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Hi everyone!

I recently bit the bullet and bought CoP. It is amazing. It has been years since I played Shadow of Chernobyl (I missed Clear Sky) and I'd forgotten just how immersive, sinister and fun the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games are. Any one else play them? I have the Natural world and natural weather mods (for prettiness). Does anyone else recommend any other mods? I see the S.M.R.T.E.R (or however it is spelt) is very popular but I'm not sure if I should try that before completing vanilla at least once. What do you people think?

This happened within 15 minutes of me starting my first game:

I was admiring the view from on top of a great steal pipe around dusk when I saw a group of bandits in the distance. Because I'd just found a kickass new rifle with my first decent scope I thought I would try to take them out and steal all their ammo. I manage to kill one but as they make their way towards me I see them get horribly killed by a pair of bloodsuckers, out of nowhere. I give up on the idea of looting the bodies as soon as I lose track of the cloaked beasts, but I feel fairly safe on my pipe. That is until a voice on the radio tells me "emission soon. Get to shelter if you want to live!". So knowing if I stay, I die, or if the suckers catch me, I die, I bolt in the opposite direction towards where I remember there was a fairly sturdy-looking house. It's dark now with lightning splitting the sky so I don't notice the hole until I've fallen in, landing heavily in a cave carved from the rock by a mysterious, roaming anomaly. So I lay there. In the dark, with just the occasional flash of lightning or fireburst breaking the darkness. I felt like some hapless, hunted creature, afraid to breath in case the bloodsuckers heard me.

This game is absolutely incredible. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is the single most immersive, atmospheric and intense series I've had the great pleasure to play. I remember on one of my first missions, where you have to take out a bloodsucker lair in a basement. You were supposed to find the keys to unlock a gas valve and gas them to death, but since I couldn't find them I charged in with my SPAS-12 and tore gak up. 'Twas a glorious battle.
Another good memory is from the Yanov area. I was tasked by a hunter to eliminate a bloodsucker lair in the swamp. The only weapon I had was some half-decent assault rifle, with a few boxes of ammo. Here's what I can remember, told with my mediocre writing skills:
At dawn, in the pouring rain, I crept slowly through the murky swamp water, eyes shifting from side to side, searching for any sign of the creatures. The air was heavy and moist, filled with biting insects and dense precipitation. I clutched my weapon tightly, frightened out of my mind of what I knew must be in this swamp. Suddenly from the corner of my eye, a rustling in the weeds. I wheeled around, firing madly into the foliage. A roar filled my ears and spent shell casings spat from my weapon. A light mist of blood appeared in the air where my rounds hit the thing, and with a shimmer it appeared. It leapt at my face at a blinding speed, as I continued to fire. Just before it reached me the thing fell, its lifeless body splashing into the shallow waters. Another of the Bloodsuckers was right behind it, and I barely had time to reload before it was upon me. I dodged to my left, tracking the thing, my finger never leaving the trigger, and it finally went down. I reloaded with shaking hands as another rustle appeared. I managed to take this one down as well, but not before it cut a deep gash into my side. Bleeding profusely, I tried to bandage myself before another appeared. The swamp was silent. My rifle was empty, and I only had one magazine left in my sidearm. Splashing footsteps behind me made me turn, firing wildly at the shimmer in the air. Several impacts caused in the thing's torso caused it to slow, but it was still coming, and I was out of ammunition. I grasped for the knife at my boot, and pulled it free. I grasped the serrated combat knife in my fist, slamming it into the creature's shoulder. It penetrated all the way to the hilt, but the thing was still alive. I felt it's tentacles grab onto my neck. Mustering what was left of my strength, I kicked it in the shin, staggering it. A flash of lighting lit up the swamp and I saw my chance. With a triumphant roar I leapt forwards, stabbing the beast directly in the throat. I withdrew my blade, and with a sickening thud it fell onto the mud. I almost cried in relief. I was out of supplies and bleeding profusely, but I had accomplished my mission. With the slightest hint of a grin, I turned towards the rising sun, and started on my way back to Yanov.


Wow, I did NOT expect to write all that. Sorry for wall of text. This game, its just so... inspiring. I know my writing skills aren't that great but I hope you enjoyed reading that. (And this was a true story, too.)


BRB reinstalling.






Seriously.

I loved the living hell out of SoC and CoP. I especially love CoP, with it's "true" darkness. One time when I was in the second map of the game, I decided to head out to do a mission. Once I'm away from the trainstation's safe lights, I see six pairs of glowing white eyes staring at me. One of them howls at me and the next 30 seconds is me shooting blindly into the darkness and backpedaling towards the train station. I waited there til dawn, and just bolted.

I've been considering replying CoP for a while now, and I now think that's how I'll spend my three week break!

Love all the stalker games. Watched SoC for the 6 or so years in was in development. CoP was amazing, especially for the price point. One of the few series i actually fiddle with mods for because they seem to make them so much better. Only thing that bummed me a little bit about CoP was it was kinda short =`(. Cant win em all i guess

I've not finished it yet. I always play the campaign for a bit in free-roaming games, then get distracted and spends ages exploring.

BG2, Oblivion, FO3, Borlderlands etc. All made to last three times as long just by giving me the option of pissing about instead of saving the world.

SoC was very short for what the game made itself out to be. Is CoP shorter? I loved the original, but I would like to know if the sequel is worth buying.