Misery, Call of Chernobyl, or Anomaly?

[Cynical Nerdist]

Totally new to this series. Wanting to play it with an overhaul mod and I choose the top three on MODDB. What are your guys' suggestions?

[XanDer-XTX]

Anomaly is currently the best mod in terms of quality. It delivers quite well from what I've seen on ModDB, YouTube and Reddit. I haven't tried it yet because I'm currently playing Call of Chernobyl because Clear Sky is meh, it's not as good as CoP or SoC.

[Cujo]

CoC inspired Anomaly, and Anomaly is newer. It has everything from CoC and more, and is very customisable.

Misery is off to the side, with a insane level of difficulty and muddy brown colors for everything. If you want to experience the game in monochrome while also being about as durable as a wet paper bag, this is the game for you.

[Redrick]

All of the above

[TamH70]

I'd go for Anomaly. It's pretty stable, looks stunning, and the amount of maps you can wander around is huge.

Once you've done with that, have a look at the various Stalker Soup/Narodnaya Solyanka mods.

[Twoflower]

If you're totally new to the series then do remember that these mods all get rid of the main storyline and the way the game teaches itself to the player.
All of these mods with throw you straight into complicated parts of the game with the expectation that you already have lots of veteran knowledge about how the game works. Even infamously challenging games such as Soulsborne games where you learn by failure still have a carefully crafted progression to ease the player in and teach them the mechanics in a good order. Jumping into a STALKER total conversion mod will not offer that, you really will jump in the deep end if you're new to STALKER.

That said, if you still want to proceed nonetheless:
I strongly recommend Anomaly. I've played all the big famous STALKER mods and Anomaly is a big cut above the rest in my personal opinion. It has tons of content, lovely graphics, and very very customisable difficulty settings. (Please make sure that you manually install the Anomaly updates in addition to the base install files).

Regardless of what mod you want to get, the biggest STALKER discord server is a great place to get friendly advice on anything you get stuck on in game, whether that's vanilla or big mods like Anomaly.

[GamerCH]

You should definitely play it without any mods first. The game is fantastic and the mods you mention make a different game out of the engine and have no campaign just a sandbox.

The mods you mentioned are all terrible and I have about 3000 hours of Gameplay in Stalker.

Especially Anomaly is the most awful and terribly designed mod ever.

Random vegetation will poison you and there is no antidote anywhere ever. You will start to bleed all the time from the tiniest scratch but there are no bandages ever. The map doesn't tell you where you are or where shops are or where anything is. When you do find a shop it has nothing and what it does have costs a fortune. Dead bodies have nothing on them, you get no ammo no money no loot whatsoever.

All the armors look the same they're all grey and dark so good luck finding out if somebody is friendly or not. They also have ridiculous accuracy so enjoy getting hit through vegetation then bleeding to death.

They added crafting in there but all it does is clutter your inventory with 200 random pieces of trash which you can't use to craft anything useful with.

Mods like Anomaly and Misery are for people that play these survival simulators where you have to grind forever to just stop being constantly dying. Oh and don't even think about repairing your armor or gun because that costs so much that you will have nothing to eat or drink or heal you.


Contrary to what some nay sayers think, Clear Sky is actually the best game of the series. Obviously that is correct since all the mods ever do is take features from Clear Sky and then put them into the other games. The faction wars and the upgrades make for a very fun game. The economy and balance is better, the maps have been improved, the story is good too. Get the COMPLETE mod for it together with the Realistic Weapons addon. Follow the easy installation guide and it will work.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by Ivanka 46th:

Random vegetation will poison you and there is no antidote anywhere ever. You will start to bleed all the time from the tiniest scratch but there are no bandages ever. The map doesn't tell you where you are or where shops are or where anything is. When you do find a shop it has nothing and what it does have costs a fortune. Dead bodies have nothing on them, you get no ammo no money no loot whatsoever.

All the armors look the same they're all grey and dark so good luck finding out if somebody is friendly or not. They also have ridiculous accuracy so enjoy getting hit through vegetation then bleeding to death.

All of that is completely false. There's no "poisonous vegetation" in the game; there is radioactive terrain and anomolies, but those are have visible distortion and warnings emitted from your geiger counter / echo locator. All traders sell bandages, food, first aid kits and medical drugs which will flush radiation out of your system and heal you.

Dead bodies usually carry a few rubles as well as their armor and primary weapon by default, and you can tweak the amount and quality in the options menu. Mutants can be carved up and their parts sold to traders if you have a good knife to do the carving.

The different factions are distinct from each other - Military wears drab olive, Duty wears black, Bandits wear jeans and leather, Clear Sky wears hazmat suits and so on. Anomaly also adds a "disguise" mechanic, so you can wear one uniform and badge of a certain faction and gain access to that faction's restricted areas (as long as you have your weapons holstered.)

Enemy accuracy is toggle-able in the in-game menu. It *is* true that the game will start you off weak and vulnerable and you'll probably die often until you get the hang of the game, but it rarely feels cheap or unfair.

Important people (quest givers and mission objectives), Traders and Mechanics are all clearly marked on the mini-map.

If you're starting out in Anomaly, I HIGHLY suggest you start as the Free Stalker faction, as one of the VIPS in the Rookie Cordon (named "Fanatic" gives you the closest thing to a tutorial in-game.) Both he and Wolf will also give the player easy, rookie-level jobs which can get you bankrolled in a hurry (usually paying out 8000 RU per successful mission) and you can get some decent sell-able artifacts that pay out another 2000-4000 RU from Sidorovich (the trader in the Rookie Cordon).

[Cujo]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by Ivanka 46th:

Random vegetation will poison you and there is no antidote anywhere ever. You will start to bleed all the time from the tiniest scratch but there are no bandages ever. The map doesn't tell you where you are or where shops are or where anything is. When you do find a shop it has nothing and what it does have costs a fortune. Dead bodies have nothing on them, you get no ammo no money no loot whatsoever.

All the armors look the same they're all grey and dark so good luck finding out if somebody is friendly or not. They also have ridiculous accuracy so enjoy getting hit through vegetation then bleeding to death.

All of that is completely false. There's no "poisonous vegetation" in the game; there is radioactive terrain and anomolies, but those are have visible distortion and warnings emitted from your geiger counter / echo locator. All traders sell bandages, food, first aid kits and medical drugs which will flush radiation out of your system and heal you.

Dead bodies usually carry a few rubles as well as their armor and primary weapon by default, and you can tweak the amount and quality in the options menu. Mutants can be carved up and their parts sold to traders if you have a good knife to do the carving.

The different factions are distinct from each other - Military wears drab olive, Duty wears black, Bandits wear jeans and leather, Clear Sky wears hazmat suits and so on. Anomaly also adds a "disguise" mechanic, so you can wear one uniform and badge of a certain faction and gain access to that faction's restricted areas (as long as you have your weapons holstered.)

Enemy accuracy is toggle-able in the in-game menu. It *is* true that the game will start you off weak and vulnerable and you'll probably die often until you get the hang of the game, but it rarely feels cheap or unfair.

Important people (quest givers and mission objectives), Traders and Mechanics are all clearly marked on the mini-map.

If you're starting out in Anomaly, I HIGHLY suggest you start as the Free Stalker faction, as one of the VIPS in the Rookie Cordon (named "Fanatic" gives you the closest thing to a tutorial in-game.) Both he and Wolf will also give the player easy, rookie-level jobs which can get you bankrolled in a hurry (usually paying out 8000 RU per successful mission) and you can get some decent sell-able artifacts that pay out another 2000-4000 RU from Sidorovich (the trader in the Rookie Cordon).

^^
I hadn't played SHOC before Anomaly, just Pripyat, so when I got to the Cordon I didn't like it at first. Now it's become one of my favorite areas, almost as much as Zaton!

[Cynical Nerdist]

Awesome, thanks guys :)

[Heresy]

Originally posted by Ivanka 46th:

You should definitely play it without any mods first. The game is fantastic and the mods you mention make a different game out of the engine and have no campaign just a sandbox.

The mods you mentioned are all terrible and I have about 3000 hours of Gameplay in Stalker.

Especially Anomaly is the most awful and terribly designed mod ever.

Random vegetation will poison you and there is no antidote anywhere ever. You will start to bleed all the time from the tiniest scratch but there are no bandages ever. The map doesn't tell you where you are or where shops are or where anything is. When you do find a shop it has nothing and what it does have costs a fortune. Dead bodies have nothing on them, you get no ammo no money no loot whatsoever.

All the armors look the same they're all grey and dark so good luck finding out if somebody is friendly or not. They also have ridiculous accuracy so enjoy getting hit through vegetation then bleeding to death.

They added crafting in there but all it does is clutter your inventory with 200 random pieces of trash which you can't use to craft anything useful with.

Mods like Anomaly and Misery are for people that play these survival simulators where you have to grind forever to just stop being constantly dying. Oh and don't even think about repairing your armor or gun because that costs so much that you will have nothing to eat or drink or heal you.


Contrary to what some nay sayers think, Clear Sky is actually the best game of the series. Obviously that is correct since all the mods ever do is take features from Clear Sky and then put them into the other games. The faction wars and the upgrades make for a very fun game. The economy and balance is better, the maps have been improved, the story is good too. Get the COMPLETE mod for it together with the Realistic Weapons addon. Follow the easy installation guide and it will work.

Anomaly is actually really easy you can tweak the settings on a new game page to make it as easy as COC or as hard as Misery....

Misery also becomes fairly easy but always challenging once you get to know its hostile environment. You can get to the point of being pretty darn good however you can never let your guard down or get too cocky or you will die. That is why its so fun. It keeps you on your toes at all times.

Clear Sky is different thats for sure.

Play the 3 base games with or without mods and go from there.

[Mylo-s]

CoC, start and finish with this. It tells a story, so much better than soulless mods.

[Danielle]

No mods. If you are new to the series, you should avoid total overhaul mods at all costs. As stated earlier in the thread, they throw you into the deep end and expect you to know what to do. Some even more than others.

BUT if you really wanted to use a form of a total conversion mod, my choice for you would be CoC, if you have zero experience. Still not a good idea, but it's the most vanilla of the pile.

After you finish Call of Pripyat, however I'd highly recommend MISERY. But again, it is difficult, unfair and frustrating for people new to its mechanics. But it gets pretty easy and fun once you get familiar with it. (Again, may not be everyone's cup of tea. I personally enjoy being in constant pain)

ANOMALY is... Imagine what I said about misery. But the mechanics are much, much more convoluted, unnecessary and carefully crafted specifically to be annoying and frustrating to the player, but it also gives you a lot of freedom on difficulty adjustment. "How?" I hear you asking.

Well..

In vanilla, you're expected to occasionally visit a technician to repair your gear. Your armor, gun and so on, and you'll have plenty of money by selling loot and artifacts.

In MISERY, technicians overcharge you. You're expected to occasionally oil and clean your gun yourself instead, instead of waiting for it to actually break enough that you need it "Repaired". But it is a pretty simple mechanic that fixes a lot of frustration people tend to have with the mod when it comes to gear condition.

In ANOMALY.... You have gun oils, different weapon parts such as bolts, trigger groups, barrels, stocks, gas pistons etc etc. and every weapon has its own form of these parts, which you also need specialized, expensive and limited use tools to take out and replace, or use technicians which also overcharge.


Bullets?

In vanilla, you have regular and rarer bullet kinds. More often than not, regular is.. Well, regular. And the rarer varieties are for armor piercing, which work better on armored human enemies.

In Misery, kind of similar. Except bullet penetration and enemy armor etc. is a mechanic you're expected to take to heart at all times. When you see an exoskeleton dude and all you have is a 9mm SMG, you're going to have a different strategy than "haha smg goes brrr".

In ANOMALY, you have... Hollow points, armor piercings, +P, old rounds, damaged bullets and so on. Some work, some has a chance to not. Some are decent, some make your gun break itself faster.


But in MISERY, the difficulty is set. What you have is what you get. And you still have the entire CoP story to play through.

In ANOMALY, there is no real "Story". It is mainly a sandbox experience you can edit and change at a whim. Think trader prices are too high normally? Well, make them buy things at 200% the rate they are selling things with just a few sliders. Bullets hurt you too much? Increase your bullet resistance and make enemies go down faster with less, etc.



Overall, play vanilla and get used to it. Then play MISERY, if you get frustrated ignore and play CoC.

If you like it, then you may like Anomaly. Maybe.

[Tim]

I like using the ABR mod overhaul thing, tho I wanna try COC. People have told me it combines all the games, but you still can do story stuff?

[GamerCH]

Originally posted by Tim:

I like using the ABR mod overhaul thing, tho I wanna try COC. People have told me it combines all the games, but you still can do story stuff?

It has a very basic questline AFAIK. COC is a sandbox experience. The games have a singleplayer campaign within a sandbox.

Originally posted by Heresy:

Anomaly is actually really easy you can tweak the settings on a new game page to make it as easy as COC or as hard as Misery....

By that you mean cheating by exploiting its design that you're deliberately messing up to then grind or rather farm stuff to break the economy.

[Sega Playstation]

MISERY is exactly what the name says. It will throw you into difficult situations from the start, and keep you on your toes the entire time. If you are new to the series, DO NOT PLAY MISERY FIRST. It will ruin your experience and make you hate the game. I played SoC and CS first, and then played CoP+MISERY. Even then, it took some getting used to because of how much the mod adds to the game.

If you do decide to play MISERY, here are some tips
1) Never set your gun to auto unless you intend to fight in close quarters
2) Do not try to tank hits. You will bleed out and die.
3) All of the new consumables seem really complicated at first, but they aren't. Many are tools used to repair weapons/armor, others reduce radiation or hunger, etc. You really don't need to carry all of them around
4) Medkits are no longer a one-stop-shop for healing all forms of damage
5) Anti-rads will hurt you. Drink vodka and smoke cigarettes instead.
6) """Broken""" weapons work. As long as the condition is above 15%, you're fine. Even 10% will work in a pinch. Mechanics are a scam
7) The starter AK-47 can easily get you through a huge portion of the game, do not buy guns ever. Loot dead stalkers

I highly recommend MISERY tho. 8/10 mod, really ups the graphics and atmosphere, but it crashes a LOT