TheSTALKERfranchise started as a local hit that took Eastern Europe by storm, but the game quickly superseded its regional aspirations.
STALKERsetthe standard for Slavjankand created a whole concept of shooters that inspired popular spiritual successors such asMetroandEscape From Tarkov.
This is survival, action, horror, and moral decadence rolled into one beautiful radioactive bundle.The odds are that you will execute someone to get their loot, and someone else will return the favor and stealthat artifactyou found. The Zone is horrible, and we love it for that.
10 Best Games Like STALKER 2
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a fantastic game, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one of its kind!
Although all four games in theSTALKERfranchise are great, the devil is in the detail, and that allows us to rank these masterpieces.
4STALKER: Clear Sky
Too Much, Too Soon
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
PuttingSTALKER: Clear Skyon the last spot hurts a little, but it is only fair. The game offered a major visual upgrade relative toShadow of Chernobyland spiced up gameplay a lot, but the result never came together.
As far as looks go,STALKER:Clear Skymade a mark with surface shading, volumetric fog, and fully dynamic lighting.
The game also was the first to add emissions, which sent you scrambling for any half-baked piece of cover you could find unless you wanted a painful death.
Next to all other games in the series,STALKER: Clear Skytried the hardest to introduce new gameplay aspects, but without success.
Joining a faction meant taking part in their war for control of the Zone.You could assault checkpoints, outposts, and even bases, and the A-Life threw hostile patrols at you regularly.
The action was brilliant when it worked, but theSTALKER: Clear Skyexperience falls apart regularly due to bugs in every corner.
On top of that, the game had a love for grenadier enemies that could place a frag on your feet with half a second left on the fuze, which meant instant death every time.
3STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Brilliance In Flashes
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
STALKER 2is the most technologically advanced game in the franchise by a long shot, which might have something to do with the 15 years between that andSTALKER: Call of Pripyat.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylbeat the oddsto make itout the door, surviving a studio closure, the biggest conventional war in Europe since WW2, and a relocation from Kyiv to Prague.
The result isan inconsistent game that, at times, could easily rank first, then last ten minutes later.
The standout feature ofSTALKER 2is the game’s environment. The A-Life implementation is considerably lacking compared to previous titles, butthe sound and art design help build the Zoneas you walk through it.
STALKER 2: Best Armor, Ranked
You know that feeling when your friends are all waiting for you but you are still choosing what to wear?
Distant mutant shrieking, wind, dust, and the little leftovers of lives that are no more, be it from stalkers or animals, make you feel more lonely than in any other game.
Despite having the best combat mechanics in principle,STALKER 2suffers from confusing game design choices like thehopelessly unbalanced gunsand enemy armor loadouts.
2STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
A Buggy Atmospheric Masterpiece
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
There are two types of stalkers: those who loveSTALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, and tourists.
The very first installment in theSTALKERfranchise was the darkest in the series, thanks in large part to the work of Andrey Prokhorov, Oles Shyshkovtsov, and Aleksandr Maksimchuk, who later reached new depressive heights with theMetroseries.
The gameplay inSTALKER: Shadow of Chernobylwas abysmal even by contemporary standards, but it ended up beingso hostile to the player that it fit perfectly with the atmosphere of the game.
As the Marked One travels through the Zone, he has to deal with scarce ammunition, aggressive and abundant mutants, and enemies that refuse to die.
Thebullet spongesinSTALKER: Shadow of Chernobylwere awful, and it was almost nostalgic to see similar nonsense in someSTALKER 2enemies.
None of the gripes matter as you make it down to 100 Rads for a drink while listening to the jazzy tune playing on a loop. The bouncers are rude to you, other stalkers mind their own business, and it all comes together.
Still, for all the world-building going on the surface, the atmospheric peak ofSTALKER: Shadow of Chernobylisunderground horror. MostZone veterans still get a chill down their spine if they hear the squeak of the Agroprom rotating light.
1STALKER: Call of Pripyat
The Zone Unfiltered
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat
There are fourSTALKERtitles, but only one feels likea finished game from beginning to end.STALKER: Call of Pripyatcame out in 2009, and for a while, it seemed like it was the last we would hear from GSC Game World.
WhileClear Skybuilds onto the locations and characters ofShadow of Chernobyl,Call of Pripyattakes the player to entirely new areas, with very few links to the original story.
Rather than play a loner or a mercenary starting from zero, the game puts you in the shoes of Aleksandr Degtyarev, a Pripyat native and Major of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
You enter the Zone undercover as a stalker, donning an AK carbine and a pristine Sunrise suit, in hopes of finding out what happened to Operation Fairway.
The investigative angle completely changes the gameplay, as your focus becomes making connections and getting access rather than stacking roubles and bodies.
The improved graphics, environment, and combat are great, but what makesSTALKER: Call of Pripyatshine is how life happens with or without you.
NPCs have tasks completely independent of you, but you can tag along if you don’t interfere. Sometimes the guy taking anomaly measurements needs your help, other times he wants to be left alone.
Playing Degtyarev as an observer isa much deeper look into the life of the Zone outside of legends like Strelok, and set the tone for the conversion mods that keptSTALKERalive untilSTALKER 2came out.
STALKER: Call of Pripyatis not everyone’s favorite, but it is objectively the bestSTALKERgame.
