Reviews - HoopleHead

A flat out essential mod for any STALKER:SoC player. Stop reading this and just get it.

Truly an exceptional mod for Shadow of Chernobyl. For those(like me) who have played the STALKER games to death it's more then worth your time. Provides something new while keeping the atmosphere we all love.

The free-form feel of Priboi Story does a good job of making you feel like a military investigator. The mod does NOT hold your hand, and how much you discover about the story is up to you. This is also a good mod to show what team Dez0wave can do, especially if you are eagerly awaiting Lost Alpha.

If you love STALKER and want another reason to explore the Exclusion Zone, give this mod a download.

Redux is one of the most promising mods out there for Call of Pripyat. If you are a STALKER fan who loves mods that make the Zone feel as harsh and unforgiving as one would expect then you can stop reading now and hit the download link, this mod gets the job done.

The HUD is very minimal but gives all the info you need while increasing immersion. One problem I have is the glow around the status icons which make many of them look like indistinguishable blobs. You will get used to it but sharper icons would have been better IMO.

The weather is eerie and dark most of the time, if it's not raining there will many times be a thick fog across the Zone. To me the weather is perfect. I believe this mod uses Atmosfear 2.1 or at least parts of it, so it looks damn good.

Weapons perform as then should, nice and realistic. Any enemy that's not wearing an Exoskeleton can be taken down with a few well placed shots. Just remember to keep you head down too. There is much more diversity with the weapons STALKERs carry, which is great when you can get an SVD early on but it is odd to see bandist with RPG-7s so early in the game.

I felt in the earlier versions of Redux the mutants were quite imbalanced, but with the 1.05b patch it is much better. Blind dogs are fast, deadly, and deadly annoying but they now go down quickly with the right firepower. My biggest gripe with the mod has to do with the mutant groups. There have been times when I've been attacked by Flesh, Boars, Blind Dogs, and Pseudo-Dogs all at once and many times you will see packs of Flesh and Pseudo-Dogs roaming together. This just doesn't sit right with me, Pseudo-Dogs should be hunting Flesh not hanging out with them.

One big thing that should be mentioned is that the Upgrade system is gone. I wish that the mod author had put a better system in place before scrapping it. You can find more Unique weapons which kind of makes up for it.

In conclusion great atmosphere, great shooting, great mod.