I'm writing this post as a huge fan of the game and want everyone to experience the experiences I had while playing this so called old broken sandbox, in eyes of many. One thing which is true is that this game is complicated if you haven't played the three canon games from the series that are Shadow of chernobyl, Clear sky and Call of pripyat, as different game mechanics and lore was introduced in all of them.
The original S. T. A. L. K. E. R games series was released during 2007-2012, and was developed by GSC game studios situated at kyiv and one of the game developers named Volodymyr Yezhov was killed in action while fighting the war for Ukraine. Exploring around various area ingame (as it was based on real life places at Ukraine), I can only imagine to feel the destruction created by the war as close as possible in real life through my screen. I only hope and pray that this war ends soon.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R stands for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers. The game set the standard for atmospheric horror fps at its time. It's vibe can be felt on modern day games like PUBG and especially Escape from tarkov. When you enter the game you are one of the S. T. A. L. K. E. R's entering the zone which was created after the second explosion that took place in this fictional setting at Chernobyl power plant after the first incident during 1986, to scavenge for rare artifacts and scientific knowledge surrounding the zone. You are none of that chosen one or special hero in any way like most of modern tittles makes you to be. You are just another piece of meat who is trying to live his day to day life scavenging and hunting for artifacts for money and better equipments and everyday you survive you become more equipped to face any challenges from the zone.
The game is beautifully immersive with weather systems, day and night cycles and realistic gunplay and sound design, also every interactions you have with different NPC's is dynamic in nature. Meaning your actions will have a deep impact on your progression through different levels of the game. eg, if you choose to become a monolith faction member in the start page of Anomaly. Every other faction in game will try to kill you because according to the lore of the series, monolith members are brain washed psychos who are controlled by the zone to protect itself from any outside factors.
You can't just gun down everything in your way. The game have complex economy and progression system to make you utilize your big brains to tackle engagements, fight mutants and manage inventory while surviving the radiation and drinking a lot of vodka to cure it, most of the times when the situation is not in your favour (as you will likely die a lot) it is very much advisable to back down and come back well prepared with enough fire power and medicine.
I kid you not when I tell you that this game taught me to be persistent in life and to not give up untill the job is done no matter how hard things become in my way, there is always a trick to deal with the problems one can have in life, you just need to be patient enough.
The game is available on moddb for free and you guys can type STALKER Anomaly on google to search for the moddb.com page and follow the install instructions. This game is the result of years of dedication from various modders and community that was built around the game. This game also supports a lot of modding opportunity to customise your own unique experience.
Suggested mods:
Food and drugs animation
JSSR Sound Mod
Boomsticks and Sharpsticks
HD models and textures
Sorting plus
For any questions regarding the game feel free to comment below.