Is the vanilla game worth playing

[jacob4408]

I see lots of posts on here about mods and mod conflicts on here. Is the vanilla game worth playing or are mods pretty much required to get decent graphics/gameplay? Thanks.

[D.T.]

vanilla is very much worth playing through, especially if you're interested in modding SoC, the vanilla gameplay can make you appreciate what mods are capable of even that much more. i still have people i know buying this game, had one buy it yesterday, and i highly reccomend to all who are new to the stalker series to check out how the game is vanilla first.

[ShutterPriority]

Play it with "Complete 2009 1.4.4" mod. Only update graphics without touching gameplay.

[Grimminski]

Originally posted by ShutterPriority:

Play it with "Complete 2009 1.4.4" mod. Updates the graphics while making the game about a million times easier.

Fixed.

[Achilles]

I played the vanilla version and liked it.

[Xangi]

Originally posted by ShutterPriority:

Play it with "Complete 2009 1.4.4" mod. Only update graphics without touching gameplay.

Biggest lie ever told right here.

To answer your question, yeah sure, it's pretty good vanilla. Not nearly as crashy as some people like to say it is.

[Jean]

I never bothered with mods and I've played it through three times. The game holds up well on its own. Call of Pripyat is pretty much SoC+ imo, whenever I want to play something 'new' and 'updated' in regards to Stalker.

[Draescan]

The game in vanilla is totally fine, however I personally look up weapon texture packs and such as I can't stand the way guns look in Vanilla.....I prefer LURK mod myself as it adds a good challenge, however it unfortunately removes the use of artifacts -_- GREAT visuals, good difficulty, GREAT audio. The game is a total chore at the end though. * no spoilers here * but it involves radiation, and radiation in LURK is a pain in the ass.

[Rabidnid]

I started playing soon after this thing came out and played vanilla for a long while. Mods are not mandatory but they do fix a lot of irritations with the vanilla game.

[Preddi]

Originally posted by NwptRaisins:

Originally posted by ShutterPriority:

Play it with "Complete 2009 1.4.4" mod. Updates the graphics while making the game about a million times easier.

Fixed.

The people who say STALKER COMPLETE' makes the game easier and worse are a small, vocal, and annoying minority. The vanilla game is a broken mess, an amazing possibility ruined by horrible execution. I 'tried' to play stalker several times and ended up giving up out of frustration due to bugs, urological gunplay, and performance issues.(I can run Crysis on maximum, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R on minimum? Impossible.) The mod not only makes the game less buggy but more stable. I COULD NOT run the vanilla game on minimum, and I have a moderately powerful PC. With the 'STALKER COMPLETE' mod I could run the game MUCH smoother on normal/high graphics, including the upgrades the 'STALKER COMPLETE' mod adds to the game. No lag, no long loading, just smooth and stunning visuals/gameplay. The vanilla was simply put, terribly programed and executed.

I also recommend the 'weapons patch' you can find in the download section of 'STALKER COMPLETE'. It makes the guns more realistic, not easier. If your idea of difficulty is 'taking ten headshots to kill a bandit' then yeah, this mod makes the game 'easier'. If you want fast and fun gunplay that is, in my opinion, MORE challenging than the vanilla games system, then I again highly recommend the gun mod.

TL;DR---S.T.A.L.K.E.R complete did not earn a 9.5 out of 800 votes score on mod DB by sucking. Again, there is a small, loyalist and very vocal minority that claim 'vanilla is the only way'.
Please, for your sake, ignore them.

[Draescan]

STALKER Complete isn't bad, however there's better options out there that function much better and don't have weapons that look like they were made out of clay :P

[jacob4408]

Hmm, I was hoping for a consensus and got just the opposite. LOL I appreciate everyone's input and will keep each of your opinions in mind as I take my first steps into the STALKER franchise. Happy gaming!

[Grimminski]

Originally posted by botherations:

TL;DR---S.T.A.L.K.E.R complete did not earn a 9.5 out of 800 votes score on mod DB by sucking. Again, there is a small, loyalist and very vocal minority that claim 'vanilla is the only way'.
Please, for your sake, ignore them.

I never said it was worse, I said it was easier. Even on Master, enemies pose little to no threat. Ammo and medkits are plentiful. You rarely need to eat. You can carry a ridiculous amount of stuff and still be able to sprint almost forever.

Basically your entire post boils down to "Don't listen to them; listen to me instead". Just because the game doesn't work perfectly for you out of the box doesn't mean it's broken beyond repair.

The Vanilla game works just fine. Do I prefer it? Not really. Is it playable from start to finish? Hell yes. I love modding games and given the chance I will completely change it with whatever I can cobble together.

[maldorf]

Strange that you say this because I am running the "vanilla" now and have been for the last 2 days with absoultely zero bugs. Not one crash, nothing. Its been a great game and I must say that I am very impressed with it considering it came out in 2007. Im using a gtx 760 and a 3 year old I7 running at 3.2 GHZ and thats it. I am running the game with all the settings at max too and frame rate is great, the sound is superb in dolby digital 5.1. The AI in this game is pretty smart too, other than the fact that the soldiers do seem too easy to sneak up on. Playing it on stalker level is tough enough for me.

Originally posted by botherations:

Originally posted by NwptRaisins:

Fixed.

The people who say STALKER COMPLETE' makes the game easier and worse are a small, vocal, and annoying minority. The vanilla game is a broken mess, an amazing possibility ruined by horrible execution. I 'tried' to play stalker several times and ended up giving up out of frustration due to bugs, urological gunplay, and performance issues.(I can run Crysis on maximum, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R on minimum? Impossible.) The mod not only makes the game less buggy but more stable. I COULD NOT run the vanilla game on minimum, and I have a moderately powerful PC. With the 'STALKER COMPLETE' mod I could run the game MUCH smoother on normal/high graphics, including the upgrades the 'STALKER COMPLETE' mod adds to the game. No lag, no long loading, just smooth and stunning visuals/gameplay. The vanilla was simply put, terribly programed and executed.

I also recommend the 'weapons patch' you can find in the download section of 'STALKER COMPLETE'. It makes the guns more realistic, not easier. If your idea of difficulty is 'taking ten headshots to kill a bandit' then yeah, this mod makes the game 'easier'. If you want fast and fun gunplay that is, in my opinion, MORE challenging than the vanilla games system, then I again highly recommend the gun mod.

TL;DR---S.T.A.L.K.E.R complete did not earn a 9.5 out of 800 votes score on mod DB by sucking. Again, there is a small, loyalist and very vocal minority that claim 'vanilla is the only way'.
Please, for your sake, ignore them.

[Preddi]

Originally posted by NwptRaisins:

Originally posted by botherations:

TL;DR---S.T.A.L.K.E.R complete did not earn a 9.5 out of 800 votes score on mod DB by sucking. Again, there is a small, loyalist and very vocal minority that claim 'vanilla is the only way'.
Please, for your sake, ignore them.

I never said it was worse, I said it was easier. Even on Master, enemies pose little to no threat. Ammo and medkits are plentiful. You rarely need to eat. You can carry a ridiculous amount of stuff and still be able to sprint almost forever.

Basically your entire post boils down to "Don't listen to them; listen to me instead". Just because the game doesn't work perfectly for you out of the box doesn't mean it's broken beyond repair.

The Vanilla game works just fine. Do I prefer it? Not really. Is it playable from start to finish? Hell yes. I love modding games and given the chance I will completely change it with whatever I can cobble together.

My post boils down to 'listen to the majority'.
And again, the 'majority' have problems with the game out of the box.

[Draescan]

To be fair, " listening to the majority " is normally not the best way to go about things. It's better to try it, see what works for you, and make adjustments accordingly. It's not going to hurt to play vanilla a little just to get used to the mechanics anyways.