DAC first look: STALKER: Paradise lost

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:15 pm

You stumble drunkenly down a hillside, chased by some rats. You activate your jump boots and are suddenly propelled off the hillside. As you fly through the air you suddenly hear the sound of a helicopter. It crashes into you, game over! welcome to the world of STA.L.KER: Title Lost.

I got my preview copy in the mail and was obviously excited about the next generation of gaming. STA.L.KER, a game in which you play an ex-soldier sent into Chernobyl to find a secret artifact. I quickly ripped open the box and put the cd into my PC. Quickly, I installed the game. I thought 10 cds worth of gaming goodness must be good! I was in for a shock...

You start up the game and are immediately chased by a pick-up truck. You have no weapons and must run down a road while escorting an old army veteran to safety. After a suprise twist it turns out the army veteran was actually a cyborg! This is just one of several examples of the many twists and turns the story makes. One minute you're hunting dragons in an underground bunker. The next you're hunting robots in an underground cave! The simple genius of this game makes it quite simply, great!

The graphics were a major let down. Even on my mammoth PC the game crawled to a shuffle when more than 1 enemy was on screen. When the game isn't stumbling along it looks gorgous though! Each frame is like a photograph, so it sometimes plays as a slide-show of shooting monsters. I was impressed by this new take on the next generation shooter market and am sure it will be a big hit globally, worldwide!

The sound is something that requires a bit of imagination though. They have the same gun shooting sound for every single gun. That's 7 guns with the same noise! The footstep sound is also the same for everything, so sometimes the game can get a bit confusing. I was a bit worried by the lack of ambient noises and music when I realized what the developers were trying to do. Silence is sometimes the most scariest sound! There's nothing like creeping through a silent jungle when you hear foot-steps. Is it an alien? Or is it a giant robot?! This kind of tense gameplay makes it on par with Silent Hill 4 and Half-life 2.

There are several bad things about the game, but this is mostly the multiplayer. The game came with a single multiplayer map, but I didn't have anyone to play with. After a few rounds of walking around an empty map with some crates in I had gotten bored. I'm hoping the multiplayer is expanded on in the future, hopefully through mods or other players.

In the end stalker is a solid game with different degrees of gameplay. Sometime it fun, sometimes is not. The last level took me at least 10 tries to escort your friend out of the underwater maze before the timer ran out. The ending also leaves something to be desired as it just says 'You have won the game, press ok to continue' and takes you back to the main menu. Overall I give it 10/10 stars for originallity and 7/10 points for gameplay.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:31 pm

Thee sucketh.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:54 pm

heres a screenshot that I had taken from inside the game. as you can see the game uses high-poly models and new triangle bending technology to enchance the graphics for the cpu in the geforce x.

Ghosteh · Post by **Ghosteh** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:13 pm

thats the biggest pile of crap i've ever head
the games not been released, or even a demo, or even a beta, the only thing out is 2 old builds from the early alpha engine, nothing more. the MP beta is to be released soon however. anyways nice one on posting a 2002 screenshot from GSC, of the old game concept. That weapon isn't even in the game anymore.
in the game your not an ex-solier, not even a soldie, just a guy, out to make some money. 10 CDs?!?!?! dont think so there, its going to be released on 1 DVD according to the devs.

why do you bother wasting your time, and confusing people who dont know abotu the game, by posting crap?

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:21 pm

Uh...yeah. Looks like someone can't accept that me and Olbov Konjev (the LEAD DEVELOPLER) are best buddies and he lent me the latest build of the game to review. I gave it a good review anyway, all the stuff with the dinosaurs and mutating your weapons to camouflage into your enviroment kicked ass!

Also the ex-soldier is actually an ex-soldier. I'm sorry if you don't believe me but I work at GSC and are best friends with everyone there and helped them code smoke and wind physics. If you don't believe me you'll just have to look on the staff photo. I'm the one with the muscles and bad ass haircut.

Post by **King of Creation** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:35 pm

Classic

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 10:36 pm

With this being a newsbit, I'm sure a lot of people will register to bitch.

Good work megaton.

Ghosteh · Post by **Ghosteh** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:02 pm

i dont beleive a word of it, but ah well, tis only the internet, anyways, your story seems to consist of the old concept of stalker, as does the screenshot which was released by GSC almost 3 years ago now. the initial opening of stalker was released in a recent PR event and your awaken in a pile of bodies, with memory loss, cant remember how you got there etc, your never 'sent' into chernobyl.
and dragons.. where the hell did that come from, theres no dragons in the game, or cyborgs/robots come to that. they were, again, removed along time ago.
i cant be arsed going into the ins and outs of your whole post because its so crap. and fyi, the lead developer is andrew prokhorov

Post by **King of Creation** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:05 pm

No...I'm pretty sure the lead Developer is J. Teatime. He does a bunch of music work too. As far as I know, his piano work was featured in Eminem's new album.

Lunchmeat · Post by **Lunchmeat** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:05 pm

Megatron has 6033 posts here, and we're supposed to believe you over him? You only joined a few hours ago! Take your conflicting opinion elsewhere, you fascist.

Ghosteh · Post by **Ghosteh** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:12 pm

i only joined to correct him, because his post is crap. check out the official sites, and the larger fan sites, and you will see his information is totally incorrect. ive been following this game fince mid 03 now, so its quite some time to gather knowlage. and just because i can correct a regular poster doesn't make me a fascist now does it?

Nicolai · Post by **Nicolai** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:13 pm

It sure does.

Aneurysm · Post by **Aneurysm** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:14 pm

Thanks for the information mega, now I wont buy this horrible game, I hate dragons !

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:15 pm

But Ghosteh says there aren't dragons? I'm confused. Who's right? Megatron says he's played the game?

Ghosteh · Post by **Ghosteh** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:22 pm

there arn't, look at the game page
http://www.stalker-game.com/index.php?t ... =creatures
theres nothing closly resembling a dragon there.
Just because im a new poster here doesn't mean im wrong.

SuperH · Post by **SuperH** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:30 pm

Ghosteh wrote:there arn't, look at the game page
http://www.stalker-game.com/index.php?t ... =creatures
theres nothing closly resembling a dragon there.
Just because im a new poster here doesn't mean im wrong.

I think you are wrong I look in here photot http://www.stalker-game.com/index.php?t ... s&sss=dogs and find many dragon? LOL sorry but maybe you're info wrong?

Ghosteh · Post by **Ghosteh** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:32 pm

i see dogs... not dragons... hence the title of the page being "Blind dogs" maybe it was just his interpratation of what he 'saw' when he apparently played this game

Insane-Lark · Post by **Insane-Lark** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:36 pm

Dragons? Oh boy! I must put this on my need to buy list. Nothing says apoc like talking deathclaws but if they pulled dragons off right I could really have a ball with this game.

Aneurysm · Post by **Aneurysm** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 11:37 pm

In my country we call them dragons, dont lie to me friend.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 12:01 am

I don't know where you get your information dear "Ghosteh" if that's your real name, but I can assure you it's false. We at STALKER online get insider info from the developers all the time, and everything my fellow STLKR:OL administrator Megatron has said so far is true. Trust me on this guys, we even have exclusive screenshots from the latest build.