Collection of mods that improve visuals and remove bugs while keeping the vanilla gameplay intact.
I created the very original Starter Pack way back in 2011 to aid the countless newcomers to have as bug-free "vanilla" experience as possible. Many PC games of old had already gotten their "Starter Packs" for this same purpose, so my compilation of mods also got that name.
Now a good decade later, I find that the Starter Pack has started to live its own life, and has clearly evolved beyond its original purpose and form-factor.
It is impossible to call THIS Starter Pack even remotely "vanilla". Every single detail has been overhauled, from graphics to audio, and with it the original atmosphere and art-style have been butchered.
The biggest offenders are the eyes-popping bloom effect and total desaturation of shadows, which makes the game look hazy yet burned-out. Flicking a flashlight towards a wall literally creates a cloud of pure white, blinding light, which makes it look more like an early PS3 game than a pseudo photorealistic PC title.
If judged on their own, the 3D model replacements are high quality, but really stick out from the world. As SoC does not support the plethora of modern PBR materials and such, the end result are these very "soft" looking models with round form factor and no perceived macro & micro detailing. The original models and world make heavy use of start bump maps and detailed photo textures, which in my opinion worked in the game's favor. It can also be argued if the inherently "modern" looking getup of NPCs really fits the pseudo-retro futuristic setting of STALKER; it might be set in the year 2012, but in a world that changed its course of history around the game the game was released. Think how different the MGS games' worlds of 2005-2014 are to ours, and you get the idea.
Same applies to the gun models and the faked through-scope sight pictures. The clearly hand-made textures lack stark highlights and wear details, making them appear almost all matte in the bigger picture. The new positioning of models also doesn't allow the details to show up very well. There are also some questionable changes in the arsenal, such as the iconic and rare LR-300 being swapped with the modern M4A1 carbine, clearly simply because latter's model is easier to acquire than that of a niche 1980's prototype AR's.
All this is a big shame, as I know that the properly mirrored gun models and stronger audio effects would please the gun-enthusiastic players a lot.
tl;dr: This "Starter Pack" is no longer THE Starter Pack I and many veteran Stalkan' players have recommended for years. It's not a good starting point for first timers, as it does not give a realistic, unchanged view of the vanilla game's looks and feel. At this point, the S.P.2017 is a similar major overhaul mod as Complete 2009; a mixed bag.
The mod is ok. Can't really note the difference with vanilla. But what it is messed up is that the finale, in the Power Plant is completely broken. You appear in the map, and there is no enemy at all. But if you save and load, enemies appear. The map of the outskirts of the reactor and further, are totally broken. A pity
While this fixes a large number of bugs in the game, it also introduces many more that make the experience feel cluttered. Additionally, it isn't super vital to have considering some of the potential bugs can cause crashes and slowdowns that don't exist in the main game (there are other bugs which cause this in the true vanilla experience sadly). Overall, a ripped band-aid for an experience that is just too broken for all but the most hardcore to enjoy.
Final Verdict: 3/10 (Poor)
great vanilla + experience
Great mod! While it enhances the graphics greatly it keeps the vanilla Shadow of Chernobyl experience.
gud
That old Stalker game feel and style, but brought up to date with refreshed graphics and fixed bugs
Works excatly as advertised, changes the gameplay very little but updates the grafics and fixes a lot of bugs. Great mod of a vanilla play through
Solid repack that aims at keeping the vanilla feeling alive.
Played my first run of SoC with this mod (a collection of mods) then played Complete 2009 my second run. Both have there pros and cons but after all is said and done I'd say this is more my type of thing. One main reason for this is the weapons, if the author of this starter pack is correct none of the weapon stats were changed but, if I understand correctly, the textures and sounds were. In Complete 2009 the 9x39 ammo is less effective than the 5.56, also the weapons look and sound heftier in this Starter Pack than in Complete 2009. Also in Complete the grenade iron sights were done away with when using a grenade launcher attached to a weapon. Plus the Modifyer.exe present in this mod was done away (yet the files are all still there) with in "Complete" I think because it created crash's or bugs as I installed the missing Modifyer to take advantage of the mod files but was met with crash after crash.
I will say that Complete has a WONDERFUL looking weather system not to mention the constellations that are supposedly present in the sky at night, but I spent more time shooting janky looking weapons not looking at the sky.