Call of Pripyat or Shadow of Chernobyl ?

[フモモ]

I heard others saying Clear Skies wasnt that great,Id like to play this game since ts quite similiar to Metro series but open world.However i can only buy 1 as i would also like to buy other games as wel.From what i know Shadow of Chernobyl was the first,for story and lore i should go with that first but i guess Call of Pripyat has got better game mechanics ? which i prefer more of.So please tell me which and explain,thx in advance :)

[ImHelping]

Call of Pripyat is the most new player friendly. You can play it out of the box without mods just fine, and you won't miss too much plot wise by skipping the first game oddly enough as CoP is fairly self contained beyond cameos.

Shadow of Chernobyl you can still try to play unmodded, but it will involve stuff like not being able to repair weapons, etc. It's not a question of if it's a better game than CoP or not, it's simply not as "Hey I've never played a stalker game before and-"conveninet. And it's not like CoP is particularly forgiving in the early game either if you don't already know all the tricks, mechanics, and statics spawns vets take for granted.

Also, people may try to sell you on their favorite overhaul mod as "Oh it's great to start out using this, I totally used this first and it's not that hard honest swearsies play my mod"

Yeah, no. Call of Chernobyle is basically super Sandbox Mode, so it's good for that, but not so much the authentic stalker game experience.

Misery meanwhile, is the hardcore mod for jaded vets of the series where they increase the AI's aggro detection ranges so high it's a consistent crash risk for the game engine (They straight up disclaimer warning tell you to edit game files to disable autosaves and to not use quicksaves). Just for starters, not counting all the other changes made to appeal to people who already know Vanilla CoP like the back of their hand.

Anybody trying to swing by and say "oh I played Misery first thing and it was great" is basically just trying to get free E-Peen at worst, or misguidedly well meaning at best. As it would be better for people to get used to the main game first before trying Misery, rather than doing it first thing, bouncing off it, and giving up on the series entirely.

Though speaking of difficulty, in any Stalker game, play on MASTER. The "hardest" difficulty is actually the easiest in the long run due to how the scaling works in this series.

See, if you play on lower difficulty, it also lowers the damage YOU deal. So while it may seem great in the early game when you are fighting mostly bandits and mutant dogs, as the game progresses you'll really feel the impact when already tough mutants and mercenariesin exo-suits are able to tank even more ammo to the face than before.

[フモモ]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Call of Pripyat is the most new player friendly. You can play it out of the box without mods just fine, and you won't miss too much plot wise by skipping the first game oddly enough as CoP is fairly self contained beyond cameos.

Shadow of Chernobyl you can still try to play unmodded, but it will involve stuff like not being able to repair weapons, etc. It's not a question of if it's a better game than CoP or not, it's simply not as "Hey I've never played a stalker game before and-"conveninet. And it's not like CoP is particularly forgiving in the early game either if you don't already know all the tricks, mechanics, and statics spawns vets take for granted.

Also, people may try to sell you on their favorite overhaul mod as "Oh it's great to start out using this, I totally used this first and it's not that hard honest swearsies play my mod"

Yeah, no. Call of Chernobyle is basically super Sandbox Mode, so it's good for that, but not so much the authentic stalker game experience.

Misery meanwhile, is the hardcore mod for jaded vets of the series where they increase the AI's aggro detection ranges so high it's a consistent crash risk for the game engine (They straight up disclaimer warning tell you to edit game files to disable autosaves and to not use quicksaves). Just for starters, not counting all the other changes made to appeal to people who already know Vanilla CoP like the back of their hand.

Anybody trying to swing by and say "oh I played Misery first thing and it was great" is basically just trying to get free E-Peen at worst, or misguidedly well meaning at best. As it would be better for people to get used to the main game first before trying Misery, rather than doing it first thing, bouncing off it, and giving up on the series entirely.

Though speaking of difficulty, in any Stalker game, play on MASTER. The "hardest" difficulty is actually the easiest in the long run due to how the scaling works in this series.

See, if you play on lower difficulty, it also lowers the damage YOU deal. So while it may seem great in the early game when you are fighting mostly bandits and mutant dogs, as the game progresses you'll really feel the impact when already tough mutants and mercenariesin exo-suits are able to tank even more ammo to the face than before.

Well,i certainly did not even expected someone to reply to this thread (especially not this helpful),thx very much man

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by ﾌモモ:

Well,i certainly did not even expected someone to reply to this thread (especially not this helpful),thx very much man

I've just finally picked the game up in the past several months myself after having it sitting around from a steam sale collecting dust for ages.

So I know how the "Hey I want to get into stalker, which to start?" song and dance goes still.

Heads up, while "Careful Gunplay" TM does matter, and being shot even by zombies will kill you damn fast (particularly in your starter suit more meant for upgrading to +10 carry and decent hazzard protection).

Well, it's still a video game. It, and all mod claiming they made guns more "realistic" all follow the rules of making your early games garbage and then the later guns or dev's pet favorites perform better.

Your starter assault rifle will still have the worst kick in the game after giving it -110% recoil, while even the "worst" assault rifle using the 5.56 ammo instead of the starter 5.45 ammo, the IL-86, has a built in scope, good performance, and it's only crime is it weighs more than a huge sniper rifle.

That said, it's not as bad as it sounds. And Vanilla stalker has overall more consistent and convenient gunplay than the most popular mods that have a wild mix of "did they build this gun in a bubblegum factory?" outlandishly terrible performance, and dev favorite MLG superstar guns.

Worst thing you can say about unmodded guns beyond there not being more of them, is that shotguns don't hit as hard as you'd expect without perfect headshots even on mutant dogs. But "Bad on body armor" TM buckshot can still stunlock a heavily armored mercenary to death. (So of course, there are mods that remove enemy humans tendency to flinch when shot in the face).

Humans will kill you dead fast with guns, but, well, they are also humans so even the toughest of them takes less bullets to the face or body armored chest than some mutants, and if you're lucky they will flinch making the job that much eaasier. Mutants don't care where you shoot them and will be at full performance unless it's a killshot.

[フモモ]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Originally posted by ﾌモモ:

Well,i certainly did not even expected someone to reply to this thread (especially not this helpful),thx very much man

I've just finally picked the game up in the past several months myself after having it sitting around from a steam sale collecting dust for ages.

So I know how the "Hey I want to get into stalker, which to start?" song and dance goes still.

Heads up, while "Careful Gunplay" TM does matter, and being shot even by zombies will kill you damn fast (particularly in your starter suit more meant for upgrading to +10 carry and decent hazzard protection).

Well, it's still a video game. It, and all mod claiming they made guns more "realistic" all follow the rules of making your early games garbage and then the later guns or dev's pet favorites perform better.

Your starter assault rifle will still have the worst kick in the game after giving it -110% recoil, while even the "worst" assault rifle using the 5.56 ammo instead of the starter 5.45 ammo, the IL-86, has a built in scope, good performance, and it's only crime is it weighs more than a huge sniper rifle.

That said, it's not as bad as it sounds. And Vanilla stalker has overall more consistent and convenient gunplay than the most popular mods that have a wild mix of "did they build this gun in a bubblegum factory?" outlandishly terrible performance, and dev favorite MLG superstar guns.

Worst thing you can say about unmodded guns beyond there not being more of them, is that shotguns don't hit as hard as you'd expect without perfect headshots even on mutant dogs. But "Bad on body armor" TM buckshot can still stunlock a heavily armored mercenary to death. (So of course, there are mods that remove enemy humans tendency to flinch when shot in the face).

Humans will kill you dead fast with guns, but, well, they are also humans so even the toughest of them takes less bullets to the face or body armored chest than some mutants, and if you're lucky they will flinch making the job that much eaasier. Mutants don't care where you shoot them and will be at full performance unless it's a killshot.

Thx for the heads up and tips,i will try my first run unmodded and my second run modded with master difficulty.I wont know unless i try right ? :)

[ImHelping]

Yeah, just remember to always play on Master regardless due to the oddball "If you play on lower difficulty, YOU deal less damage too! uh oh" quirks in the stalker series.

[Tony Salami]

Gotta say CoP (but SoC is also great), but I may be buyest because it was my first Steam game. Still goshdarn amazing :D

[Disgusting Deviant (DD)]

SoC should be the game with which you should have started with, CS maybe only if you are interested about the story or look for more vanilla gameplay after finishing CoP, but otherwise I recommend to steer clear(heh) from Clear Sky. SoC has great atmosphere, CS has amazing graphics(CoP got it from it) and CoP has best gameplay, but meh story.

[ImHelping]

You can play CoP without knowing the plot of the first game, handy enough. The second game's overarching plot meanwhile is a "ten minutes before the start of the first game" prequel deal.

Again, I'm not saying SoC isn't a good game.You should totally play it sometime (though probably with mods). I'm just trying to emphasize the fact CoP is honestly the smoother entrypoint to the series for a new player.

Harder to appretiate an older game's plot, when even the most "user friendly" stalker game is still a right bastard to you before you know what you are doing.

While the "You can practically ignore the plot of the first game outside of the intro sequence cliff notes" situation in CoP means you can play it first, then go back to appretiate the first game for what it is more easily.

You could take the word of a guy who got into the series this year and worked out which one felt the best for their newcomer self. Or, you could take the word for old time vets who still think "No start first or go home!" from nostalgia and familiarity with all the mechanics. With a side of people rushing in to brag "I started out playing Misery mod! I thought it was 2 EZ! Therefore I'm the most hardcore!"

[DankDansk]

Originally posted by ﾌモモ:

I heard others saying Clear Skies wasnt that great,Id like to play this game since ts quite similiar to Metro series but open world.However i can only buy 1 as i would also like to buy other games as wel.From what i know Shadow of Chernobyl was the first,for story and lore i should go with that first but i guess Call of Pripyat has got better game mechanics ? which i prefer more of.So please tell me which and explain,thx in advance :)

I know this is a necro, but I played Shadow of Chernobyl first, and had a blast. Then I started playing Call of Pripyat and I was blown away.

COP is better that SOC in every way, from stealth to gameplay to trading to combat to customization. I love the fact that I can choose benefits for my guns. Combat is smoother, and the enemies are fun.

My only issue with COP is that the beginning of the story is weird and combat is sparse, but that can be tweaked.