I've seen more complaints and bitching from gatekeepers about the S2 videos not being like blank or like "how this isn't Stalker,this is call of duty filth" more than anyone else.
I just hope we won't have to hear any 'this feels nothing like the original games'. It really needs to be a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game, and not just a ripoff soiling the name!!
Stalker is unfortunately in a bit of a weird position as a franchise: while all the three maintain some of the core elements of gameplay, they go in different directions in regard to story and world building. Add to this the vague nature of the Zone, easy access to modding tools, GSC almost disappearing for a decade and you have what we have now: everybody has their own personal idea of what Stalker should be like. Personally I just hope Stalker 2 will be at least as good as the original, but I'm worried about those pre-order dlc I saw: I don't want to play a modern videogame, I want to experience the Zone, damnit!
Yea, I would tolerate it a bit more of those bonuses if it was just season pass for 2 story DLC and that's it. Multiplayer of the original trilogy wasn't the strong suit *at all* and CO:OP was confirmed to not be coming according to Grigorovich in some magazine interview.
@@ChainikVlad I heard the 2 stories might be about Yantar and Limansk Wich might also be the reason we might not be able to visit those two areas at release. Having a spatial anomaly cut those areas off.
@@blooocki Yes, the leaks apparently said so. But Yantar is a bit different. Most likely there will be a DLC questline in Yantar, but the area is probably gonna still be accessible in the main game
Imagine creating a mod so successful that it casts a shadow over the entirety of the games which it was based on and actually comes full circle to become harmful to the series. That’s gotta be the most bittersweet feeling to the Anomaly creators ever.
@@zars1324thats is outright wrong, i remember BF3, it was a buggy mess but people got into it because it was unique(at the time), ARMA games are still a physics bullshit fest but you have houndreds of unique communities gathering up to play some ops, and those are few very mainstream examples
@@zaikolebolsh5724 I am speaking about the majority of people, you will always have the fans for the otherside, however a common excuse of Anomaly only players is that the Trilogy is old/buggy/outdated.
@@zars1324 considering that alot of triple A game company's games come out unfinished and buggy. Id say most people go for unique over polished. Tarkov is another good example
I'm an anomaly modder. I've been around the anomaly community for a long time and know their attitude toward stalker 2. The boys have already decided that they will love the game no matter what, before it was even officially announced. If it's great, we will enjoy it. If it's bad, we will fix ourselves. Just like old time. I think the core fans very tolerate stalker 2. We expect it to be similar to the the trilogy. Sadly some young fans think different. I try to convince them to try out the trilogy every time I have a chance.
Problem i have with playing the trilogy is they play like games from the 00's. I played SoC when it came out and loved it, and its only cos of that i bothered with Anomaly, and then EFP
I first found out about the franchise through Drewski's anomaly videos, as did many others, but I've found myself more infatuated by the world itself than just the gameplay. The world felt like it was a place that didn't want you there, the idea of emissions being events that are caused by the almost sentient mind of the zone itself wishing to cleanse itself of the very people trying to destroy it is just so interesting. Stick me in a game where I can explore that more and I'd dig it, as such I've been playing through the originals and I'm having a blast. Sure the gameplay of anomaly can be considered a bit more refined with a modern touch, but I don't want insane realism for the sake of realism, or a super ultra giga hardcore game, so the differences between soc and anomaly do not deter me. SOC so far has been a joy to play, I look forward to experiencing what stalker 2 will do to expand the universe even more.
To be completely honest, I have played all 3 games before. And now I just switched off to Anomaly, and the only reason for that is because the storyline for Anomaly is optional and you can explore the Zone as your own story. I don't see Anomaly or Gamma as mainly how Stalker is suppose to be, yes it's gameplay is amazing. Originating from Call of Pripyat's mechanics. But if there was ever a true essential to the Stalker experience, it's the first 3 official games. This way you can experience the official experience even if it is greatly difficult, but it is very worth it. I only see Anomaly as a mod where I can just freely play in the Zone instead of following a specific storyline, it's not necessary that I have to turn on Story Mode or go to the leader of my faction to find Strelok, stop Sin, or find out some random problem's with Sidorovich's radio. It's just the freedom of all Stalker players to be in the Zone and make their own path. It's no baseline of how Stalker is, it's just a choice if you wanna keep playing Stalker or not.
Yes, this "ULTRA MEGA REALISTIC HARDCORE TACTICOOL FOOD HUNGER THIRST RPG" like Tarkov, ARMA, Dayz etc has taken over STALKER, the three STALKER games are great story and gameplay but now people only want Anomaly.
i dont know man, yes true the story is great and all but i just cant i cant play old graphics janky game (no offense) but i do watch the lore on youtube and i know stalker 2 wont be like anomaly
As much as I love some tactile, high-risk gunplay, I think the rise of tacticool culture of "hardcore realistic shooters" have tarnished the true beauty of STALKER and the Zone. For as janky as the vanilla games are, the atmosphere is never lost on me whereas in Anomaly, seeing gameplay where the player whips out their fully customized Zenitco AK-74 just makes it feel like Anomaly has turned into a pseudo-flexing session rather than living in an ever-changing ecosystem where you can never expect what will happen on a wide scale tomorrow. I really don't want to blame Operator Drewski for this but I feel like his Anomaly series have distracted newcomers from what the true beauty and horror of the Zone is.
man elitist like you just make me want to never play the game again, how do upgraded and better weapons take away from anything? the original game having no guns was due to cost and time. anomaly is objectively the most atmospheric the idea your even trying to say the old games are better in this regard is laughable at best it has EVERYTHING the old zones have with better effects most people like me wouldn't even be playing stalker if it wasn't for anomaly its were many of us started and after playing the others anomaly is objectively the better game and achieves everything the original devs wanted and them some, some of the old devs even worked on anomaly ffs
Do you know any modpacks that might make the Focal point of the mod that eerie Terriyfying Atmosphere or even improve it? That is my favorite part of Shadow of Chernobyl
This is somethi g that irked me, although the bringing of outside forces brings of course newer and more professional weapons one can loot. One never know how long a player tried to put together that weapon.
@@epicboukas7354Not SoC but Call of Pripyat has a mod called Misery, the version prior to the current one gives such a heavy atmosphere, even more so then the base game imo, he speaks about it in the video.
The Stalker series has always been a part of my childhood. The gameplay I watched as a child gave such weird and unique feelings that I sadly won't feel ever again. Playing all of the games as time went, it all felt complete in my heart. I really hope that the story and its elements for all of us who give care to the original trilogy, carry to Stalker 2
YES, FINALLY SOMEONE ADDRESSES THIS ISSUE! I actually abandoned many stalker related groups on social media, because the shitstorm was too much to handle.
I love Anomaly and played Gamma (busy-hands simulator is suffering from mod dev narcissism) If I introduce anyone to stalker it will ALWAYS be vanilla SoC, master, no crosshair
Is there something going on with Gamma? ive only played about 4 or 5 hours of it because i was already bored by anomaly by the time i played and it didnt do much to change things
@@cadrian4806 Grok (the guy that compiled gamma) is hugely narcissistic and full of himself because he thinks he created the best mod ever. He has a huge victim complex and thinks any addon that mentions gamma that's downvoted on MODDB is a personal attack on him, it's almost as if he thinks the whole stalker community revolves around him and his modpack. This is including the fact that he's profiting off of other people's hard work via his Patreon. It's just a shitty situation all-round.
@@fuzzo4475 Having watched him throw his tantrums on ModDB convinced me not to download his modpack, not that I wanted to download that garbage before, dude just artificially extends the gameplay adding a ton of "realistic survival elements" into it.
@@fuzzo4475 excuse me but do you have any idea the amount of work he puts into this completely for free? Every single day he's working and updating the pack, I check the updates multiple times a day every day and there's constantly new updates. He even changed the name of the pack to not have is own name in it because people are crying he's taking glory for himself.
I literally found you about 2-3 hours ago and was watching your Iceberg series, and now you post a video about the game that brought me into the Stalker Universe. Thank you!
Lol I started with Lost Alpha DC 1.05, loved it, bought the trilogy, burned through it. Anomaly is great gameplaywise, but for reasons I don't know, it can never replicate the atmosphere of either the original games or more lore/story focused games. Maybe because it went from being a soulful sci-fi focused horror FPS to a re-textured misery lite survival shooter.
Yeah i agree, the original games felt unique and different It's not some Lidl brand Tarkov survival shooter, but rather sci-fi focused FPS with light RPG style progression (getting better equipment while facing more dangerous enemies) and having an interesting world to explore (all the while having PS2 style graphics lol)
@@OperatorMax1993 Hahaha, "lidl brand tarkov" I'm stealing that one! I think this shows how gameplay and narrative/atmosphere are so much more intertwined than you'd first think. You would theoretically imagine more stuff to do, more mechanics and items is a great thing. At least that's what I thought when I revved up GAMMA, and it's great. But it's not in the same register as Shadow of Chernobyl (even enhanced with vanilla + mods). Maybe it's a simple case of too much focus on gameplay and not remotely enough on lore/worldbuilding (they could've added characters, cinematics etc...) (theory 1?). Maybe even if they did that, adding gameplay mechanics takes away from lore/narrative anyhow (theory 2). I don't know man, I'm just a S.T.A.L.K.E.R
World scaling and graphics looks odd in Anomaly when compared to old school mods like AA2. Idk why graphics are so consistent and appealing in SoC... Might be nostalgia...
Dude, I totally agree with you. This issue is at the point that I have meet random people in real life that at first they told me "I love stalker!" and when I ask which stalker game is their favorite, they just tell me that they have only played Anomaly. It's feels incredibly disappointing since it's not something that happens all the time.
while i feel you, you have to recognize not everybody is old enough for being able to enjoy these old games it just has been to long and u cant ask a kid whos first game was Skyrim to play stalker and enjoy it. sure im overexaggerating but i hope you get the idea. And still i rather have 20.000 people being enganged in the stalker franchise by anomaly then just 20 by the original games u know? because in the end of the day stalker is more then just the games and it has potential to be even much more but it wont be albe to grow if people are gatekeeping the franchise in saying shit like "ure not a true stalker if u didnt play the original trillogy" and thats just sad and wrong and please dont get me wrong everyone not playing the original three games is missing out so hard but u know what? its their decision and if they want to miss out fkin let them
@@paulusdergelehrte6167ut that's the problem as well. It introduced people to the series but they only play anomaly and they don't play anomaly for the reasons why so many people love the originals. They just want to play a "hardcore realistic shooter", they don't really care about the series and to make matters worse, they will have the wrong expectations for the new game.
@@nikolasferreira3247 and whats so wrong about that? They want a realistic hardcore shooter and found it in anomaly dispite not playing the originals but i dont concider this a bad thing and if stalker 2 isnt what they expect thats their problem and their problem alone :D like why do u care so deeply about some randy playin anomaly??? P.S.: and to be honest i dont see a problem here what so ever just an other boomer tryin to gatekeep a franchise
I would say Anomaly is all bells and whistles, and no real substance. Which is why I play it: just to have a fancy time in the Zone between series replays.
Have you ever thought that you can keep all the bells and whistles of anomaly while inserting the mission structure and substance of the original trilogy? You guys act like you have to choose one or the other. The best qualities of anomaly and the original stalker trilogy can be implemented in the sequel. Hell, even the difficulty and hardcore aspects could both be in the sequel. All they would have to do is separate them between a normal mode that stays more true to the original trilogy and a survival mode that adds the hardcore aspects of anomaly.
I like how Anomaly lets us freeplay on the whole zone just enjoy your everyday life of a Stalker. You can spend hours just enjoying hunting artefact looking and area exploring with some fetch quest missions
It's so much fun. Just walking around dealing with Dangerous Anomalies, Shooting Mutants, Anarchists and Bandits alike. Then sitting at a campfire to clean my rifle while some Ivan plays his Guitar. It's great, and that's what the Mod is. It's not TARKOV, it's more properly called. "Day in the life of a Stalker" but Anomaly is a cooler name. Note I've only played "Vanilla" Anomaly, that's all I wanted, a Free Stalker Experience I can enjoy and be immersed in
Bravo! I totally agree c: You really put words to a lot of my complex feelings surrounding the community, I have seen exactly what you described with anomaly enjoyers going absolutely crazy on some subreddits demanding that stalker 2 is exactly like anomaly just with good graphics. I played SoC when it first came out, and have played stalker my whole life since, so I have a lot of skin in the game. However, I %100 agree with your views again, stalker 2 should be something brilliant and original that stands on it's own. It has been a decade after all.
GSC will presumably do their own thing. Fans have stayed loyal to STALKER in various ways but none of us have the right to dictate what GSC should or shouldn't do. That would be absurd.
I was not carried away by Anomaly, because he does not have a single and holistic concept, he tries to be everything at once and please a very large number of players even outside the Stalker fan base. For myself, I find a more attractive, holistic and atmospheric mod from the CoC - Dead Air branch, while not letting it replace the original trilogy for myself.
Dead Air? More like DEAD MOD AMARITE? But honestly, Dead Air is my favourite misery variant, because it does things... differently, atmosphere was nuts and walking through toxic MAP when overweight by your air canister that's quickly running out of oxygen was incredibly unique and I loved it Too bad this mod development feels well... dead
Honestly I really liked just playing CoC with various mods I installed, Weather, Nature, weapon packs, derestricting A life myself, warfare... It was such an easy package to change up as you wished. Actually, it wasn't easy at all, I had to do a load of work but I learnt and understood how to make things compatible I guess.
Certain RU-vidrs have pushed “Woahh this new game is like Tarkov with mutants!” type of videos about Anomaly and I blame them for bringing in the uninitiated
ive personally considered anomaly to be an insult to the the stalker franchise for a long time now, not because of the game itself, but because of the effect it had with the community, newer people who get introduced into stalker are almost instantly introduced to anomaly, and often play it without even finishing the original trilogy, causing false expectations about the original games with a sense of anomaly being superior, which is not true by a longshot, of course people can have different opinions on different things, but when put side by side for comparison, anomaly is generally more bland than the original trilogy, even requiring modifications boost the experience which many people install, making their expectasions about the original trilogy even more false (personal side note, if a game needs modifications to become more interesting and fun, maybe its not a very good game, assuming it wasn't crafted specifically to be a sandbox and meant to be heavily modified) the community, when it comes to anomaly plays a giant role, im pretty sure we've all seen those click-bait youtube videos advertising highly modified anomaly gameplay, branding it to be free and better than most new AAA games, causing newer players to get introduced in the community, with false expectations of stalker, thinking its EFT but for crappy computers, instead of a beautiful game with interesting lore memes also go around about people telling newbies to skip the original trilogy and hop straight into anomaly, this may sound like somthing that had happened once or twice and then people making fun of it, but considering just how insufferable the stalker community is (especially the hardcore fans) this may not be as uncommon as it sounds stalker anomaly drives players away from the beauty of the original games, allowing players to modify the game in their own personalized way to the point where it even becomes a delusion as a standart/base expectation for every time they think about "stalker" i would also like to point out that the original GSC (the one that went bankrupt at 2011) does not approve of anomaly at all (my sources are insignificant as it is just hear-say, but ive heard it so many times that i myself am starting to believe it might hold some truth) and seeing how people would prefer playing a rip off of a franchise that that was carefully crafted instead of the original and say that its superior just doesn't sit right with me this may sound like a bunch of schizo-rambling, but it's just what i have piled up from experience with the games and community, you may find it to be entirely false, but you can't exactly deny that it holds some truth to it either, and because i just made such bald claims, i would also appreciate if you guys wouldn't insult me in the comments
@@anomalousdugout9557 i honestly have to say that i adore how you managed to make a video on such a hot topic, and kept it all proffessional and polite, please keep it up
All I want is for GSC to create a sequel to their product in their own way. It is their IP and they can do with it whatever they want to. I mean we know GSC loves this IP and we know they love the community, look at how much they've given us, shared with us and how they go about building on S2.
@@anomalousdugout9557 Whatever they deliver will be good. We have to keep our perspective real as you mention in the video. GSC may deliver something a little jank, broken but we know the world and immersion will be top tier. And with time S2 will only get better. Considering it's on UE that also mean potential for mods. I just want more SHOC or COP. And they have perfected that recipe.
"This stream will always be better than watching a fucking furry play GAMMA, we are actually funny SOMETIMES" - Strelok when playing OLR2.5. As long as we can't fight the generation change, it's normal that the children will rebel against their parents. I may be the Stalker fan raised on 2002 trailers but we can't stop the change. We won't make the next generation excited about builds and OLR or at least (sigh) Lost Alpha. Also, we won't attract many non-Central/Eastern European fanbase to Stalker with the charming jank, and frankly, that how our brave GSC boys and girls are getting their salaries. Regarding that, a lot of non-anomaly mods which would be worth looking at are either only in Russian, a language I learned mostly through playing Stalker, or very poorly translated and not fully compatible with versions of the game not released in CSI (gamedata differences that probably stem from cyryllic encoding). Sure it's crap watching the series being tarkovised but I find it better than being totally forgotten because Ivan cannot into English and because Kany is a twat.
Glad you made this, it was needing to be covered. As much as I love anomaly for the addons that have been made for it, I detest seem features like crafting, the survival, nerfed artifacts and meds etc (which means installing 20+ addons to reduce it all). The freeplay is good but gets old quickly especially with the same old quests from CoC made by Dr.X(RIP), warfare also gets repetitive. It is quite annoying that other mods that release get slept on because all the community medias are just filled with either GAMMA or Tarkov'esk tacticool spin-offs. In the end its more of a enhancement to MISERY than the originals. But thankfully addons like Old world or Dark signal try to bring it back to a more Vanilla image.
Yeah me too, i hate that Anomaly is put on the pedestal all the while sleeping on mods like Oblivion Lost Remake or others and thank God that Old World and Dark Signal exist
@@tamfuwing1 either way, it adds to the bloated inventory issues For me, I'm kinda in the middle... There are somethings that bother me like for example why do you need Vinca to make a bandage ? Can't you use any type of vodka instead ? (I hope they change that for 1.6)
Crafting and gun parts repairing seems like a feature poorly implemented into the game through unengaging UI and game limitation and poor introduction to the player (the fact that crafting was not a part of the original trilogy can make it even harder to take in) even then gun repairs feature becomes pretty irrelevant due to the existence of mechanic NPCs which will save you time (and quite possible money). Procedural quests gets dull and bland fairly quickly since its the same thing over and over and the quest giver usually requires you to walk around the entire zone (Same goes for the Anomaly's story quest)
the problem of stalker moding today is that 80% of mods are some realism related bullshit as if im not playing stalker but a fucking tarkov game, stalker is not about all this
As a veteran stalker who has put hours even days of my life playing shadow of Chernobyl, clear sky, and call of pripyat I rather injoy anomaly, only base anomaly because I full heartedly think that it was the experience I felt with shadow of Chernobyl all those years ago, I hate with anomaly that they try to take away the feeling of stalker with gamma and efp. It makes it feel like tarkov cinda, I have spent hours apon hours of time in anomaly, even completed the story line twice and am working on it as we speak a third time, but I feel like the new players should never start with anomaly, or even consider it a stalker game. It is a breath of fresh air to feel stalker like I did as a kid but as a vet, I will say this start with the trilogy so you have an appreciation for how far stalker 2 will have come, and if you do play anomaly, as a vet I don't respect you if your delusion is that efp or gamma will ever even touch the greatness that is the slavjank we know and love. But play how you want, and never let the spirit of stalker die. Ps it's also worth your while to play other mods to because anomaly yes is a better one but not the only one. Thank you.
I've played anomaly and swore off it due to frustrations i've had with it that, any time it's brought up to the devs, they claim it's 'not their fault' and that it was just 'how s.t.a.l.k.e.r. was. we didn't change a thing about it' yet these frustrations i've never run across in stalker no matter the difficulty. The biggest one is the a.i. of enemies, which, while i admit in stalker always seemed to jump between staring at the player questioning their allegiances, to xxsnipesalotxx getting quickscopes across the map. Yet in anomaly? I've not run into that. I've run into nothing but a.i. that seems to know where i am at all times and actively will hunt me down. Outright was shot by a bandit leaving cordon, from the abandoned factory before the bridge. It was the point i started questioning it, and yet. Without fail. Whenever it's brought up to the devs, they claim it's just standard stalker a.i. and i am just not believing it after over a decade of playing stalker modded and unmodded, that the only time this has happened is playing anomaly, and yet the a.i. is 'unchanged'.
There are options within the game to tweak every single aspect of progression and economy, I don't understand how people complain about the stock settings when the developers gave you everything possible to customize your experience. Personally I turn the money rewards way up and the fame points for doing jobs way up, that will eliminate the grind
As a new stalker fan. (I just got my first gaming pc a few weeks ago) I am making myself play through the original 3 stalker games before diving deep into Anomaly. I want to experience the game how it was meant to be played and experience the lore and story that the devs created, and then move on to enjoy almost a different “gamemode” within the same universe. From what I’ve seen so far is that new players see anomaly as an updated version of the originals but it really is just a completely different gamemode
At least you have some logic compared to most anomaly/gamma worshippers, yes anomaly/gamma is like the sub branch of stalker which has nothing to do with the original trilogy, the trilogy is about casual play, with light rpg mechanics, more story driven game instead of sandbox game, actually i would recommend after completing trilogy to try other standalone mods besides anomaly/Gamma whom are more narrative driven
@@djpendellmusicGoldensphere, Wind of Time, Trapped (has a different russian name), OGSR, these mods are my favorites, also the ones that others stated above. There are endless supplies of story mods out there available.
I have always seen STALKER games (mainly STALKER SOC) as a mysterious horror sci-fi thriller, its atmosphere reminds me of the atmosphere of the movie Stalker from 1979, which is one of my favorite movies. I didn't have this feeling when I played Anomaly, to me it was just an FPS shooter with incredibly annoying micromanagement of things. So far there is only one mod that brought me back to the mysterious horror world of Zone and that is LostAlpha + STALKER Lost Alpha: Revisited.
I honestly couldnt agree more. All I want another huge mod like that or Oblivion Lost. Spatial Anomaly is also fantastic but a bit short. Also since you love the Stalker movie did you catch the reference made by Guide to that movie in Lost Alpha?
@@jonathanrabcewicz6191 I'll tell you the truth, I don't remember. If there was a reference to the movie, I probably noticed it. Speaking of the movie, there is a mod that shows parts of it in a TV in LA.
OGSR is also really nice. It is pretty much Shadow of Chernobyl tho, but remade in the 64bit xray engine with cut content, cut quests and user made dlc that imo perfectly fits into the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
@@blooocki I tried it sometime ago, now I found OGSR Mod RePack from SeregA-Lus with English Patch from 2021, let's see what it does. I have to note one thing, out of the movies, books and games, only one game, LostAlpha, has caused me health problems.
I recall Last Day having more of an soul and personality than Anomaly. Anomaly in general seems to aim for mass appeal or blandness rather than creating something of it's own, considering it took Dead Air to come up with new things for Anomaly to take.
As an Anomaly player, I cannot agree more! Nice video, Stalker! I do admit I probably won’t like the OG series as much as I would without starting with Anomaly, but I’m still glad to have been introduced to the community by it.
Still shaking my head when someone says Anomaly is the best game but doesn't want to play the originals because of jankiness en age. I'm not joking, there are people on Steam forums actually saying this. It's insane.
And when there are threads expressing negative opinion about Anomaly, these same people flock over to that and call OP trash, lmao I hate these situations so much
@Grouse1999 I don’t hate anomaly and play it a lot either but people have to admit that it only shines when certain mods and QOL features are installed to actually make the game tolerable and playable
I SWEAR I knew this was next. I just KNEW it! I also laid off Anomaly, I carried on to Battlefield 1 lately,I got Anomaly again,JUST to play the G.A.M.M.A modpack,I used to love it as you know,now it is just a good S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod that I will now just play it for fun.
I honestly don't like anomaly. It took everything that made the trilogy great and simply added overcomplicated mechanics to it. I much rather play the originals, not everything needs to be a hardcore realistic shooter.
I think EfP 4.0 is actually closer to the novells. Random anomalies popping up in unexpected places, better mutant behaviours, better gunplay... It really is almost like the books. An unforgiving, but rewarding gameplay. ...but i would still recommend new players to get through the original 3.
I love Anomaly but I totally agree with you, and in fact it's even worse than your example of starting a series from the last episode of the latest season, only playing Anomaly and basing your opinions of STALKER off of it is more like only reading someone's fan fiction because Anomaly isn't even canon. Even with people who have played the original trilogy, their time spent playing Anomaly tends to warp their memories of what the original games were really like. Anomaly's gunplay is so well polished that it makes people forget how janky the original games were.
The more I played Anomaly/GAMMA etc. the clearer it became that it's quite simply a love letter to Escape from Tarkov, with all the things Tarkov is missing, which Stalker had. Which I adored as I couldn't run Tarkov on my rig and have always appreciated The Zone. The issue that people may not be seeing around is; *Modders can rip other games off as much as they want, GsC have to make a Stalker game.*
The similiar thing has happened in the DOOM community with the popularity of Brutal DOOM mod. Many people who either have never played the original games or haven't played them in a while went back to DOOM by playing BD because everyone was talking about it. This has completely distorted how DOOM is perceived in terms of its gameplay and atmosphere. As a result DOOM Eternal is a meme-filled saturday morning cartoon and many people act as if that's what DOOM has always been.
I completely agree. People should temper their expectations. STALKER 2 will probably not be at all Anomaly, GAMMA or EFP. I also miss the days when the fandom was not obnoxiously full of all the tacticool bros. If you want real tactical combat you may be better served playing ARMA.
As a hardcore old fan of stalker, who had it on DVD disks, and first started playing it, when i was going to 5th class of school. I think from trailers i feel the direction they are trying to head, keeping gameplay mechanics somwhere at level of original Call of Prypipiat. But trying to expand greatly on the whole "exploration and understanding" of the zone thing with all thouse new fancy devices and probably more unique quests in style of COP but on scales of whole SOC map. And im probably going to like it. Sorry newbies, no assembeling gun from shit and scrap, probably no mutant parts and hardcore economy. You could always rivet them to the game if you want, stalker modding is as powerfull as it ever been and is going to become even more so with transition to slim and sleak UE 4, altho i kinda doubght it can reach and fully replicate some of the features of Xray And im saying it without hate to Anomaly or Gamma, i have played and enjoyed all of them for thousands of hours, and even their more antique predecessors like COC, secret paths 2, Misery and etc. Currently i have returned to just COP with gunslinger and gosh do originals feel good in terms of creating the whole "some big things are about to happen in zone" feel. Wich is kinda not the point of Anomaly, Anomaly is a more "write you own story in times of calm" feel. With no real advances in tech, zone understanding, and general idea what to do with it. Also i am realy intrested in game which could be prequel to Clear Sky (You what? are you insane bro? you probably think.) But yes, game perharbs about very first months of zone creation, when no detectors, suits, o or realy any ways of relible understanding of zone existed. When it just begone with scientific expiditions dissapering, first stalkers seeping through cordons just out of intrest, and figuring thins out by tryal and error. Kinda like Golden Ball, Lost Alpha, Oblivion lost mods. Perhabs it can tell a story of unsecsessfull pre Strelok groups(Eg. Last Day mentined in designer documents and dialogs in game) attempting to reach heart of zone and then slowly filling ranks of monolith.
For me, Anomaly and other unifying mods (as in combining every map, faction and character from the original trilogy) have been the crowning achievement of skills and love for the games, not just from the fans, but from the creators as well. That said, I was only active in the community during the release of the original games and interact mostly with the veterans from that era afterwards. When I meet someone, who didn't touch the series, I always direct them to the released games first. I always consider Anomaly as the "free roam" mode or just a platform for other mods and never really tried its story mode. Perhaps I should, but then again it's not cannon, so I don't care that much. I already did my share reading some fanfics in the Stalker universe. However, the game itself allows me to play as Monolith or Sin, so that's always a plus for me. Recently I've came back to Shadow of Chernobyl, and it made me realise that the game doesn't run very good on modern machines. Moreover, the mods require specific patched versions and won't run or outright crash at the start if that requirement isn't met. And you can't just select the version on either Steam or GoG, you'd need a box release or have prepared files to swap. That's where the ease of access - and I don't mean being available for free - of Anomaly comes into play. I know that the Call of Pripyat had good optimisation already - in comparison to previous entries - but having it run as good as it does elevates it for me. And most of the add-ons for Anomaly are still being actively worked on. There is also one important thing for me that the Anomaly does - it preserves the X-Ray engine. I was saddened when GSC decided to move to Unreal with Stalker 2, instead of continuing the work on the original engine. I understand the decision, but I still don't like it. If it comes to Stalker 2, I just hope GSC does their own work. They may include a hardcore/survival mode as an option, as that's becoming a standard for some open world games, but I hope they keep it simple and continue the tradition from the base games. After all, that was what made them great in the first place. And given the dedication of the community, there will be mods for everyone in due time. Even for the tarkards.
This is my big issue with the old games too - they were always unstable at the best of times but now, on modern hardware, they're getting to the point of unplayable. Say what you want about Anomaly but at least the updated engine is stable. If somebody wants to port the old games to the more modern engine, I'd back that project in a heartbeat.
i used to frequent the stalker subreddit a while back when every new post was [and i apologize for how i say it] literally just extremely stupid question about anomaly from new players that could have been answered by playing just one single game from the trilogy. tho those people have been introduced to the stalker franchise from bigger youtubers advertising it as "a free Escape from Tarkov alternative", i am in no way a veteran stalker ive been probably playing for
You make good points. Its frustrating to see our favorite franchise misrepresented in this way. Do you also find it confusing that people want to jump into a new franchise and start with mods? I always want to start with the original game before I touch a mod.
I have always wanted to play the STALKER series and never really got around to it due to not wanting to buy it, and also some of the jank of the originals kind of deterred me. Now that I have played Anomaly substantially, I am much more interested in the world and it’s lore and will probably go back and play the originals.
I remember seeing a meme on reddit about newcomers favoring Anomaly over the og triology, and yeah that's a noticeable behavior on various sides of the internet. I wouldn't classify it as a problem, but it does get a bit annoying at times. Also regarding 8:20 , no offense to anyone who feels that way but like, Anomaly's story line technically retcons Strelok's ending in CoP ; - ;
It puzzles me why STALKER mods like Anomaly, GAMMA & Co. are so popular. My fondest memories of STALKER are of part 3, because it was the most well-rounded part mechanically, because every place I visited was connected to a story, because I was only in new and larger areas, because of the fast travel system, because all the anomalies and quests were "hand-built" and because the decisions I made had an impact on the zone and on the "people" I "met" there. For example, whether I gassed the "nest" of bloodsuckers or not. If I wanted to dive into the zone again, I would therefore look for a game experience that offers something comparable. Why I should play something that's a rehash of part 1, only with more "stuff", some of which just makes the game more complicated and inaccessible instead of better, doesn't make sense to me. Even the story, from what I've heard, is supposed to be an inferior copy of part 1. Also, don't mods like this actually devalue what my alter ego has achieved in the previous games? After all, virtually everything is reset to a state from before STALKER 1.
It obviously can work both ways. I always brushed Stalker off as a "weird Ukrainian Fallout" but enjoyed hardcore FPS games, so when I saw what Anomaly had in stock for me I was onboard. If it wasn't for the mod I would've never knew how interesting and intricate the source material is, it intrigued me so much I even read the Roadside Picnic lmao
I want to preface what I say with the fact that I love this channel, and love the in depth lore explanations that you provide for us. But simply put, the Stalker fanbase needs to stop gatekeeping people and playstyles. Over the past few months the amount of drama over Anomaly has been absurd. There is a reason why Anomaly has become so popular and has brought so many new fans in, and it ISN'T a bad thing. I was one of them, finding out about Anomaly and then playing through the original games. Anomaly is easy to get into for someone new to the franchise, besides being free, it's focus isn't directly on story, more on exploration and those survival elements that like them or not most people recognize and enjoy from other popular titles. This allows people to take the story in at a slower pace and not be confused and overwhelmed by just jumping in straight away to the main series. I was shocked that only a year ago, the community loved Anomaly, excited to see all these new people enjoying their beloved franchise, only to get angry when new people joined and did not agree with them about what they want out of a SINGLE PLAYER GAME. I personally enjoy the experience of just being a dude in the Zone, not a main character following the main story, just an Ordinary Stalker, doing ordinary things, and for me, Anomaly fit that way better. Its beautiful to see a game that has such a variety of mods and fans dedicated to it, but ultimately tearing down others who are new to the series will not help, and will only drive them away, while making the community look like trash. And honestly over past few months this hasn't been disproven.
Everyone is welcome to the franchise whether it's from anomaly or OG games But I do recommend playing the OG games first then anomaly Either way, the people who started with anomaly think stalker franchise was like Anomaly and expects + wants stalker 2 to be like it This is a problem If you don't want to play the OG games At least be realistic and don't expect an official game to be like the unofficial mod
I agree with you, I atleast played Shadow of Chernobyl before playing Anomaly and skipped Clear Sky and CoP before playing it. Anomaly spoiled me cuz of the fact I could play as Monolith, Bandits, Sin, and Mercenaries; waging my own wars and going on my own adventures. And yes, its gonna really suck for GSC cuz this mod has raised the standards bar for them so high, its gonna take a miracle for them to really wow the player.
not all players, some players. Exclusively players that started from Anomaly and then played STALKER vanilla. But think about this, imagine STALKER Vanilla remake in a better engine? and then you can wait a couple of years to get the mods that'll make it as hardcore as you want...
I think this speaks to trends within the gaming space in general. Survival mechanics and overblown "hardcore" BS have become expected in games following the success of other FU simulators like DayZ, Zomboid, Tarkov, etc. There's this sort of negative nostalgia effect people have with the original series as well. I remember playing it when it first came out. Compared to other games *at the time* STALKER was a difficult game. Other games like half life 2, call of duty, bioshock, halo 3, mass effect, all centered the gameplay around the player. STALKER was different in that it was conceived to do exactly the opposite with it's a-life engine (which was actually never functional in the way it was originally conceived) and the AI had x-ray vision meaning combat was quite a bit more difficult compared to other shooters which were designed primarily as power fantasies. 10 + years later, however, revisiting STALKER reveals it was not really as difficult as we thought, it was mainly just janky, and many of us who were there for it's original release were young and bad at games. The gloomy atmosphere of STALKER has also been way overblown by this same effect. Again, compared to other games, STALKER felt quite lonely, as there were no companion characters, no facial animations, no spoken dialogue, etc. That isolated feeling and the hostile environment were the corner stones of STALKER's atmosphere. Fast forward 10+ years, and modders have interpreted their memories of the game by doing things like desaturating the entire gameworld - even going so far as to make the inventory icons nearly black and white (looking at you, misery and autumn aurora). The OG games were NEVER this grayscale, rainy, depressing hellscape that modders seem intent to turn STALKER into. They are actually quite vibrant, with abundant green foliage and many sunny days. Modern gaming "sensibilities" like the mandatory crafting elements, overly complicated health systems, bloated item tables, etc. have become the status quo, so modders naturally go and import those types of systems into STALKER. And due to this it attracts more and more DayZ/PUBG/Tarkov/Darksouls players (many of whom haven't even played the original games because they literally weren't born yet) and ineviotably some percentage of those people become modders and keep pushing STALKER further towards it's ultimate demise - an "ultra hardcore realistic tacticool punch-me-in-the-balls- simulator" that they can play and brag about how they play really difficult games.
i was just thinking about this the other day, something along the lines of the mod getting the Brutal Doom treatment, where sure, it's all flashy and more hardcore, but it's not the true vision of the game and some people just stick to that specifically, not appreciating what the originals had
Thank you! I end up feeling like I'm screaming into the void when I express related views, about anomaly, about overhaul mods, and about the divide they create in the community. Anomaly is far from the only overhaul mod that has a dedicated community of 'it's the REAL stalker' drones. Anomaly, owing to it's accessibility and drawing from starting out as an intended 'redo' of call of misery with higher standards, got more press and awareness than a lot of the others, but they are out there. Yes, most my recent playtime has been with Anomaly, with my own custom assortment of mods. But I don't forget that the approach to the game is fundamentally different from that of the actual games in the trilogy. Anomaly is, at the end of the day, akin to a intermediate game done between official games, contracted out to a third party studio. It is not the same as GSC's stalker, and has a fundamentally different list of priorities. The primary thing it shares with the actual games, is visual design and map layouts. The gameplay is NOTABLY different (although whether it's 'better' or not depends on opinion), and the focus of said gameplay is different. To boil it down, the original games have a direction. They have a specific story to tell, a specific journey. They aren't life-sims or focused on having the best/mostimmersive/mosthardcore gameplay. They are focused on atmosphere and a story. It's like comparing the books in a series to some seasonal tv series adaptation of the world of the books. It doesn't translate too well, and while you can still like the tv series, you have to admit it diverges a LOT from the source materiel, just by nature of being a tv series as opposed to a book.
Anomaly is a far cry from the originals. I am one of the OG players. Purchased all the originals on CD/DVD way back in the day. Still have them. I really enjoy GAMMA, but I see as it is. A very different experience in the same universe. For STALKER 2, I am hoping it is basically a modernized version of Call of Chernobyl. A tight semi open world game that just drips and oozes atmosphere. And just make it more modern in presentation and gameplay. But, not vastly different from the original games. I will wait for the modders to make the next Anomaly/GAMMA to expand the experience of the world. I want GSC to explain to me what is going on in the zone through an epic story.
Unless the original devs speak out against Anomaly/Gamma we can't really.say if they are against the concept. None of the original devs expected Stalker to become what it is today, or could anticipate where it would go. They had neither the time or tech to achieve what modders have done since the O.G game launched. Stalker today is amazing, no one can argue with that. It is free, immersive and.bloody awesome - why try and take away from that?
In part because I only have a bit of a potato to play games on, I constantly play older games that I either played when they were released or that are from the same era. But I can see how new players won't have an appetite for the old games. Also, some of the mods are quite difficult, as opposed to Anomaly which is more accessible and can be played at the player's own pace. Of course some settings are very difficult but they are the player's choice. Nostalgia plays a powerful role in willingness to overlook or even welcome or appreciate bugs and jankiness. Can't expect new players to feel the same. Anomaly is its own thing. I love how it lets you live and exist in Zone. It and its predecessors kept STALKER fandom alive the way fan fiction kept Star Trek alive for 20 years. There is no reason why the fan STALKER universe and the GSC STALKER universe can't exist side by side.
It's a weird take for me. I have friends that wasn't interested in the stalker franchise at all. But, when introduced to anomaly and the vast mods quantity they were obsessed with it. While playing asking about the lore and then after end up playing the first games like SoC and CoP. Anyways I totally understand your point in the fact that a lot of the canon lore is missed out.
@@anomalousdugout9557 I'll also echo this sentiment. I'm a GAMMA player now, but have nothing but love and respect for the original trilogy. Several of my friends who previously had no idea what the Stalker franchise even was finally started paying attention after hearing about Anomaly. It's hard for me to view Anomaly's breakout success as anything but free marketing for GSC's Stalker 2, and a massive win. The idea that Anomaly is bad for the series or the community because some people might come into the franchise with incorrect expectations seems a bit silly.
this is exactly what happened to me and how i introduced my friend to the game. tho i didnt have a friend introduce me to the mod, i always had an interest in stalker i could just never get over the dated gameplay. once i found anomaly through a streamer i watched and tried it out i was hooked, all of a sudden anomaly wasnt enough for me and i just had to go back to the originals to see what a more cinematic take on the story was like and it didnt disappoint. anomalous dugout is 100% correct in this vid but there a lot of people who used anomaly as a sort of gateway into stalker an ended up falling in love with all the games not just the mods
As someone who really enjoys Anomaly, and play it more than the originals, I agree with your points. There was this one group I was a part of, and every post and comment was about how Anomaly was the best video game.... in the world! Every game would be compared to Anomaly and it became a toxic environment that I yeeted myself out of quickly. They even complained how STALKER 2 looked too much like Metro and won't be Anomaly (according to them the true Stalker experience), and that was only with the footage from the trailer that released in 2021. The full game isn't even out yet, and already it is fighting an uphill battle with the self proclaimed "true stalker fans" in that group, and that group is definitely not an exception, there are tons like that. The original trilogy is still amazing to play through, and there are so many other great mods, like someone mentioned Oblivion Lost Remake.
I completely agree with this Even as a younger fan of the series, starting out six years ago when I got my first gaming PC, I still sought out the original games and only modded them slightly, rather than the new tacticool posers who have recently come in and want to shape STALKER 2 in their own image
anomaly maybe a bit less, but the more popular gamma is literally escape from tarkov in the Zone, with some vague stalker elements. I enjoy playing it, but the entitled kids wanting Stalker 2 to be a clone of that are insane...
Your Critic about anomaly is exactly the same one i do... I have a discord server, and because of GAMMA, EFP and of course Anomaly it grew like crazy for some time, but grew with everyone that is not really interested with stalker.. .. Only DayZ players, ARMA 3 plaeyers, only players searching for a quick dopamine dose of survival games... The people that play only the stalker anomaly are not real Stalkers... They are part of a group of "Hype-based " players, that will play every single Stalker-Like game, without even knowing what is stalker... Only because they are "survival fans"... Is a really sad thing, because the real and long lasting community is not powered by hyped reallistic mechanics, its powered by lore, immersion and all the unique things that is owned by stalker (and copied to anomaly)... Really sad.
I tried several times years ago to play through shadow of Chernobyl and couldn’t. After finishing anomaly it gave me the motivation to finally complete the original game.
I started with stalker anomaly gamma not really knowing about the stalker trilogy, though I'll definitely be playing it before I play stalker 2. I hope the devs make stalker 2 how they want to make it and don't feel pressure to make something they're not even passionate about. Right now I'm an anomaly fan but I hope to become a stalker fan too once I could afford the games
The game’s usually go on sale as a pack both on Steam and Fanatical, not sure rn tho, but if you can afford only one I’d recommend Call of Pripyat because it has everything that GSC Wanted to have in a stalker game
I agree with you. My problem with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mods is that they try to be "realistic/hardcore", they create a lot of things for realism sake like slow healing, low life, batteries for the flashlight, cooking recipes, magazines (!) and many "realistic" things to make the game more immersive I guess. For me they achieve the opposite. They become tedious with a lot of micro-managment and so many details that break me out of the immersion. If I wanted a life simulator I would be playing Sims. (or DayZ, where those details actual matter, as multiplayer game) The first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a lot more simple and a lot more immersive. Because immersion comes from the world and no from things like animations of eating. These mods tend to fill the inventory with so many crap that the players are getting used to. Remember reading the comments of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 gameplay video, a user timestamped the inventory of the game and wrote "inventory is too empty hire some modders of Anomaly to create things to fill it" or something like that! Why do I need my inventory being full of useless crap instead of just ammo, medkits, weapons, food, anti-rad drugs, few but useful things? Too bad if some players would not enjoy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 because it is not like Anomaly or other mods, as you say we need to remember those mods are fan-made and the sequel is not obliged to follow them, nor it would be a bad game if it differs from them (the opposite for me, I plefer S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 be like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl).
For COP? Not really much from my experience, it’s usually very stable If you don’t like vanilla guns though, you can use the Original Weapons Renewal mod that remodels and reanimates the vanilla guns without changing too much of the gameplay Gunslinger does the same, but adds extra elements to change up the gameplay quite a bit
I think the saddest thing is that Anomaly is good, Its not bad. Its just overwhelmingly popular and is bejng used as a bunch of guys who want F2P Single Player Tarkov when its not.
While I like Call of Chornobyl as a platform - it did kinda hurt over those past years. Yes, making your own path and "living" in the Zone is great, but something about original stories just felt more right, like, well original trilogy and mods such as SFZ, Alone in Windstorm, Spatial Anomaly, etc. I still respect work put into projects like Anomaly, Dead Air, Legends Returns, CoM and so on, but for rookie stalkers - their first rodeo should be with originals. (Btw, I remember someone in your channel mentioned in Q&A, that they've listened your lore videos in the background while they've played Anomaly. Man, like c'mon)
@@ChainikVlad yeah, you were using the Ukrainian pronunciation to be politically correct lmao, everyone knows any stalker game or mod never used chornobyl in its English title until now with S2
I’m gonna be real honest and say that in its vanilla state, Anomaly is sort of like Misery with better graphics, and my first experience with the game was that I hated it, coming from finishing the original trilogy and exploring the mods it had But once you de-misery Anomaly and get rid of the cluster of junk items there are in the game, it actually becomes a really fun experience, i have around 89 mods installed and most of them are to make it feel like Shadow of Chernobyl Sadly, the original trilogy is outpaced by Anomaly (and sister mods like EFP and GAMMA) due to the latter being free and being covered by a lot of content creators, and what I hate the most from these mods is that they’ve deviated way too far from STALKER’s original vision in the first place I like variation but when the game starts to suffer from an identity crisis because of it, of course it’s going to split the fanbase I seriously can’t take people who seriously expect STALKER 2 should be something like GAMMA, especially knowing that STALKER was never meant to be a hardcore game, let alone it wasn’t even a very hard game in the first place. It’s all about the basics of Scavenging, Traveling, Adventuring, Looting, Killing, Exploring, and Robbing - it never needed to go way beyond those parameters, but here we are I guess
As a newcomer to the series, I really appreciate your take on this topic. After I completed the original series I tried out anomaly and was impressed, but I felt that the lack of story driven missions was underwhelming. Can’t wait to see what GSC comes up with in that aspect.
Anomaly is fun for when I want to just spend time in The Zone and explore, but when I want something with more story I like to play the original trilogy.
I agree, anomaly excels in its immersive open world, not in its story and anyone who is playing anomaly for its story is in the wrong place. You can tell just by playing it that the story isn’t necessarily the point of focus of the mod.
I will quote a friend of mine whos a veteran in the community when it comes to this: "The problem is that people mostly play anomaly first and then won't play the vanilla games due to being more simple when compared to anomaly" And i'd say he's right, a lot of people are indeed coming to the community but at the cost that people mainly only know the mod and it's derivatives and simply not playing the vanilla games
ye, theres nothing wrong with playing anomaly first but you gotta play the classics after to truly experience stalker. theres nothing wrong with only playing anomaly but i dont think those people realise that if you only play anomaly then dont expect to like stalker 2, it almost feels like stalker anomaly should just be called anomaly, remove the stalker title, show that its a fully separate experience yknow
It's cool for old school trip but he still anomaly some things are very good like delete a lot of shit items useless but the gunplay mecanic it's too old and the quest system/story stay the same
I wonder if the anomaly adoring mindset is prevalent with eastern player too, considering they have a tradition of making many story focused mods, unlike western modders. I'd say this deformation is not just part of new player meeting Stalker for the first time trough Anomaly, but the tactial shooter niche crowd exodus into Stalker games
Anomaly is just an "improved" CoC with many of the great addons getting integrated (guns, warfare, etc). It is a mod made for replayability and endless enjoyment, something one can't say about other great mods like AA2, Lost Alpha, Misery. You can't stop people from enjoying the more tacticool aspect of GAMMA or EFP, or harsh nature of Dead Air or AREA if they like such mods. I personally will always enjoy any of the linear story mods or OG games(because they are fun by default), but for playing stalker on a daily basis, one needs the replayability factor in order to not enter a loop of boredom.
While I agree with you, I also think anomaly’s popularity has also made older fans even more elitist on how good the original games were, especially SoC. People now treat it like it’s a perfect game even though a few years ago they were perfectly fine admitting that it’s flawed. The story is one aspect that I’ve seen being fluffed up now. SoC has a fine story but some people now treat it like it’s a masterpiece in writing even though that rarely was what interested people in the game. So now you get this divide in the community where some truly believe anomaly is another canonical entry into the series and others thinking the original games were flawless masterpieces.
STALKER 2: *Comes out, but it hasn't met the expectations of die hard Anomaly fans* Anomaly fans: 'Fine! We'll make our own STALKER 2, with blackjack and hookers! Actually, screw the Blackjack!' That's how I see it...
Even if Stalker 2 is a masterpiece, the modding community has enough creativity and motivation to create something that they think is better. CoC is a good example. It was the best sanbox mod we had, but people wanted more, so addons were made and modpacks were created. Some people like them and some people didn't, but there is enough addons and modpacks to create your own preferable experience in CoC.
If you have doubts and troubles thinking about the new upcoming game... Think of it this way. Wishes. We all have our wishes. We want to fullfil them so desperately.. This game formed an entire culture. In some cases, it made us who we are today. Some of us wish different things and are willing to fight for their wish to be fullfiled. Some of us will isolate and seek our own wish alone. Loners, eh? Some of us will come together and fight the growing cancer that in our eyes are the new players who misunderstand this franchise we so love. You could say it's our Duty to do so as fans.. Some will come together to give the franchise the Freedom it deserves, for the developers to finally express themselves fully as they always wanted to. Some seek to manipulate the weak into doing what they want in petty ways. Leakers, hackers, trolls and all those Bandits. Some care only for themselves and their mission. Make the most hardcore milsim.. make the most painful misery survival experience.. and they will do whatever it takes to scratch that itch even if it means bullying the fans and devs into complying. Like bandits, but more focused. Ehem..mercs..ehem.. Some just want to know the oh so secretive and deep lore and find every detail and analyze them to it's core like a Scientist.. they make the community a better place but are weak in fighting the other group's opinions. The average goon with no experience in the franchise will see a cool game come out.. buys it.. doesn't like it, suffers in it and leaves bad reviews. A pain in everyone's ass. Yes, they're a player. Yes, they're necessary. Yes, they give feedback. But they're corrupt goons who leave a mess everywhere they go and you can't escape them. They're like an Army of incompetence.. Some don't have an opinion on anything but are supportive of groups who wish good to the franchise because they themselves like it. I guess they join the hype train because they want Clear Skies above the game and it's community. Can't forget the depressed, brainwashed, extremely hostile, non-communicable basement dwellers worshiping their PC and the games on it. They will do anything they can to trash on anything and anyone that gets close to them and messes with their Monolithic ego. And they're so...soooo numerous.. they only grow in number as more people reach the depths of the Internet exclusion zone.. There is also those who are less known for they are forgotten and excluded from the main community but still very much exist. The news and media of the outside world. Competent, scientific in their methods, effective.. but ultimately they can hurt the franchise because the outside influence is rarely ever a good thing. (I was going for ISG) And of course. The ones that just want to see the world burn for it's Sins. Many of us have their own stories and reasons to fullfil their wish. We don't all fall into these categories. But Stalker, if you want to know the truth.. if you want to truly move on and answer your questions.. You must remember. We don't know whether we were right or wrong. I guess we will never know. But we made it. And I guess we should be thankful for that. Good hunting Stalkers.
ah, nice I think everyone, myself included, has sensed some kind of "fallout new vegas" aspect to anomaly's playerbase. Buuut, frankly, its mostly an illusion, and that is how things can evolve. Theres many perspective of the story, all meaning well. But i think that ultimately, the only ones that are truly negative, are the ones trying to tell people what to think without seeing the need for explanation. On one side, people who think anomaly is the greatest stalker game period. And the purists who feel like anomaly is only enjoyable if you played the originals firsts and that it can only stand up because the first games lifts it up. Both sides are wrong, both sides account for a minority of players (unless it gets more and more dramatized) Thinking you understand the politics of a situation and taking it for granted is not a good things either. Anyway, i could explain why i feel those things, but i know people who see this probably understands already. (oh, and, saying you should play the other games before playing anomaly is beeing a douche, just like saying "its totally fine if you only play anomaly, buuuuuut..." is super disingenuous. All i'll say is: the only way (i believe) to unite the playerbase is to talk about how great each games are, not how they "steal the spotlight that they don't deserve" Look at fallout 3 and fallout NV. Same exact situation. While the NV fanbase had their fingers up theirs for a goood while, fallout 3 players didn't have the ego necessary to judge and shame NV. What ended up happening was a wave of people talking about why fallout 3 actually is a great game with its own strenght, and why it is just as important to fallout's history than NV. While there hasn't been a clear conclusion (there never is), it nonetheless improved the fanbase's unity and appreciation of the series' history, to a point where if fallout 5 draws some things from each game, there won't be any major rucus over it. Stalker fans need to understand that because something isn't official or wanted, doesn't mean it isn't part of the franchise's history and evolution. DMC 5 pays homage to the crappy reboot basically no one liked. Id software during the DooM 2016/Eternal period payed great importance and inspiration from both DooM 64 and 3, which were both heavily looked down upon beforehand.
Lets be honest, one thing is true; we need more great games in great settings whether it is a simpler game in a rich and compelling world/story like the retail trilogy or a mechanic rich game that you can immerse yourself in (as your own character) like in Anomaly. We may get one before the other but the important thing is to support it so we can get more Stalker games. Simply put; for me the free play is such an attractive factor in why I chose to play Anomaly associated modpacks (and the similar mods of years prior). Playing out my own story in my own way is far more compelling to me than following a dedicated story with relatively open play elements between. I will definitely admit that I had a strong dose of lore and world building when I first played trilogy which has allowed me to fully enjoy such a world in a free play mode while also enjoy the more cognitively engaging systems it introduces to gameplay. It is very noticeable when I watch my newcomer friends choose & play anomaly as I often find myself informing them of the lore and significance of certain segments that just look like another area to them. I don't see them enjoying the game in the same way I did and while it might not be exactly what I experienced Anomaly I can't say its wrong like you (any many others before you) have said: "newcomer... should play retail first". Not everyone needs to appreciate every detail in the same manner you and me do, some simply prefer a little less. Experiencing the stalker setting in this free (and less dense) form gives a solid basis to the S.TA.L.K.E.R universe and often (in the case of my friends) leads to questions and interest in the series as a whole. I can't apply the common phrase night & day in regards to Anomaly & the retail series because its more like dusk & day; one has more story and less compelling mechanics (to some), the other has more compelling mechanics (to some) and less story (as often is expected in free-play modus). To me you are one of the most knowledgeable players so I can understand why the experience looks like night & day to you and many others who also have deep knowledge. All of my newcomer friends are excited for the next instalment in the series and more importantly know what they have been playing is a freeplay survival mod that is much different from the core experience in the trilogy. In the new title they will be able to recognize factions/areas/equipment and a whole load more from what they have so far experienced in Anomaly and be given a bunch of context which will hopefully further develop their enjoyment of the game and create dedicated fans of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R universe. Again let us be honest, it is ok to enjoy things differently, we can just enjoy the fact there are more people enjoying the zone (whether it is someone who only scratches the surface or someone who digs deeper than the x labs to find out every detail, or even some who like to extrapolate and hypothesize about everything). I've watched every single video, I think this was one of the weaker ones, its a complex topic and in general all the videos are great. I would not be against content from another game series if you find another one you love as long as playlists are properly curated! Have you ever watched Shiey & Anton (Idk his channel anymore) explore the zone in real life? I loved the moment when they referred to the person they some information from as a S.T.A.K.E.R! The information was where to find the shallow point a stream so they could cross it at night! I think its very cool that term is used in the exclusion zone exploration community.
