History YMMV / Stalker

* CompleteMonster: [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Yoga]], from the prequel ''Clear Sky'', is the original leader of [[TheMafiya the Bandits]]. A sociopathic and tyrannical crime lord known for his needlessly cruel way of handling problems, Yoga abuses his authority in the Zone -- as seen when he orders the assassination of his own spy and massacres LaResistance -- and participates in the [[CivilWar Faction Wars]] by slaughtering Loners to expand his empire until the neutral community is left devastated, even running a POWCamp where people are forced to search for treasures near areas of radiation and anomalies.

* WhatAnIdiot: Jack Larsen in "Manhunt" just shot their main suspect and thinks he's dead. The suspect is ex-Military special forces. Instead of keeping his eye on him and immediately calling for backup, he turns his back on him allowing the suspect to get the drop on him.

* HarsherInHindsight:
** On February 24 2022, the Russian Federation officially declared war on Ukraine and invaded the country. In the invasion, Russian forces captured Chernobyl with threats of nuclear warfare at its highest since the end of the Cold War. GSC Game World, the game's developer, is based in Ukraine has postponed the development of STALKER 2 due to this.

** On February 24, the Russian Federation officially declared war on Ukraine and invaded the country. In the invasion, Russian forces captured Chernobyl with threats of nuclear warfare at its highest since the end of the Cold War. GSC Game World, the game's developer, is based in Ukraine has postponed the development of STALKER 2 due to this.

* SpeedyTechnoRemake: The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_podzD4cSA Bandit Radio Song]]" from ''Clear Sky'' had the infamous "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnTW6fZz-1E Cheeki Breeki Hardbass Anthem]]" as one. Doubles into WeirdAlEffect territory as well, since a whole lot of people (even those who have never played the game) recognize the latter song more, due to being heavily associated with the Gopnik culture.

** "[[http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/856/438/e1c.jpg You see Ivan]], when you [[GoodBadBugs hold peestol like me]], you shall never [[BlindIdiotTranslation shoot the inaccurate]] because of fear of shooting fingers."

* {{Sequelitis}}: ''Clear Sky'', when compared to ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', was criticized by players for being [[ObviousBeta incredibly buggy]] to the point of [[GameBreakingBug breaking the game]] [[UnwinnableByMistake by mistake]] and for having a few FakeDifficulty moments such as homing grenades thrown by [=NPCs=] and the [[ThatOneLevel main entrance to the Cordon being guarded by an inhumanly accurate MG nest]]. The only way to fix most of these player nuisances is through extensive modding.

** NarmCharm: For what it's worth, the ridiculous English dub provides some much-needed comic relief in an otherwise bleak and frightening world where death, horror, and violence wait around every corner. 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.

** A NU [[InherentlyFunnyWords CHEEKI BREEKI]] IV DAMKE!
** HOWDY HO!
** He was a good stalker!

** Not to mention wild dogs. You could be a top-level Stalker outfitted with exoskeleton armor and the finest of guns, but you'd ''still'' have to make a frenzied dash past the pack of wild dogs in front of the Duty compound to get in. Alternately, you could just shoot one or two. If you get lucky and kill the pack alpha, the rest of them run away.

** In ''Shadow Of Chernobyl'', this is where you'll meet the [[AlwaysChaoticEvil Bandits]] for the first time, who'll constantly harass you during your time there, as well as guarding the access to Agroprom. Luckily, they're not very numerous or well-equipped and are in a turf war with the Loners, meaning you will rarely encounter them without some backup nearby.

** When you do get one, usually mid-to-late game, the Vintar BC (VSS Vintorez) SniperRifle is one of the best guns for any situation in all three games. Its scope lacks nothing compared to that of the two Dragunov variants', its ammo is really cheap by comparison to sniper ammo, 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. In fact, with a little bit of exploring in ''Clear Sky'', you can pick up Scar's Vintar within twenty minutes of starting a new game (it's broken though and needs to be repaired).

** 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. In ''Shadow of Chernobyl'', certain ones 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 above the first weight limit), and their negative effect is an increased vulnerability to electricity. Electrical anomalies are encountered maybe three times, and actually spawn more of these artifacts. Picking up a handful of Flashes, or if you're incredibly lucky, a pair of Moonlights 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 between maps a cakewalk.

** The Soviet Union would soon have an area like the ZONE for real; it's called CHERNOBYL.

** [[MalevolentMaskedMan Nathan Grant]] born 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.

** [[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.

* CompleteMonster: [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Yoga]], from the prequel ''Clear Sky'', is the original leader of [[TheMafiya the Bandits]]. A sociopathic and tyrannical crime lord known for his needlessly cruel way of handling problems, Yoga abuses his authority in the Zone -- as seen when he orders the assassination of his own spy and massacres the LaResistance -- and participates in the [[CivilWar Faction Wars]] by slaughtering Loners to expand his empire until the neutral community is left devastated, even running a POWCamp where people are forced to search for treasures near areas of radiation and anomalies.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The unnamed stalker that rescues you in the intro of ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' is never mentioned again in either of the three games. It could be speculated that he probably went off on another quest and met an untimely demise off-screen or probably met a FateWorseThanDeath.
** Scar becomes an example of this at the end of Clear Sky, but considering he was right next to the deadly emission when it went out, it's not hard for one to come to the conclusion he met a dark fate, by either dying, becoming a zombie or becoming one of Monolith's soldiers.

* CaptainObviousReveal: If the player is even remotely familiar with the Zone, their first guess as to investigating the cause of Operation Fairway's failure in ''Call of Pripyat'' is likely going to be airborne anomalies -- especially if one remembers their actual appearance in the penultimate level of ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' -- making the supposedly important late game revelation by Strelok potentially come off as this trope.

* CaptainObviousReveal: If the player is even remotely familiar with the Zone, their first guess as to the cause of Operation Fairway's failure is likely going to be airborne anomalies - especially if one remembers their actual appearance in the penultimate level of ''Shadow of Chernobyl'' - making the supposedly important late game revelation by Strelok potentially come off as this trope.
* CompleteMonster: [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters Yoga]], from the prequel ''Clear Sky'', is the original leader of [[TheMafiya the Bandits]]. A sociopathic and tyrannical crime lord known for his needlessly cruel way of handling problems, Yoga abuses his authority in the Zone--as seen when he orders the assassination of his own spy and massacres LaResistance--and participates in the [[CivilWar Faction Wars]] by slaughtering Loners to expand his empire until the neutral community is left devastated, even running a POWCamp where people are forced to search for treasures near areas of radiation and anomalies.

** NarmCharm: For what it's worth, the ridiculous English dub provides some much-needed 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.

* CompleteMonster: [[TheMafiya Yoga]], from ''Clear Sky'', is the first leader and founder of the Bandits as an organized faction. As one of the original ex-cons who came to the Zone in hopes of continuing their illegal activities, Yoga unified all sociopathic criminals operating in the Zone into one clan of mass murderers, obtaining his position by assassinating rivals. Taking control over the Garbage, Yoga dragged the Loners into participating in the Faction Wars by allowing his men to kill them for wishing to fight back against his tyranny and converting an entire vehicle scrapyard into his own concentration camp, forcing captured Loners to search for artifacts in anomalous and irradiated piles of trash. Interested in expanding his territory by attacking Loner outposts until their base and community are destroyed, Yoga allows [[PlayerCharacter Scar]] to join him only if he proves himself capable of killing a former prisoner of the [[PoWCamp concentration camp]] and massacring a group of peaceful Loners working at the Garbage.

** Emissions are much more annoying in ''Clear Sky'' than they are in ''Call of Pripyat''. Instead of a set chance of them happening every couple of in-game hours, there's a chance they'll happen very soon after you arrive in another area, the chance doubling for every time you don't get an emission until it becomes high enough that you will get an emission, whether you like it or not. And oftentimes, you will find yourself far away from the nearest safe zone that may or may not be guarded by mutants or hostile Stalkers depending on how you play the Faction Wars.

** Emissions are much more annoying in ''Clear Sky'' than they are in ''Call of Pripyat''. Instead of a set chance of them happening every couple of in-game hours, there's chance they'll happen very soon after you arrive in another area, the chance doubling for every time you don't get an emission until it becomes high enough that you will get an emission, whether you like it or not. And oftentimes, you will find yourself far away from the nearest safe zone that may or may not be guarded by mutants or hostile Stalkers depending on how you play the Faction Wars.