Reviews - Dukedepouille

Not only MISERY is an elitist project bound to exclude and frustrate most of the masses it’s been teasing for many months. It’s also a version of the game finally very remote from the STALKER spirit. STALKER is my favourite game franchise ever, because i have never found myself so powerfully immersed in a game, or even in any other imaginary world. MISERY looked like it was going to define nothing short of a new standard for this immersion, but it tremendously failed because its obsessive hardcorist component far outweighs all others.

Maybe this should not come as a surprise. This fundamental splitting from the STALKER spirit was actually embedded in the mod’s aesthetics. An all-grey-and-brown world is not what STALKER was about, quite the opposite: the franchise’s artistic balance relies primarily on the alternation between concentrated, filthy grimness, and explosions of greenish bucolism; between moments of intense, horrific warrior tension, and moments of enchanting, warming, poetical relief. This subtle mix is what makes these games so incredibly absorbing, so uniquely rich in terms of atmosphere, so bewitching. While the grim part clearly dominates all STALKER games, its monopoly in MISERY’s looks and feels induces something simple: this is not a STALKER game. This is the game of some guys who liked STALKER, felt like it would be better without any of the relieving and greeny bits, and thus wanted to turn it into something entirely different.

Most of the people who, like me, had the highest hopes in this mod, probably didn’t see this yet because they’re still under the influence of the massive buzz, trying to keep themselves convinced that MISERY is still the spiritual heir of STALKER 2 or something, and that it only needs some polishing. Yet sooner or later they will have to handle this painful truth: MISERY is not STALKER, it never will be, by any standard, and this should have been stated loud and clear repeatedly by the development team.