>Play Shadow of Chernobyl
>Rough start, gunplay feels awful, everything is jank
>Pure kino all the way

>Play Clear Sky
>Better gunplay, more voices
>Absolute trash, dropped halfway through

>Currently playing Call of Pripyat
>Game drops in without much explanation
>Gunplay finally good
>Absolute peak(about to enter Pripyat)

How are these games so good despite being pure jank and why is Clear Sky so awful?

>>713850629 (OP)
Clear Sky feels like they had a vision but duct-taped it together last minute while drunk on vodka. The faction war system was ambitious but broken as hell, AI would forget how to use guns, and the swamp intro is the gaming equivalent of being waterboarded with leeches.

That said, SoC's jank actually works in its favor-it adds to the tension and grime. It’s like the game hates you, and that *fits* the Zone perfectly. Call of Pripyat finally figured out how to balance the atmosphere with solid mechanics. Less bugs, better AI, actual sense of progression. That first time you roll into Pripyat through the tunnels and it opens up… goddamn, chills every time.

STALKER is proof that soul > polish. Clear Sky just lost its soul somewhere in a swamp.

Yeah I couldn't even finish clear sky to be honest. Replayed Shadows and Pripyat couple of times. I detest swamp levels.

>>713850629 (OP)
>Clear Sky
>Better gunplay
Anyway, it's because good devs can still make a bad game if things go wrong.

>>713850629 (OP)
All I can see is that bald coomer guy when I look at this cover art.

>>713850629 (OP)
Clear Sky was just way too ambitious for the amount of time the team had to make it.
CoP turned out okay but they just refined already existing mechanics instead of trying to create entirely new systems.
That being said with patches CS is definitely playable but the ending is still terrible and the factions could seriously shut the fuck up more.

>>713850629 (OP)
My experience was the opposite. I enjoyed clear sky the most, then shadow, and least of all call of pripyat, which i dropped. Gone back to it multiple times but i always drop it, its so boring for some reason

>>713850629 (OP)
STALKER is really something magical, there is something more than just the sum of its parts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyOv4i6KYbk

Should I buy it on steam sale?

>>713852250
Maybe it's because it looks aimless. When i started it, it felt like an empty land with not much direction, but soon enough it clicked and i'm enjoying it more than shadow of chernobyl.

>>713852934
Can you even get the original versions or are you forced to buy the dehanced editions?

>>713852934
Avoid the ''''enhanced'''' versions if you can, from what I've heard it hasn't reduced the number of bugs, while also looking shittier and being censored on top of that. I think GSC delisted the original gameson steam so you might have to find them elsewhere.

>>713852934
You can play the original versions if you buy the "enhanced" versions on steam but I wouldn't recommend it. They're easy to pirate, and you're paying 3 times what they used to go on sale for just to get the opportunity to play a censored version that breaks mod support.

>>713853798
Thanks, bro

>>713850629 (OP)
>pure kino all the way
It was ok but the monolith tunnel's length while including the true ending is fucking ridiculous. Also the fact you just jump into a portal and it freezes for 3 seconds before playing a super dithered video file is jankkino.

I find clear sky pretty good overall. Dont get the hate beyond the unfathomably dogshit faction war system it sells. I actually found the bridge to limansk segment and its nature as a prequel really cool.

I played CoP a long time ago, but I still remember the ending screaming "we ran out of budget lmao". I still remember the preparation and fight through the tunnel. One of my favorite moments of the whole trilogy.

>>713854190
Yeah, everything from the sarcophagus onward was absurd. But besides that it was an amazing good time.
Excluding the task to kill the freedom leader, that was hell.

>>713854621
The assault on the Freedom base isn't that bad

>>713854783
Fighting the freedom guys isn't an issue. The problem is the mission failing near immediatly due to some duty guy dying to forces unknown. I had to rush and kill the leader in about 1 minute just so there was no risk of duty dying.

>>713855285
its not the worst quest to fail at least; the actual quest reward isn't terribly impressive
The real reward is getting to loot the freedom armoury with impunity and also having a much harder time at the barrier

>>713854190
>but I still remember the ending screaming "we ran out of budget lmao"
I was expecting a tweest but it's just
>anomalies move after blowouts that's why the choppers crashed
>'member Strelok?
Very limpdick.

All these years later I still don't understand or fully remember the plot of these games.
>SoC: you have amnesia, kill this guy, actually you ARE the guy, now go rambo into chernobyl and talk to a glowing rock for some reason
>literally no fucking clue what happens in CS. You wake up in the swamps, then a clusterfuck of endless missions
>CoP: investigate these crashed helicopters, then uhh, dude remember pripyat??
this whole series is carried by slavic doomer atmosphere and vibes

>>713850629 (OP)
CS has by far the best map. It's just hidered by the extreme bugs, lackluster story, and CBT starting zone. That's why the sandbox games always use the CS map.

>>713850629 (OP)
Shadow of Chernobyl, with some light modding, is among the greatest games of all time

Tried to bridge my stalker need with "project silverfish" (some furfag stalker indie game), but the running speed is so ridiculously fast that I can't really enjoy it

I hope gsc fixes a-life 2.0 soon, never finished Stalker 2 because the enviromnent was so dead and lacking

>>713858073
I bought it on release and haven't played yet lol. Though it sounds like the latest update has made some significant enhancements

>>713858073
>>713858303
the latest update always makes "significant enhancements", at this point I'm just shelving it mentally until the inevitable "2.0" rework or whatever cyberpunk style update happens, if that. If not, I'll wait another decade for modders to fix the game. Fundamentally it's still UE5 sloppa, God knows they needed to secure the timmybux but goddamn this engine sucks

>>713850629 (OP)
>Absolute peak(about to enter Pripyat)

>>713850629 (OP)
I found the gunplay in Clear Sky to be attrocious, no recoil and weak sounding shit.

Call of Pripyat i was largely dissappointed by.

Shadow of Chernobyl is just the definition of sovl. I can't really put it any better than that.

>>713858073
I enjoy silverfish a lot, but I have to agree, sprinting is so fucking fast with no penalty that its trivial to sprint away from 99% of engagements.