Ok so this probably won’t be interesting enough for a lot of you but i’ll still make this post.
I’m on my 50th-60th fresh start in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. G.A.M.M.A. and i’m still enjoying it, even though i completed the game maybe 5 times.
I haven’t played for about 6 months and what got me back in AGAIN was a mod pack by CLICKR∆D called ROMEO and it’s pretty straightforward install, download is a bit tedious because the mod pack is 30gb and it makes this 20+ year old game look and play so damn good.
Now during the 6 months hiatus i played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 because 2.0 came out and it was bland at best, the graphics were great but the gameplay was boring i just wasn’t enjoying it and i even tried installing some mods hoping it would make it better for me and it being done in Unreal Engine makes modding pretty limiting.
I gave up and played Palworld, Aliens Dark Descent and some other non FPS games and now after coming back to G.A.M.M.A. and having 800+ mods changing the game to something totally different i have to say again that it’s absolutely amazing.
There are plenty of YT guides that explain some of the finer details.
And it’s completely free.
As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the first STALKER game back when it released in all its buggy glory, but haven’t really kept up with the series afterwards:
Has there ever been a working co-op mod for any of the games? The idea of venturing into the Zone with a friend seems enticing. I get the loneliness and the despair were an important part of the atmosphere, but it also feels like it would - in co-op - be a much more meaningful bonding experience than the usual 4-player co-op experiences that exist nowadays.
They recently released a coop for anomaly (a standalone mod) but i havent try it yet… having the game working on coop was a big thing for a very long time