izigame.me

First, yes, you absolutely SHOULD play this game. If you're reading this here right now then that means you're obviously curious about it. I'll save you the mulling over it being old and eurojank. This game is absolutely worth your time, it is a PHENOMENAL experience and it still plays very well after all those years (even on vanilla). I bought this game because my friend recommended it to me in high school (a full decade ago lol) and it exceeded every expectation I had for it.

Now, for a warning. This has to do with the end of the game but I will try my best to explain this with little/no spoilers for anything plot related, because I really, REALLY wish I had know this before I played the game:

the last two/three levels of this game are an awful experience. They are unfairly difficult in a way that is not possible to predict and prepare for without knowing ahead of time what you are getting into. I won't go into the context of what's happening or where it is happening, but suffice to say you're fighting an ASSLOAD of enemies that can easily one shot you in a setting that will kill you just by standing in it to long. It is INSANELY EASY TO SOFTLOCK yourself into not being able to complete the game (happened to me TWICE meaning I had to redo about 8 hours of the game for BS reasons). Here's what you need to avoid that:

- you need a powerful weapon with a LOT of ammo. These enemies will gut you as soon as they turn their attention on you; the best option is to take them out BEFORE they have the opportunity to fight back. That means precision head-shots with a quality weapon (mid-tier assault rifles aint gonna cut it, I'm afraid).
- You need VERY good armor. Like I said before, the enemies hit harder than a dump truck here. If you want to stand even the most remote of chances, you need some strong armor. More importantly though you need armor (and artifacts as well) that have good stats against radiation, which brings us to the last suggestion....
- you need a metric FUCKTON of anti-rad kits and medkits. This is non-negotiable. The radiation in the final area of the game is SO ridiculously extreme that it is, by far, your biggest enemy, and by far the single biggest culprit in the game for softlocking people out of completing it. Even after killing/escaping every hostile enemy in the final area, the radiation will continue to get worse and worse and if you do NOT have the right equipment to fight it literally all the way up to the final cutscene, there is a very real risk you will soft lock yourself literally FEET AWAY FROM TRIGGERING THE END. It is BEYOND frustrating. Make sure, for god's sake, that you take the radiation threat seriously at the end of the game. Up to that point, radiation has been at worst a moderate threat in game, which luls you into a false sense of security and might make you not collect enough anti-rad artifacts and equipment throughout. This is a MASSIVE MISTAKE to make. You absolutely need them for the final area, you will NOT SURVIVE if you do not prepare for this.

There, that's all you need to know to keep yourself from soft-locking yourself out of the end of the game. So long as you heed my advice and keep these points in mind for the end of the game, you should be golden. It's such a shame that the game ends on such a bullshit and unfair note like that, because evreything leading up to it is truly remarkable. But nevertheless, even with the terrible last few hours of the game, the vast majority of the game is incredible and definitely worth your time. Pick it up whenever you can, and good hunting, Stalker.