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[Kagus]

So here's my dilemma, I loved the concept behind Overlord, played the demo far more times than you're supposed to, but never got around to actually buying it.  It seemed like something I might like though...

Now it's on sale for around 10€ on Steam, but I don't know if I should get it.  There's talk of Overlord II coming sometime this summer, and Triumph is very optimistic about how it will turn out.  The screenshots also look very promising.

So, anyone here have it?  If so, would you recommend it or not?  Is it worth paying 10€ for?  Anything else on the market that I should spend my money on instead?

[Ampersand]

I tried it. It's not as awesome a you would imagine. Think Pikmin, with more violence.

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, I didn't like it.  Too silly.

[Kagus]

Well, I personally like both violence and silliness.  I never really expected Overlord to be a really dark and serious game, as playing the bad guy in such a situation would get a bit heavy after a while (aw heck, who am I kidding, it'd be awesome) without a little humor.  I think of it a bit like Dungeon Keeper, which had the same blend of malevolence and silliness.

I also liked Pikmin...

[Puck]

I watched somebody play it at the store for quite some time. I cant quite remember, but there was a lot of stuff that really pissed me off in a very short amount of time. I just put down a mental note like "I'd rather play pikmin again" or something and totally forgot about the game until now.

I dont mind sillyness (as in dungeon keeper) and I liked the concept of pikmin, but I think overlord just lacked the love for detail.

Mind you, that was the console version.

And I really really like that people still THINK about spending 10 euros or not. Im serious. Even if you have money coming out of your rear end, non stop, you should spend with caution. I mean... if people keep buying crap, developers will think we actually LIKE that crap and give us more of it.

[Soulwynd]

I played it from beginning to end as good and evil. I didn't like it either. I only played it because people were hyping it as some kind of dungeon keeper just because it had implings, meh.

[Kagus]

Alright, so it's pretty unanimous around these parts.  Think I'll keep my distance in that case.  I'll try the demo to the sequel when it comes out anyways.

If this damnable machine could run Left 4 Dead I'd pick that up in a heartbeat...  Hmm...  Lemme check and see just what this thing's specs are...


I've also had S.T.A.L.K.E.R. recommended to me recently, by someone who hadn't heard all the hype.  I'm not really sure what to think about that, since I've heard a huge amount of disappointment regarding that particular game.  But I also remember it having a ridiculous amount of hype, and I also know of the Oblivion Lost mod.


EDIT:  Shite, just missed the holiday sale.  So much for bargain prices.

EDIT2:  And don't insult 10€ prices.  GTA: Vice City is currently going for 10€ without the sale, and that's certainly not crap.

[Tormy]

Yeah, I didn't like it.

Same here.

[Ampersand]

STALKER isn't a bad game. But it happens to be extraordinarily hard. The roguelike of first person shooters.

Yeah, it had a lot of hype, but I didn't hear any of it before I played it. The graphics did seem a bit last-gen, but it was made by a small Ukrainian studio, so it's forgivable. And in my opinion, gameplay is more important.

It's not your typical run and gun shooter. You'll really have to outsmart and outflank the enemy, particularly when there's more than one. Guns are very effective. You can't take more than a couple of shots, and headshots always kill instantly, even you, if your armor doesn't cover your head and face. Lots of guns, lots of ammo types, such as armor piercing and anti-personnel rounds.

Clear Sky, the prequel, improves on many points, but since there are a lot of people added, you don't get the same feeling of isolation, and some parts feel unfinished, like towards the end of the game when, for some reason, somehow, a specific gun is randomly added to your inventory and automatically equipped, regardless of whether or not you have ammo for it, and regardless of what gun you're already using.

[Puck]

I played stalker on the hardest setting from the beginning, and I didnt think it was THAT hard. Well, the beginning was, but as soon as you get your first assault rifle, its not that bad anymore. dying a lot (in the beginning, until you get the hang of it) and being the underdog with your shitty handgun is definetly part of the experience and might require you to use your brain once in a while.

Its definetly harder than most FPS, IF you play it like a normal FPS. Stalker needs to be played like you are there, like you are the friggin guy running around chernobyl. Taste, no ENJOY your fear, live it, get sucked into it.

The downsides (I think) are some minor bugs (not too bad after all) and some scripts that run all the time when you enter certain areas; for instance this small building complex youre supposed to free of bandits in the beginning; that fight is happening all the time and it really killed immersion for me. same at the junkyard.

other than that I LOVED stalker. I cannot tell how much i loved it. You need a decentish graphics card, imho, so you can play it with full dynamic lighting; the devs wrote their own engine for that game (afaik because they couldnt afford a "proper" 3d engine license.) and imho you can feel that, it doesnt play like the other 3d games you're used to. I dont know how to put it, but the player character has a certain feel to his movements, that just feels right.

The weapons in vanilla stalker are rather inaccurate, a lot of people complain about that, I LOVED it. I played a lot of paintball in RL, in the national league, with a rather successful team (brag brag, yeah im proud). So actually I really loved the combat in stalker; how you dash from cover to cover, try to get up close because the guns sucketh so much (apart from a few scoped exceptions you get later on) while avoiding to be flanked. Tense and thrilling, and also really straightforward and logical, if you ever played some proper speedball.

I can see why this doesnt appeal to the usual fps gamers, because usual fps games dont have anything in common with how stuff like this is done. its just "tank and gank" which you can do if you want to play stalker in the easiest setting.

but in the hardest, it just feels real-ish. (only way to play it, tbh, dont go play it easier and tell yourself "i'll do it on hardest the second run")

oh and the underground labs! great stuff! (sadly only the first time you play the game, once you know what happens, the horror element is gone). you sneak through abandoned complexes and encounter enemies maybe every 15 minutes, but that isnt boring, that can be the most intense experience ever. I guess I will never forget how I encountered the first live bloodsucker, or how I had to fight my way out of x18 without any ammunition left. stuff like this feels like a good movie and it doesnt happen as much anymore in these days games. scripted bullocks that happen to every dolt that bought the same game as you did, you can get that by the dozen. but individual stories that just ... happen to you... thats kinda rare these days.

I never enjoyed a shooter like I enjoyed STALKER, well, maybe apart from Vietcong (part 1), which was great when it came out, because the player character had a similar "real" feeling to his movements, and the new and intelligent way the player can make use of cover (aiming puts the gun on top of your cover, smart programming right there).

edit: oh and ffs READ "Roadside Picnic" maybe BEFORE you play stalker. Or after your first day playing it, when you go to bed.
It's a nice story. the game is based upon the book. Only difference: stalker= chernobyl, roadside picnic= aliens.
But it's close enough (even the term stalker comes from that book).

It's legally available online in english and russian (original), and even if you dont plan to play stalker, its a nice read. One thing I really found nice; the first time the protagonist in the book enters "the zone" you read about how he uses metal bolts to locate anomalies. Too bad in stalker you have more indicators of anomalies, but tbh, if you hadnt it would probably be to frustrating. but there are enough spots where you find yourself advancing slowly, dropping bolts left and right to plot your path.

gravitational anomalies are NOT fun to get into 

Roadside Picnic, english PDF. , oh, and that story has exactly the right length to be read in one comfortable evening, will take you only a few hours. Enjoy.

but since there are a lot of people added, you don't get the same feeling of isolation

tbh, that sounds horrible to me  also I dont see what really needed improvement in stalker 1. apart maybe from those scripts that repeat indefinetly and some armor repairing stuff.

oh and last but not least (edit number 15  ): STALKER: shadows of chernobyl should be available for 10 euros (which is definetly worth it in my book) and if you patch it up to the most recent version, and then get a NOCD exe right away (availabe in abundance from the usual sites) you dont even get starforce installed. and get the floating point mod, it improves performance considerably.

[Kagus]

Have you tried the Oblivion Lost mod?  It apparently mixes it up a bit and adds in several elements of randomness (you can encounter anything, anywhere.  Bump into some looters while going through a mutant-stuffed lab?  Perfectly possible. After all, you're not the only stalker, now are you?).  It also makes the AI a teensy bit smarter somehow (if I read that right), makes the game even more freeform and sandbox-y, removes the fixed anomalies and starts placing them in random locations, adds faction wars, and also brings in blowouts (which the AI is smart enough to seek cover from.  Leads to some interesting confrontations when people from two different factions try to take the same building).

So, yeah.  Free mod.  Try it, and tell me how it goes.  I might be convinced into trying STALKER, as what you just described sounds different enough to actually interest me.

[Puck]

Actually, I just read up on the oblivion lost mod, probably while you were typing that post 

But I'm sceptical. I suspect that mod changes a lot of stuff to where some twitch gamers thought the weapons should be. And I probably agree with the programmers more than with some random adhd cs kiddies  (altough the blowouts and the sleepy stuff sounds very interesting)

But hey, I finished it already in vanilla, so why not.

Anyway, I can safely say GET STALKER! 10 euros is definetly worth it. There is only one thing that might make you not like it: taste    but if you dont mind slow and cautious gameplay, get it. Shit, just the thunderstorms in areas with trees are worth it. it looks soooo nice.

oh and there is one secret lab, that ofc also promotes this slow advancing, and all of a sudden there are "poltergeists"... have fun while they make you run in a setting that actually requires you to move slowly. 

Oh boy, I loved stalker. even half life 1 sucked, comparatively. I even started to read a lot about chernobyl after playing stalker, and I kid you not, it has been DECADES since i felt the need to go on a holiday somewhere else than where I live; when im old enough my fertility wont matter any more, I'll visit chernobyl.

Oh, may I suggest this wonderful site:
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/
that woman has been visiting chernobyl a lot. Read up, enjoy some terrifying beautiful pictures, chernobyl is more ... "real" (lacking a better word) than the pyramids: it will be there when all the other remnants of mankind, and mankind itself, will be long gone. and it will be just as deadly then. its breathtaking to try to wrap your mind around it.

[Kagus]

I play everything slowly and cautiously.  Takes me ages to work my way through standard games, particularly RTS games.  I never move unless I can completely and utterly overpower my enemy.

[Puck]

this is the core element in stalker, probably. apart from the last level where you are forced to enter the powerplant before it blows out the next time. at first i thought that sucked, but actually it was a great change of pace, and fit right in. you dont kill the folks, you just advance frantically, taking some potshots to get them to take cover...

and the part with the poltergeists, same there.

Jeez, im probably slightly biased  (and if you play stalker I suggest you try to be that too, like with everything there is potential for criticism, and its absolutely important you feel the immersion and allow the game to drag you in.)

[wallish]

Actually, I just read up on the oblivion lost mod, probably while you were typing that post 

But I'm sceptical. I suspect that mod changes a lot of stuff to where some twitch gamers thought the weapons should be. And I probably agree with the programmers more than with some random adhd cs kiddies  (altough the blowouts and the sleepy stuff sounds very interesting)

But hey, I finished it already in vanilla, so why not.

Anyway, I can safely say GET STALKER! 10 euros is definetly worth it. There is only one thing that might make you not like it: taste    but if you dont mind slow and cautious gameplay, get it. Shit, just the thunderstorms in areas with trees are worth it. it looks soooo nice.

oh and there is one secret lab, that ofc also promotes this slow advancing, and all of a sudden there are "poltergeists"... have fun while they make you run in a setting that actually requires you to move slowly. 

Oh boy, I loved stalker. even half life 1 sucked, comparatively. I even started to read a lot about chernobyl after playing stalker, and I kid you not, it has been DECADES since i felt the need to go on a holiday somewhere else than where I live; when im old enough my fertility wont matter any more, I'll visit chernobyl.

Oh, may I suggest this wonderful site:
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/
that woman has been visiting chernobyl a lot. Read up, enjoy some terrifying beautiful pictures, chernobyl is more ... "real" (lacking a better word) than the pyramids: it will be there when all the other remnants of mankind, and mankind itself, will be long gone. and it will be just as deadly then. its breathtaking to try to wrap your mind around it.

Okay, I enjoyed STALKER for almost the exact same reasons that you did (it's an FPS for your mind that requires strategic thinking).  So here's my opinion on the Oblivion mod (at least, what I've played of it so far):

• They changed a lot of the sounds.  Some unnecessarily so such as the Geiger counter and anomaly warning beep
• They cleaned up the interface, but it seems a bit... different.  There is not longer a unit count indicator (which actually made in-game sense due to the PDA's, so why remove it?), and shrunk it (which I liked).
• Unless I'm mistaken, they've removed stamina from the game.  I can run a hell of a lot right from the start.  You'd think that I'd like that, right?  Wrong.  It removes a little of the fun of outrunning a pack of dogs and hoping that you can find cover or a ladder before you run out of breath
• They added in a bunch of removed enemies.  After installing the mod I decided to load up a previous save in the Sarcophagus to see if anything late-game had changed.  First room I'm in (don't know if you'd remember it, but it's the "spiral" staircase a few hallways in from the entrance) I am suddenly finding barrels, boxes, and even dead-soldier's guns thrown at me.  Turn the corner and BAM there's this little guy (about three feet tall) wearing a cloak.  Turns out he's called a Dwarf(!) and he's not a happy little fellow.  I shoot at him and he then hurls what looks like an anomaly at me.  That was fun.  The packs of lynx-looking beasts running around Cordon, however, was not fun.  Worse than dogs because they're faster and meaner.  Then theres the zombies.  Real zombies, not zombified stalkers.  I don't know if you can actually kill them because after emptying three 9mm clips into him (mostly at his head) he had gotten up a third time so I left.
• There is no longer a "crosshair", only a dot.  Now, the guns seem just a little more accurate, but not enough that it removes the run-cover-run-cover-shoot aspect of vanilla.  Also, almost every gun you pick up from bodies is in the yellow/orange condition level which means they jam up just about every clip (more realistic, I think).  BUT all traders can now repair your weapons and armor, so that's cool
• Bandages do not heal you.  I don't know about you, but bandages kept me alive for about 50% of the vanilla game or more.  Now they just stop bleeding.  Coupled with the fact that medkits are now very expensive and very rare, staying alive is a lot harder. (Food doesn't heal you either)
• He replaced a bunch of the audio dialog with the Russian original.  Not a problem if you speak Russian, but I don't.  It doesn't seem like it's going to cause any problems yet, but there are times that I wish there was more english in the original
• Anomalies are, almost always, way stronger.  I ran into a Whirlygig right outside of Cordon that killed me almost instantly.  That little trailer right outside of the Stalker camp in Cordon?  A burner anomaly popped up at the doorway after I had exited, stopping me from getting back in (at least for a while).  There was a Vortex anomaly by the train track passage that sucked up and killed a soldier.  That was neat.  The two Whirlygigs blocking that gap in the fence, though, was not.  I kind of like the fact that anomalies move now and that they're stronger during the day.  Freaks you out more.
• The AI is a lot better, and he even put in a few "random scripted events".  I was entering Strelok's stash when I got a message that the Bar was under attack by mutants.  I ignored it and moved in, only to die.  Quickloaded to the entrance and got a different message that the Duty base was being attacked and sieged by Freedom forces, so apparently it won't even do the same one when you reload.
• Vehicles are fun.  That is all I can say about that.  It's pretty neat hopping in a jeep, swerving to avoid a bunch of anomalies in the middle of the road, tipping, then freaking out when a herd of those lynx things starts to swarm me.  Oh, and I think the door got knocked off when the jeep landed on its side and slid.
• The mod info says that the mutants travel in swarms.  It means it.
• They apparently put in "dynamic huds" that make it so if you're wearing a suit with a helmet/head cover (like the eco suit) it'll fog up, but that can be disabled if it is too annoying.  Also, you have to sleep at least every 30 hours or else you get dizzy (like the aftershock of an explosion).  Two awesomely realistic things.

So, there's a lot to be said about this mod even though I haven't really played it a lot so far.  It's got its downsides and annoys me slightly in some places, but it's an interesting thing for someone that has beaten the game already.  I suggest you try it, you can just uninstall it if you think it sucks.

Oh, and don't forget to bind a key to "Turn On" so you can start vehicle engines.  It doesn't do that for you.

And finally, if any of you has STALKER and also has a big-screen HD tv with PC connector, play STALKER on it, at least once.  My laptop is by no means a powerhouse (I have a 64MB integrated videocard, for crying out loud!) and yet I can play STALKER fairly nicely (at minimum settings).  On the big screen, the settings didn't matter.  My brother-in-law actually got a bit motion-sick watching me play because of the sort of realistic running in the game.  It was one of the most immersive gaming experiences I've ever had.