TL;DR on the bottom

This game is a personal exercise in a sunk cost fallacy that i cannot in good conscience recommend to anyone. Allow me to elaborate.


I'll admit, i'm a huge fan of whatever is STALKER. I've always been a huge fan of the franchise and its modding scene. You've likely heard of it by now, as it's become hugely popular. So imagine how the concept of a STALKER MMO would resonate with fans of the franchise, it's a no-brainer to at the very least give a shot.

Upon starting Stalcraft, you get the option to pick either the bandit or the stalker side. There's actually a pretty big difference between the two (or rather, four, but we'll get to that later), but early on, it doesnt change much aside from two factors. There's more players on the stalker side, and the faction 'home base' is in two different locations. Even from the get-go, it's a turf war over resources you need to acquire and your quest locations will overlap, meaning that you will run into opponents and there's no avoiding it. At the very least i find that the devs deserve credit where credit is due, the first thing you see on the store page is an image clearly stating that the game is ruthless. Unfortunately, it's worse than that.


As soon as you leave the starting region and enter the next one, Roadside, you will be met with your first experience on 'gear disparity'. This game does truly function like an MMO in the sense that gear progression is linear and is a step up above on what you can get. However, when you have to contend for the same resources as your opponents, this also means that this disparity in gear will mean you're rarely truly fighting on equal terms. The difference is small at first, but becomess stronger the further you get. And simultaneously, progression slows down in equal measure, meaning that the gaps become increasingly larger.

It doesn't help that progression is tied to personal progress. To elaborate, you can purchase certain items from the market (which is in most cases not recommended) and everything else is set in a tech tree. So, that rusty AK you start out with can be exchanged for a slightly less rusty AK, and that can be exchanged for a non-rusty AK, and that non-rusty AK can be exchanged for a rusty modern AK, etc. You cannot do so with money, instead, you must farm these barter resources in the open world. As i mentioned before, progression slows down immensely the further you get, meaning that you MUST farm. There is no way around it. Simultaneously, the game is full-loot, ss such, it becomes quite easy to simply fight other players and take their loot for yourself. I have no issue with this, as i've long played - and enjoyed - these kinds of games, with EVE online and Escape from Tarkov particularly hitting well over 1k hours. What does not, however, make any sense is that there's everything to gain and nothing to lose from hunting players that are farming. You do not lose your gear, as these are bound to your character, you merely lose your ammunition and meds, which are dirt cheap and widely available, but you stand to gain a lot from hunting players farming, as they do carry items of value.

The end result is that people kick the people down that are below them on the progression ladder, that kick those down below them, etc. It develops a toxic community and an overall very unpleasant experience.


What doesn't really help matters is that a huge chunk of the endgame, and lets be real, that's always where the good stuff is in an MMO, is locked behind finishing the main storyline. It is obvious that the developers have came a long way from the original vision of the game as the game gets a lot better in the newer content. Unfortunately, not only must you contend with the aformentioned issues, the storyline is set up in instances that you are alone in. This means that it's entirely PvE, which unfortunately provides no respite, as it's straight up NOT fun to play. The story is weak, the missions aren't fun (although with a few cool moments) that were cluelessly designed. So, instead, this game turns into a convoluted 'detective' style game with no narrative to keep you interested in, then sets you off to do parkour style maps when all you want to be doing is shoot stuff, it just goes on and on and it requires endurance and perseverance. The pay-off, however, is that once that is finally over and done with, you can go 'north'. Essentially, bandits and stalkers split off into two ideologically opposing factions for each side and you are now hostile with all other three factions. This part of the game is separate from the area that you went through before, and honestly, it's fun. You get to fight with others over territory and finding a clan becomes an interesting prospect. It starts off good, but it still retains all the issues i mentioned before. It gets better, but it also gets worse.

aw dangit

Money is finally interesting by this point in the game. Artifacts, a key feature of the STALKER games, make a return here too. They can be equipped and provide bonuses as well as maluses. At this point it becomes worthwhile to start working out a build and playing to your strengths. This would be cool if it wasn't already solved by those having minmaxed their builds. Though variation is possible, there are key strengths you should play to with your gear and playstyle and deviating from it isn't advised. Good artifacts are, however, ludicrously expensive, and carrying a good amount of them requires you to have a special - hard to acquire - container to carry them, lest these radioactive items instantly kill you by turning you into a literal human torch emitting gamma rays and become a walking Elephant's Foot.

At the same time, you can get access to high tier gear to finally get that gear disparity rate solved. All that time you've been trashed, stomped upon and tossed around, you finally can get to the big leagues where you have an actual fighting chance. Sure, not everyone carries the same gear, but yours isn't necessarily worse than theirs.

So, how did the developers implement this final stage of progression? Gambling. Lootboxes. Because every bloody game needs a battlepass these days, so does Stalcraft. And there you have the infamous lootbox. It drops pretty often, and oftentimes, it's just consumables, skins and trash, with a very slim chance of getting 'blueprints' you must collect a bunch of to acquire some serious armaments. And, man, you won't believe how awful your chances are here. Lady fortuna better be on your side. That in-game economy they boasted about on the store page with? It's all ludicrously expensive! But you too can become one of the lucky ones, if you just. Draw. The. Right. Item. Exchange your season pass points for a container with a random drop, maybe you'll get lucky! The actual good end-game weapons? Armor, attachments? Yes, you can trade them. And the cost is so damn high, that you cannot reasonably purchase this from other players without drawing a high value item yourself to sell in return. If you don't get a lucky draw, you're out. Don't get me started on having to level your items on top of it. And artifacts.

The TDM PvP mode, standoffs, is also tied to gear and isn't balanced as a result as there's no matchmaking. Because screw you, that's why. You don't get to partake in it.


I think it can. There are examples where the devs have proven that the game can be great, particularly the Dead Time gamemode is excellent.

Until then i will be playing still, because i refuse to give up and embrace the sunk cost fallacy. Don't become like me. Avoid this game.


It's a Russian Gacha game set in the STALKER universe. Avoid it.

was about to make a whole community based around this game, until my friends wallet was wiped 'due to RMTing'
I've gamed with this guys for YEARS, and he's able to fund almost anything he puts his mind too... but there's no money to be made in this game RMTing, there's nothing to really RMT at all... all it was is that they saw his account spend money and play with a big group of people. they nuked his account in hopes He'd buy their way back out to continue with friends. well the whole friend group just quit instead. good luck in your future with shady business practices.

If you play this game dont buy anything form the store as your in game wallet is subjected to be wiped with no ticket system or way to launch an investigation.

Promotes PVE and PVP playstyles in ads but only allows PVP. And almost all PVP interactions are sweats that couldn't sweat hard enough on CoD or Tarkov so they wound up here.

Privet, Stalker. This is Baby Stalker with Multiplayer Roblox PvP, Except its actually hard too. Progression is grinding yet rewarding and is suprizingly forgiving, play the quests it will give you what you need when you need it. When you get that next weapon or armor in a tree, your upgrades carry over so don't be afraid to get that next gun or armor. The Community is very helpful to each other aswell, ask for help or just participate in the chat and you might find yourself in a group having even more fun then you'd have playing solo. It is faithfully a Stalker-Like MMO Experience, if you like stalker you will like this.Period.

I think it is a very cool concept, but the controls, feel, and purpose of the game were quite unintuitive. Not for me.

Game has an issue with prevalent and obvious hacking (aimbot, wallhacks, recoil scripts) but the company doesn't want to ban them because they pay money.

great

its a pay to win free to play game, where each objective is hand placed right next to other player spawns, so players offten camp with top level gear and beam you befor you can do anything, if your looking at this game like a game you wanna try because its free to play? dont bother. its rigged from the start.

tip for game makers out there. dont put items that you can pay for in your games that gives you any sorta edge at all in it. just a bad look.

proof? look at there dlc. enough said.

Люля

It runs on the potato and keeps the important stuff when I die. Excellent game.