their are seasons built into the game. You also need to rest but considering how fast enemies kill you we haven't run into a situation where we are lacking it as the enemies are considerate enough to put you to bed. As time goes on your how your overall health and stamina will lower. This can be fixed by eating certain foods or drinks and by resting. You can hunt for food and can boil water so it's never to hard to keep topped off.

Visuals: Passable at best. I've run into a lot of bugs with both lighting and corpses. For example, bodies stick around after you leave and return and on multiple occasions I have returned to bandits in T-Poses or worse their bone rigging has given up and I've found them bent and stretched beyond comprehension. Or when looking around the entire world will flicker and shadows will appear and disappear without warning. It seems the lantern or player generated light are without flaw though and look really cool. The art design also heavily takes from both feudal Japan/china and from medieval Europe. With both fantasy knights and samurai. The monsters also look like something straight out of a JRPG with just one example being a quadrupedal feline like creature wearing a Cat mask wielding multiple telepathically controlled jade katanas. So overall pretty cool. However, the bandits begin to look samey and of course their are plane jain skeletons. The town's are all unique and some of them I would go so far as to say look amazing (Monsoon specifically)

In closing: It's a fun game to play with a friend or alone that doesn't hold your hand. Outward heavily rewards exploration and the combat is both hard and punishing by mechanics sake and slightly affected by awkward game design but never to the point of where I want to just give up. The maps are also huge and this is accentuated by the lack of fast traveling and no mounts. You will be hoofing it everywhere. I recommend this game and think it's more then worth the 15 dollars my buddy spent on it. but at anything over 40 dollars I would not suggest it.

See you later space cowboy's :)