Reviews - 0ktober

Very refreshing to play a completely new STALKER story with some good old-fashioned Roadside Picnic vibes. Not a huge fan of the UI, but I quickly got used to it due to the interesting gameplay. I have mixed feelings about the mid-game transition - don't get me wrong, I loved both halves of the game, but the transition itself and the second story felt like it was written by a totally different person with totally different artistic views, messing up the flow and the brilliant start of the story. That and the ending, which could've had waaaay more potential to be more mysterious, prolonged and climactic. Nevertheless, one of the most memorable STALKER experiences I've had in a long time. Easily 8+/10.

An atmospheric and dark revisit to Black Mesa Research Facility.

First things first: this mod has the sexiest level design I've seen in a looong time. I've always loved the aesthetics of what GoldSrc does to this game series. But this mod? It's even more detailed, atmospheric and compelling.

It's also hard to believe this mod is a one-man show. The attention to detail is amazing, gameplay is quite enjoyable and it is more than loyal to the original game. This really felt like the third official expansion pack HL never got, although it's a bit on the shorter side.

This is a very personal opinon, so please don't get triggered: the only downside of this mod is the "plot." I didn't quite catch who Candidate #12 actually was (felt like one of guys from the Science Team) and what his agenda / role was in all this. There were also a lot of references to Half-Life 2 characters and it all went over my head: You see, I've never liked Half-Life 2. And because of that its characters and their stories didn't really burn into my memory. I had problems figuring out who was talking to who, what was happening and why. But to sweep minor problems under the rug I'll just say: "Hey, it works even without understanding the plot."

tl;dr:
Read the first sentence.

9/10

A bit harder and unfortunately unpolished Call of Misery addon. The word "hard" is either the game difficulty or the entertainment faction, your choice.

I will admit that this mod has been patched quite well since the release of the super buggy version one, but it's still a constant fighting against CTD's rather than Zone's horrors. I've reinstalled and played this mod several times now, with different patches and addons, and it still trips on the same traps.

I had my share of fun playing this mod. I like the added content (in contrast to CoC and CoM) and other aspects on the "hardened" difficulty - I really do - but it's super unpolished, unstable and overall frustrating to play.

Sandbox-like STALKER is a good idea, but hard to accomplish. Too bad this one is almost as buggy as 90% of the community mods. I had lots of fun, but I had to start the game 7 times over AND I had to drop it ultimately since it becomes a bug farm the deeper you go into the Zone.

Download & play with caution. I really wanted to like this.

Something old, something new. Keeps crashing in an important point of the game. And I miss the artifact activation.

I haven't seen a GOOD space game in a long while, especially with a horror aspect. Great Alien series friendly 80's retro design, smooth gameplay, vast sound design and most of all GOOD atmosphere. We'll see if the game "Routine" will take a bigger step when it gets released.

Same as Half-Life 2, rock-solid game with minor AI problems. A refreshing game expansion, even if it's a bit short one.

This was the most beautiful and graphically most advanced game ten years ago. Too bad I never "identified" this as Half-Life, it's just like something is missing. But it is a solid, well designed and balanced game (for me it's still eye candy) but the Combine have some serious AI problems in their heads.

Same ol' Half-Life, but with graphical improvements. Good looking, but I still prefer the original version.