I want to be hyped, but seeing GSC on there has my actual enthusiasm near 0.
The only way this could turn out good is if it's another East-European mess of an engine with good concepts, poor execution, and wonderful modding capability. With where the team went, I don't really see that happening.
Beyond being set in a Slavic country, Metro really isn't like STALKER. The zone might be a weird post-apacaliptic place, but the world outside the zone is thriving and doing much better than today, thanks to the zone. The people in the zone are largely people looking to make quick money, thrill seekers, criminals, and a few who have nothing else going for them. Then you've got the wired, reality breaking things going on.
That's one of my favorite things about STALKER.
I hope it's more like the first game, which is still the best one.
But there are anomalies and stalkers in Metro, not even just the concepts either, that's literally what they're called in-game.
Remember, as much of a cult classic STALKER-SoC became, the game was a buggy disgrace at launch and it lacked a lot of features that were later added in with mods or arrived only in the next games, anyone that actually followed the development of the first game gets what I'm saying, what saved the game from complete obscurity was it's great atmosphere and world.
Basically, do not have expectations for this game, I'm expecting the same atmospheric cheeki breeki mess the first game was and I will love it.
2021, that such a long time away. God damn, I'd be a few months from 30 by then.
I hope it goes well for the team. Stalker was among the most interesting and atmospheric shooters I've played.
Well I mean, one's linear and one's open world, it's obviously not going to be near a STALKER game unless it goes open world, but I don't think Exodus is doing so, at least not in the same vein as STALKER anyway.
it's not STALKER without some european dev jank
I refuse to believe this is happening. In the event it does come out, it'll come out in 2030
Talent is just who you hire.
They’ve got a chance to do it right. I’m cautious but optimistic
Eh, the gameplay was pretty good too. It started to get kind of dumb towards the end where you're just mowing down scores of exoskeleton touting Monolith dudes in the most linear fashion possible (I remember encountering like ten monolith guys on a stair case and they all just kept running straight at me, filling the stairs with their corpses), but the majority of the game had really tense firefights and encounters with mutants, and exploration was really fun thanks to the randomness of the zone. It was a bit more than just atmosphere and world building for me as to what made the game great, and I played all the games in their vanilla state, often unpatched (which, yeah that was awful lol).
There was some shit that really bogged it down like excessive bullet drop and guns spraying out bullets in a huge, unrealistic cone that made spray and pray more effective than it should have been, and accurate shots really difficult, and the otherwise good AI would sometimes have a stroke and do some really stupid shit like run straight at you, but I did otherwise really enjoy the first game without mods.
Lets see.
I'm not trying to hold it up on a pedestal, but both Metro 2033 and last light were more functional games than the original stalker games. Part of the charm to stalker (for me at least) was it's glitches however.
I was referring to gameplay more so than story. Personally, I like stalker's story more, but metro's gameplay felt more solid.
Oh geez. Please don't mess it up. I've waited for STALKER 2 for years now.
Eh, I'm not even sure if the STALKER formula can hold up in a modern sense. The thing that helped make the old games was how dated they looked at the time. The environmental effects were top notch which, when combined with some great sound design, essentially carried the game through the much less flattering aspects of the STALKER games.
If they make a game with improved models, textures and animations - awesome - but if they fuck up the environment in any way then the game is gonna suck shit.
I'm gonna have to disagree. Metro went pretty directly in the tracks of it's spiritual predecessor. It shaved off the open areas for a vastly more linear story-based game, sure, but one that still painted you a world and sucked you into it. Both games were pretty gritty and graphical with how they presented the inherent neutral violence that permeates nature when Man is not there to tame it. Hard to explain - think of the difference between an obviously evil monster tearing people up with intent versus (horribly mutated and of questionable origin) wildlife attacking people simply in order to eat them for sustenance.
This is what you see enmeshing the dilapidated and crumbling worlds you find yourself in in both games. Aside from the obvious threat of other dudes with guns, it's actually the subdued apprehension that builds from being surrounded by a markedly dangerous flora and fauna and bizarre anomalies that simply defy logic. Know that feeling when you turn your back to a dark forest in the night? Or the urge to close the doors/peek over your shoulder when watching/playing horror? It's the same feeling of unease that made these games feel great. You never feel at ease out in the Zone or in the Metro unless you're in one of the bases and know your ass is being covered by armed guards and the semblance of society soothes your nerves. It's the same kind of vibe you get when you go hiking in the wilderness and suddenly become aware of the fact that you are actually pretty vulnerable and far from help should something decide to attack you. Except the animals are in this case psychic mutants, cloaking monsters and chimeric horrors sometimes. Also there are barely understood anomalies peppered around here and there that will burn, shock, dissolve, teleport, explode and fry your brain.
That's the magic - nothing that can happen has to happen. You can be sitting on a hill just fine and be observing the wildlife doing it's own thing in STALKER, resting, hunting, feasting on a corpse. Walk up to a pack of dogs or a weird figure out in the swamp though and chances are it is going to notice you and come at you, whatever it is. In the case of STALKER and Metro though, the bit that reminds you that the nature and world around you is not quite the same as in the real world/outside the Zone is the simple fact that a lot of those corpses are human and a lot of the creatures you encounter didn't or couldn't possibly exist until quite recently and nobody has any idea how half the shit came to be how it is.
Dangerous outdoors 2.0 y'know.
It's hard to be optimistic about this
Can say making Cossacks 3 was probably a safe bet. Since it probably didn't cost much to develop, and they pretty much used the same mechanics of the original game but with a 3d engine. Even then the original Cossacks wasn't exactly that good to begin with. Only thing that it had going was the absolutely ridiculous unit limit. Like 15,000-25,000 units on a map at once. Anything else...eh....
Was pretty much a watered down Age of Empires, or any other stereotypical 2.5d RTS.
Yeah, we'll fucking see.
remember when it was coming out last time?
The only thing I hope for is that when it gets released in 2025, it survives the development hell against all odds to be a great game.
While i really enjoyed metro, something about stalker just pulls me in more and i feel more immersed and uneasy than i do in metro. Maybe it's a combo of the style of ambient music in stalker, and like you said the uncertainty of travel with the more realistic feel ot the abandoned real world places, idk.
Honestly, I love the STALKER series, but i'm sure as hell not nostalgic about the bugs in any way whatsoever.
Honestly I liked the non game breaking bugs, because they happen sometimes after some good hunting in the zone. It still cracks me up, after I got back to a camp to sell stuff and heal up and then see a stalker float through a wall into a bed.
Those sort of things get really old after over a decade.
I do admit that I have not played stalker for half a decade. So it will probably crack me still up
It's just a novella man. It's really not that long. Just man up and finish it already.
Why can't I contain all these errections?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnTW6fZz-1E
I want to believe but I don't feel optimistic with any confidence.
The project is probably not going to be the same devs, and there's no guarantee that the new devs will adhere to or even respect the known and loved format of STALKER games.
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