Black Bart Charley said:
There were those hills with insane rad levels. Got some artifacts to cover for it and went in to see if there is anything worthwhile there. Nothing...
It's not game's fault you failed to find very rare (not spawning in any standard anomalies) artefact giving 30% burn protection with no side effects.
Icewater said:
Yeah I agree on most points. CoP is much more polished than SoC which is of course a good thing, but it's just not challenging enough. You even start the game off with a Stalker suit and an AK, and it just gets progressively easier from there.
I generally like SoC the most, despite it being an obvious beta - it's the most atmospheric STALKER and the only one with no broken aiming with some weapons. It also has the most interesting artefacts with varying side effects rather than just radiashun.
CS is mostly shit, buggier than even unpatched SoC and literally falls apart near the end. Good things are overall difficulty, Red Forest, best economy in the series and hardcore anomaly fields. Aiming with most shotguns, underbarrel GLs and pistols broken.
CoP is the most polished STALKER, but not as atmospheric as SoC. There is too much high level gear, no scattered anomalies to carelessly walk into, weak-ass anomalies and no dungeons. Pripyat has delightful atmosphere of desolation, but it features too many unreachable locations. Aiming with SPAS and underbarrel GLs still broken. Very good game overall, with many mechanical improvements, and a lot of new content but it could use some more atmosphere.
There isn't much of a use for pistols at all, especially in CoP where you start with a damn assault rifle. In real life of course pistols are useful because they're easily concealable and store able but the only series I've played that really models this is Hitman. In most games, STALKER included, either concealing weapons is useless or even sniper rifles and rocket launchers magically disappear into your pocket when you hit the "put weapon away" key.
Pistols are niche weapon, but they do have a point, especially in SoC. They usually have very high handling and low inertia, which means they can be aimed rapidly and accurately in any direction. Shit damage, accuracy, range and penetration makes them less useful against humans, but against most mutants they are almost as good as shotguns and MP5, especially in close quarters (most mutants are quadrupeds so their heads are usually the first thing you hit). Popping a snork suddenly jumping at you from behind in mid-jump, with a single bullet from P99 is just delightful, so is killing off a pack of three snorks in DV with three bullets from Sig Sauer.
In CoP, despite (artificial) boost in firepower pistols are much less useful due to less CQBs and ability to carry two readied long weapons. Still, you can modify some pistols for burst or full auto, they are light, and can be used with detector.
