History YMMV / Stalker

** When you do get one, usually mid-to-late game, the VSS Vintorez SniperRifle is one of the best guns in the game for any situation. Its scope lacks nothing compared to that of the two Dragunov variants', its ammo is really cheap by comparison while being every bit as powerful, it's light (more than 1,5kg lighter than an unloaded SVD) and compact enough that you have no penalties in turning speed and can even sprint with it on hand, and as long as you can reliably compensate for the bullet drop, it's ''deadly'' accurate. It helps that General Voronin ''showers'' you with high-quality armor-piercing SP-6 rounds for it in exchange for trivial missions in ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', and there are a lot of stashes and stalkers using 9x39mm guns in ''Clear Sky'' and ''Call of Pripyat'', so ammo is never at a premium if you know how and where to get it.

** The FN F2000, H&K G36, USP .45 Compact (and the custom version "[[ICallItVera March]]"), Storm (unique [=OTs=]-14 Groza that fires the common 5.45 ammo), AS VAL (late game at least), [[DiscOneNuke Strelok's rapid-fire AK-74]], the VSS Vintorez and its custom variant "Tide", and the Armsel Protecta. Getting any of these weapons, however, requires you to either have a small mountain of cash, fight through a bunch of enemies, or get on good standings with a certain faction. Once you do that, however, and fully upgrade them, you're more or less set for the majority of the game.
** With a little bit of exploring in ''Clear Sky'', you can pick up Scar's Vintorez within twenty minutes of starting a new game. Doesn't quite count as a DiscOneNuke, though, because it's badly damaged (having been dropped in the emission) and empty. You won't be finding ammo for it for a while, but carrying it along or stashing it for later retrieval saves you the cost of the weapon itself. Upgrade it properly and stock up on AP ammo (available from the Duty and Bandit vendors and often available on corpses) and you're pretty much set for weapons through the endgame.
** Getting the Armsel is pretty easy under the right circumstances, as well - Vano's mission sends you into the middle of a camp with about twelve bandits in it to pay off his debt. You can pay off the bandit leader (who has the Armsel) and get mugged on the way out, intimidate the bandit leader (with a high-level weapon) and leave, or just murder everyone. Walking into the leader's office and shooting him in the head, before stealing his gun and using it to fight your way out, is both hilariously audacious and fun.

** ''Call of Pripyat'' has you stealing a Gauss Rifle from a Monolith base with a group of fellow soldiers. This wouldn't be so bad in of itself, but getting the GoldenEnding requires three specific teammates of yours alive, which is harder than it should be thanks to ArtificialStupidity. It turns out [=NPCs=] suck at throwing grenades through windows and just bounce them off the walls back at them, blowing themselves up in the process. Playing the mission as intended will have you and your teammates holed in a building opposite the Monolith base, which is not helped by the multiple snipers eager take you and your entire team out.

** ''Call of Pripyat'' has you stealing a Gauss Rifle from a Monolith base with a group of fellow soldiers. This wouldn't be so bad in of itself, but getting the GoldenEnding requires three specific teammates of yours alive, which is harder than it should be thanks to ArtificialStupidity. It turns out [=NPCs=] suck at throwing grenades through windows and just bounce them off the walls back at them, blowing themselves up at the process. Playing the mission as intended will have you and your teammates holed in a building opposite the Monolith base, which is not helped by the multiple snipers eager take you and your entire team out.

* ThatOneLevel: The 2nd level of ''Clear Sky'', where crossing into the new area by the only available route has you coming out behind a boulder, on the other side of which is a mounted machine gun in the possession of the military. ''Well, at least they don't know I'm here'' -- wrong; they know you're there and tell you so. ''Well, I'll be safe behind this rock'' -- wrong again; after a few quick bursts, they send a number of better-armed and better-armoured soldiers after you. If you manage to dispatch them, you then have to figure out which way you can safely leg it.
** Once you realize that this is essentially a death-trap unless you've got at least a dozen spare medkits in your inventory (even after knocking off the squad of heavily-armored soldiers, that MG still has a ridiculous field of fire,) your best bet is to just turn around, go back to the Swamps, and enter the Cordon from the northern entrance. Sure, you wind up next to a group of Loners that get pissy if you get too close, but it's the easier way in.

** NarmCharm: Some argue the ridiculous English voices provides some comic relief in an otherwise bleak and frightening environment. It's also worth noting if you [[WatchItForTheMeme want to hear some of the memetic dialogue in game]] you'll want to keep the English voices.

!!From the [[Film/{{Stalker}} Film]]:

!!From the [[VideoGame/{{Stalker}} Video Game]]:

!! From the ''[[Series/{{Stalker}} TV Series]]'':

* GoodBadBugs: When Pseudodogs charge towards you and attack, there is a very small chance that the physics engine will glitch and you will be [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments propelled several hundred meters straight up at high speed]]. This has never been fixed despite having been present since the game was released.
** There's also the knife's secondary attack (see the OneHitKill entry below). Sadly fixed in ''Call of Pripyat''.

** The armour repairing trick with four battery artifacts. Collecting at least 4 artifacts of the flame/electricity battery type, wearing them, then jumping into a fire/electrical surge will restore your HP, and more importantly and absolutely a bug and not a feature, repair your armor, something otherwise impossible in the vanilla ''Shadow of Chernobyl''.

* [[StalkerWithACrush Ray Matthews]] is a highly intelligent but brutish [[AxCrazy psychopathic killer]] obsessed with Lieutenant Beth Davis. Originally her controlling boyfriend, back when she was Michelle Webber, in his attempts to get her back after she left him, Ray accidentally burnt her entire family to death. Released twelve years later by [[AntiVillain Perry Whitley]], Ray embarks on a twisted plan to isolate Beth so she would have no choice but turn to him. Stalking her until he learned all he needed, Ray hospitalizes Amanda Taylor to scare Beth, then kidnaps Beth's closest friend Tracy, beating the man she was staying with into a coma. [[CriminalMindGames Challenging the police]] to find Tracy as a distraction so he can kidnap Beth, Ray beats Perry and another man to death with his bare hands, [[CopKiller eliminates a patrolman]] and shoots Ben Caldwell, leaving him to bleed to death. Murdering a tenant to use his cabin as a base, Ray attempts induce StockholmSyndrome on Beth, and strangles a friendly old woman on the off chance she saw his picture on the news. His efforts failing and accepting he's unable to brainwash her, Ray decides to cut his losses and murder Beth. Capturing Jack, Janice and Beth but trapped by their reinforcements, Ray sets the building alight, attempting to [[MurderSuicide take them all with him]].
* [[MalevolentMaskedMan Nathan Grant]] aka Nicholas Kosta, from "Love Hurts" and "Love Kills", is a notorious Philadelphia criminal who fled to LA after murdering his wife. He became secretary of a support group for love and sex addicts, using the meetings to find cases that reminded him of his wife. Upon finding a victim, Grant would stalk the women for information and sexual gratification. Upon learning enough he would break into their homes, steal a knife and stab them to death becoming a meticulous SerialKiller and allowing him to relive killing his wife again and again. Grant then left their exes to take the fall for his crimes. Successfully murdering four women in this manner over six years, his cooling off period rapidly deteriorated between each kill. Following killing his fifth victim, Grant immediately began stalking Pam Tyler; two days later he attempted to kill her but was fought off. Undeterred, a few days later he killed his sixth victim, engineering events so the terrified woman ran straight to him. Realizing the police were after him, Grant framed another group member, and attempted to silence Special Agent Vicki Gregg.

** "I said come in, don't stand there!" "I said come in, don't stand there!" "[[MostAnnoyingSound I said come in, don't stand there!" "I said come in, don't stand there!" "I said come in, don't stand there!" "I said come in, don't stand there!" "I said--]]"

* MostAnnoyingSound
** Just about all the looped dialogue from the [=NPCs=] in the 100 Rads Bar since it often repeats over and over with no variation. This line in particular is pretty infamous.
--->''"I said come in! Don't stand there!"''
** Should you alarm the soldiers at the military outpost in Cordon, the amusing English dialogue over the P.A. system will be replaced with Russian alerts that will never stop unless you leave the area or kill everyone there.

*** ''Clear Sky'' and Call of Pripyat'' also added and changed some artifacts, creating a category of them that ''absorb'' radiation, essentially allowing you to permanently offset the radiation generation of other artifacts. A couple of these combined with armour upgraded for extra artifact capacity and whichever artifact you happen to want or need to use can make your life a lot easier, whether it's by upping your carry capacity, giving you constant health regen/wound healing, or making you more resistant to the elemental effects of certain anomalies.

* EarWorm: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_podzD4cSA Bandit Radio]] is a catchy accordion jingle that has become synonymous with the franchise itself.

* EarWorm: Several. The vocal bit for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgvs6OomdBM Dirge for the Planet]] is looped endlessly inside Sidorovich's bunker whilst the Bar used to have one of the stalker guitar songs play over and over and once you hear the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYpSg4n6lGo Bandit Base Polka]] in Clear Sky it will never. ''Ever. Stop.''

* HarsherInHindsight: Stalker's wife describes his crippled daughter as "a gift from The Zone." The locations for the outdoor scenes were heavily polluted, and several people on the crew suffered illnesses and untimely deaths.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: The lack of exposition makes the entire film open to a wide variety of interpretations (though it does follow the basic plot and themes of the novel fairly faithfully.)

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1PxpZ-hfE The train sequence]] is also a CrowningMomentOfAwesome for some, accompanied by CrowningMusicOfAwesome.

* GoodBadBugs: When Pseudodogs charge towards you and attack, there is a very small chance that the physics engine will glitch and you will be [[CrowningMomentOfFunny propelled several hundred meters straight up at high speed]]. This has never been fixed despite having been present since the game was released.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Having dodged the security forces, our heroes treat us to five minute-long studies of the backs of each other's heads as they ride a motorized draisine into The Zone.

*** The sound effect of the train clacking along the rails blends seamlessly into the music.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl8VEzJZmNU The Main Theme]] by Music/EduardArtemyev.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZPrfx9-qyc The Train]].
** "Bolero" by Music/MauriceRavel
** "Music/OdeToJoy" at the end.
* FauxSymbolism: According to WordOfGod, a black hound is just a black hound.
* HarsherInHindsight: Stalker's wife describes his crippled daughter as "a gift from The Zone." The locations for the outdoor scenes were heavily polluted, and several people on the crew suffered illnesses and untimely deaths.

** [[InherentlyFunnyWords CHEEKI BREEKI]] I V DANKI!

** The FN F2000, H&K G36, USP .45 Compact (and the custom version "[[ICallItVera March]],") Storm (unique OC-14 Groza that fires the common 5.45 ammo,) AS VAL (late game at least,) Strelok's rapid-fire AK-74, the VSS Vintorez and its custom variant "Tide," and the Armsel Protecta. Getting any of these weapons, however, requires you to either have a small mountain of cash, fight through a bunch of enemies, or get on good standings with a certain faction. Once you do that however, and fully upgrade them, you're more or less set for the majority of the game.
** With a little bit of exploring in Clear Sky, you can pick up Scar's Vintorez within twenty minutes of starting a new game. Doesn't quite count as a DiscOneNuke, though, because it's badly damaged (having been dropped in the emission) and empty. You won't be finding ammo for it for a while, but carrying it along or stashing it for later retrieval saves you the cost of the weapon itself. Upgrade it properly and stock up on AP ammo (available from the Duty and Bandit vendors and often available on corpses) and you're pretty much set for weapons through the endgame.

** Certain artifacts fall into this as well. Most artifacts give increased protection against certain types of damage, but often release radiation, making it necessary to either pair them with an artifact that absorbs radiation or pop an antirad or bottle of vodka every couple minutes. Others don't. The Flash and Moonlight artifacts all give large-scale benefits to your sprint meter (wearing one Moonlight or two Flash artifacts can let you sprint indefinitely so long as you aren't overloaded on weight), and their negative effect is an increased vulnerability to electricity. Electrical anomalies are encountered maybe three times in the entire first game, and actually spawn more of these artifacts. Picking up a handful of Flash or if you're incredibly lucky, a pair of Moonlight artifacts at the Agroprom Underground is incredibly easy and makes it simple to outrun the wildlife and hostile stalkers when engagement isn't an option, and makes shuttling tons of gear back and forth a cakewalk.

** Blind Dogs and Pseudodogs. Ridiculously hard to get a headshot on, drop near-worthless parts only one trader wants (Sakharov,) and TRAVEL IN PACKS. Pack a shotgun and a bunch of medkits, or suffer a death of a thousand cuts.
** The same goes for the rats, although they're called [[CallARabbitASmeerp hamsters]]. Though they lie somewhere between this trope and DemonicSpiders since even a single one of them can tear your armor surprisingly quickly.

** The "You see Ivan" meme is based on characters holding weapons using the animations for completely different ones, the meme based on one in particular where a character with a pistol holds their off hand in front of the pistol like they're holding a long rifle.

* AdaptationDisplacement: Most players are unaware of the novel and the film. Most of the ones that are looked up the novel and film because of the game.
** And even fewer people know that the game is also partially based on another short story of the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers, ''The Forgotten Experiment'' (which features concepts of [[spoiler:quasi-natural yet explained origin of the Zone]] and scientists working in the Zone).

* CaptainObviousReveal: If the player is even remotely familiar with the Zone, their first guess as to the cause of Operation Fairway's failure is going to be airborne anomalies, making the supposedly important late game revelation by Strelok come off as this trope.