How does this game compare to Stalker: Call of Pripyat and Metro:Exodus?

[Loudness]

Looking at reviews, it seems like most of the annoying enemy mutants from Pripyat are back, the pigs, the invisible guys, the dogs who just charge at you. Otherwise, the gameplay seems similar, except I heard they randomly spawn in enemies, which is a big minus. The graphics, art-style and atmosphere seem legend-tier as usual.

I'm currently playing Exodus (that I bought around 2 weeks ago), which is more linear and story-focused, but has all the typical Stalker art-style, graphics and atmosphere. I haven't played Stalker 2 so far, but out of all the Metro and STALKER games, it's the most polished and fun, better gungplay and stealth. I really loved how every character from the squad had a meaning and personality, not to mention some relationships between characters. I really liked Miller, Anna, Katya, Tokarev, Damir and Alyosha (especially his relation with Olga).

So, if you did a comparison between this and CoP and Exodus, how would it far in all aspects?

[lockwoodx]

It is pure nostalgia for stalker fans. I have a few personal beefs like the excessive use of closet monsters and poor ai but that can be fixed with patches.

[SpidersInABirthdayCake]

I didn't finish Exodus but I sure will be finishing this game.

[Loudness]

Originally posted by LockwoodX:

It is pure nostalgia for stalker fans. I have a few personal beefs like the excessive use of closet monsters and poor ai but that can be fixed with patches.

Go in-depth if you like. What are the differences?

How is the gunplay compared to Exodus?

[Kleerex]

I see no difference from Call of Pripyat, same game. Yes, even the so-called A-Life. I've met friendly groups of stalkers, groups of bandits and even a lone stalker. The last two were hostile, but they were no match for me.

[Viper]

Feels like a stalker game. Has much better graphics however. And also a much larger playing area.

[Slasher]

Originally posted by Loudness:

Originally posted by LockwoodX:

It is pure nostalgia for stalker fans. I have a few personal beefs like the excessive use of closet monsters and poor ai but that can be fixed with patches.

Go in-depth if you like. What are the differences?

How is the gunplay compared to Exodus?

The gunplay is very casualized. Shotguns shoot confetti past point blank range. Regular guns slightly injure the target unless its a headshot. I thought I had purchased stalker but it seems I accidentally bought Call of Duty by accident when it comes to gunplay. Incredibly disappointed in it, not to mention everything is bullet spongey in an economy designed to keep you absolutely broke unless you abuse exploits in the game. Perfect example, lets say you drop 20k on a good piece of armor. After a few outings you go to repair it and it costs more to repair it than it originally costed. Its an insane system.
To be honest though, I don't regret buying it. It is mostly nostalgia but I am having a good time. Here's hoping the devs fix their issues, and if they don't I'm sure a modder better than the entire dev team will step in and square us away.

[zpc]

Originally posted by Kleerex:

I see no difference from Call of Pripyat, same game. Yes, even the so-called A-Life. I've met both friendly groups of stalkers, groups of bandits and even a lone stalker. The last two were hostile, but they were no match for me.

Same for me. Pripyat I consider the best of the 3 previous games (Clear Sky was pretty cool - but the capture-the-flag-in-disguise-stuff gets old) - and Heart of Chornobyl so far is very close to Pripyat.

@OP
They added some more cutscene-like stuff (mostly cool little fighting scenes or other nice immersive stuff for character development) which adds a nice new layer to the game. But at it's core it's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - so in comparison with Metro a lot more sandbox / freeroaming and open world. Metro Exodus had some nice sandboxish features but at the end it was a roadailtrip. I like both series and would recommend playing both

[Morgan]

I played CoP, SoC, GAMMA and the entire Metro series. I think that the current iteration is closer to the original stalker games than Metro Exodus. It feels smooth and polished the way that Exodus did, but with the jank and difficulty spikes of the original. The stealth system hardly works at all right now due to some AI issues, so I would say that Metro had better stealth since it actually worked as intended. But the gunplay feels great. Feels like OG stalker with some DNA from Tarkov. Stalker feels more tactical because the AI is very aggressive with humans pushing, flanking and throwing grenades to get you out of cover. Vs Metro where the human AI was pretty stationary.

I'm not very far in the story because I keep getting sidetracked, but I wouldn't expect Metro level storytelling. The metro series is built off 3 very successful books and an entire extended universe of fan novels. In the metro story, it was very character based with the other squadmates being the catalyst for most of your story interactions. In Stalker, the Zone is the main character. The Zone drives the story and the characters just kind of exist.

The voice acting is mid at best and downright awkward sometimes. It totally breaks immersion when you just roll in battle worn from an expedition in the zone and 5 NPCs all tell the same joke as you walk past. The OG games had the same issue. Really horrible voice acting. The only thing for it was to switch the language to Russian or something so you couldn't understand what they were saying. It doesn't bug me that much, though. Being out in the field, hunting mutants and getting into spontaneous gunfights is where the game shines for me.

I can't overstate how much I loved the Metro games. Loved the first one so much that I read all 3 books and then played the rest of the series. In Metro, the voice acting could be really awkward, but the story was so good. Exodus got a genuine emotional reaction from me at several points. Love that sheet.

Anyways. Stalker is good and you should try it. However, if you are looking for the "true stalker experience" I would play GAMMA. It's free and it is, in a lot of peoples opinion, the definitive way to enjoy Stalker.

[Warmen]

Originally posted by Loudness:

Originally posted by LockwoodX:

It is pure nostalgia for stalker fans. I have a few personal beefs like the excessive use of closet monsters and poor ai but that can be fixed with patches.

Go in-depth if you like. What are the differences?

How is the gunplay compared to Exodus?

Narrative and atmosphere is comparable however these are two different games. Exodus is more linear story driven experience. What concerns gunplay right now, I don't have much to say ,because I have not been able to play Stalker 2 normally, I have performance issues , input issues , graphical glitches etc...... Exodus gameplay was smooth, had no issue.

[Harris]

Originally posted by Loudness:

a comparison between this and CoP

In CoP, you are dropped into the open world after a short intro. In 2, you have an hour-long "prologue" which will prove problematic upon future playthroughs.

In CoP, you are able to go anywhere from the start, only the endgame location of Pripyat requires story progression. In 2, story gatekeeps your progress and you're supposed to move to the next area only after completing story quests in the previous one.

In CoP, locations are intertwined and you have a reason to backtrack for new quests or areas that were previously unavailable. In 2, there's no reason to ever backtrack, and even your private stashes are shared between areas a-la Resident Evil.

In CoP, you can go order an exoskeleton from Nimble right away if you so wish, money is essentially the only limit to how fast you can progress. In 2, starting area only features an AK, MP5 and a sawn-off shotgun. You can also get a a few guns like AR416 and SVD but they're at 0% condition and their ammo is not sold either.

In CoP, your reputation with factions is important because it influences the traders stock with unique gear and gives you discounts. In 2, gear is tied to areas and since you're never coming back to the area you cleared your reputation is irrelevant.

In CoP, an AK magazine will take care of a few mutants for you. In 2, you'll have to dump multiple mags into bullet sponges.

In CoP, you are progressing at a steady pace, you can get many weapon upgrades and find many artifacts early on. In 2, I felt about as weak after 12 hours as at the beginning. Weapons don't have many upgrades because things like extended mags are now separate items that are hidden away in some hidey-hole on the other end of the Zone. I still have a default detector. The economy is very stingy and the only way to stay afloat is to abuse the preorder and ultimate edition items which you can sell.

In CoP, story is short and to the point. In 2, story feels like an excuse to send you on a guided tour throughout every locations.

So, long story short, CoP plays closer to something like Fallout 4, while 2 abandons whatever evolution towards open-world sandbox Stalker made and goes back to Shadow of Chernobyl's "theme park" game design.

I did not play Exodus much, but the most obvious point is 2 doesn't really have serviceable stealth in 2024, there aren't really characters to bond with let alone romance or relationships. There is also no real pressure from 2 to be a good guy, "bad" decisions are usually rewarded with better gear and such.

[Valen Drax]

The moment i stepped into the Zone, my rig struggled like hell. Looked for some solution and saw even machines with 4070 Ti, 14th gen CPUs and loads of RAM are struggling with the poor optimization. After a while in the game, the so called "A-Life" (or lack thereof) started to get really annoying as i recalled it to be the "heart" of this series. There are a few details like no binoculars and long range scopes being useless; supporting the claims of a "bubble" around the player for AI to spawn suddenly that is breaking the supposed immersion of the Zone as being alive, that i can relate. Having seen videos people running through a map and encounter nothing but some anomalies, enemies popping up the moment you kill one and having encountered similar occasions myself made me really disappointed after all these years of waiting and purchasing the Ultimate Edition in June 2023, with intent to support the devs after all they had been through.

And suddenly, i realized how much i missed Metro: Exodus (the last game i've ever pre-ordered) - which i'm downloading now, to complete it for the third time.

[Loudness]

Originally posted by Morgan:

I played CoP, SoC, GAMMA and the entire Metro series. I think that the current iteration is closer to the original stalker games than Metro Exodus. It feels smooth and polished the way that Exodus did, but with the jank and difficulty spikes of the original. The stealth system hardly works at all right now due to some AI issues, so I would say that Metro had better stealth since it actually worked as intended. But the gunplay feels great. Feels like OG stalker with some DNA from Tarkov. Stalker feels more tactical because the AI is very aggressive with humans pushing, flanking and throwing grenades to get you out of cover. Vs Metro where the human AI was pretty stationary.

I'm not very far in the story because I keep getting sidetracked, but I wouldn't expect Metro level storytelling. The metro series is built off 3 very successful books and an entire extended universe of fan novels. In the metro story, it was very character based with the other squadmates being the catalyst for most of your story interactions. In Stalker, the Zone is the main character. The Zone drives the story and the characters just kind of exist.

The voice acting is mid at best and downright awkward sometimes. It totally breaks immersion when you just roll in battle worn from an expedition in the zone and 5 NPCs all tell the same joke as you walk past. The OG games had the same issue. Really horrible voice acting. The only thing for it was to switch the language to Russian or something so you couldn't understand what they were saying. It doesn't bug me that much, though. Being out in the field, hunting mutants and getting into spontaneous gunfights is where the game shines for me.

I can't overstate how much I loved the Metro games. Loved the first one so much that I read all 3 books and then played the rest of the series. In Metro, the voice acting could be really awkward, but the story was so good. Exodus got a genuine emotional reaction from me at several points. Love that sheet.

Anyways. Stalker is good and you should try it. However, if you are looking for the "true stalker experience" I would play GAMMA. It's free and it is, in a lot of peoples opinion, the definitive way to enjoy Stalker.

Well, I'm currently playing Metro Exodus, near end-game, but I still have all the DLC left. Is there at least some type of relationship like between Artyom and Anna or Miller? Anna is literally the best wife ever in a game, she's supportive, feminine and strong. Miller is just badass. All the characters in Exodus have some identity. I watch all of their talks go by and learned so much about every character. Idiot = Genius has to be the GOAT for how humble he is. I can go on for Sam, Tokarev etc, I wanna know if characters like thar are around in Stalker 2, not just random quest fivers.

[Morgan]

Originally posted by Loudness:

Well, I'm currently playing Metro Exodus, near end-game, but I still have all the DLC left. Is there at least some type of relationship like between Artyom and Anna or Miller? Anna is literally the best wife ever in a game, she's supportive, feminine and strong. Miller is just badass. All the characters in Exodus have some identity. I watch all of their talks go by and learned so much about every character. Idiot = Genius has to be the GOAT for how humble he is. I can go on for Sam, Tokarev etc, I wanna know if characters like thar are around in Stalker 2, not just random quest fivers.

Man the DLCs were really good too. Sam's Story is probably the best gunplay in the series. Plus he's such a cool character.

Like I said, I am not super far in the story, but so far I don't see anything close to Metro's character driven storytelling. From the story trailers, I can see that it picks up a little bit, but from my experience so far I don't expect it to blow my mind.

Still worth playing though.

[Kryptic]

I wish I could refund this game

[Ravo]

Disregarding mods and updates to STALKER over the years, STALKER 2 is quite similar to the original in the 3 hours I've played so far. I don't know what else I would expect or want out of STALKER 2 other than more of the zone, and I got it.