Anomaly (standalone mod) is available for free on Moddb: www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly GAMMA (installs on top of Anomaly / recommended for experienced Anomaly players ONLY) is available in this discord: discord.com/invite/stalker-gamma The main games, while not required to play anomaly, are good for learning the universe/lore and are very cheap on steam. I grabbed all 3 games for
The original Stalker wowed me when on the first night I was playing I realized I could not see well at night. So I climbed up into the second floor of a building, ate, checked what I had picked up, and what was in my PDA. I saw a light in the distance. Three bandits were walking around in the dark. Now I was pretty far away and low on supplies so I just kept an eye on them as I went about my business. Then I heard shooting. I looked up at them in the distance with my binoculars to see the firing wildly into the darkness as strange creatures circled them. Occasionally one would leap into the bandits causing them to bleed and panic shoot. Their lights went off one after another and then silence. Nothing moved, no noise besides the ambience of the zone. I waited till sunrise before continuing.
@@Fllemingo Just download anomaly. Fully standalone, free, and a very well curated experience. Or you could jump right into the hardcore survival that is Gamma.
Gunfights "technically" happen on other map sections too while you're not there. They call it "offline combat" I believe. Your buddy can go out on a quest of his own and get killed and you might never see him again. Makes the game feel very alive.
Offline combat is very minimal though, and it unfortunately makes the zone a lot more bare, which lowers the difficulty a lot in certain areas. I prefer to keep it off, the AI off map is wonky at best anyways, you can have a target go to the map exit between dark valley and garbage and they'll pop out in rostok or zaton because the AI doesn't follow the same travel rules.
The AI system in it self is called "A-life", compared to other games at it's time (and a few right now) it is a really great system that brings many features. STALKER 2 should have an even more improved one.
The problem is that it makes the maps very dead after it becomes online. The reason that is, is because one doesnt stay at one map for long, unlike Misery in CoP which we stay a long time in one map and everyone is online and doing their stuff 24/7. It makes for unpredictable and tense gameplay.
@@MrEvans1 I've been playing Anomaly for years, I know that's a thing, thing is spawn rate in vanilla Anomaly doesn't go very far, you'd have to get mods to really make an impact. All the more reason to play GAMMA, which goes up pretty high that does allow for offline combat. I find that generally offline combat doesn't really do anything for me, like I said the ability for AI's to fight eachother are quite limited and random, you can have targets you're supposed to kill wandering around the most dangerous parts of the zone without ever getting killed, and then they'll walk into cordon and you never see them again. Usually I just keep it off, apart from having the odd target disappear from the map randomly, and depopulating the zone I really don't notice a difference in my gameplay when it's on. It's ''cool'' but it essentially does nothing, it's neat to think that shit is happening, but unless you see shit happening it's not really something that has any impact in anything that you do, unless your target drops dead in which case the only impact it has is giving you a way too easy payday.
the most sureal feeling i had while playing stalker is being a mercenary, tasked with downing a random cheeki breeki in the Agroprom factory, hearing gunshots in the distance the entire time i walk to the site only to find my target the only survivor fighting a chimera (dying shortly after) while ~30 dead bodies of bandits, military and free stalkers lie in the general vicinity
@@leoaraujo8590 Facts. Mercs for life. Pro tip in GAMMA if you didn't know. If you head down to the swamps and do the first mission of the Clear Sky questline they'll give you some pristine condition armor that gives you a great disguise to move around the south of the map with as Mercs.
I know this will get lost, but the NVG mod is literally so good. I remember being deployed in the desert and looking up at a sky unimpeded by light through the green glow of my NVGs. A milky way I had never seen before and thousands more stars than I could ever dream of back home lit up the sky. The closest I've gotten to that experience is in this game.
I use my PVS 14 all the time for watching meteor showers and for tracking satellites. I have also used other types of NV gear. So many movies (especially) and games get it wrong. This game gets it right.
@@amarante2993 i havent had the pleasure of being deployed yet but ill take a mental note to take my first shit in an ammo crate. my ops sgt prob gonna kill me but we gotta take those chances
It really brings me joy to see when the Stalker community grows and people enjoy the game. You can always jump on some Stalker and expect top tier unscripted events that sometimes tops AAA games. And you gotta respect the modding scene for this game, the mods in the last few months... Sheesh
I’ve been watching stalker for years and because I can’t afford a pc I just assumed I’d always be watching it now I’m super excited to see stalker coming to console
@@zephyboii1200 are you talking about stalker 2? Cuz if you are,that will be delayed for some time I imagine,as some of the developers are literally fighting a war.
Bolt didn't go up first smack, had to do it again. It's one reason I bolt (irl) while open handed & shouldered in one fluent motion. Very cool feature though :)
See that's the thing, I think its unfair to compare STALKER 2 to the modded monstrosity that is STALKER Anomaly. Now, if you played OG vanilla STALKER, I'm thinking it'll be the next gen iteration of that... not quite as hardcore, but still a lot of the secret sauce that modders can mess with later.
@@pistonsrule82 Interesting point. However, stalker 2 devs surely must know about Anomaly, Gamma, and all these things - would they seriously *not* incorporate at least most of the features? After having *years* to experience, rate, and get inspired by all this fan-made content? I think Stalker 2 would actually be a fair comparison.
@@pistonsrule82 i dont think thats what stalker is being compared to, more like somewher ein the neighbourhood of the original. which may not be likely. games arent being made with a lot of gameplay depth today. just nice polished graphics but no gameplay depth.
@@pistonsrule82 Stalker 2 is developed on the Unreal Engine 5 if I remember correctly. I hope we get some great mod support for it, and that it will make the modding easier.
@@Amir-cu4qp They have confirmed that there will be mod-support and reference the modding community. they know how much the communtiy has done for the games
@@cyberwarrior8382 Stalker: Anomaly is a standalone mod of the original series, which is actually free to download, while GAMMA is an addon pack for it
@@cyberwarrior8382 if you never played original series of Stalker, I encourage you to buy and play it for the plot and immersive setting. This way you can be sure that you give a gesture of respect to its developers. But Anomaly mod and Gamma pack make the game literally free, because it is a standalone mod based on all 3 games locations, characters, and has it's own additional system of quests. Many things differ from original games. So it's not a piracy, but a different game, I assure you. Edit: also this mods don't require any installed original game, in case some people do not understand what a word 'standalone' means :)
@Content_enjoyer bro wtf are you saying? how is the company in shatter if they are releasing stalker 2 soon? and only one developer died...out of hundreds, I will never understand why you guys gotta always spread some bullshit over the internet
Its been like this for years. All my favorite games in the past 5 years are games with heavily active modding communities and (usually) modding support
god bless him and protect everyone from ruSSians. Pure evil on this planet. We´ll never forget 1968 in Czechoslovakia. We still didn´t return it to ruSSia. Their time is coming.
I got this game in some sort of bundle and knew absolutely nothing about it when I first started playing. After dying to the very first enemies multiple times I almost quit, but decided to go explore instead. On a hill behind the starting zone I ran into a bizarre mutant-pig creature snuffling around. As I got closer the pig-thing inexplicably rose into the air and began spinning rapidly, then exploded. It was then I realized that I had found one of the best games of all time.
shiiiiiiet man i actually remember luring a bandit in one of those anomalies (Springboard?) in vanilla STALKER when i first downloaded it in early 2007, like, i went full armchair tactician and had the dude strafe into that shit during a gunfight in the starting zone (or it was just a coincidence i will never know) bruh that was the tightest fucking shit
I go through about three distinct phases in any playthrough: the hobo phase, which I agree is very rewarding, the under-equipped lab scavenging phase which turns me masochistic in unexpected ways, and the overpowered and overconfident cocky veteran phase where nothing can touch me, yet I somehow find ways of killing myself so very often. I love it, can't wait for the next Stalker game to get modded into another gem.
Frankly, I think every single RPG should have this curve more or less. Another game that does this very well in my opinion is Gothic. You start out as a nobody with zero skills and equipment who literally gets his face punched in the second you enter the game; but along the way you learn, you make friends and you get more and more competent.
Please note that FoV in the STALKER games is based on Z-depth, similar to Vertical FoV Vert- scaling. So 75 FoV is equal to roughly 103-110 Horizontal FoV (Range is dependent on display aspect ratio, 16;9/16;10/21;9 etc) in games that scale by Hor+. Just wanted to put this info out there to help people from immediately setting their ingame FoV to 90+, which would result in extreme fish-eye with 150+ Horizontal FoV.
Not only that but you have 2 FoV options in the "Visual" menu; one for the actual FoV and another for your player "HUD" model (what you see in 1st person). For UW like 21:9 I recommend keeping the default 75 FoV but lowering the "HUD FOV" from 0.45 to ~0.35. This moves your weapon and arm position 'closer' to the view plane, meaning lower and narrower so they hide a little less of your view. It's handy for "hip shooting" mutants and CQB when you aren't in iron sight mode.
@@odizzido Yup. 😃 Scope zooms use multipliers of the base FoV so if you get too crazy (or a scope upgrade messes with the math) you can get some really odd behavior. My favorite is when the zoom effect goes past 180 degrees and you get a weird almost teleport effect where your player PoV seems to rush toward where you're looking. 😆
I was recently playing Gamma, when I got a PDA death report of a guy "Found inside a Flesh's stomach", which made me pause my playing and just think, about how it would feel like to be eaten whole, and how a Flesh would even fit someone whole inside it. This game made me contemplate more with one line of RNG lore, than whole AAA-games with their 10 hour stories.
I've spent more time just listening to the rain *tink* off my helmet or nearby sheet metal and just soaking in the atmosphere than I have actually doing any of the tasks I've been given. The game just steals you away from reality and I love it.
@@groovesan problem with that is a good vr headset will cost you 399$ (high-end versions cost 1,200-1,400$. as much as a mid-high end desktop pc), thats a lot of investment for one game. and sure you could argue that there are other games to play too but its still a big pill to swallow. whereas stalker anomaly and gamma is completely free.
@@chloekaftan I play my Vive games on an old-@$$ 1060 6GB, and most of them play smooth on high. Meanwhile Gamma needs at least 4 GB. Not the big difference. And you can have the quest 2 without a pc entirely
its so great to see one of my favorite childhood series still receive modded support and make stalker even better and better. The STALKER community is by far the best community
@@MultiSoftE the only issue you can have with the OG stalker games is the weird thing where hard is actually easy and the animations, otherwise for the time the games are really good
Did you notice how each shot seems to feel different? Interesting fact the X-ray engine did not render shots as lines but as actual objects. I loved how each shot from my Vintov had a chance to spin out just right or not quite so luckily.
I’d love to see you make a couple more episodes of this, i was absolutely addicted to your original Stalker play through. I’m not saying make a new series (even though that’d be great), but seeing you play this game is some of the best gaming content i’ve seen on yt. Every Stalker video you released made me want a PC even more than i did before 😅
I remember playing with a random mod pack that had a ton of cool mods on it but every once in a while you could hear a phone ring you could follow it and find the phone and pick up. And when you would there would be a pause then it would ask about your cars extended warranty in a computer gen voice. And no joke it was the funniest thing ever when I first found it, but then I got the shit scarred out of me by something.
The random telephones ringing is a reference to the classic 1979 Stalker film! I’ve had a stalker tweet about this happening although never experienced it myself (in GAMMA).
Whenever I think I'm getting bored of modern games, I come back to Anomaly. It cures me every single time. This is gaming perfection. Thanks for spreading the word, Drewski
As an old S.T.A.L.K.E.R fan, I'm glad to see this game still stands tall and revered. It truly is a testament to, what you also echoed, games made grand with a dedicated fanbase, that for years take a solid foundation and tweaks it into something truly great and unique. This is the kind of **** that stands the test of time. Nerds unite! 😀
5:23 holy crap It makes me so happy to hear that someone else got to experience the things that I experienced in my late night play throughs. A good half of my ss on my pc are just Stalker Anomaly
@The Swamps 1/10 I am terrible at the game and I don't wanna get better' too much stuff to do and Variety' cod is better because it appeals to my casual brain -IGN
"I was until then, fighting with a mosin and a USP, and crying whenever anything got closer than ten feet" I've never giggled so nervously before... Those cats in early game....
I started playing this after watching your play through and it has to be one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played. It combines everything I want in a game into one package, and it's free!
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 550k people tried downloading this in the past couple days because of this video, in conclusion, servers are overloaded, huge queues, etc. and good luck when you get to the installation process. ive ran it about 10 time and im not done at all
the stalker series and then the metro series, both were the staples of m childhood. absolutely horrifying. i miss them but the memories i have will always be with me.
Played quite a bit of Stalker back in 2007 - most unique atmosphere I've ever experienced in a shooter. Mad respect to the developers behind this mammoth modpack/game.
I finally took the plunge and went through the hour and a half process to install the gamma mod... I can't wait to dive into this. Stalker is such a great game series and this mod is the best thing to happen to the internet in a long time.
this game is amazing and i havent found anything like it since, guns feel powerful and i love how damage is dependant on ammo instead of finding a rarer more expensive gun. this game was the first time i fealt this type of realism in a game and its incredible
now imagine if there was a multiplayer aspect to it where there could be friends and enemies that are real players mixed in with the ai, that supports the modes there and you could even add a mode based off the ironman in various locations much like a team deathmatch or based off something significant to the area this is just a husk of an idea that could be expanded. id still keep the single player aspect to but to have the multiplayer too would be nice
I played Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl on release way back in the day. I remember leaving the rookie village, crossing the bridge, and watching the lightning. I was blown away. The game wasn't perfect but it was a rough cut gem that's only been refined ever since. The anomaly's, the artifacts, a world just perfect for videogames
Been playing Anomaly for quite a bit on my potato and when i upgrade i'll still be playing anomaly just more beautiful and spicy which is what i love about anomaly the replayability and the scenery how every anomaly game from person to person came be so different because of mods really speaks volumes of developers that make something fun, enjoyable and unique instead of what we have now with game releases
Your last video on Anomaly got me into the Stalker universe and my god is that an absolutely hidden gem of a modding community that I don´t see anywhere near enough talked about. Plus there are some seriously good modpacks out there - Escape From Pripyat (EFP) is another fantastic one to check out.
@@gazzy9136 Oh 100 percent, no doubt about that. But for people like me who didnt grow up with Stalker, I would have never stumbled across it, would it not have been for that one video. Sure I have heard of the Stalker series, but never of the Anomaly project and it being free on top of it, which is fantastic.
A big thank to you OperatorDrewski for having made this video and brought more visibility to the Stalker games and these two awesome mods, more gamer need to know that all of this exists
This is the game that I can always play for an hour maybe and feel that satisfying progression and completion of surviving a run. Also the only game that gives me that tarkov danger feeling
Im always ecstatic to see content creators making videos on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. especially GAMMA. It's free, full of content, and I think while it may not be for everyone, everyone should try it once :) thanks for helping keep it alive Drew! Here's to hoping the sequel is good, despite some of the signs.
agreed, there's no good looter-shooter-survival-realism-sim (thinking Tarkov, or STALKER like) that is Co-Op. Feel like there is a void waiting to be filled.
@@noneyabusiness8065 The STALKER 2 developers mentioned that there won't be any co-op, because the singleplayer is more story oriented. However they mentioned that the game will feature a separate multiplayer mode(probably pvp)
I started to get into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R universe because of your video and it was one of the best decisions of my life. Looking forward to S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 and I expect several gameplays on your channel.
Thank you for covering this game so closely, I first heard of it from blue drake a couple of years back and have been hooked ever since (on my 35th playthrough) I think you are a great person to represent this game and it's community, thank you for bringing awareness to this masterpiece hopefully stalker 2 surpasses this games level of depth and grit!
Stalker 2 won't be really close to anomaly/gamma and probably a lot closer to the the original games. If you guys haven't played any original Stalker games yet, but still want a free and updated experience to get you know the world and actual lore of Stalker I would suggest you to try OGSR(Old good Stalker Evolution/Revolution) it is a standalone mod of the first game shadow of chernobyl with some restored cut content completely remade in 64bit version of the xray engine. And if you have played Shoc and not for a while you might wanna try it too, in a new refreshed way with new content and stories to discover. Also you could see it as a introduction in a slightly less overwhelming experience then anomaly. Since anomaly is filled to the brim with new items and strongly expanded mechanics build upon the original mechanics. Also a little warning, the difficulty system in original Stalkers is a little weird. Easy makes all weapons less powerful yours and the enemies, also the anomalies weaker. And harder dif makes all guns and anomalies stronger(also yours and the enemies). Easy makes you and enemies bullet sponges and makes everything feel very weak and imo kinda the game harder.
Legit came to the comments to just comment about this same thing. That was a very well done intro. I wanted to play the game 20 seconds in just based on that. That’s some damn good editing.
Dude I can't wait to discover this gem. I loved the Stalker games so much and have not been able to cope with video games lately as life just sucked me up. Been operated on and have a couple of months of work off, I can't wait to dive into this. Thanks for sharing !
I am in love with Stalker Gamma. I enjoyed Stalker in 2007 and im so happy to replay it now that has been treated with so much love by the modding community. I hope STALKER 2 devs are paying close attention to this mod package.
@Content_enjoyer One original STALKER dev was killed in Ukraine*. Key word "original." He wasn't part of STALKER 2's development. His passing is a tragedy all the same, but it will not stop the game's development.
I love monolith so I play them mostly. I love how bounties arent "bounties" they are "redemption" missions. Avenging a fallen brother makes me motivated to cap an infidels skull with a Monolith 1.0. I will never let down my brothers. For the monolith!
Just a quick fyi: Download times for this mod pack are currently through the roof because of the traction it got with this video. For this mod pack to run it needs 333 mods and the host site the installer uses is bogged down because of the amount of people trying to download it. You eventually get all the mods but you’ll have to run the installer a couple of times, took me an entire day to get this working. Just be patient
Yes, the mod host is moddb, which is one of the main modding websites and hosts. Servers are currently so overloaded that it is quite a challenge to get everybody through with installation of this modpack. Just be patient, launch the installer on a second windows desktop (win+tab, create a new one), click install, switch back to the other desktop and forget about it. If you don't get all the mods in first try (due to server overload it may happen that not all mods get downloaded - you will see that if you will have a mod count lesser than 333 in MO2), just relaunch the installer and click "full installation" again. It might need several tries due to the circumstances, so don't fret about it too much. It will also probably get better in a week or so, when the dust settles.
I only have 241 mods, I've installed it twice, this time is the 3rd on a new drive. Even Anomaly has ABYSMAL download times and the 1.5.2 patch as well. GAMMA wasn't too slow. I hope I can get it to work though it looks AMAZING. I had some of the mods it uses when I played Anomaly a ton. If you like this, check out the Stalker mod for Single Player Tarkov.
Just don’t delete the mods folder where ever you installed G.A.M.M.A. at and keep hitting the full install button in the installer. It will ignore mods it already downloaded and only get new ones.
This might be one of those videos people come back to now and again to get themselves pumped for a new stalker playthrough, I know that's for sure the case for me, this video is dope
Playing SOC and COP is what got me into milsims and it's one of the few games that every time i re-install for a new playthrough, i finish it. Never get tired of the series and i have so many good memories like staying up late, scared shitless in the underground labs because a poltergeist was throwing shit around. The atmosphere in these games is still unmatched.
@@domainmojo2162 yes all you might want to do is get sky reclamation project which fixes a few things but its only like 14mb but yes, I read bad things but they have turned out not be the experience I am having
I was modding Anomaly for the last 2 years encountering problems with mod compatibility and all. Little did I know that gamma would give me the perfect stalker experience where I can deactivate mods I don't like and just load up my previous save game without any single issue. Gamma has it all.
You know you've made a successful video when you're actively breaking the internet's largest modding site haha. I'm among the masses attempting to install Gamma right now
Dude! You literally got me into Stalker! I’d never heard of it before your first series, and now Anomaly is my favourite game of all time! You’re a legend, bruv!
Just downloaded this yesterday with my friend and we are so immersed. I mean there are games the excite me and then there are games like these where I am basically awake until 5AM playing it.
Yo Drewski, just wanted to say I had watched a couple of your S.T.A.L.K.E.R Anomaly videos and this one finally made me download it overnight last night (bad wifi.) I have pretty much been playing it all day today and can't get enough of it. I have always been a huge fan of the Metro series and have played all of them and this has that vibe plus so much more. Thank you so much for introducing me to a apocalyptic survival game that is so enthralling to me so I can sink my teeth into it and is so refreshing compared to all these new titles that are copy-pasted
This is a game franchise I keep coming back too over and over again ever since the first one came out. Even in vanilla form they are still pretty good. Mods make it great. I have not tried this particular mix yet, so, I will need to give it a shot.
I just started my first playthrough of Shadow of Chernobyl yesterday. Wanna get through the original Games first before starting anomaly eventually, but this looks so damn good....
I really appreciate that you are doing this and not like me in the past, I really got interested in the game series and downloaded Anomaly and because I didn't know shit, I just uninstalled it but luckily I played through the originals, after that it felt awesome playing through Anomaly. Great story in the vanilla games great mod support in Anomaly
I still remember when I was playing Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl for the very first time back in 2010 and couldn't finish it because one of the essential NPC's was killed in a random world event, so I had to restart hours worth of savefiles just to prevent it from happening. Absolutely loved this game and will 100% try out GAMMA in the near future.
I remember playing the Pre-Alpha "leak" of Stalker when it came out in 2003, everyone was blown away by it, can't believe that was almost 20 years ago... Even when the original Stalker finally came out all those years ago it was so easily modifiable. Leading up to the games release "tales from the zone" and other mini-novels were posted on the developers main page, it was like reading stories from an actual place in time from real people caught in a morbid life, it was riveting. To see this game in 2022 doing what it's doing at the level it's doing it at is stunning and a tribute to the original developers and mod makers. Great video and one heck of a great game.
Stalker GAMMA is really good, but it is definitely more focused on the scavenging, repair and survival than other modpacks for anomaly. It's also SUPER weird that you released a video of this mod barely a week after I started playing it haha
I feel like scavenging is the better way to go about progression. In other mods/anomaly you just grind contracts till you're a billionaire and buy the best gear in the game. It feels meh, at some point why even bother looting enemies, you're rich, you can just buy anything. The idea you can only get good stuff from looting is a really good motivator to keep exploring and progressing into the game imo.
you can go through the mods and disable a lot of the repair and scavenging ones. Think they have some optional mods that make repairing and scavenging easier as well. Personally made it so any workbench can be used to repair gun parts completely since i hated not being able to repair parts under a certain condition.
I've been playing Anomaly for a long while but recently wiped my PC, your video was the small push I needed to download it again and the downloads are impossibly slow, then looked at the mirror links and they are all overloaded with download requests because of your video lol. So good job, you influenced many which I bet was your goal haha. Thanks for your content, you're great.
The world is so alive that you can see in the minute 11:51 that when he killed the chimera in the comms an npc report that he saw him killing it O: thas super cool, in this game you arent the protagonist and center of the world, you are just part of it like another stalker more i love that.
Been playing EFP for the past few months, but you convinced me to try out GAMMA, either way Anomaly is one of the best things to happen to the gaming community
For me, this is not only the best Stalker mod bar none (I was a Misery fan back in the day) but this is the best game ever made, bar none. And this video makes it justice. Kudos!
I feel so nostalgic about your Anomaly series! I don't know why, though, but the videos hit the right spot. I will never forget the feeling of watching them first thing in the morning. Good times.
Gotta say, THAT testament absolutely deserved its record number of views ! Just as Stalker totally deserves far more recognition than the triple A big studio games that you mentioned = )
I've been playing the shit out of G.A.M.M.A, such a good collection of addons, plus Grok does a massive amount of work, its updated almost daily, plus the work hes done with the new shaders really makes the game look like a modern title. It's crazy to think 12 years ago when SOC came out that I'd still be playing Stalker.
I've been looking at this game for years kind of on the fence if I want to commit to it but this has sold me 100 percent. New games arent keeping me entertained anymore from heavy burnout so this looks like a nice immersive experience.
amazing game but just make sure when you first boot up to play that you're ready to suffer. you will die and you will die HARD but thats what makes it great.
Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful game/mod. I have seen some of backlash about all the new people flooding the discord and modmb. For what it's worth most of the people I've talked to in the discord were happy to help and often combated the annoyed people. If you yourself drewski are getting a ton of hate for opening the flood gates, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. But thank you for doing so. I've been on a gaming slump that has only been made rougher by irl stuff. This distraction was a god send 🙏
This game and modpack have somehow hit that very rare and elusive 'sweetspot' where the AI system syncs so well with all the other stuff going on. Never played a game that feels so ALIVE and dynamic. I swear some of the best single player gaming experiences are to be had here and the Alife system sometimes comes together in ways that still astonish me. I've had bandits playing dead to ambush, Stalkers across the map picking up crap I've discarded, going to traders to sell it and announcing it on the PDA system, coming across the dead body of a former companion after we parted ways an age ago. Amazing experience.
Early game Merc run Take a contract in the Red Forest. "This is a terrible idea." Sneak through in the middle of the night. Somehow complete it. "Time to make my way back." Monolith patrols converge on the bridge. Hide under a truck. More Monolith show up. 20+ heavily armed men walking around me. Lay still for 5 in game hours. *MURDER OF CROWS* "Shit, shit, shit, shit..." Sneak up and knife two Monolith. Spotted. Take cover in a guard house. Hand grenades and walls of gunfire. Continues through the Blowout. *Task Complete: Take Cover* Chug an Energy Drink. *RUN*
Thank you for always drawing attention to this masterpiece. I always find my self going back to the zone even after hundreds of hours, and it still is just as exciting every time.
Stalker anomaly is without a doubt one of the best, if not the best single player fps I have played. Going thru an unknown hostile territory with a new modern upgraded gun is so intense and the way how it can sometime feel too calm and safe until a chimaira or a cat jumps out of nowhere.
I've played stalker back in the days and I end up thinking back about how awesome it was and the feeling it had. Never found anything like that again. Now I discover it's well worth picking up again. Needless to say I'm downloading everything and am pumped!
Yes, Anomaly itself has impressed me massively. Stalker will always be unmatched. Will try Gamma. Definitely need a mod which shows the pla, ers stance. I was always hesitant to start modding, I know it is a huge thing, keeps us busy.
Got into this game after seeing this video, got to say it is the best fps and survival experience i've had in the past decade, thanks for sharing this Drew!
I remember learning how to modify and rewrite Stalker files back in the middle school, and now I work in the IT. This game showed me that programming can be interesting
Anomaly (standalone mod) is available for free on Moddb: www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly
GAMMA (installs on top of Anomaly / recommended for experienced Anomaly players ONLY) is available in this discord: discord.com/invite/stalker-gamma
The main games, while not required to play anomaly, are good for learning the universe/lore and are very cheap on steam. I grabbed all 3 games for
this was unexpected xD glad to see youre giving GAMMA a go
@C.I.A • Central Intelligence Agency i’ve played for 30hrs and had 1 crash. Just my experience tho. Totally clean gamma install. 5950x 3080ti.
you never fail to make my day OperatorDrewski
We need a few Stalker Anomaly live streams
@@zestywyvern3333 nope! :)
The original Stalker wowed me when on the first night I was playing I realized I could not see well at night. So I climbed up into the second floor of a building, ate, checked what I had picked up, and what was in my PDA. I saw a light in the distance. Three bandits were walking around in the dark.
Now I was pretty far away and low on supplies so I just kept an eye on them as I went about my business. Then I heard shooting. I looked up at them in the distance with my binoculars to see the firing wildly into the darkness as strange creatures circled them. Occasionally one would leap into the bandits causing them to bleed and panic shoot. Their lights went off one after another and then silence. Nothing moved, no noise besides the ambience of the zone.
I waited till sunrise before continuing.
Stalker creates moments and atmosphere no other game has ever achieved nor came close.
and that's just vanilla? Daaamn I gotta stop sleeping on it already
@@ookami5329Same man but I don’t know where to start.. people say play the original trilogy but that just looks too dated for me
@@Fllemingo Just download anomaly. Fully standalone, free, and a very well curated experience.
Or you could jump right into the hardcore survival that is Gamma.
@@Fllemingomods?
Gunfights "technically" happen on other map sections too while you're not there. They call it "offline combat" I believe. Your buddy can go out on a quest of his own and get killed and you might never see him again. Makes the game feel very alive.
Offline combat is very minimal though, and it unfortunately makes the zone a lot more bare, which lowers the difficulty a lot in certain areas. I prefer to keep it off, the AI off map is wonky at best anyways, you can have a target go to the map exit between dark valley and garbage and they'll pop out in rostok or zaton because the AI doesn't follow the same travel rules.
@@TheThingInMySink increase the spawn rate in settings
The AI system in it self is called "A-life", compared to other games at it's time (and a few right now) it is a really great system that brings many features. STALKER 2 should have an even more improved one.
The problem is that it makes the maps very dead after it becomes online. The reason that is, is because one doesnt stay at one map for long, unlike Misery in CoP which we stay a long time in one map and everyone is online and doing their stuff 24/7. It makes for unpredictable and tense gameplay.
@@MrEvans1 I've been playing Anomaly for years, I know that's a thing, thing is spawn rate in vanilla Anomaly doesn't go very far, you'd have to get mods to really make an impact. All the more reason to play GAMMA, which goes up pretty high that does allow for offline combat.
I find that generally offline combat doesn't really do anything for me, like I said the ability for AI's to fight eachother are quite limited and random, you can have targets you're supposed to kill wandering around the most dangerous parts of the zone without ever getting killed, and then they'll walk into cordon and you never see them again. Usually I just keep it off, apart from having the odd target disappear from the map randomly, and depopulating the zone I really don't notice a difference in my gameplay when it's on.
It's ''cool'' but it essentially does nothing, it's neat to think that shit is happening, but unless you see shit happening it's not really something that has any impact in anything that you do, unless your target drops dead in which case the only impact it has is giving you a way too easy payday.
the most sureal feeling i had while playing stalker is being a mercenary, tasked with downing a random cheeki breeki in the Agroprom factory, hearing gunshots in the distance the entire time i walk to the site only to find my target the only survivor fighting a chimera (dying shortly after) while ~30 dead bodies of bandits, military and free stalkers lie in the general vicinity
Such is life in the zone. Thanks for all the gear, fellas.
this is why I love about playing Mercs.
@@leoaraujo8590 Facts. Mercs for life. Pro tip in GAMMA if you didn't know. If you head down to the swamps and do the first mission of the Clear Sky questline they'll give you some pristine condition armor that gives you a great disguise to move around the south of the map with as Mercs.
i feel justified in dropping one of his books as a kid
I’ve been waiting for this game to com out for so long
I know this will get lost, but the NVG mod is literally so good. I remember being deployed in the desert and looking up at a sky unimpeded by light through the green glow of my NVGs. A milky way I had never seen before and thousands more stars than I could ever dream of back home lit up the sky. The closest I've gotten to that experience is in this game.
When I was in the Army we used to stay out at night sometimes and stare at the stars with our NVGs. It's unlike anything I've seen still to this day.
Congratulations, it didnt get lost in the comments 😁
I use my PVS 14 all the time for watching meteor showers and for tracking satellites. I have also used other types of NV gear. So many movies (especially) and games get it wrong. This game gets it right.
It still wasn’t worth the 4 years tbh
@@amarante2993 i havent had the pleasure of being deployed yet but ill take a mental note to take my first shit in an ammo crate. my ops sgt prob gonna kill me but we gotta take those chances
It really brings me joy to see when the Stalker community grows and people enjoy the game. You can always jump on some Stalker and expect top tier unscripted events that sometimes tops AAA games. And you gotta respect the modding scene for this game, the mods in the last few months... Sheesh
I’ve been watching stalker for years and because I can’t afford a pc I just assumed I’d always be watching it now I’m super excited to see stalker coming to console
@@zephyboii1200 are you talking about stalker 2? Cuz if you are,that will be delayed for some time I imagine,as some of the developers are literally fighting a war.
@@stefandinu6389 devs moved to Czechia in march, though i don't know how many were drafted
@@stefandinu6389 no, they moved to chech republic
anomaly killed stalker modding :(
11:36 I love how your character misses the bolt a little before corrrecting himself. Really makes the animations feel more human.
No but checkout Ray of Hope development
Agreed the guy was in panic so he missed
Bolt didn't go up first smack, had to do it again. It's one reason I bolt (irl) while open handed & shouldered in one fluent motion. Very cool feature though :)
Yeah mosin bolts are really stiff to unbolt in that spot. The designer of the animation obviously knew that hehehe
@@ScriptedLinks same! People that try to bolt a mosin with their fingers learn real quick they… cant lol
Drewski: 15:40
Everyone: Imagines Stalker 2
Stalker 2 Devs before release: *Sweating nervously*
See that's the thing, I think its unfair to compare STALKER 2 to the modded monstrosity that is STALKER Anomaly. Now, if you played OG vanilla STALKER, I'm thinking it'll be the next gen iteration of that... not quite as hardcore, but still a lot of the secret sauce that modders can mess with later.
@@pistonsrule82 Interesting point.
However, stalker 2 devs surely must know about Anomaly, Gamma, and all these things - would they seriously *not* incorporate at least most of the features? After having *years* to experience, rate, and get inspired by all this fan-made content?
I think Stalker 2 would actually be a fair comparison.
@@pistonsrule82 i dont think thats what stalker is being compared to, more like somewher ein the neighbourhood of the original. which may not be likely. games arent being made with a lot of gameplay depth today. just nice polished graphics but no gameplay depth.
@@pistonsrule82 Stalker 2 is developed on the Unreal Engine 5 if I remember correctly. I hope we get some great mod support for it, and that it will make the modding easier.
@@Amir-cu4qp They have confirmed that there will be mod-support and reference the modding community. they know how much the communtiy has done for the games
Stalker has been my favorite series since I first played it around 10 years ago. The atmosphere is unmatched.
but what does he mean, we can download the whole game for free? Its called piracy, creators of stalker series should be rewarded for what they did.
@@cyberwarrior8382 Stalker: Anomaly is a standalone mod of the original series, which is actually free to download, while GAMMA is an addon pack for it
@@cyberwarrior8382 if you never played original series of Stalker, I encourage you to buy and play it for the plot and immersive setting. This way you can be sure that you give a gesture of respect to its developers.
But Anomaly mod and Gamma pack make the game literally free, because it is a standalone mod based on all 3 games locations, characters, and has it's own additional system of quests. Many things differ from original games.
So it's not a piracy, but a different game, I assure you.
Edit: also this mods don't require any installed original game, in case some people do not understand what a word 'standalone' means :)
@@content_enjoyer4458 damn that's depressing
@Content_enjoyer bro wtf are you saying? how is the company in shatter if they are releasing stalker 2 soon? and only one developer died...out of hundreds, I will never understand why you guys gotta always spread some bullshit over the internet
You had me at free!
Yeah, FREE?!
Yuhhhhhh
FREEEE??!???!?!!!
He had me at S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
I really hope Stalker 2 is everything this game was and more.
I love how mods and indie games are becoming the new "AAA experience."
Its been like this for years. All my favorite games in the past 5 years are games with heavily active modding communities and (usually) modding support
@@ryanboudreau8263 What games are those buddy ? i find myself most of this year staring at my built pc not playing much at all =/
@@proximitybeejay3673 Factorio / Minecraft / Skyrim / stalker / dayz / fallout / xcom 2 / the witcher 3 / stardew valley / starbound / borderlands 2 / rimworld / gta 5 / civ 6 and probably more that i forgot
haha yeah capitalism amirite
@@abef63159 I'd add divinity: original sin 2 to the list.
One of the Developers of this game was KIA in Ukraine
RIP Volodomyr Yezhov
Real life stalker of Bakhmut
rip :(
god bless him and protect everyone from ruSSians. Pure evil on this planet. We´ll never forget 1968 in Czechoslovakia. We still didn´t return it to ruSSia. Their time is coming.
they better make a mod that makes a potrait of him in there
Should have moved to Prague with the other developers from GSC.
I got this game in some sort of bundle and knew absolutely nothing about it when I first started playing. After dying to the very first enemies multiple times I almost quit, but decided to go explore instead. On a hill behind the starting zone I ran into a bizarre mutant-pig creature snuffling around.
As I got closer the pig-thing inexplicably rose into the air and began spinning rapidly, then exploded. It was then I realized that I had found one of the best games of all time.
That reminds me of playing Half Life on my brothers computer, way back in the day. That was a special experience... * sigh
shiiiiiiet man i actually remember luring a bandit in one of those anomalies (Springboard?) in vanilla STALKER when i first downloaded it in early 2007, like, i went full armchair tactician and had the dude strafe into that shit during a gunfight in the starting zone (or it was just a coincidence i will never know) bruh that was the tightest fucking shit
@@elchiponr1 zoomers playing Forknife in high school today remember playing Forknife in kindergarten. It's an abstract kind of hell
you know that happened to be one cool story bro!
My man you just saved yourself from fighting a mutant, avoiding a anomaly, and saving bullets
The hobo phase of stalker anomaly is so fun and it feels so rewarding when you finally crawl your way out of it
I go through about three distinct phases in any playthrough: the hobo phase, which I agree is very rewarding, the under-equipped lab scavenging phase which turns me masochistic in unexpected ways, and the overpowered and overconfident cocky veteran phase where nothing can touch me, yet I somehow find ways of killing myself so very often. I love it, can't wait for the next Stalker game to get modded into another gem.
@@LordOfCookies123 "the overpowered and overconfident cocky veteran phase" lol
@@LordOfCookies123dang that explains me wayyy too well
@@gabri9022 Thats me with the .50 cal, no need to call me out like that
Frankly, I think every single RPG should have this curve more or less. Another game that does this very well in my opinion is Gothic. You start out as a nobody with zero skills and equipment who literally gets his face punched in the second you enter the game; but along the way you learn, you make friends and you get more and more competent.
Please note that FoV in the STALKER games is based on Z-depth, similar to Vertical FoV Vert- scaling. So 75 FoV is equal to roughly 103-110 Horizontal FoV (Range is dependent on display aspect ratio, 16;9/16;10/21;9 etc) in games that scale by Hor+. Just wanted to put this info out there to help people from immediately setting their ingame FoV to 90+, which would result in extreme fish-eye with 150+ Horizontal FoV.
thank you!!
Not only that but you have 2 FoV options in the "Visual" menu; one for the actual FoV and another for your player "HUD" model (what you see in 1st person).
For UW like 21:9 I recommend keeping the default 75 FoV but lowering the "HUD FOV" from 0.45 to ~0.35. This moves your weapon and arm position 'closer' to the view plane, meaning lower and narrower so they hide a little less of your view. It's handy for "hip shooting" mutants and CQB when you aren't in iron sight mode.
Yeah, what he said
Ohhh that must be why my scope zoom levels wouldn't math properly. I never did figure out why, I just ended up adjusting until it was correct.
@@odizzido Yup. 😃 Scope zooms use multipliers of the base FoV so if you get too crazy (or a scope upgrade messes with the math) you can get some really odd behavior.
My favorite is when the zoom effect goes past 180 degrees and you get a weird almost teleport effect where your player PoV seems to rush toward where you're looking. 😆
I was recently playing Gamma, when I got a PDA death report of a guy "Found inside a Flesh's stomach", which made me pause my playing and just think, about how it would feel like to be eaten whole, and how a Flesh would even fit someone whole inside it. This game made me contemplate more with one line of RNG lore, than whole AAA-games with their 10 hour stories.
Yeah he wasn't whole. Maybe his head or face or some identifying parts... like an ear a watch on a wrist..
My first thought was being the poor dude that found his friend or family member in that condition
I've spent more time just listening to the rain *tink* off my helmet or nearby sheet metal and just soaking in the atmosphere than I have actually doing any of the tasks I've been given. The game just steals you away from reality and I love it.
oh hoh, then I *highly* recommend you to obtain a vr headset and play Into the radius
@@groovesan problem with that is a good vr headset will cost you 399$ (high-end versions cost 1,200-1,400$. as much as a mid-high end desktop pc), thats a lot of investment for one game. and sure you could argue that there are other games to play too but its still a big pill to swallow. whereas stalker anomaly and gamma is completely free.
@@chloekaftan I play my Vive games on an old-@$$ 1060 6GB, and most of them play smooth on high. Meanwhile Gamma needs at least 4 GB. Not the big difference.
And you can have the quest 2 without a pc entirely
ya, not good
its so great to see one of my favorite childhood series still receive modded support and make stalker even better and better. The STALKER community is by far the best community
Literally the modding on it is phenomenal and what people have done to it is amazing but so is the original vanilla game
@@MultiSoftE the only issue you can have with the OG stalker games is the weird thing where hard is actually easy and the animations, otherwise for the time the games are really good
Now imagine a game being released in 2007-2009 and still be popular. That’s a true legend
Same with Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance, an RTS from 2007 which is still very much alive because of the brilliant FAF MP mod.
Left 4 Dead 2 by valve, also still around because of mods.
Diablo 2 🥱
Luckily it was never a console game otherwise we would have Stalker Infinite
Doom (1993) would like a word
Did you notice how each shot seems to feel different? Interesting fact the X-ray engine did not render shots as lines but as actual objects. I loved how each shot from my Vintov had a chance to spin out just right or not quite so luckily.
The atmoshpere of the stalker games and the mods themselves have always blown me away
and the fact it can hit all the vibes, from the truck cemetery at night to pripyat in a storm and all things in-between
I’d love to see you make a couple more episodes of this, i was absolutely addicted to your original Stalker play through. I’m not saying make a new series (even though that’d be great), but seeing you play this game is some of the best gaming content i’ve seen on yt. Every Stalker video you released made me want a PC even more than i did before 😅
I remember playing with a random mod pack that had a ton of cool mods on it but every once in a while you could hear a phone ring you could follow it and find the phone and pick up. And when you would there would be a pause then it would ask about your cars extended warranty in a computer gen voice. And no joke it was the funniest thing ever when I first found it, but then I got the shit scarred out of me by something.
what the fuck
@@doantuanan Straight up😂
Explain pls.
Is it like a malware?
@@doantuanan and it was just for SnG
The random telephones ringing is a reference to the classic 1979 Stalker film!
I’ve had a stalker tweet about this happening although never experienced it myself (in GAMMA).
Whenever I think I'm getting bored of modern games, I come back to Anomaly. It cures me every single time. This is gaming perfection.
Thanks for spreading the word, Drewski
As an old S.T.A.L.K.E.R fan, I'm glad to see this game still stands tall and revered. It truly is a testament to, what you also echoed, games made grand with a dedicated fanbase, that for years take a solid foundation and tweaks it into something truly great and unique. This is the kind of **** that stands the test of time. Nerds unite! 😀
Been playing into the radius recently. Similar to stalker as you know. Just got to the part where they’ve got BTRs now.
@@godofwar1392 Yes (Probably)
okay? thats crazy bro
Dude that btr scared the SHIT out of me the first time. And its like you can't escape it
@@godofwar1392 ya its on pcvr and quest 2
Into the radius just came out on oculus quest so me and my poor people can enjoy it too
1:01 Holy shit, finally, a realistic Mosin reload!!! That looks amazing. Every other game seems to make loading a Mosin look like a breeze
There’s a few games that don’t
@@dowtie1997 I own an M44 Carbine. A firearm, not an airsoft gun.
@@dowtie1997 lol just checked your comment history. I remember my negative phase in high school. Don’t worry, it gets better.
@@The4j1123 lmfao. Don’t lie to him it gets worse. Especially with his attitude. 🤣🤦🏽♂️
@@TheMrPandabeast He deleted his comments lmao
RIP to the devs of this wonderful game
what happened
@@Taylor.L. Volodymyr Ezhov, developer with GSC studio was KIA near Bakhmut fighting russians about a week ago.
just found out today. The war hits home when people you know from interviews, and Loki's face design, are KIA.
Heroiam slava
Rip brother
@@rt34654 no but the literal foundations were... tf
man i wished so hard that you'll upload something like this - I'm a huge fan of EFP 3.0 (another hardcore modpack based on EFT) THANK YOU DREWSKI!!!!!
5:23 holy crap It makes me so happy to hear that someone else got to experience the things that I experienced in my late night play throughs. A good half of my ss on my pc are just Stalker Anomaly
Make this blow up, mod authors deserve more support
It's more developers deserve more support also.
He did!
Made it blow up so much the download servers crashed lol
15:50 IGN would give this a 7/10 because of the difficulty, mentioning that they couldn't get out of the starter zone.
3/10, Somehow i cant sprint anymore and theres this weird symbol resembling a water bottle on my screen, gotta be a bug, bad game- IGN
skill issue
@The Swamps 1/10 I am terrible at the game and I don't wanna get better' too much stuff to do and Variety' cod is better because it appeals to my casual brain -IGN
1/10 because it doesnt have weapon skins or throwing knives or 360 noscopes or is called cod
IGN 3/10. Not enough sand
"I was until then, fighting with a mosin and a USP, and crying whenever anything got closer than ten feet"
I've never giggled so nervously before... Those cats in early game....
I started playing this after watching your play through and it has to be one of the most enjoyable games I have ever played. It combines everything I want in a game into one package, and it's free!
I'm trying to dowload this right now, and there's a huge queue for it on moddb. Oh well, gotta wait.
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 550k people tried downloading this in the past couple days because of this video, in conclusion, servers are overloaded, huge queues, etc. and good luck when you get to the installation process. ive ran it about 10 time and im not done at all
the stalker series and then the metro series, both were the staples of m childhood. absolutely horrifying. i miss them but the memories i have will always be with me.
yea played these games a lot back in the day, can't really bring myself to play this again
@@Cenot4ph who asked
@@99Plastics who asked to question my response?
@@99Plastics If everyone that commented on UA-cam had to be asked first, there wouldn't be any comments.
Grow up.
@@jamesthorogood1479 Well said, people who commented like that probably have brain damage and not understand how comment section works..
Played quite a bit of Stalker back in 2007 - most unique atmosphere I've ever experienced in a shooter. Mad respect to the developers behind this mammoth modpack/game.
6:41 this is actually such a good point, i wish Ubisoft devs saw this and took it into account for their future games
Man i would have loved to see a series of this gameplay
Yeah with the same vibe as frankieonpcin1080p
He has done a whole series with this game lol
I finally took the plunge and went through the hour and a half process to install the gamma mod... I can't wait to dive into this. Stalker is such a great game series and this mod is the best thing to happen to the internet in a long time.
Hope you're having fun! That's all you can ask really.
this game is amazing and i havent found anything like it since, guns feel powerful and i love how damage is dependant on ammo instead of finding a rarer more expensive gun. this game was the first time i fealt this type of realism in a game and its incredible
This is the singleplayer Tarkov experiance I wanted. Thanks Drew!
its better
now imagine if there was a multiplayer aspect to it where there could be friends and enemies that are real players mixed in with the ai, that supports the modes there and you could even add a mode based off the ironman in various locations much like a team deathmatch or based off something significant to the area this is just a husk of an idea that could be expanded. id still keep the single player aspect to but to have the multiplayer too would be nice
It's not Tarkov
@@JoeyJoJoJr0 Tarkov was based on stalker
@@thesovietduck2121 very loosely, 1 tarkov dev also worked on stalker
The 1st stalker game will go down in history for me. Loved the hell out of it
same it was definitly the best
yeah but it aged like shit. Introducing someone to the series with that game these days guarantees they never get into it
Is call of pripyat a better introduction?
Stopped the video at 3 mins and went and downloaded all of it. Thanks for showing this off. Everyone involved with this deserves the credit.
I played Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl on release way back in the day. I remember leaving the rookie village, crossing the bridge, and watching the lightning. I was blown away. The game wasn't perfect but it was a rough cut gem that's only been refined ever since.
The anomaly's, the artifacts, a world just perfect for videogames
Been playing Anomaly for quite a bit on my potato and when i upgrade i'll still be playing anomaly just more beautiful and spicy which is what i love about anomaly the replayability and the scenery how every anomaly game from person to person came be so different because of mods really speaks volumes of developers that make something fun, enjoyable and unique instead of what we have now with game releases
Dude my pc shit the bed. (Gtx 1060) and im playing on a thinkpad. Playing on all hardware is Peak stalker experience i think.
Alright Drewski, you better give us more of this, watching you run through the zone is hilarious.
Your last video on Anomaly got me into the Stalker universe and my god is that an absolutely hidden gem of a modding community that I don´t see anywhere near enough talked about.
Plus there are some seriously good modpacks out there - Escape From Pripyat (EFP) is another fantastic one to check out.
Stalker Anonamly definitely get the attention it deserved, millions of people played it
@@gazzy9136 Oh 100 percent, no doubt about that. But for people like me who didnt grow up with Stalker, I would have never stumbled across it, would it not have been for that one video. Sure I have heard of the Stalker series, but never of the Anomaly project and it being free on top of it, which is fantastic.
A big thank to you OperatorDrewski for having made this video and brought more visibility to the Stalker games and these two awesome mods, more gamer need to know that all of this exists
This is the game that I can always play for an hour maybe and feel that satisfying progression and completion of surviving a run. Also the only game that gives me that tarkov danger feeling
Im always ecstatic to see content creators making videos on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. especially GAMMA. It's free, full of content, and I think while it may not be for everyone, everyone should try it once :) thanks for helping keep it alive Drew!
Here's to hoping the sequel is good, despite some of the signs.
If there was any way to make the a CO-OP experience, it would be monumental!
agreed, there's no good looter-shooter-survival-realism-sim (thinking Tarkov, or STALKER like) that is Co-Op. Feel like there is a void waiting to be filled.
Unfortunately, the X-Ray engine does not handle such a thing well.
@@kylesenior good thing stalker 2 doesn’t run on X-ray, maybe it will be possible this time around
@@noneyabusiness8065 The STALKER 2 developers mentioned that there won't be any co-op, because the singleplayer is more story oriented. However they mentioned that the game will feature a separate multiplayer mode(probably pvp)
@@noneyabusiness8065 The game runs on Unreal, so it's likely possible for modders to achieve it.
I started to get into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R universe because of your video and it was one of the best decisions of my life. Looking forward to S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 and I expect several gameplays on your channel.
Thank you for covering this game so closely, I first heard of it from blue drake a couple of years back and have been hooked ever since (on my 35th playthrough) I think you are a great person to represent this game and it's community, thank you for bringing awareness to this masterpiece hopefully stalker 2 surpasses this games level of depth and grit!
I doubt it but man I hope they deliver
Stalker 2 won't be really close to anomaly/gamma and probably a lot closer to the the original games.
If you guys haven't played any original Stalker games yet, but still want a free and updated experience to get you know the world and actual lore of Stalker I would suggest you to try OGSR(Old good Stalker Evolution/Revolution) it is a standalone mod of the first game shadow of chernobyl with some restored cut content completely remade in 64bit version of the xray engine.
And if you have played Shoc and not for a while you might wanna try it too, in a new refreshed way with new content and stories to discover.
Also you could see it as a introduction in a slightly less overwhelming experience then anomaly. Since anomaly is filled to the brim with new items and strongly expanded mechanics build upon the original mechanics.
Also a little warning, the difficulty system in original Stalkers is a little weird.
Easy makes all weapons less powerful yours and the enemies, also the anomalies weaker. And harder dif makes all guns and anomalies stronger(also yours and the enemies). Easy makes you and enemies bullet sponges and makes everything feel very weak and imo kinda the game harder.
This whole video is great but I keep coming back for that sweet sweet montage right at the start. Amazing work.
That montage at the beginning is just so damn good with how it draws you in.
Legit came to the comments to just comment about this same thing. That was a very well done intro. I wanted to play the game 20 seconds in just based on that. That’s some damn good editing.
I’m so glad someone is covering such a wonderful game series. Been waiting for stalker 2 for so long
it should be coming out next year
@@garydumpling-kingwilson-we1915 could be longer or delayed because of the Ukraine/Russia situation.
Dude I can't wait to discover this gem. I loved the Stalker games so much and have not been able to cope with video games lately as life just sucked me up. Been operated on and have a couple of months of work off, I can't wait to dive into this. Thanks for sharing !
I am in love with Stalker Gamma.
I enjoyed Stalker in 2007 and im so happy to replay it now that has been treated with so much love by the modding community.
I hope STALKER 2 devs are paying close attention to this mod package.
@content_enjoyer4458 GG
@Content_enjoyer One original STALKER dev was killed in Ukraine*. Key word "original." He wasn't part of STALKER 2's development. His passing is a tragedy all the same, but it will not stop the game's development.
I love monolith so I play them mostly. I love how bounties arent "bounties" they are "redemption" missions. Avenging a fallen brother makes me motivated to cap an infidels skull with a Monolith 1.0. I will never let down my brothers.
For the monolith!
i have been searching for this exact game for 2 weeks, thank you brother.
For those not in the know.. this is the video that caused moddb's servers to crash from the weight of new stalkers.
You go, Drewski! 😀
Just a quick fyi: Download times for this mod pack are currently through the roof because of the traction it got with this video.
For this mod pack to run it needs 333 mods and the host site the installer uses is bogged down because of the amount of people trying to download it. You eventually get all the mods but you’ll have to run the installer a couple of times, took me an entire day to get this working. Just be patient
Yes, the mod host is moddb, which is one of the main modding websites and hosts. Servers are currently so overloaded that it is quite a challenge to get everybody through with installation of this modpack. Just be patient, launch the installer on a second windows desktop (win+tab, create a new one), click install, switch back to the other desktop and forget about it. If you don't get all the mods in first try (due to server overload it may happen that not all mods get downloaded - you will see that if you will have a mod count lesser than 333 in MO2), just relaunch the installer and click "full installation" again. It might need several tries due to the circumstances, so don't fret about it too much. It will also probably get better in a week or so, when the dust settles.
I only have 241 mods, I've installed it twice, this time is the 3rd on a new drive. Even Anomaly has ABYSMAL download times and the 1.5.2 patch as well. GAMMA wasn't too slow. I hope I can get it to work though it looks AMAZING. I had some of the mods it uses when I played Anomaly a ton. If you like this, check out the Stalker mod for Single Player Tarkov.
Just don’t delete the mods folder where ever you installed G.A.M.M.A. at and keep hitting the full install button in the installer. It will ignore mods it already downloaded and only get new ones.
They have a getfile link now for 90% of the mods packed on Discord as ModDB went ass up
Just downloaded it! such a hassle not worth it in my opinion
This might be one of those videos people come back to now and again to get themselves pumped for a new stalker playthrough, I know that's for sure the case for me, this video is dope
Playing SOC and COP is what got me into milsims and it's one of the few games that every time i re-install for a new playthrough, i finish it. Never get tired of the series and i have so many good memories like staying up late, scared shitless in the underground labs because a poltergeist was throwing shit around. The atmosphere in these games is still unmatched.
DUDE one time a poltergeist nearly gives me a heart attack just by throwing a box at me lol
@@domainmojo2162 yes all you might want to do is get sky reclamation project which fixes a few things but its only like 14mb but yes, I read bad things but they have turned out not be the experience I am having
0:57 to 01:30 coolest trailer I ever see 🔥
yea bro i wanna know the song
So glad you are playing GAMMA, need more of this.
I was modding Anomaly for the last 2 years encountering problems with mod compatibility and all. Little did I know that gamma would give me the perfect stalker experience where I can deactivate mods I don't like and just load up my previous save game without any single issue. Gamma has it all.
I take it you’ve played it before as well? Any chance you could tell me how much space all these mods take up?
@@SeeSquared17 you need like 50GB total for both Stalker Anomaly and GAMMA modpack.
@@maquettemusic1623 Awesome! I appreciate the response!
You know you've made a successful video when you're actively breaking the internet's largest modding site haha. I'm among the masses attempting to install Gamma right now
Dude! You literally got me into Stalker! I’d never heard of it before your first series, and now Anomaly is my favourite game of all time! You’re a legend, bruv!
Great to hear. Give the originals a try too if you love Anomaly
Just downloaded this yesterday with my friend and we are so immersed. I mean there are games the excite me and then there are games like these where I am basically awake until 5AM playing it.
did you download from the link
Yo Drewski, just wanted to say I had watched a couple of your S.T.A.L.K.E.R Anomaly videos and this one finally made me download it overnight last night (bad wifi.) I have pretty much been playing it all day today and can't get enough of it. I have always been a huge fan of the Metro series and have played all of them and this has that vibe plus so much more. Thank you so much for introducing me to a apocalyptic survival game that is so enthralling to me so I can sink my teeth into it and is so refreshing compared to all these new titles that are copy-pasted
Did you download gamma or just anomaly?
This is a game franchise I keep coming back too over and over again ever since the first one came out. Even in vanilla form they are still pretty good. Mods make it great. I have not tried this particular mix yet, so, I will need to give it a shot.
I just started my first playthrough of Shadow of Chernobyl yesterday. Wanna get through the original Games first before starting anomaly eventually, but this looks so damn good....
I really appreciate that you are doing this and not like me in the past, I really got interested in the game series and downloaded Anomaly and because I didn't know shit, I just uninstalled it but luckily I played through the originals, after that it felt awesome playing through Anomaly. Great story in the vanilla games great mod support in Anomaly
I still remember when I was playing Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl for the very first time back in 2010 and couldn't finish it because one of the essential NPC's was killed in a random world event, so I had to restart hours worth of savefiles just to prevent it from happening. Absolutely loved this game and will 100% try out GAMMA in the near future.
I remember playing the Pre-Alpha "leak" of Stalker when it came out in 2003, everyone was blown away by it, can't believe that was almost 20 years ago... Even when the original Stalker finally came out all those years ago it was so easily modifiable. Leading up to the games release "tales from the zone" and other mini-novels were posted on the developers main page, it was like reading stories from an actual place in time from real people caught in a morbid life, it was riveting. To see this game in 2022 doing what it's doing at the level it's doing it at is stunning and a tribute to the original developers and mod makers. Great video and one heck of a great game.
Stalker GAMMA is really good, but it is definitely more focused on the scavenging, repair and survival than other modpacks for anomaly.
It's also SUPER weird that you released a video of this mod barely a week after I started playing it haha
I feel like scavenging is the better way to go about progression. In other mods/anomaly you just grind contracts till you're a billionaire and buy the best gear in the game. It feels meh, at some point why even bother looting enemies, you're rich, you can just buy anything.
The idea you can only get good stuff from looting is a really good motivator to keep exploring and progressing into the game imo.
you can go through the mods and disable a lot of the repair and scavenging ones. Think they have some optional mods that make repairing and scavenging easier as well. Personally made it so any workbench can be used to repair gun parts completely since i hated not being able to repair parts under a certain condition.
@@muatring ohhh igor look that grey bandit over there has big exoskeleton! *loads RPG*
I've been playing Anomaly for a long while but recently wiped my PC, your video was the small push I needed to download it again and the downloads are impossibly slow, then looked at the mirror links and they are all overloaded with download requests because of your video lol. So good job, you influenced many which I bet was your goal haha. Thanks for your content, you're great.
Bruh I'm currently downloading it at 300KB a second... Going to take me like 12 hours
@@gazzy9136 took me about 4
The world is so alive that you can see in the minute 11:51 that when he killed the chimera in the comms an npc report that he saw him killing it O: thas super cool, in this game you arent the protagonist and center of the world, you are just part of it like another stalker more i love that.
"Half the time this SKS was a bolt action because the gas system was borked"
That's amazing
I mean it's true. The real life SKS while a useful rifle had problems with gas system when it was damaged.
Well the Russian export ones anyways.
Been playing EFP for the past few months, but you convinced me to try out GAMMA, either way Anomaly is one of the best things to happen to the gaming community
14:39 this is why I love stalker. so many unscripted events that the journey feels unique.
For me, this is not only the best Stalker mod bar none (I was a Misery fan back in the day) but this is the best game ever made, bar none. And this video makes it justice. Kudos!
I feel so nostalgic about your Anomaly series! I don't know why, though, but the videos hit the right spot. I will never forget the feeling of watching them first thing in the morning. Good times.
Gotta say, THAT testament absolutely deserved its record number of views ! Just as Stalker totally deserves far more recognition than the triple A big studio games that you mentioned = )
I've been playing the shit out of G.A.M.M.A, such a good collection of addons, plus Grok does a massive amount of work, its updated almost daily, plus the work hes done with the new shaders really makes the game look like a modern title. It's crazy to think 12 years ago when SOC came out that I'd still be playing Stalker.
Is it for console as well?
@@K1lla5.45 Get rekt, peasant
@@yojimbo3856 damn.
@@iStrong113 alr, welp. Time to cry.
for you EFT fans out there: enable the magazine mod in the gamma modpack... you now have ammo/mag management for all weapons, too!
Instead just go play EFT
@@jdools4744 lol
Imagine an extraction shooter set in the zone, where the PvE enemies are a mix of humans and abominations, and the pvp is between stalkers
I've been looking at this game for years kind of on the fence if I want to commit to it but this has sold me 100 percent. New games arent keeping me entertained anymore from heavy burnout so this looks like a nice immersive experience.
ITS FREE
amazing game but just make sure when you first boot up to play that you're ready to suffer. you will die and you will die HARD but thats what makes it great.
Thank you for introducing me to this wonderful game/mod. I have seen some of backlash about all the new people flooding the discord and modmb. For what it's worth most of the people I've talked to in the discord were happy to help and often combated the annoyed people. If you yourself drewski are getting a ton of hate for opening the flood gates, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. But thank you for doing so. I've been on a gaming slump that has only been made rougher by irl stuff. This distraction was a god send 🙏
This game and modpack have somehow hit that very rare and elusive 'sweetspot' where the AI system syncs so well with all the other stuff going on. Never played a game that feels so ALIVE and dynamic. I swear some of the best single player gaming experiences are to be had here and the Alife system sometimes comes together in ways that still astonish me. I've had bandits playing dead to ambush, Stalkers across the map picking up crap I've discarded, going to traders to sell it and announcing it on the PDA system, coming across the dead body of a former companion after we parted ways an age ago. Amazing experience.
Well said. The integration of Alife and X-Ray has to be experienced to be understood. It's just so...... alive....
OperatorDrewski: “you can hear people dying from a distance”
7:35 guy’s dying an agonizing death
Captions: [Music]
Early game Merc run
Take a contract in the Red Forest.
"This is a terrible idea."
Sneak through in the middle of the night. Somehow complete it.
"Time to make my way back."
Monolith patrols converge on the bridge.
Hide under a truck.
More Monolith show up. 20+ heavily armed men walking around me.
Lay still for 5 in game hours.
*MURDER OF CROWS*
"Shit, shit, shit, shit..."
Sneak up and knife two Monolith.
Spotted.
Take cover in a guard house.
Hand grenades and walls of gunfire.
Continues through the Blowout.
*Task Complete: Take Cover*
Chug an Energy Drink.
*RUN*
Thank you for always drawing attention to this masterpiece. I always find my self going back to the zone even after hundreds of hours, and it still is just as exciting every time.
Stalker anomaly is without a doubt one of the best, if not the best single player fps I have played. Going thru an unknown hostile territory with a new modern upgraded gun is so intense and the way how it can sometime feel too calm and safe until a chimaira or a cat jumps out of nowhere.
I've played stalker back in the days and I end up thinking back about how awesome it was and the feeling it had. Never found anything like that again. Now I discover it's well worth picking up again. Needless to say I'm downloading everything and am pumped!
Yes, Anomaly itself has impressed me massively. Stalker will always be unmatched. Will try Gamma. Definitely need a mod which shows the pla, ers stance. I was always hesitant to start modding, I know it is a huge thing, keeps us busy.
Watching Drew play Stalker always feels cozy to me.
Got into this game after seeing this video, got to say it is the best fps and survival experience i've had in the past decade, thanks for sharing this Drew!
🌞 \[T]/ 🌞
I absolutely would watch another STALKER play through with the gamma mod! Your previous play through is one of my favorite series on youtube.
I played som many games in my life, and this game is the most immersive one I've ever seen. simply unbeatable
I remember learning how to modify and rewrite Stalker files back in the middle school, and now I work in the IT. This game showed me that programming can be interesting
😂
This is such an exciting discovery for me. I absolutely loved stalker, probably have more than 500 hours of play in them. I'm getting this today.