Which Stalker game is your favorite and why?

[TheAlmightySunBro, Silkaire]

I’ve only played Stalker 2 and I was wondering which ones are favored the most by the community.

[Zaris]

I would say the developer managed to get better from game to game so my personal rating would be the release order: Stalker 2 > CoP > CS > SoC.

All 4 Stalker games so far have their individual strength imho but also their individual downsides:
- SoC: best story, no sidequests, no item repair but very immersive dungeons (4-5 underground labs / tunnels)

- Clear Sky: introduced weapon upgrades and repair (?), faction war system let you interact with loners, bandits, duty, freedom and was nice WHEN IT WORKED which it didn't most of the time, story was ok, sadly rushed at the end, a whole part is just missing between entering the hospital ruins underground and instantly teleported to the power plant with 2 news weapons and overcumbered, missing underground areas in general

- CoP: very good sidequests design, mainstory the worst of all parts (find 5 helicopter and gtfo - wow), first step to a more open world game with 3 bigger areas instead 10 smaller ones

- Stalker 2: story is kinda stretched, most of the time i didn't even remembered what i'm doing for whom and why but at least you get send to 20+ dungeons which was a very nice amount of content, finally a big united open world map with all former POI combined, sidequests were alright on the level of CoP, downside the missing A-Life system and the big map doesn't fit the sprint / carry weight system especially if you lose ~3 guide bases throughout the game, there should be 1-2 more neutral bases in the west area

[Piglet]

Gamma Anomaly has no competition

[Joikax]

Originally posted by DomEReapeR:

Originally posted by Joikax:

There's no spoiler there but you pulled that "real" stalker nonsense out of your ass. STALKER with dots in between is an acronym (google it up) and multiple times throughout the series people in the zone refer to eachother as stalkers.

Strelok's arm tatoo was simply a way of invoking the game's name for the opening of Shadow of Chernobyl; The tatoo held no meaning in the actual game and it's never seen or referenced again after you pick up the controls.

You go through the whole game being called ''marked one'' because of that tattoo, and it signifies agents of the monolith who've been brainwashed and sent back out into the zone.

The dots also don't make it an acronym, that's a fan-theory at best, it was done to avoid potential copyright issues with the Roadside Picnic novel or the movie (Which I think wouldn't have been an issue but better safe than sorry)

Sidorovich gave him the name of Marked One because he had no ID on himself and his only identifying trait was the tatoo he had, so in that sense yes it's true but not exactly in the way you're implying.
Sid is a very well connected man so the name spread to the rookie village easily and from there to other parts as MarkedOne's deeds became more well known and he gained connections. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary there.

It's important to note that not a single soul in all of the games has ever mentioned other people carrying around that same tattoo even though after CS and the mention of the death trucks the implication was that there were possibly hundreds of monolith sleeper agents throughout the zone.
So as much as it is implied to hold significance to the underlying plot it ended up actually being mostly just a gimmick to make for a cool game intro much like movies love to do it after the opening scene refering to their own title.

As for the fan theory, the acronym has been known since SoC went gold back in its day and the acronym was revealed in the Stalker official website that has since been shut down, as part of the game's description. I still hold a physical gaming magazine from that time prior to release (from which I cut a page with a whole picture of SoC's cover art to post on my wall as a young teen) and the description is there, word for word.

[ImHelping]

I am still a sucker for Call of Pripyat because it is the best "Get someone hooked onto the series" game. And the game start also has a few details that show someone really wanted people to onboard faster.

"Why is a free sunrise suit on a gas station five minutes into the game? oh I bet it was put there before they decided to let you start with one."
"Snork monster closet is a tutorial mission? Oh pump action shotguns are easily looted and great for cheap."
"Proximity sensor not only sucks, but only minimum tier artifacts can spawn can't wait to get a bear-also five minutes from start in another direction is a nice scripted sequence where if you save a stalker from an anomaly, you get a bear. Making artifact hunting worth the time"
"What do you mean there is one pre-placed guaranteed anti-rad artifact the first time you visit that particular anomaly? I won't need hours of RNG wasting my time to reward exploring? wow!"
THEN CoP starts punching you in the ♥♥♥♥.

Proven with years of watching people get hooked on CoP then be more willing to deal with the jank of the first games with or without mods vs "Screamed at they are a baby who hates the true experience if they don't start with SoC. bounces off, never returns while supposed fans of franchise high five eachother that less people like the games is a good thing that proves how cool THEY are."

If you love stalker, and want more people to get into it. Suggest CoP first if they want an older game.

Stalker 2 really needs at LEAST the softlock ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dealt with. CoP worst I ever remember stock is that one type of attachable scope brand has busted zoom levels.

[DomEReapeR]

Originally posted by Joikax:

Originally posted by DomEReapeR:

You go through the whole game being called ''marked one'' because of that tattoo, and it signifies agents of the monolith who've been brainwashed and sent back out into the zone.

The dots also don't make it an acronym, that's a fan-theory at best, it was done to avoid potential copyright issues with the Roadside Picnic novel or the movie (Which I think wouldn't have been an issue but better safe than sorry)

Sidorovich gave him the name of Marked One because he had no ID on himself and his only identifying trait was the tatoo he had, so in that sense yes it's true but not exactly in the way you're implying.
Sid is a very well connected man so the name spread to the rookie village easily and from there to other parts as MarkedOne's deeds became more well known and he gained connections. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary there.

It's important to note that not a single soul in all of the games has ever mentioned other people carrying around that same tattoo even though after CS and the mention of the death trucks the implication was that there were possibly hundreds of monolith sleeper agents throughout the zone.
So as much as it is implied to hold significance to the underlying plot it ended up actually being mostly just a gimmick to make for a cool game intro much like movies love to do it after the opening scene refering to their own title.

As for the fan theory, the acronym has been known since SoC went gold back in its day and the acronym was revealed in the Stalker official website that has since been shut down, as part of the game's description. I still hold a physical gaming magazine from that time prior to release (from which I cut a page with a whole picture of SoC's cover art to post on my wall as a young teen) and the description is there, word for word.

I'd like to see a source on that S.T.A.L.K.E.R meaning as googling, which you suggested, supports what I said other than on trivia pages submitted by anyone, in which there are comments saying it's a common misconception.

Considering we know what the tattoo is now, from the sequels, it's an odd meaning for the acronym to have considering who put it there and what it signifies.

[Joikax]

Originally posted by DomEReapeR:

Originally posted by Joikax:

Sidorovich gave him the name of Marked One because he had no ID on himself and his only identifying trait was the tatoo he had, so in that sense yes it's true but not exactly in the way you're implying.
Sid is a very well connected man so the name spread to the rookie village easily and from there to other parts as MarkedOne's deeds became more well known and he gained connections. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary there.

It's important to note that not a single soul in all of the games has ever mentioned other people carrying around that same tattoo even though after CS and the mention of the death trucks the implication was that there were possibly hundreds of monolith sleeper agents throughout the zone.
So as much as it is implied to hold significance to the underlying plot it ended up actually being mostly just a gimmick to make for a cool game intro much like movies love to do it after the opening scene refering to their own title.

As for the fan theory, the acronym has been known since SoC went gold back in its day and the acronym was revealed in the Stalker official website that has since been shut down, as part of the game's description. I still hold a physical gaming magazine from that time prior to release (from which I cut a page with a whole picture of SoC's cover art to post on my wall as a young teen) and the description is there, word for word.

I'd like to see a source on that S.T.A.L.K.E.R meaning as googling, which you suggested, supports what I said other than on trivia pages submitted by anyone, in which there are comments saying it's a common misconception.

Just told you the original website in which the explanation/description was has since been taken down, did you even bother reading the last paragraph? But sure, I'll do the homework for you, here:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/12/stalker-meaning-revealed
Originally posted: MAR 12, 2007 (game released on the 20th)

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/11xwc3n/the_lost_meaning_of_the_stalker_mark/
This one's a good read, it helps explain why you were lead to believe it's a fan theory.


Not much else of note.

[Penumbra]

stalker gamma

[DomEReapeR]

Originally posted by Joikax:

Originally posted by DomEReapeR:

I'd like to see a source on that S.T.A.L.K.E.R meaning as googling, which you suggested, supports what I said other than on trivia pages submitted by anyone, in which there are comments saying it's a common misconception.

Just told you the original website in which the explanation/description was has since been taken down, did you even bother reading the last paragraph? But sure, I'll do the homework for you, here:

https://www.ign.com/articles/2007/03/12/stalker-meaning-revealed
Originally posted: MAR 12, 2007 (game released on the 20th)

https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/11xwc3n/the_lost_meaning_of_the_stalker_mark/
This one's a good read, it helps explain why you were lead to believe it's a fan theory.


Not much else of note.

I read the last paragraph which said it had since been taken down, which is all the info you gave me, so I didn't go looking for something that you said had been removed lol

What I was hoping to see was the page you mentioned you were holding, since you said the other site had been removed.

Also I'm pretty sure that post, while yes it may not be a FAN theory, still backs up that the acronym most people use, and that you used, is wrong, which was the point I was trying to make.

Saving these links the next time someone asks me about this, thanks, other than that I'm making sure not to see more of your posts in future as you are needlessly condescending when you were in fact providing proof to back me up, and this was needlessly drawn out. Did not appreciate snide remarks about my reading capabilities when I was going off information purely provided by you.

[DeadMeat91]

Call of Pripyat with Misery or Call of Chernobyl mods. It is actually a Stalker game and thankfully my outdated PC can run it just fine.

[AllanWake™]

Originally posted by Joikax:

Originally posted by AllanWake™:

What is a spoiler?

There's no spoiler there but you pulled that "real" stalker nonsense out of your ass. STALKER with dots in between is an acronym (google it up) and multiple times throughout the series people in the zone refer to eachother as stalkers.

Strelok's arm tatoo was simply a way of invoking the game's name for the opening of Shadow of Chernobyl; The tatoo held no meaning in the actual game and it's never seen or referenced again after you pick up the controls.

Pulled it out of my ass?!

Quoted from the game;

"S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a coded acronym, which we used to mark agents programmed for particular mission. Your mission, as our agent was to kill strelok and his group."

Which means only these AGENTS were actual stalkers. With the mark. Not even monolith have this mark, and monolith were recruited the same way as strelok before the mark.

Being called "marked one" was Sids name for someone without a name.

What out of my ass again?

Im quite aware that other Loners call themselves "stalkers", when in fact, thy are NOT.
Its like you calling yourself "alpha", but you aint. Or another example is stolen valour. People posing as navy seals when thy are not.

Why rookie tourists chose the same word as in the heard legends? To leach off a mysterious and elite group.

A lot of this sh1t happening around the zone, and its annoying.

[Vlad]

Originally posted by DeadMeat91:

Call of Pripyat with Misery

I've seen a lot of hate for CoP Misery, I played it back in 2014 after finishing vanilla CoP. And not only it's my favourite STALKER experience, it's also some of the fondest memories I have with gaming.

[DeadMeat91]

Originally posted by Vlad:

Originally posted by DeadMeat91:

Call of Pripyat with Misery

I've seen a lot of hate for CoP Misery, I played it back in 2014 after finishing vanilla CoP. And not only it's my favourite STALKER experience, it's also some of the fondest memories I have with gaming.

Some decisions were utterly stupid and actually detracted from realism, like the lighter issue (I mean, WHY?!) but all in all, it is very solid. Call of Chernobyl is the most fun though, especially when playing as a Monolith soldier. The Armed Zone and Arsenal Overhaul are also pretty good add ons.

[Wille Wilse]

The first, SoC. Because it was the first and because it did set a standard of the series. Ive played it alot.
Once, modded with the Oblivion lost mod, I beated it with a pistol and a Saiga shotgun. No more or less. That was fun :)
Edit: Pistols for the humans and the Saiga for the mutants.

[DeadMeat91]

Originally posted by Wille Wilse:

The first, SoC. Because it was the first and because it did set a standard of the series. Ive played it alot.
Once, modded with the Oblivion lost mod, I beated it with a pistol and a Saiga shotgun. No more or less. That was fun :)
Edit: Pistols for the humans and the Saiga for the mutants.

I love doing pistol only runs!

[Wille Wilse]

Originally posted by DeadMeat91:

Originally posted by Wille Wilse:

The first, SoC. Because it was the first and because it did set a standard of the series. Ive played it alot.
Once, modded with the Oblivion lost mod, I beated it with a pistol and a Saiga shotgun. No more or less. That was fun :)
Edit: Pistols for the humans and the Saiga for the mutants.

I love doing pistol only runs!

Me too!