A retrospective analysis of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

A retrospective analysis of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - part 1

Рет қаралды 3,069

Күн бұрын

Stalker has historically been a niche game. Despite this, its influence is felt in many corners of gaming today. What was the allure of the Zone? Why has it lingered with many players? Lets find out.
#Stalker #ShadowofChernobyl #SHoC #gaming
0:00 - Intro
5:18 - 2. Development
18:01 - 3. Gameplay
26:34 - 3.1 Hazing
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl on GOG: www.gog.com/en/game/stalker_s...
Check out The PrimordialChronicles (aka. Mr Shh'kotsky): / @theprimordialchronicles
Patreon: / heyblondiegamer
Join my Discord: / discord
Twitter - / heyblondiegamer
Blondefire - / @blondefire_heyblondie
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Past Vids
Dusk (2018) analysis
• Why DUSK is a great ga...
Diablo (1996) analysis
• Why play Diablo 1 (199...
Stalker Anomaly analysis
• Stalker Anomaly is ama...
Shadowman Remastered analysis
• ShadowMan is still rel...
Dying Light analysis
• A Dying Light (2015) a...
Thief (2014) analysis
• Thief 2014 - Not bad, ...
Unreal retrospective analysis
• A Love Letter to Unrea...
Marathon (1994) analysis
• Doom popularised the F...
Evil West analysis
• Were the reviews of Ev...
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2, and Mysteries of the Sith analysis
• A retrospective analys...
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Eurogamer article about Dean Sharpe - www.eurogamer.net/dean-sharpe...
Images
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Crater - photo by Francesco Ungaro: www.pexels.com/photo/brown-mo...
BBQ - photo by Min An: www.pexels.com/photo/close-up...
Abandoned Soviet factory - bellona.org/news/nuclear-issu...
Frustrated guy at laptop - photo by Tim Gouw: www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-w...
Board room - photo by Christina Morillo: www.pexels.com/photo/group-of...
Wine bottle - photo by Adonyi Gábor: www.pexels.com/photo/white-an...
Snowy Ukraine - photo by Kateryna Hnidash: www.pexels.com/photo/national...
Days passed - photo by Magda Ehlers: www.pexels.com/photo/crossed-...
Lion - photo by Alexas Fotos: www.pexels.com/photo/brown-li...
Mosquito - photo by Jimmy Chan: www.pexels.com/photo/mosquito...
Videos
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Gopnik dance video:
• Video
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - longplay by stefix99
• PC Longplay [067] Retu...
longplays.org/home.php

Пікірлер: 82

@connormcintosh4828 4 ай бұрын

I can't understand how this isn't a bigger channel. You do great work brother one day, this will blow up.

@HeyBlondieGamer 4 ай бұрын

Cheers, I appreciate that 🍻

@sjoerddondersteen1337 5 ай бұрын

The Return of The ̶K̶i̶n̶g̶ Absolute Madman A trip down memory lane with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.? Nostalgia (for simpler times) PS Cheers from the Netherlands, ya absolute madlad!

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Cheers, mate. 🍻 What great times those were, hey?

@arkashakogan8583 5 ай бұрын

Just like in the stalker anomaly video, u did a great job reviewing the grand daddy of it! Oh the memories from first time stepping into the zone... Love your content, keep up the great work! Waiting for part two!

@HeyBlondieGamer 4 ай бұрын

Cheers! Stalker was something else back in the day, I’ll never forget those first tentative steps into the Zone. Truly awesome stuff.

@ThePrimordialChronicles 5 ай бұрын

Thanks for the shout-out mate!

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

No worries! 👍

@stevenbong1553 3 күн бұрын

Great video I’m drinking vodka playing stalker right now.

@MrEvans1 4 ай бұрын

Cant wait for part 2

@HeyBlondieGamer 4 ай бұрын

Not long now.

@vinni3c Ай бұрын

I'm not sure what's more underated... the STALKER series or this KZfaq channel

@HeyBlondieGamer Ай бұрын

❤️🙏

@godmauledsomepeople 5 ай бұрын

To explain the broken stealth let me indulge in an Internet rumor that I heard on a Taiwanese bricklaying forum, the real reason enemies instantly detect you after loading a save is that the games engine loads in a particular order, the player, then the enemies and their AI and then the map and terrain. Because the enemies spawn in the empty void they will always spot you through walls during the loading process and as such stealth is broken always if you are within sight range of the NPCs.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Ha, this reminds me of an issue which someone in my Discord found with Anomaly. When fast-traveling, the time is immediately added before the player and NPCs despawn. Because of this, if the player was disguised and near enemy NPCs when they fast-traveled their disguise was always blown because they had technically spent too long near suspicious NPCs. Thankfully there’s a mod to fix that now. Good explanation, seems logical and plausible.

@seantaylor424 5 ай бұрын

Your long-form videos are a treat, but your rationale for splitting STALKER up makes perfect sense and if you're not shorting your own content, then I think seeing you more often would be better than waiting the long times for the full videos (not that I mind waiting, since you put a LOT of work and thought into your videos). Very considerate of you to alter your putout for your non-Patron viewers. Not sure if you did it on purpose, but the way you synced things up around 4:47 made it look like the Subscribe button came out of the box you destroyed, which is amusing. Happy coincidence if you didn't time it that way and GREAT JOB if you DID time it that way.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Cheers mate, I really appreciate that feedback. I do plan on releasing the video, in full, at the very end as a stand-alone entity for people who enjoying watching longform from start to finish, but I feel that more regular uploads makes sense for patrons, viewers, and the health of the channel. Hah, I didn’t plan that consciously, but I seem to make a lot of timing decisions during editing which sync well with footage. Perhaps the subconscious is hard at work too 😂

@chost-059 25 күн бұрын

great video, well sctructured and made

@HeyBlondieGamer 14 күн бұрын

Cheers! 🍻

@G_Flash84625 5 ай бұрын

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS LETS GO

@Kindrin 5 ай бұрын

This is great. Thank you for the walk down memory lane for such a great series.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Words barely do it justice. You can take the stalker out of the Zone, but you’ll never take the Zone out of the stalker.

@thesummerofmark 5 ай бұрын

Oh hell yeah brother

@sjoerddondersteen1337 5 ай бұрын

real recognize real king

@ninedials 6 күн бұрын

44:13 There's also a merc armour in the Cordon village

@HeyBlondieGamer 3 күн бұрын

There is??! Where is it?

@ninedials 3 күн бұрын

@@HeyBlondieGamer in the attic of the last north-east house close to the road. You have to jump from the roof of the house before and across to the roof of this house. There’s a box that you can break in the attic from outside and it drops a merc suit. You can’t get into the attic but you can just reach the suit from outside to pick it up.

@HeyBlondieGamer 12 сағат бұрын

Nice tip, cheers!

@TheHalogen131 5 ай бұрын

2:26 I only encountered this term while watching some of Civvie11's videos and it always struck me as an endearing term. Something akin to "rascal". Kinda negative, yes, but with an air of love around it.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

That’s certainly true, and I’ll be the first to champion the context of its use, but it’s so pervasive now that I think some abuse it as a shot at slavic developers. It feels like shorthand for a deeper conversation which no-one is willing to have.

@A.I.A.M. 5 ай бұрын

Hey Blondie, you make good content. Thank you!

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Cheers, that’s much appreciated 🍻

@Deadforge 4 ай бұрын

Absolute perfection right here, my friend, and now I know more about Stalker than ever before.

@HeyBlondieGamer 4 ай бұрын

Cheers, my dude! Stay tuned, more dropping soon.

@bloofrozenmonkyes5698 Ай бұрын

The part of stalker I love most is the feeling of being alone

@HeyBlondieGamer Ай бұрын

I get that. The sense of isolation feels liberating when civilization can feel so claustrophobic.

@davidohalloran1311 5 ай бұрын

Cracking video. You are right. MoozE did create the perfect soundtrack for this game. S.A.D will always be for me the ultimate theme for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Looking forward to the next part. It makes sense to divide up the entire project into parts. Hopefully you will cover Clear Sky as well. Though it did have a few bugs, it was a cracking game. The "Are you kidding me game" brought a smile to my face. Keep up the great work. It is appreciated.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

I often have Stalker’s soundtrack playing while I write apocalyptic prose or need a dark theme for inspiration. Seriously good stuff. I can’t believe that some people turn the music off 😳 The other games will be their own videos, this is purely SoC for now. Appreciate you ❤️🙏

@judsongaiden9878 3 ай бұрын

1:22 Represent! What ho0ked me most was Oink Oink Fleshy Piggy! 🙃 3:54 Represent! Wanna try some Zone Sportsmanship Challenges? 32:52 / 36:34 / 39:39 / 40:42 A clip is a device, other than a speedloader, used for loading a magazine or cylinder. 34:00 / 41:07 Most mods correct the LR-300's worthless iron sights by revamping the rear peep and having you aim through it instead of over it. I'll never understand what it was about FPS games from this era and aiming over the rear sight instead of through it. 34:05 To be fair, that galloping pig-lump kinda lo0ks like a literal sponge. 🤣 40:10 Why did so many games from this era have your character cock guns whenever they bring them out even when there's already a round chambered?! I blame Hollyw0od. Video games get a lot of their bad habits from movies. 41:31 Galloping pig-lumps! 🤣 The fleshy piggy fleshpig lo0ks like it has a Toxic Avenger face! 🙃 44:23 That upturn happens earlier in the Oblivion Lost mod if you play your cards right. You can either pay the Duty warrant officer at the Garbage checkpoint to pass through before going to Agroprom, or you can just pass through if you have Sid make to a member of a faction that's friends with Duty right from the start (I always go ecologist). Then you can go to Army Warehouses and gear up before going to Agroprom.

@BradleyGalbraith 5 ай бұрын

Always look forward to a Blondie upload!

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Cheers! 🍻

@noxthelast8 5 ай бұрын

Nice a video I can watch right as I get done with the duty day

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

I read this as doing tasks for Duty. Make sure you’re back by dusk. Nasty things hunt in the dark.

@Stefan-br2cf 5 ай бұрын

Ah I love your Videos truely! but im still waiting for that part 2 of the Marathon Series ;)

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

I’m getting the itch so this year might be the year 👍

@dagspoket 5 ай бұрын

Good video mate

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Cheers! 🍻

@Touay. 5 ай бұрын

Great video.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Cheers 🍻

@Deathmoths 5 ай бұрын

It's finally here... 🙏🏻

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Yessir! Part 2 should be out much quicker.

@Kynos1 5 ай бұрын

I will never get tired of the Gothic and Stalker games.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Amen to that. I’m long overdue for another Gothic playthrough.

@WilyKyle 5 ай бұрын

Privyet, Blondie!

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

Privyet, stalker 🍻

@IAmTh3Doom 5 ай бұрын

Can't wait for a new season of Anomaly from you, i am addicted to the first one. And maybe some mods added in like animations and such... Damn.

@Lennox032 5 ай бұрын

He did a second season but using a custom mod list like the GAMMA mod.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

I’m getting the itch. We’ll see how far we can push the envelope with the next one.

@AvalancheReviews 5 ай бұрын

I've heard both sides of the difficult discussion, and it's tuff. Personally, I find that Master makes enemies much easier to kill while opening me up to the same. People argue that it's not true, but I've put over 300 hours into each game and it feels that way to me. I've seen empirical data and I still don't believe it. HA! Great video dawg!

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

I recall someone mentioning that there might be some RNG around damage too which would skew the results even further. It’s a hard one to call. What you described is definitely the case with Anomaly and GAMMA on the default difficulty configs. Cheers! Awesome of you to take the time to watch and drop a comment, appreciate it, mate 🤘

@JackWse 5 ай бұрын

You can see what the values are for the weapons if you open up the game files, I highly recommend it cuz you can turn off the iron sight zoom lol which I did within 5 minutes starting the game for the first time back in 2007.. it's funny back then that was like a knee-jerk reaction to bad gameplay.. nowadays it's.. oh boy it's complicated lol...usually the best you can hope for is to turn off the chromatic aberration.

@JackWse 5 ай бұрын

As a note, when you do open them up.. they are incredibly lovingly annotated, and there's just some really cool things going on with the way the weapons work in this game, especially the way the bullets work.

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

@JackWse It makes me happy that Anomaly has this as a configurable menu option. I normally turn it off too.

@candideoptimism8775 4 ай бұрын

bro how can you still be promoting a long debunked myth, even to the point in your video where you’re like “look I don’t wanna be that guy and tell newbies what difficulty to play on based on what I think is right” and then you proceed to do the exact thing you’re saying you’re not. all based on a myth. your video was awesome man except for that one simple thing that made me say, “really dude?” understand that you’re promoting bullshit instead of the truth, which is only making new players more confused, contrary to your actual intent

@cloacky4409 2 ай бұрын

neat video

@DataDashy 3 ай бұрын

We gonna have this reality very soon ☢☢☢

@HeyBlondieGamer 2 ай бұрын

The sound of Stalker kit being assembled…

@JackWse 5 ай бұрын

You know you're not lying when you say you have experience with stalker, because you know how to use the alternate fire button for the knife lol... I heard that's a legitimate complaint that you can't smash boxes with one hit, and I'm just sitting here like.. did you look in the menu.. No I know you didn't but but I mean like.. what? It has.. it has two buttons there's two buttons lol on the mouse lol

@HeyBlondieGamer 5 ай бұрын

I’ve never heard that complaint before 😂 Testing for alternate fire modes should be instinctual now for anyone who has played shooters any time in the last 15 years.