S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

[Infinitron]

 

[NecroLord]

Meh.

 

[Benthran]

Stalker my ass

 

[Tel Velothi]

Call of Duty: Stalker

 

[HoboForEternity]

it still barely show anything related to gameplay

 

[The Jester]

"We want the CoD audience."

 

[United Nations]

Watched latest trailer, realized that they're using American voice actors and not Ukrainian actors speaking English with a Ukrainian accent.

Total fucking bullshit.

I'm a Ukrainian American who has never been to Ukraine and the main appeal of the original games were the genuine Ukrainian atmosphere, almost as if I was visiting Chernobyl and Pripyat in-person.

It doesn't make sense to use American voice actors in this context, it's about as bad as American movies that hire British actors to play a European character, regardless of whether they're from Brittain or not.

Fuck, I would accept American voice actors doing their best to speak with a fake Ukrainian/Russian accent, LOL... But I'll settle for using Ukrainian audio in-game with English subtitles!

 

[Ash]

An American character or two in the zone would actually be authentic, a little race mixing; people from other nations seeking its secrets, but otherwise by and large all slavic would for sure make sense. It's almost strange that the only people in the zone in the three stalker games are ALL slavic without exception, though more believable and tasteful than them being entirely American.

So anyway, if everyone is American now that would be weird and very dumb. Surely that's not what they're doing? A non-negligible part of the appeal of these games is the slavic-ness of the entire thing. Also Russians and Ukrainians are very prideful, nationalistic (and sometimes a little brainwashed) peoples - misrepresenting them and the STALKER games in this way is sure to result in notable backlash. Which...can often be a good thing for a game's success - drama/ragebait increases exposure and ensures people talk about the game and not some other stupid thing going on like bear sex for instance. The AAA game industry has mastered trolling retarded gamers to this end for decades, though if ragebait is what this is in this instance is less clear-cut than usual.

Not much triggers me more than ragebait and simpbait tactics, watching all the retards fall for it, and yet there is nothing I can do.

 

[jebsmoker]

the fact that they've hardly showed anything related to gameplay is concerning, and don't get me started on the English voice acting - it is *awful*. i am going to instantly switch to the Ukrainian dub whenever i play STALKER 2 several years from now

 

[Ol' Willy]

It's almost strange that the only people in the zone in the three stalker games are ALL slavic without exception

Vano, Ashot, Ara... One per game

 

[Quatlo]

Watched latest trailer, realized that they're using American voice actors and not Ukrainian actors speaking English with a Ukrainian accent.

Total fucking bullshit.

I'm a Ukrainian American who has never been to Ukraine and the main appeal of the original games were the genuine Ukrainian atmosphere, almost as if I was visiting Chernobyl and Pripyat in-person.

It doesn't make sense to use American voice actors in this context, it's about as bad as American movies that hire British actors to play a European character, regardless of whether they're from Brittain or not.

Fuck, I would accept American voice actors doing their best to speak with a fake Ukrainian/Russian accent, LOL... But I'll settle for using Ukrainian audio in-game with English subtitles!

This reminds me of rewatching Stargate SG-1 recently, where russkies are actually played by Russians or at least people from around there - they have different accents (probably depends where from post-ZSSR they are, I only can tell a difference between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian accents). Its a really small detail that noone seems to care about anymore, but an extremely important one if you don't want to ruin the atmosphere for people that actually have a minimal knowledge of the world.

 

[United Nations]

A non-negligible part of the appeal of these games is the slavic-ness of the entire thing. Also Russians and Ukrainians are very prideful, nationalistic (and sometimes a little brainwashed) peoples - misrepresenting them and the STALKER games in this way is sure to result in notable backlash. Which...can often be a good thing for a game's success - drama/ragebait increases exposure and ensures people talk about the game and not some other stupid thing going on like bear sex for instance.

The slavic culture embedded in all three original games was about 50% of their appeal.

Seriously, without that, STALKER would have been another run-of-the-mill sci-fi shooter.

The atmosphere made up for what the games lacked in terms of story.

The Metro series by comparison have a way better plot and graphics, but are linear, and the Russian aspect of them arguably contributed to about 25% of their appeal.

Obviously they're based on legitimate books, but I can imagine an almost identical post-apocalyptic monster zerg taking place in London or New York City.

There have been other nuclear plant meltdowns around the world during the last several decades, but Chernobyl is by far the worst.

Also FYI—one of my relatives was part of the construction crew that reconstructed a new concrete sarcophagus after the old one fell apart.

 

[Ash]

A non-negligible part of the appeal of these games is the slavic-ness of the entire thing. Also Russians and Ukrainians are very prideful, nationalistic (and sometimes a little brainwashed) peoples - misrepresenting them and the STALKER games in this way is sure to result in notable backlash. Which...can often be a good thing for a game's success - drama/ragebait increases exposure and ensures people talk about the game and not some other stupid thing going on like bear sex for instance.

The slavic culture embedded in all three original games was about 50% of their appeal.

Seriously, without that, STALKER would have been another run-of-the-mill sci-fi shooter.

Umm, no. I like it primarily for its combination of modern shooting mechanics and realism faggotry with old school non-retarded gameplay. It is certainly not run of the mill at all, in fact it is probably the only singleplayer first person shooter in the 2000s I have a high degree of respect for and even then they are only 8/10 games for me. Without that, I would not be interested. Without that, it would be Metro or Call of Duty.

 

[United Nations]

A non-negligible part of the appeal of these games is the slavic-ness of the entire thing. Also Russians and Ukrainians are very prideful, nationalistic (and sometimes a little brainwashed) peoples - misrepresenting them and the STALKER games in this way is sure to result in notable backlash. Which...can often be a good thing for a game's success - drama/ragebait increases exposure and ensures people talk about the game and not some other stupid thing going on like bear sex for instance.

The slavic culture embedded in all three original games was about 50% of their appeal.

Seriously, without that, STALKER would have been another run-of-the-mill sci-fi shooter.

Umm, no. I like it primarily for its combination of modern shooting mechanics and realism faggotry with old school non-retarded gameplay. It is certainly not run of the mill at all, in fact it is probably the only singleplayer first person shooter in the 2000s I have a high degree of respect for and even then they are only 8/10 games for me. Without that, I would not be interested. Without that, it would be Metro or Call of Duty.

The gameplay was badass, but I didn't play vanilla STALKER at all though, only modded.

 

[Ash]

Most of the STALKER gameplay mods I've played do very little to actually enhance the gameplay. They're very minimalist and faithful in approach, both a good thing and a bad thing - the gameplay could be a lot better with some intelligent liberties taken.

Gunslinger took some good liberties, namely expanding upon the weapon upgrade system and gunplay, making healing require an animation so you can't just spam it without issue, but also one or two bad ones too - namely the changes to controllers. It turns those encounters into silly hide and seek and PSI resistance stat seemed to no longer be relevant when engaging them. Nonetheless I highly recommend Gunslinger.

 

[deuxhero]

An American character or two in the zone would actually be authentic, a little race mixing; people from other nations seeking its secrets, but otherwise by and large all slavic would for sure make sense. It's almost strange that the only people in the zone in the three stalker games are ALL slavic without exception, though more believable and tasteful than them being entirely American.

So anyway, if everyone is American now that would be weird and very dumb. Surely that's not what they're doing? A non-negligible part of the appeal of these games is the slavic-ness of the entire thing. Also Russians and Ukrainians are very prideful, nationalistic (and sometimes a little brainwashed) peoples - misrepresenting them and the STALKER games in this way is sure to result in notable backlash. Which...can often be a good thing for a game's success - drama/ragebait increases exposure and ensures people talk about the game and not some other stupid thing going on like bear sex for instance. The AAA game industry has mastered trolling retarded gamers to this end for decades, though if ragebait is what this is in this instance is less clear-cut than usual.

Not much triggers me more than ragebait and simpbait tactics, watching all the retards fall for it, and yet there is nothing I can do.

I thought the implications were that the Mercs and/or Freedom (note their use of NATO calibers over Duty's Pact equipment) were propped up by some nebulous western glow in the darks.

Watched latest trailer, realized that they're using American voice actors and not Ukrainian actors speaking English with a Ukrainian accent.

Total fucking bullshit.

I'm a Ukrainian American who has never been to Ukraine and the main appeal of the original games were the genuine Ukrainian atmosphere, almost as if I was visiting Chernobyl and Pripyat in-person.

It doesn't make sense to use American voice actors in this context, it's about as bad as American movies that hire British actors to play a European character, regardless of whether they're from Brittain or not.

Fuck, I would accept American voice actors doing their best to speak with a fake Ukrainian/Russian accent, LOL... But I'll settle for using Ukrainian audio in-game with English subtitles!

Steam lists a full Ukranian voice option for what it's worth.

 

[Zarniwoop]

A non-negligible part of the appeal of these games is the slavic-ness of the entire thing. Also Russians and Ukrainians are very prideful, nationalistic (and sometimes a little brainwashed) peoples - misrepresenting them and the STALKER games in this way is sure to result in notable backlash. Which...can often be a good thing for a game's success - drama/ragebait increases exposure and ensures people talk about the game and not some other stupid thing going on like bear sex for instance.

The slavic culture embedded in all three original games was about 50% of their appeal.

Seriously, without that, STALKER would have been another run-of-the-mill sci-fi shooter.

The atmosphere made up for what the games lacked in terms of story.

The Metro series by comparison have a way better plot and graphics, but are linear, and the Russian aspect of them arguably contributed to about 25% of their appeal.

Obviously they're based on legitimate books, but I can imagine an almost identical post-apocalyptic monster zerg taking place in London or New York City.

There have been other nuclear plant meltdowns around the world during the last several decades, but Chernobyl is by far the worst.

Also FYI—one of my relatives was part of the construction crew that reconstructed a new concrete sarcophagus after the old one fell apart.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R just isn't S.T.A.L.K.E.R without cheeki breeki, doctor's sausage or drinking vodka to cure radiation.

 

[Ol' Willy]

A non-negligible part of the appeal of these games is the slavic-ness of the entire thing. Also Russians and Ukrainians are very prideful, nationalistic (and sometimes a little brainwashed) peoples - misrepresenting them and the STALKER games in this way is sure to result in notable backlash. Which...can often be a good thing for a game's success - drama/ragebait increases exposure and ensures people talk about the game and not some other stupid thing going on like bear sex for instance.

The slavic culture embedded in all three original games was about 50% of their appeal.

Seriously, without that, STALKER would have been another run-of-the-mill sci-fi shooter.

Umm, no. I like it primarily for its combination of modern shooting mechanics and realism faggotry with old school non-retarded gameplay. It is certainly not run of the mill at all, in fact it is probably the only singleplayer first person shooter in the 2000s I have a high degree of respect for and even then they are only 8/10 games for me. Without that, I would not be interested. Without that, it would be Metro or Call of Duty.

SoC had some of the best weapon ballistics in FPS games at the time, plus relatively uncaged AI which was moving around levels almost freely in combat - features which really made it stand out from the rest.

For example, SoC was one of the few games (other being ArmA) that simulated bullets ricocheting from the ground, and one of the rare FPSes that had bullet drop

 

[Iucounu]

An American character or two in the zone would actually be authentic, a little race mixing; people from other nations seeking its secrets, but otherwise by and large all slavic would for sure make sense. It's almost strange that the only people in the zone in the three stalker games are ALL slavic without exception, though more believable and tasteful than them being entirely American.

I recall Roadside Picnic had UN soldiers guarding its (Canadian?) Zone. But in Stalker, CIA and other secret foreign agents should hide any clues about their true identities. Ordinary stalkers could certainly come from any country in the world, but mostly from neighboring countries, so no reason to inject Americans. If anything people from poor countries would be more represented, since they'd be more willing to risk their lives for profit. Perhaps Gypsies digging up radioactive copper wire in Garbage and selling outside the Zone?

But for a genuine atmosphere, diversity in Stalker needs to be at least East European. Unfortunately the largest ethnic minority in Ukraine seems to be Russian-speaking, and GSC is apparently discriminating against Russian language in the game...

 

[cyborgboy95]

Some new screenshots, doesn't look not bad at all I'd say

 

[cvv]

Looks better than Metro Exodus, and Metro Exodus looked fucking dope.

 

[Ryzer]

Looks like CoD Warzone but in an apocalyptic setting.

 

[HoboForEternity]

Looks decent, but i am still will be very critical toward this game. Still havent, and wont forget the NFT shit they tried to pull few years ago

 

[Gerrard]

All of these are old, and not real screenshots either

 

[NecroLord]

Needs proper Stalker atmosphere.
It looks good, sharp, but lacks that radioactive greyness and moroseneness of original Stalker.