I discovered STALKER So C rather late, and while I enjoyed my original run of the game on my brother's pc, I've recently built a pc of my own and installed the Zone of Alienation Mod for a second playthrough.
The result? Amazing. The ZOA has gone through 13 patches since it's release in April and while that causes to the game still be tempermental, what has been added to the game will make you forget the bugs.
Several new real world guns have been added, most noteworthy being the Saiga family of automatic shotguns which make carrying buckshot, slug, and dart rounds more viable much later in the game than initially.
Interacting with other Stalkers has been upgraded; there would be times I'd save the neck of a Loner, Duty, or Freedom stalker and they would recognize me as a friend with the Duty faction not threatening to blow me away for walking towards their base after helping them out enough times. Now if you save one or a group of neutral stalkers from a particularly serious situation, the merchants will contact you via radio saying they've left a gift waiting for you next time you come by.
Emissions only occurred twice in the regular game, like at the Chernobyl Power Plant, but now they occur every now and then which have lingering effects: telltale signs of an emission are an increase of mutants roaming about making walks during the day even more dangerous (night is twice as bad now). Anomalies were in fixed locations before, but once an emission passes, they move to new spots making a previous safe passage not so anymore. On the plus side, this also restores the artifacts you already picked up, and coupled with new artifacts added to the list makes artifact hunting more fun. If you don't want to risk being burned, electrocuted, or blown up by the anomalies, you now have the option to turn stashes which were had fixed locations and contents, to become randomized, so every stash becomes a surprise. The Rucksack Item even allows you to place a stash of your own anywhere you like to store goodies away unless you want to collapse from the extra weight?
This review is a revision, and while I'm not sure if it's good tv tropes etiquette to speak mainly about a mod for STALKER, the amount of work the mod's creators have put into the game is a sight to behold I can't NOT discuss it. Good hunting, stalkers.
Zone of Alienation makes it glow (hopefully not from radiation)
I discovered STALKER So C rather late, and while I enjoyed my original run of the game on my brother's pc, I've recently built a pc of my own and installed the Zone of Alienation Mod for a second playthrough.
The result? Amazing. The ZOA has gone through 13 patches since it's release in April and while that causes to the game still be tempermental, what has been added to the game will make you forget the bugs.
Several new real world guns have been added, most noteworthy being the Saiga family of automatic shotguns which make carrying buckshot, slug, and dart rounds more viable much later in the game than initially.
Interacting with other Stalkers has been upgraded; there would be times I'd save the neck of a Loner, Duty, or Freedom stalker and they would recognize me as a friend with the Duty faction not threatening to blow me away for walking towards their base after helping them out enough times. Now if you save one or a group of neutral stalkers from a particularly serious situation, the merchants will contact you via radio saying they've left a gift waiting for you next time you come by.
Emissions only occurred twice in the regular game, like at the Chernobyl Power Plant, but now they occur every now and then which have lingering effects: telltale signs of an emission are an increase of mutants roaming about making walks during the day even more dangerous (night is twice as bad now). Anomalies were in fixed locations before, but once an emission passes, they move to new spots making a previous safe passage not so anymore. On the plus side, this also restores the artifacts you already picked up, and coupled with new artifacts added to the list makes artifact hunting more fun. If you don't want to risk being burned, electrocuted, or blown up by the anomalies, you now have the option to turn stashes which were had fixed locations and contents, to become randomized, so every stash becomes a surprise. The Rucksack Item even allows you to place a stash of your own anywhere you like to store goodies away unless you want to collapse from the extra weight?
This review is a revision, and while I'm not sure if it's good tv tropes etiquette to speak mainly about a mod for STALKER, the amount of work the mod's creators have put into the game is a sight to behold I can't NOT discuss it. Good hunting, stalkers.