I have invested many hours modding stalker, and in my experience, it has really been worth it, with all the knowledge I acquired, I would make my own stalker game.

I’ve played numerous run throughs on Anomaly, specifically UNISG, Loner, and Merc Ironman. Finished all of them. Love it every step of the way.

Fair enough to each their own.

Fair enough everybody has different tastes Anomaly just isn't mine.

@@BrokenCircle1 I really don't like anomaly base, I removed almost all the mechanics that you and I don't like

it took me like 20 mins to get an ak and a merc suit in shadow of chernobyl sooo... but i agree that anomaly is fun when you tweak the progression to your liking.

Well thanks for that but I never said difficulty mods were never a thing before just that they weren't the mainstream. Take Lost Alpha for example. At one time it was by far the most anticipated mod for Stalker and the most popular when it first came out. It wasn't a hardcore mod at all. Even OP while challenging and sometimes a difficulty to wrap your head around isn't made with all the hardcore survival elements in mind it's more like spam mutants everywhere but at the same time for every overpowered mutant horde you come across you'll also come into scenarios where you yourself are also overpowered so its a mixed bag. I just don't like how hardcore has become the mainstream now, it always existed just wasn't 'the way' people played Staler. Maybe I should have been clearer on that front. I tried Nomad, it was cool I liked the spirit of it just had a hard time getting it to run on my PC well, in reality what I have put together is similar to that but with less graphical enhancements.

Dead Air sounds like a Left 4 Dead mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Dead Air isnt Anomalys predecessor, its sister mod to Last Day which itself is Anomalys predecessor.

I was really critical at first watching this video. I think you summed it up quite well here. I played the stalker games all when they came out or a few years thereafter. I started modding it myself and spent hours downloading things I wanted to have in "my" zone, running into bugs and incompatibilities, yet kept going because the zone just called me back. And I was a huge fan of the Misery mod project. To that, Anomaly and nowadays mostly GAMMA TOTALLY makes sense to me. I also think, that some mechanics in their default setting might be a bit too much or maybe too hardcore but noone and nothing is keeping me from tweaking it to my liking to craft exactly the experience I want. I get it, that this is not how eveyone wants to play. But then, maybe the zone is not made for you. ;)

@@Deathoutofhell 'maybe the zone isn't made for me' would be a valid argument if Anomaly and its offshoots were anything like the base games where you know the zone was made. But they aren't.

Yeah but the cost of it is insane. And as I said as soon as you take away the grind (by lowering the vanilla settings) theres no substance in stock Anomaly.

@@BrokenCircle1 so your mad about it taking a job or two to get the money to fix items because it cost a "insane amount" yet when you try to make jobs pay better in settings, you get angry that it removes the grind your complaining about? Yeah I don't get it personally, but to each their own.

Yeah lately I've been feeling the same

Anomaly has a lot of content but a lot of that content is basically as meaningful as an empty room.

Exactly. I think the standards for games are really low these days and people often mistake content for quality.@@pipopoikapelaa5468

@@pipopoikapelaa5468 as if sandbox games ever had "meaningful content", the whole point of a sandbox is to create own "meanings" out of contents that are completely senseless unless organised and arranged by the player under his chosen premises. just look at minecraft.

you do know you aren't obligated to play the game right?. saying theres no need for completely free mods and games is the dumbest thing ive heard in a while. just because you don't like something doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. i mean what did you even expect when you downloaded a free open-world survival sandbox mod? an award wining storyline?

Thanks for watching. What version of CoC do you play?

I have tried it quite alot. Vanilla, repacks, my own custom build. I always have a problem with loads of crashes, stutters, and just general performance hitches sadly. Edit: but it is cool and yes RIP Doctor X. I really wonder what Stalker modding would look like today in an alternate world where he never died and CoTZ was finished.

So I've heard.

They should make Stalker MMORPG mod at this point since they love boring grind so much. Grind dogs for 20h to lvl up your guy and a gunner class. So fun (not).

They have it's called Stalcraft. I tried it once for like an hour. Didn't like it. Really not sure what the deal is with all these online only/hardcore grinding sim games. I swear its like people have no lives other than gaming sometimes. When I play a game I just wanna hop in and have fun because regular life is stressful and grindy enough.@@Dregomz02

Misery is x100 more grindy. It is literally Artificial Difficulty: The Mod. It does absolutely everything to make the player's experience as unfair and grindy as computationally possible. The whole mod runs like a slideshow regardless of PC hardware because it bloated the game world with SO MANY useless items, aimbot AI, mutant spam and game mechanics that the engine can't handle it. Whether you have a cheap PC from 2013 or a $5000 PC from 2024, Misery runs nearly the same. Long loading screens, stutters, random framedrops and of course Out of Memory crash errors.

@@johnhighway7399 Oh yeah thanks for reminder of that awful performance, grass shadows lowered my framerate to sub 15 while not looking any worse than "optimized" config. It's not just gameplay that got worse but also performance they screwed everything up from A to Z.

Fair enough. Everybody has different tastes.

Pretty much my thoughts. I've played it since 2018. After this video I finally quit for good. So much BS that just isn't worth it. I'm convinced the people that worship this mod are no life's.

@@BrokenCircle1 yeah some of them are annoying, worst offenders are probably the ones that talk about anomaly as it "fixing" vanilla games.

@@frennauta That and the people that say 'skill issue'. Disliking the way gameplay is set up isn't a skill thing.

There aren't any spoilers. I don't talk about story just gameplay.

there are some semi "spoilers" in terms of visuals but other than that ur good

I agree. I hope Stalker 2 does have an open world mode after the main story. The new trailer looks sick and gives me hope. Thanks for watching!

@@BrokenCircle1 Yeah, a free-play mode would be great!

Thanks for watching and subbing! Are they planning to update the CoC engine at all? I really with CoTZ had continued as it actually had a good variety of dynamic quests. Problem with it was the performance was awful and the crashes regular.

same COMPLETE different experience than the dude in the vid. each to their own ig.

Im pretty sure this guy just didnt understand good ways to make money in anomaly because its easy to make like 100k in a single day of playing and you can buy all the upgrades that he complained about not having

Yeah that's one of the things I wasn't able to fix in my build. The mods that remove the bloat are all outdated sadly. It's really annoying having to constantly stop to repair things so they don't go below the threshold.

@@BrokenCircle1 DLTX minimodpack can ease up the repair as well.

I have that installed...which module fixes repair though? @@florin9243

@@BrokenCircle1 ehh these can help but idk. Modules : -smoother progression, -toolkit remap, -repair kits revision, -missing parts vanilla, -helmet parts. These are easily editable and even remove contents from them due to DLTX. I want to mention the Loot Rebalance module which enables you to edit even outfit/weapon/recipes drops condition with ease. Addons : 1.Grok craft and repair overhaul 2.crafting parts with returns 3.High level tooklits include low level toolkits 4.No toolkit requirement for vices. (haven't tested this one yet) Depending how you take these you might brick the balance. I purposely avoided the use of WPO and OPO. There may be stuff ive missed, my modpack is too big... EDIT : Trader Overhaul mod. So basically, the author made toolkits (basic,advanced,expert) purchasable from some of the traders around the map. I think there's an error tho because mechanics somehow sell them even if they tell you they don't have any...

i disagree , i playied the og games and even old world and going back to finding only bread and bandages on dead enemies is annoying as hell and not rewarding at all

Actually I am replaying the first one right now. I've wanted to make a video on them for years. It's nowhere near done as I am in the replay and get footage phase but it will come eventually.

@@BrokenCircle1 nice ill be waiting for it

Hard to answer. SoC has the best worldbuilding by far as well as the maps. CoP is a bit better on gameplay in my opinion.

Personally what the trilogy so great on it's own is that the journey was linear yet fulfilling, the goal was clear, and they are fairly balanced for average players. SoC was great for first step into the series as it balances the introduction of everything the zone has to offer, such as hostile stalkers, mutants, places crawling with mutants, build-up to the heart of the zone, etc. CS was attempted to polish some of it's mechanics, but best regarded as action FPS game since you'll be shooting stalkers 95% most of the time and not so much opportunity experiencing the horrors of the zone. CoP was pretty open and has a lot good handcrafted sidequest to help you get through the main story and keep you immersed. It was the most polished stalker experience, in gameplay as he said, from other two. But lacks opportunity to revisit locations from previous games, not even the Chernobyl NPP. Which comes to.... Anomaly, what made it so popular is that due to that modpack, of course, and also it's a free game that can anyone can get and play without having any of the trilogy. It also has more content and mechanics for those who want more, which most are just straight up bloat and inconveniencing for some. Additional mods to alleviate those issues, sure, but we are talking the fundamental issues of the mod on it's own, not nickpicking about whether we can, should, or not to customize them based on our preference. It was the base game that was already laid on. Of course no one would give a shit as it's already obvious since everyone had the choice and opinions don't matter because it is what it is. Sorry for the rant in the end, I might have overthinking this a bit too much. Can't say much about the worst part of the trilogy, they was alright as for me.

SOC is my favorite as it's the most curated experience of the bunch (good mix of open ended play areas with more linear horror/action oriented levels). CoP is probably the most polished and overall solid game in the series however. I like Clear Sky but you can definitely tell alot of it's mechanics are experimental to say the least

Yeah I had that installed. Still repairing weapons was a slogfest. Same with armor.

Basically

Fair enough. Thanks for watching.

@@gorg4281 lost Alpha

I think it's worse. The amount of memory it takes up+performance requirements isn't worth it for how little it actually changes. I guess that's another issue I have with CoC based mods these days. You mod them so much sometimes spending hours downloading, reading up on, and solving file conflicts only for ultimately minor changes. Other games with mods usually change alot more. Skyrim mods for instance can add entire massive new areas regularly with dozens of hours of both radiant and scripted quests. I get that Stalker and the X Ray engine are totally different beasts that are much harder to work with but to me the effort required for Anomaly modding in the end just ain't worth it. 80 GB or whatever for GAMMA to stutter like crazy, take forever to load and just have what is ultimatley only a few new things doesn't do it for me. In terms of what GAMMA does change I am not a fan really. Anomaly will likely never be good for me at least not with the current state of things. I like radiant quests but I also need scripted story, cool characters to find, and worldbuilding. Since I played vanilla many times all that was already done there so Anomaly and it's derivatives feel like an empty shell to me. Hope that answers it sorry for errors. On my phone and running on a few hours sleep.

@BrokenCircle1 I actually agree because I recently installed GAMMA and I noticed that the load times are super long and my PC is pretty powerful also I feel as though it doubles down on what anomaly does but barely fixes what it does. I downloaded gamma and anomaly because I just finished the original trilogy and wanted more stalker content but felt underwhelmed with what it offered. I hope stalker 2 isn't like what anomaly and gamma are. Plus, you're all good King, get some rest 👑

Yeah Stalker tends to suffer from that. The vanilla games always left me wanting more. I would recommend True Stalker mod. Better visuals, animations, and a whole new story. It's shortish but it is very very good and actually builds on Stalker rather than changing everything in favor of hardcore difficulty. Really enjoyed playing that mod. Lost Alpha while not perfect also ain't a bad mod. It adds in loads of content that was cut from the original and redoes most of the game world (for the better imo)@@slacker4486

@BrokenCircle1 Thank you for the recommendations. I'll go check those out.

@@BrokenCircle1 GAMMA is vastly different to anomaly though? it's way more difficult, and tries to be a bit more grounded. the economy, combat, healing, and crafting systems are all totally different.

Thanks for the support! I appreciate you.

I disagree. I play heavily modded Anomaly, so sorry if you mean something like GAMMA, b Armor can still be repaired after it gets below 75, and most armors can take quite a few shots

I disagree. I play heavily modded Anomaly on max difficulties, so sorry, if you mean something like GAMMA, you could be right. Armor can still be repaired after it gets below 75, either using armor kits + parts or just armor kits. If it gets past 50, it's probably not worth it to fix it, but if your armor is below 50 durability, you have other problems. Most armors can also take quite a few shots/mutant bites before even going below 90. I do agree that NPCs spotting you across the map and shooting perfectly through foliage is a bit BS, but there are workarounds, such as going out at night with NVGs or installing separate mods which fix this. In my experience, the longer you play the less of a problem this becomes. Also, bandages are cheap and NPCs carry them often, lately I found myself not even having to buy any myself. I understand that this isn't a game for everybody but I don't believe the specific criticism you provided to be valid. It is clear to me you haven't played this game for very long. And believe me, when it comes to Misery elements, Anomaly is by FAR not the worst violator.

Fair enough. Thanks for watching

there is a lore reason in the game, i don’t like it from a gameplay perspective but it is explained

@@fuglaa4766 yeah there's a loading screen message that says "something something gun control" but like, bullshit lol. There's also just like, the fact that apparently, you're the only one in the Zone who repairs their weapons. i'm in the Cordon still and i've looted some guns, fixed them up to like 100%, most of their components are good condition, but nobody else does this. Nobody in the military, nobody in the various raiders and other stalkers, despite stores only friggin selling gun repair supplies, nobody else uses them.

@@fuglaa4766 idk where else to put this, nobody i know plays this game lol but here, pro tip: in the cordon you can get one or two missions from Wolf to go kill mutants, easy enough, but if you're low on ammo, just sleep, the storm will kill the mutants, completing the quest, and you get like 5-10k out of it

@@Westonator5000 disable the mod for the black market thing, and use Configurable Loot Condition for the terrible condition and ammo

It didn't fix everything. Repairing was still a pain and there was alot of walking simulator gameplay. Also for some reason when I looked at the ground the games framerate would get cut in half. Occasionaly crashed too.

@@BrokenCircle1 I'm sorry but I really dont get the criticism :( if it is so bad - maybe just play another game. And first and foremost, accept that there are people out there who enjoy this kind of gameplay. Not everything needs to be a dumbed down version of call of duty were you have one item for healing, one for repair and one ammo type to collect to mow through hordes of enemies while doing fetch quests to bridge the time between cutscenes.

You talk about it again as if vanilla Stalker was dumbed down like CoD. It isn't. People can enjoy what they want but drastically changing the base game then acting as if it's the best/definitive way to play Stalker just isn't right. @@Deathoutofhell

@@BrokenCircle1 let me give another comparison ... lets say we are not talking about a videogame but about your grandmothers famous applepie. In that case, her recipe is the best! Everyone who ever tasted it, applauded its taste, the sweetness and the fluffy crust. But after a local news reporter once wrote about your grandma and her cake and published the recipe, everyone in the town started baking it. And other people made adjustments to their taste and their liking. And nowadays there is a version that has pears in it as well and there is an adaptation from a pie to a tart. People enjoy it so much and put the apples of the region to such good use. Now you come along and say ''I hate the apple tart'' and people discuss that statement and you end up defending your opinion with the reasoning ''that it is not your grandmas original apple pie.'' Its 100% okay if you prefer the tart over the pie. But dont go arount talking shit about people because they like tarts or pears or otherwise disagree with you . And for all its worth, ask your grandmother how she thinks about this.

Lol all good to each their own.

I agree entirely. Sadly we live in an age where it seems like people want to insert themselves into any franchise, not learn the backstory, not respect it's legacy, and demand it change for them for some reason. This is half the reason why every game that comes out these days all feel generic and the same.

honestly just seems like you doing what the youtubers are doing except your shitting on things people have made only because its not the original trilogy, I haven't played the original trilogy because I cant afford to buy games but I don't shit on em and you cant expect every single person to play games for story (although I kind of think its dumb not doing so) and that's just knit picking the example's of people who cant appreciate story. there are plenty of people who have caught up on stalker lore but just don't play the originals, all to their own ig.

What did you dislike about Anomaly?

5:06 this is simply false, unless there is a hidden mutant I'm not aware of all I've seen cannot correct their trayectories in the slightest and they are fairly easy to dodge if you decide to. You only have to run sideways in relation to what direction they're approaching, just like in the original games. 5:15 again, it can be tweaked in the difficulty settings. Even then, I think you fail to see why the game might be designed this way. At the start any mutant is a threat the same way any bullet is. You need to pay a lot of attention and pick quests and routes carefully. As you get better gear everything becomes easier and you only find the challenge in the harder areas, but even then, eventually the end game gear is strong enough to make you very hard to kill unless you're making the settings and the game harder. So again, the difficulty is there for a reason and you have tons of tools to deal with it such as being more careful, avoiding fights, getting companions, picking safer routes to travel, picking easier quests, improving your gear, etc. Still if you dislike it, the settings are there for you to use. 5:32 the hardcore economy gives you incentives to use the crafting and repair system. It doesn't force you to do it. 5:33 Toolkits and upgrades aren't laying around in random abandoned buildings. They're found in stashes, the ones stalkers use to hide their loot and gear, as it is mentioned and reinforced through the games lots of times (including this one), stashes are set by stalkers to hide or keep useful things so they can be stored and safe. I hope you can understand why saying that they are just laying around in random buildings is a misleading argument. 6:10 if an AK would operate with the same degree of durability as in the real world then I think we could scrap the whole durability mechanic from the game. In fact, you could say the same about all the guns. Yes, they degrade fast but otherwise what would be the point of mainteance? And besides that, you have to put hundreds of rounds through and in-game firearm to get to the point where you might have to change a barrel. Doing that would imply getting a barrel in better condition and using a workbench and a tool kit to replace a scratched barrel when you could potentially just clean it. So yeah, it is stupid, its stupid to do in-game too. You have several flavous of gun oils and mainteance kits that are use to keep your gun components healthy. The only case where you would need to replace a component is when you find a trashed gun and have lots of parts to repair it. But afterwards, just using all those repair items that are two-click appliances is easier, cheaper and what the game is going for. 6:36 if you are gonna complain about smoking reducing radiation why don't you complain about how you heal radiation by drinking vodka in the original games and that is enforced? 6:56 Like you said, this is a feature from the original Stalker games. I don't think its fair to criticize it here, you are talking about why you don't like anomaly so shouldn't you stick to anomaly and what's unique about it rather than what it shares with the original games? 8:44 I really hate to say it but, I really think that you're either not great at the game or actively hindering yourself with the settings. The game has tons of guns and if you like the gameplay and doing quests you'll get supplies and money to use whatever you like. The game is restrictive at first and saving for your first guns is hard, but once you have better gear is a snowball from there, because quests that were easy are still available and they still pay well, you will earn money faster by taking on more jobs with more gear and carry capacity and you can absolutly afford everything in the game without grinding for too many hours. Because an expensive rifle might cost you 30K, that around what you will earn by doing the basic "clear the mutants" quests that pay for almost 10K and sometimes involve shooting a pair of dogs. Sure, you'll have to pay for other expenses in the meantime so maybe you won't get your rifle after the third quest, but you can take more quests on top of those that are near the route and increase the income, the better you plan the faster you'll get what you want. 9:26 Or you could just buy them, again, this game doesn't force you to craft. You can buy any item at a trader. 9:34 you're out of luck? You search for them and keep playing. 9:36 And on top of that, you don't have to play for a bench once you've given the technician three kits. Once again, to use a bench that you don't need to use to progress because the game doesn't force you to craft or use it to repair guns that you can buy for a bit more of cash that would be the equivalent of taking one-to-three more quests. And you're gonna find toolkits in stashes eventually so you only have to play to use the workbench until that point, if you wanted to. These are the main missinformation snips that I find with the video and I hope it serves people who don't know about anomaly to get a more clear picture because you didn't mention a lot of details about the things you dislike. Many of the elements you criticize are things that either have ways around them, can be tweaked in the base settings or straight up are systems working as intended that you simply seem to dislike. That's my whole problem with your video honestly, you just seem to dislike Anomaly and that is perfectly fine. But there is a difference between a game being badly made and designed and you not liking what the game is. I don't like gardening games because I find them repetitive, boring and uneventful, but that is because I do not like the genre, not because the games are badly made. I don't know if your original intention with this video was to simply state that you do not like Anomaly because of the type of game it is, but as a viewer, it seems to have gone in the directly of you trying to convince us all that this is a poorly made game while providing incomplete or misguised reasons alongside other statements to which me or anyone could reply "well, that sounds good to me" I don't know if you're angry over this mod because of the people who arrived into Stalker without playing the original games thinking this is what the series is about, if so I can understand you but this isn't the solution to that problem. Anomaly is a great mod and a super flexible game to modify for many us of who love the original games and its world. I loved the story of the base games but always hated that I couldn't just live in the zone like a smaller stalker, like one of those side characters with their own adventures behind them. Anomaly made it possible and without it I don't know where this saga would be in popular culture at the moment but I honestly don't wanna know. The original games and its focus will always be there and more people are getting into it thanks to Anomaly, even if others prefer a modified and uncompleted version of what Stalker is. At the end of the day, I feel great for this game's existence allowing me to further get into the zone, I'm glad I helped many players discovers the series and I'm also happy for those who just like to use it as a radioactive milsim because I fail to comprehend how that is hurting me or anyone and I'm not against people having fun with things in the way that they want, specially if its not my saga. Good evening and have a nice day.

Wow thats crazy

They won't because no popular youtuber told them to.

OP-2.2 💀

@@thosemerc3113 OP2 is a different kind of hard. NLC7 will test your skills and your intelligence, OP2 will test your patience and sanity 😅

Yeah its a pretty crap mod imo. Really don't see why so many people like it.

Fair enough. Thanks for watching.

I love Misery, but Anomaly has nothing of the Misery feeling other than all of the thoughtlessly ported items. On Misery you could just buy a gun, fully upgrade it and it would pay for itself in one day of game time. In Anomaly, you need a dozen repair kits and those hard fo find upgrade kits or spend the entire GDP of Uganda to upgrade your gun, then you need to spend the GDP of Greece just to buy a reasonable ammo reserve for it as NPCs will just drop one or two most of the time (And you'll also have to wait a week of game time because trader restock is scripted and can't be accelerated). Once you have your gun, you now spend half of your time just walking around because most maps are deserted of things you can use it against, unless you go to Limansk/Red Forest.

Why not look it up and do your own research? I know nothing about it and at the moment I'm kinda tied down with work stuff so won't have time.

@@BrokenCircle1 I mean I tried but I just wanted a second opinion because I don't get why it's not popular

@@gmodiscool14 Well alot of Eastern projects kinda go unnoticed due to regional issues with translation and just different places on the internet.

I wish Dr X never passed away. For obvious reasons plus so he could have keept working on CoTZ.

Please dont, there is dozens of better mods to start your modding journey, popular mod doesnt equal good mod (its the opposite usually) Many mods are much more polished with better stories, sidequests, mechanics that arent confusing and locked behind RNG walls etc. Anomaly just isnt a good start

don't. like the other commenter said popular doesnt equal good and this goes especially for stalker lost alpha? only good part about it for the entire 10 years of it being out and getting updates has been the maps true stalker? overrated and overhyped slop that really doesnt feel much like the trilogy anomaly? a bad port of a bad mod based on a bad mod based on two meh mods ported to a bad engine

Thank you for having common sense. First off I reccomend you play vanilla. Shadow of Chernobyl id your best bet there. Clunky but the truest Stalker experience you'll find. Clear Sky is skippable but good if you want all the backstory. Call of Pripyat I highly reccomend. Beyond that the True Stalker mod is fantastic though you might feel a bit lost if you know nothing about the original games. Nonetheless it is very polished and well put together. I did a video on that very recently check it out. Also there is Lost Alpha which is very mixed. Alot of cool things there but alot of not so good things as well (too much walking simulator stuff) but I still reccomend it. Also did a video on that about a year ago.

gamma

play the entire trilogy vanilla (yes including clear sky its honestly second best in the trilogy next to SoC) after that i suggest going through some story mods like incubator, oblivion lost remake, and FOTOGRAF and maybe try to get into soup mods like narodnaya solyanka 2016, stalkersoup, and op2.2

the Gunslinger mod for CoP is really good if you want better looking gun models and animations and more "realistic" (its nowhere near as hardcore as Anomaly/GAMMA) while still playing a stalker game with a decent story.

Yeah it really is too much, for me it always felt too redundant and repetitive. I guess that's all games to an extent but being someone who played vanilla, other mods, and alot of CoC before Anomaly came out I guess I have more time in it so it's like for me I'm more worn out than most. Thanks for watching.

What SoC freeplay mod? What's it called?

@@BrokenCircle1 I found it when I was browsing stalker mods in mod.db, set it for shadow of Chernobyl and look up freeplay

I never played any other stalker game btw. I did like the setting and wanna see where it goes. My entry into this genre of pseudo-russian apocalypse is actually a VR title called Into the Radius.

Fair enough. Everyone has their own tastes. Thanks for watching and taking time to comment.

Try SoC next. Clear Sky is the worst one in the series. To each their own. Thanks for watching and being civil.

@@BrokenCircle1 thanks for the advice. ill buy that one now. i dont agree with a lot of your takes but thats why i like your content. a different perspective. im definetly subbing

@@silentskillz5045 Very cool.

Thanks for watching. Well I've played it a bit. It is certainly interesting and it has loads of content. The quests can be a bit confusing at times and the translation is a little rough which is a shame because some of the quests really require you read and understand the dialogue. I don't know how to feel about the non Stalker things in the game like Deathclaws and all the bug enemies. Feels a bit too much but then again who knows. I've been playing it on and off over the last month or so. I am intrigued but overall unsure what to think.

Yeah you pretty much said it all. Anomaly and its offshoots take the good things stalker has then messes them up with fake difficulty, bloat, and grind. I hate Anomaly now and since this video haven't gone back to it. Been playing other gsmes and have been much happier as a result. Thanks for watching.

To each their own. For me in the end I've finally given up on it. It's too barebones for my liking with all the depth being in the crafting system that I hate. Been trying more OP 2. It's interesting to say the least.

@@BrokenCircle1 I understand, I do agree with the crafting system and the feeling of spending way too much time on getting mods to run properly that you also mentioned in the video. It is also why I don't have the energy to play Anomaly today

Yeah believe me I do get that. I've honestly given up on anomaly (see pinned comment if you really wanna read a rant lol) Thanks for watching! @@monolith4653

True you can grind but that's where it leads me to believe it is poorly designed. Awful crafting system and grinding being the only choices of gameplay seems pretty crap to me.

@@BrokenCircle1 btw, GAMNA has solution for crafting system, but it feels like instead of patching up the wound they decided to break up a leg.

@@belzebubukas How do I know you're talking about the Aug without even checking the video? Yeah I mean to each their own. Fair enough. Thanks for watching.

Sure, check out Old world addon.

@@IW3Xbut that makes it look like shit 😂

​@@RogueBeatsARG That's what it looks like after you "UnTarkov" it, i guess. Infact vanilla Anomaly never felt like tarkov.

@@IW3X I mean delete the stuff that makes Anomaly Tedious and shit, i Remember playing Call of Chernobyl with mods and was better experience... The thing its Anomaly its using Improved XRay engine so it hass juicy shaders mods

​@@RogueBeatsARGI play Tarkov and Anomaly and I can safely say that most of this hardcore bs isnt Tarkov-related. Its just some misery bullshit that has been scaled to 100 for no logical reason. Still doesnt have that soul the trilogy had though.

Thanks for this comment. Yeah I agree with pretty much all of this. I think.I heard about the Wish Granter ending. Alot of people say that Anomaly is so stable and less buggy than other Stalker mods but from what I can see that isn't entirely true and where it is true its only true because it has so many fun things like actual scripted quests stripped from it. It's really barebones. Honestly Anomaly and alot of the people that play it I hate to say made me start to hate Stalker which is stupid I know but other than playing Lost Alpha a bit once in a while I think i'm on a break from the franchise. One last thing I have to say about Anomaly is that before it the Stalker community was nice, most people got along, disagreements were civil, you didn't have all these weird manbaby types screeching 'skill issue' or vigorously defending things like you do now. I'm all for civil discourse and disagreements but this comments section is absurd. People claiming I have no right to an opinion about the mod, telling me to delete this video, or saying I lack skill because I criticize certsin gameplay elements I mean...none of this is stuff I saw in the stalker community years ago. I fear thst Anomalys more mainstream appeal has brought with it some of the worst types of people. I always say it like this: I love the game Spore. Many people do not. Many say it is a dumbed down shallow childish game that is just boring. I disagree but I can see where they are coming from and if people hate the game I love then so be it, it's ok. I'm not gonna bully them for it. I just accept it. Stalkers community used to be like that but in recent years I don't know. It's become and I hate this overused word but its become toxic. Sorry for the rant. Been having a rough time lately. Had a bat get in my house last night somehow which freaked me out. Anyways thanks for watching.

ngl, I noticed a shift in the community's attitude around the point when EFP started to get popular, then it got infinitely worse with the release & popularization of GAMMA. One of the reasons I won't play GAMMA is that I don't want to deal with GAMMA's rabid fanbase (the other is that it just doesn't look fun)

Yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed that. Much of the GAMMA fandom is extremely toxic. @@ZetaByt

Yeah I literally just turned the game off right now before seeing this comment. I've actually never fully beaten Anomaly's main quest (come close two or three times but could never bring myself to finish it) The whole thing feels very unfinished and inconsequential. The Sin storyline is interesting but they ultimately boil down to just another generic cult. The fight with Eidolon feels like just another generic enemy, ISG feels like more mercenaries and there really isn't much story development the monolith are back but OK how? Story aside constantly having to stop to repair gear is infuriating. Also it seems like the more you get into the main quest the more of a walking simulator it becomes. It suffers from alot of the same problems of CoC after a while in that once you get past the grind or remove it with addons there isn't much to do from a gameplay perspective. Like I said the story is mid tier at best and it just gets to the point where stashes, quest rewards, and new items no longer matter and just feels like you're playing a walking simulator with little substance. Since you mentioned soup mods I've recently delved into OP 2.2 a bit and while there are certainly things I dislike about it one thing I have to say is that mod is dripping with unique dialogue, quests, and bits of lore that we just don't see in Anomaly. Also it's a bit more simple and oddly feels closer to classic Stalker than Anomaly. That's my rant for the day. Sorry it was so long. Good hunting Stalker.

Hehehehehehe

Yeah that one made a few people mad but f#ck em. Thanks for watching and thanks for the kind words.

Artificial difficulty does not equal more game its just tedious but that's my view.

To each their own.

Why did you make a new one?

@@BrokenCircle1 I had two gmail accounts I delete one of them because I want one account the old one was Connected to my youtube and it delete my KZfaq

Ah I see.@@Pinky1925-ze2jn

There is no ping in single player games. And it runs fine on my 7 year old PC. You either downloaded some garbage version or your mods put a massive strain on your system.

I agree completely. True Stalker was fantastic. I reviewed that ahlbout two or three weeks ago.

I played Misery for years and loved just wandering the Zone with no real objective other than I felt like doing that day, kill pseudogiants with only a knife?, go buy one from Owl and head out, clear all of Pripyat out of Monolithians?, just made sure to had enough rounds for the whole thing. Freeplay is FUN, but not when you need to be the Zone's delivery boy to make any real money and bullets are so ridiculously hard to get. In my experience the mod feels like a reverse Misery, where combat is actually easy but the economy makes Argentina look like Switzerland, and pretty much every derivative mod I've looked at just turns the whole thing into Tarkov at home.

@@tanostrelok2323 Yes. This is accurate.

@@tanostrelok2323 Is Misery freeplay? I never played it. I've played alot of Misery derived mods but never the original.

@@BrokenCircle1 Misery doesn't change a single mission of the original COP story, you're given the option of entering freeplay after you evacuated the military, just like the original. And in my opinion, that's where the real fun of the mod began. If you have made it to the point where you can clear vanilla COP in Master with nothing but your starting equipment (With the exception of the SEVA for the underground pass) I highly recommend that you try it out, it is indeed a lot harder but barring the psi mutant hiccup it isn't really unbalanced in terms of combat.

Thank you for that. Glad somebody else sees it. Yeah the mod has no substance really. Just grind, hardcore, repeat.

But I don't sadly. Honestly I'm done with the mod for good.

@@BrokenCircle1 i noticed when replaying it last night because of this video that anomaly placements were super cruel, walked next to a jeep and died because there was an electric one on the other side

@@TSK_Silver I know EXACTLY which one you're talkong about.

Clear Sky is the worst of the original games though. Not really a model to follow when making the most popular Stalker mod.

I've only noticed an issue with laser accurate NPCs in CoP. Was night time, I was about 100m away from the NPCs, they somehow spot me, and hit plenty of shots until I manage to sprint another 100m away to cover.

Yup. This one made them real mad. Bad part is generally the die hard Anomaly people are the absolute WORST of the Stalker community. I remember a time before Anomaly when the Stalker community was alot more civil, had common sense, and wasn't composed of terminally online losers.

@@BrokenCircle1 same stuff with LOTS of titles these days. PUBG/Fortnite generation has zero idea about essentials of a truly great game design, yet behave like some of the most entitled SOBs in existence 😁 As the well-known saying goes: "What makes any game good? Well - being able to F'N PLAY IT!". "Anomaly" is definitely not something that allows you to play at a natural pace without constantly looking into guides, which is why it suсks by definition 🤷🏻‍♂️

Nah I quit Anomaly for good and play other games now. Have been much happier. Playing Morrowind lately. Anomaly to me just feels like it doesn't have any substance to it. Like Morrowind has challenges and BS but not too much to the point of being tedious. Exploration feels rewarding with new characters and scripted quests which is huge. Even with Anomalys mods I jist can't enjoy it. I do wish there was a stalker type mod that stuck to the games feel with more quests and the like but oh well. Mayne the Chernobylite DLC will finally launch (it keeps getting delayed)

@@BrokenCircle1 I understand, it's not for everyone. At any rate, I'm glad you found what you like and are having fun!

If I recall correctly, enemies in vanilla actually have the opposite issue, which is that they won't fire at all when the player is hiding behind or inside most big foliage like bushes or reeds. Not entirely sure how it works, but I'd imagine there's probably some sort of visibility blocker that makes them lose track of where you're at while the bush is blocking their view. This isn't an issue with STALKER or the mods around it, but is just a common problem in most FPS games that have heavy foliage (example: the first Far Cry) But yeah, I infinitely prefer the vanilla style of "enemy won't shoot while vision is blocked" over the enemies just knowing where I'm at because they're psychic and hitting me with 100% accuracy. Shit like that is why the Red Forest & Great Swamp are such a royal pain in the ass in Anomaly.

@@ZetaByt honestly, I think that enemies should be able to see you through bushes, but suffer a percentage based accuracy penalty depending on how much visual obstruction an obstacle would cause. I think this would be an interesting way to even the odds.

Well thanks for watching. Sorry it took me so long to respond to your comment I've been really busy at work and all and wanted to give the proper time to sit and read it. I get what you mean about the making your own story stuff. For me I used to do that alot on CoC back in the day. I liked it but much like Anomaly I found it lacked any real depth but at least it felt freer if that makes sense. Also the misery devs response to why things are so broken is beyond stupid lol. I've seen glocks put in ovens, dropped from buildings, and run over by trucks and they still work better than the crap in Anomaly so that's invalid lol. I get it it's a game but man I don't know. I just really with CoC had been continued and had an upgraded engine. It was so much more true to the original games gameplay wise. Anomaly is just icky to me. Even after I tweaked the settings and spent countless hours trying to mod it. I never liked GAMMA not one bit, granted part of that was due to the massive stutters I'd get on my rig that even after following the stutter fix guides persisted. Even looking past that I found it made alot of the base Anomaly issues worse. I don't know. In a weird way after all this time I still almost want to go back and try it again for some dumb reason even though I've been trying since 2018 and never liked it. Maybe one of these days I'll mess around with CoC again. It crashed alot but it was still good. Thanks for watching.

Yeah that too.

Wow thats crazy.

@@BrokenCircle1 Hahaha which part?

It's not a matter of knowing how. I know how I just didn't like it.

No I did not.

@@BrokenCircle1 same tbh

You seem to be assuming I'm ignorant to alot of what goes into this when that isn't the case. I understand the engine is old, I know what goes into making the game work how it does. I guess part of my problem is just that. Sometimes I think it's better when games sort of 'stay in their lane'. Vanilla Stalker isn't realistic in the slightest and trying to make things realistic in the X-Ray engine is as you pointed out quite difficult near in some cases impossible so why not just accept that it is what it is rather than going to an awkward midpoint somewhere between realistic and absurd? I never liked the balancing of that. While I can see how some people don't mind this to each their own saying that some things I said are wrong is just condescending and egotistical. My opinions are just that opinions. I always use this example for things like this: I love the game Spore. I think it is one of the best games of all time. Many people do not like Spore. They say it is too dumbed down, childish, and basic. I disagree with them and still love the game but I don't get mad when they tell me my silly space game sucks. I can see why they think that way and that's all this is. I dislike Anomaly not because of a lack of understanding or skill but because I simply dislike the way it's put together. It isn't proper Stalker and has been built in such a way it is something completely different that doesn't follow the gameplay conventions established by the official games. That's my problem with it. In my view mods should enhance what already is in a game, not completely change it into something it is not. This is why I generally don't like overhaul mods. But that's that.

@@BrokenCircle1firstly, I don't think the developer was mad in any way. secondly, I think it's really important to remember that anomaly is not trying to be like stalker on a gameplay level. it's unfair to try and compare it to the base games because it's really oranges to apples. thirdly, for your view that mods should stay in line with the games they stem from, I completely disagree, and it kind of baffles me that you have that opinion. mods that enhance the base game are great, don't get me wrong, but thinking modders should not be making overhaul mods? why? I'd genuinely like to know your reasoning

@genericname6064 I don't think they shouldn't be making them I think they should make what they want. I personally however just don't see the point. A mod alot of people wanted me to play for Halo 3 was the Star Wars mod...I did eventually try it and I guess in concept it was cool but in the long run if I really wanted to play Star Wars BF2 I'd just go play it. I just sometimes like simplicity and a certain focus on things. That's just me. It's cool if you like overhaul though of course everyone has different tastes.

@@BrokenCircle1 well yea, BF2 exists which does kinda null the existence of that halo mod, but there really isn't anything like anomaly/GAMMA. since you dislike anomaly, I can see where you're coming from, but anomaly definitely does have a point of existing.

@genericname6064 Oh, for sure it does I never said it didn't. I just don't see why it's so popular is all.

I can say for a fact that I have definitely seen Blind Dogs, Pseudodogs, and Cats all wind up a lunge attack while running, then home in on the player at the last second. Believe it's a holdover from the vanilla series because dogs in vanilla do this all the time, and sometimes it looks like they attack first then change trajectory mid-air, and my guess is that this is what he is possibly seeing. Will say though, Anomaly definitely nerfed/rebalanced the Chimera's leap attack. Chimeras in vanilla CoP *loved* to home in on the player during a leap which made the Chimera Dance borderline impossible to do in vanilla CoP, but iirc they didn't do nearly as much damage as the ones in Anomaly.