Reviews - MushroomCloudGaming

10/10 for effort, 20/10 for triggering Z patriots.

With all the fixes applied, this is probably the best STALKER mod I have ever played.

Why?

Massive amounts of content, a high degree of polish and most importantly of all, unlike the majority of STALKER mods, it sticks to what STALKER truly is, a balanced & fun experience and not one that is so obsessed with realism that every single gun one hits every enemy to the point that gun variety becomes pointless.

Moreover, there are no annoying gimmicks like moving too slowly, or disappearing artefacts found in other mods, like Misery or Soup.

I adored the progression of double-barrel shotguns in the Swamps, with the TOZ-34 being the end tier gun. Other examples include the powerful 7.62x39mm AKM vs the more balanced but weaker AK-74 undercut with the slow firing StG which is a cool intermediate found in the Cordon stashes. There is clear consideration for a true vanilla-like progression system, and I cannot sing enough praises for that.

As for negatives, I do think some of the new mutants feel out of place though I appreciate the effort. I would also like to see an in-game menu for weathers as I think the predominantly foggy weather does take away from STALKER's excellent lighting. Also a minor nitpick is the Loner trader Shilov (no it's not because she is female) its cause her model is, well overly sexual and doesn't really fit STALKER's theme. Just cover up those bazongas, and its fine :P.

Perhaps make all artefacts visible (if possible) just like SHOC. Always hated the detector mechanic. There is no satisfying 'wow what is that artifact in the distance' feeling that Clear sky and COP sorely lacked.

But other than that, well done and I can't wait to see the later versions.

Solid 9/10.

Fantastic mod overall, stunning atmosphere,gorgeous visuals and surprisingly, much improved sound design. The mod delivers all on its promises, that being re-imagining STALKERS art style as well as polishing many components such as game play to an impeccable degree.

Autumn Aurora 2 enhances the legendary atmosphere from the 2007 classic while updating the some of its more dated areas, such as visual fidelity and gunplay. The tree and grass models/sprites are far superior to the original game, as are the world textures, which aren't exactly super high-res but they are extremely detailed and have superb specular and bumpmaping. The UI design is also commenadble with an excellent inventory screen and also a minimilistic hud which I approve of. That being said, the HUD does lack an ammo counter, which I find puzzling as there is no way to see how much ammo a weapon has, save for counting shots fired.

The balancing is also excellent with Russian 5.45 weapons being rather weak but spammable due to their frequent ammo drops. On the other hand, 5.56 weapons are much rarer than vanilla as are the 9x39 guns. The addition of weapons like the PP-19 bizon make collecting the very common 9x18 round a very viable tactic, while saving the 9x19 FMJ ammo for your pistols.

Despite not having many new weapons as is common place with mods such as Arsenal Mod RC1, they are much better implemented with excellent animations as well as placement/rarity. Quality over quantity is a theme here.

The performance is also quite stable on my average PC (I5 3470, 8GB RAM, 650 TI) with snappy load times lasting less then 8 seconds on a cold start. IT runs at 30FPS always , which is not that ideal but it does not dip at any time, however this is a system intensive mod and that is to be expected on a weak gpu.

I will point out some things I found annoying or weird another time, but bare in mind this is an excellent overhaul which makes replaying SHOC in a Lost Alpha age, very desirable.

Visually stunning with fantastic anamorphic lense flare effects found in games such as Battlefield 4 as well as a dark ambience evoking a STALKER like feel. Most of the male and combine models are great as are the weapon models. It also runs at 100fps + on my I5 3470 650GTX TI 8gb pc and also loads much faster then most mods of this size found in other games. The mod is also very easy to install and has several customizable features, such as Enabling the orchestral score that this mod has to offer or disabling Sweet.

The only reason I do not rate this a full 10/10 are a few bugbears I have, which include:

1) Altering the core gameplay (I.e: Movement speed, Slower Crowbar and a realistic sprint animation). I feel these detract from the fast paced nature of Half life 2 and serve only as a hindrance other then anything else.

2) (THESE ARE OPTIONAL) The female HD models, especially Alex Vance look like a bunch of barbie doll latino prostitutes out of an Anime.While the actual work on the models is fantastic, they are a jarring contrast to the dystopian world the author has conceived. Also The Pulse rifle is just an MP5 with a holo sight on it.

3) There are a few minor bugs such as blood not appearing, obstructions caused from alterations in the level and the occasional texture glitch.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this to any HL2 fan regardless of these grievances as they are probably fixable with some sort of cfg file, and the HD Models are optional anyway.

(Notes: This mod is enormousness, 9.6gb compressed 36.8gb uncompressed, but given the ridiculous texture quality, I would say its well worth it)

Their are several reasons why this mod gets a 10/10 from me..

For starters, its freaking huge! Their are more new locations then there are areas in the Vanilla game, most of them are story driven. The sheer amount of items and weaponry eclipses most of the SHOC mods I know of.

It also runs well on my outdated pc (1.86GHZ dual core, 8600GT, 2GB DDR2) (about 60-80FPS Static, 25-40 Dynamic [However I experience D3D9 related crashes in the new areas when I play on Dynamic, and it Dips down to below 15fps in smoke filled areas such as the BAR). Cold start loading times vary from 45sec - 1.5min (On a HDD with 3GB/s) and my friends generally get loading times which are less then 20 seconds long.

Stability is a recurring issue with many stalker mods,however the .DB Version of the mod (Non-Gamedata one) is very stable, even on my archaic rig. I experience a few crashes now and again, particularly in heavily populated areas on Regular mode with alot of quests completed. If one plays on 'The collector' mode, it is possible to play for 4hours+ Without crashes, as I have managed to do so on multiple occasions.

UPDATES! Yes Tecnobacon really cares about this mod and their are frequent updates from what I can tell. I also praise the options available (EG, Not having weapons instakill you or the NPCS, which really makes finding new weapons pointless imo)

Overall its a very solid mod with enough content to overshadow most retail releases by a long shot. Its a far cry from the initial alpha builds, even though its not perfect, its pretty damn close. My only real complaints with it is the frequent illegible Google translation. At times it is plain cryptic, referring to certain characters with different names, but that's hardly a reason to give this mod a lower score

Just make sure you get the .DB Version and prepare to experience 15GB of awesomeness xD. If somehow Cooperative play is implemented, this would be the best game ever in my books

Simply Excellence in the making. The detail in the gore sprites is enough to make even the most perfectionist physcopat bang his head against a wall in joy. There are very few mods which I enjoyed to such an extent that surpass vanilla doom. But this has done it, an addictive violent adventure from start to finish. =]