Is the Stalker series overrated?

absolutely.

I recall thinking it was fairly open but come to find out there was literally only one way to go most of the time. I stopped played after just a few maps I found the restriction of movement insulting

After a few maps? i thought there was one mainly? I can't remember if there was loading for new zones or not.

I played it for about 30 minutes and never played it again.

I didn't care much for the first two STALKER games. But, I liked Call of Pripyat and I liked the Call of Chernobyl mod even better.

They were somewhat glitchy and got dinged for it. I don't think they were overrated based on reviews. At this point, they have some fantastic mods that change not just graphics or better stability, but also the nature of the gameplay itself.

I think they got the review scores they deserved. But, taking into account the available mods, I rather play them than many other games with higher scores.

There aren't many games that do nights just as well.... whether it'd be totally dark, moonlit, or stormy.

Never played that mod. I thought COP was generally hated in that series?

No.

If anything underrated. none of Stalker game got praised in same way as Half life but reality was STALKER SoC was better than Half life 2 and easily still to this date the best FPS ever made.

it was unique, innovative game and one kind of game. Metro is quite similar but lot linear and cinematic. i see Metro Exodus will be next Stalker and if it become as good as Stalker it might be one of the GOAT.

of course gamers who prefer casual shooters like COD, battlefield or far cry wont like it.

I played about 12 hours of the original. The game is a hot mess that gets better if you slog through it. You eventually get better equipment and it becomes an FPS/RPG hybrid type of thing. That being said, it's still a mess. It feels like a low budget indie game. I'd probably give it like a 5 or a 6 out of 10. I don't understand the high praise heaped on the game.

No. The Stalker games are some of the best single player First Person Shooters out there. SoC is easily on my top 10 games list.

here is the thing.

What I recall is going to the first 'map' or 'area' and thinking. 'ok I am going to be clever like in all the other FPSs I had played up to that point, I am going to sneak in the tree line and go around.

nope..

cant do it, not left not right, all you can do is walk the land mine field out in the open and play the game of do not step on the mine.

it was bulls&&t.

PLENTY of games up to that point allowed me to be clever, not this one.

I ended up throwing the game in the trash

The game varies between linearity and open choice. Call of Pripyat addresses this, and gives you more freedom to move around the map.

They wouldn't even make a top 10 list realistically.

it was a deal breaker.

instead of 'the best' as you feel. It was for me without question the worst FPS I personally had ever played.

Fair enough, different strokes for different folks.

I think for me my favorite FPS would have to be Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, although I sure did like me some Global Operations and Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising.

In fact I think maybe the best is Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising

Are you talking about this minefield (at 2:47)? I don't see what's so hard about it? Of course, you don't step on a mine. If you do, it goes KA-BLAM! and you're dead. ;) What exactly did you want to do on a minefield that was clever?

I dont recall and I never said it was hard.

in fact if anything I am suggesting it was too easy and boring.

I need to be able to decide for myself how I want to get into the area. if i want to sneak in the woods on the side i need to be allowed to do that.

literally every single FPS I had played up to that point at least allowed me multiple entry points to choose from.

Those graphics are pretty bad.

Daytime isn't the games' strong suite. But, they sure come alive at night.

STALKER's style and limitations seemed common among other FPS games of the era. Even Crysis had its parts where the player was steered and funneled through a passageway. Far Cry 1 and 2 were the same way and they were among the more open.

In the case of the minefield, it formed the southeastern boundary of the map. So, yeah. There's no skipping the minefield.

nope.

I played all those games and they all had CONSIDERABLY more freedom of movement then what I experienced in Stalker.

Where you funneled down the road at times? sure, but at least I could hug the bushes on the way down, couldnt even do that in STALKER.

Probably underrated. The press deemed it a merely ok/good game, ignored it for games like Bioshock and your Halos.

Gamers on the other hand, loved it and took is as something special, and it sold well regardless of it's low budget or technical follys.

I'd put it above something like Bioshock any day of the week.

I put Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising above both of those two games

I'm talking from my experiences with Call of Pripyat. There are a few spots where fences mark boundaries and off-limit areas plus a few hills that cannot be traversed. The latter is very much fewer from previous STALKER games.

You can also hug the bushes, assuming there are bushes to hug. I mean, it's a natural, considering how important maintaining or breaking line of sight is in the game. I've shaken off some of the apex mutants by zig-zagging through clumps of foliage.

And for comparison purposes, what are some of the FPS games you're referring to?

my 'go to' shooters where

Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising

Global Operations

Medal of Honor: allied assault

later games not as much because I started to explore other options. in fact STALKER might have been the last not for sure

This is exactly what I was thinking. Outside of a small group, most of the gamer community has probable never even heard of Stalker, let alone played it.

Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield series get talked about a hell of a lot more than the Stalker games.

Was pretty terrible imo..

Was trash in 2007 and its still trash. Metro is better in every way

Underrated IMO. One of the best FPS games I have ever played and ranks up there with HL, Doom and Quake for me. If a Stalker 3 was announced it would be the first game I have pre-ordered since Arma III via Steams Early Access.

Pointless poll too since most if not all console gamers on here will vote yes.

What was so great about it? I played it in 2008 not long after it came out and was puzzled by all the praise it was getting. It was glitchy, had bad shooting dumb AI, and the graphics were very dated for the time. It looked like a game from 2002 or 2003 but came out in 2007. It was also poorly translated from Russian or Polish or whatever language it was originally in. The only thing I could figure was that this was before Deus Ex got rebooted with Human Revolution, and maybe people were very desperate for another Deus Ex type game to the point where they were willing to play Eastern European bargain bin trash.

I had Joint Ops: Typhoon Rising. It came bundled with my ASUS ATI X800XL video card back in 2005. I didn't really play it much because I was already deep into Battlefield 1942/Desert Combat and getting ready for Battlefield 2.

Some similarities I can say for both JO:TR and CoP are firefights can take place at long distances. Plus, one or two shots can kill. It's always a good idea to scout an area first. Within the game boundary, most areas in both games are accessible with multiple approach venues. Obviously, there are no vehicles in CoP and the latter has a few unscalable hills. But, they are very few in comparison to say, Far Cry 2 which drove me nuts.

Anyway, Joint Ops didn't have much of a SP which is why I set it aside.

GSC could gave done a better job disguising the game world boundaries a la Crysis/Warhead. But, having the fences made it obvious so that I didn't waste time trying to get around them.

stalker 3? you mean 2??

well Metro Exodus is coming. so if stalker 2 is not coming. than Metro will fill it.

Not if it has that consolized UI/inventory crap. ;)

Call of Pripyat's Inventory management is several steps above the Metro games.

I ask myself the same thing about Halo and Dark souls all the time. You can give me answer but I just cant see it, im not sure you'll see mine but FWIW:

Stalker for me was extremely immersive, the game world felt very alive and let me progress and enjoy it all at my own leisure. It had its fair share of bugs and was translated quite poorly but I found that this added to the charm and the fantastic setting the game had. I liked the way the guns handled, it had an intriguing back story and all this made the game feel so good to play. I couldn't put SOC down when it released, I was engrossed in the world, in the search for Strelok, in the gunplay and everything about it.

I like the Stalker series for the atmosphere, the challenging gameplay on max difficulty and the dynamic world that carries on with or without you that can create stories. The series isn't overrated, it's underrated.

It's NOT trash, It's about immersion. trying to live in the world that's trying to kill you every step of the way. In a lot of ways, it's more like those survival games on Steam. There is a goal, but it's mainly about surviving and exploring.

Yeah that was a typo, couldn't be bothered to edit.

To me the Metro series always felt like a poor mans STALKER, trying to appeal to the COD fans rather than STALKER fans. I did enjoy the first two Metro games and ill probably buy Exodus but I was spoiled with STALKER and disappointing in the direction Metro went. Since Exodus is going for a more open world similar to STALKER I am expecting (hoping) that its more like STALKER than the last two games were.

Maybe a little, wouldn't say "VERY" overrated.

Maybe exclusively on this forum you may argue that it's overrated. But in the real world, it's completely underappreciated. Look, the games aren't technical marvels. They've got issues. But I got sucked into their worlds and had a lot of fun playing them. I had more fun playing that series than I did the Call of Duty series, which was well loved at the time (it wasn't until MW2 that the CoD hate-train began).

No, Clear Sky is the one people disliked. Clear Sky is okay. Showed promise in the first half only to fizzle out by the end. CoP started strong and remained strong. I'd recommend the game, even vanilla (very much unlike the original or Clear Sky).

I liked Clear Sky. It's actually the prequel to Shadow. The environments are a little more boring, the gameplay a little more challenging. Not a piece of shit by any means, but not as good as the other two. Can probably be skipped and then played last if you make it through and still want some more Stalker.

I liked it well enough, too. But I've never beaten it. I get really sucked in with the faction wars in the beginning of the game. But by the time I reach Red Forest, I always end up losing interest. Every other game in the series keeps me.

Underrated. Why are people even comparing it to Metro? Linear story focused FPS vs open ended immersive sim where you create your own stories through unique gameplay experiences

Stay cheeki breeki

Actually I think Quake is the best comparison to Stalker for me. Both games are really ugly and really boring but some people claim to really like them.

I'm not really sure that Quake was even meant to be played single player it's so dull, and instead supposed to serve as a tech demo of the engine for multiplayer.

Never played it, just game to see Ghost nut all over the place talking about how amazing it is.

He has been surprisingly calm about it, lol.

May I ask, are you Russian, Ukranian, Polish, or some other kind of Eastern European? My other pet theory is that people from that part of the world like these games as a point of pride, or that maybe something was lost in translation. Like if you play the game in Russian, maybe the voice acting and writing are better.

I mean I would imagine a lot of western games have stuff that gets lost in translation when translated to other languages. There are probably people in Eastern Europe or Japan or something who don't get why Mass Effect is good because the voice acting probably sucks in other languages.

Game was one of GOAT, I've never played anything like it ever since. Game sucked me in with its settings, environment and atmosphere.

Looks like SW has spoken, and it's officially overrated.

Good game imo...but can't play for long time, motion sickness sets in. :P

Apart from insanely immersive world, worldbuilding and atmosphere I found it a very lackluster game.

The shooting felt bad, the game just had an overall 'low budget' feel to it, and that's coming from someone who can usually stomach buggy, broken and unfinished eastern european games.

I'd go as far as to say that STALKER was CSG's biggest mistake: I loved their cossack series, and STALKER was their downfall.

shooting feel great in Stalker. only weapon on starting suck but when yo got AK 47. its amazing. like one of the best AK47 i shoot in any game.

in COD4. shooting AK47 feel too easy but in this game. it feel more realistic and hard.