Stalker 2: Science

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

A monolith emitter is what I recover from the psi site and I'm tasked with lugging it across to the chemical plant where Ward has their main base. En route I stop by Zalissya to save (a handful of) them against a heavy monolith attack before completing the delivery and Dr. Dalin quickly works out that Faust is going to try use the Duga radio wall to brainscorch everyone into serving the Monolith. Not if Ward can help it!

I participate in the assault, complete with Col. K's helicopter support which goes very well until Faust shows up with his doppelgangers and activates the radio wall, causing Col. K to crash somewhere over the horizon and many Ward troops to succumb and die on the spot. I make it out alone and report in to Dr. Dalin who suggests a Professor Ozersky at the nearby STC Malachite might hold the key to overcoming Faust's powers.

The scientist asks me to do something for him first which is to reactivate the abandoned Mirror facility and connect it's systems to Malachite. This involves a trip through some zombies and their controller and then clearing radar tracks of any obstruction... which happens to be a chimera!  As the door has locked behind me at this point I'm forced to use a narrow door (cheat) to slowly whittle down the great beast until it is slain. For this Ozersky tells me of some special psi-resistant helmet hidden in an old lab, no doubt teeming with mutants.

Out of Line Forest Quartet Soulstice

A trio of games that were free from Epic.

Out of Line

This cutesy platform puzzler involves being able to throw a javelin that can come back to you, which is handy as you can stand on in to make large gaps jumpable or high ledges climbable, to use as a lever, and to jam gears as needed. It's a nice gimmick but not really an interesting one. Not recommended.

Forest Quartet

In this exploration puzzler you are a ghost in the forest who needs to activate random machines to give her band mates inspiration to continue to play. It is just so strange, especially since the generators are just so out of place and alien. Also since you're a ghost nothing can really kill you... other than the boredom of playing this game I guess. Not recommended.

Soulstice

This hack and slash game is much in the same vein as Devil May Cry, except instead of playing a cool dude with a big sword and devil powers you are a crazy knightess with a big sword and ghost powers - which come from your deceased sister who is attached to you and handles most of the defense and parrying. Ok, you're a chimera. Anyway, that means there are two main forms of currency to collect which can unlock skills for each sister as you battle your way through a pretty grim city.

The fighting is a bit repetitive unfortunately, as enemies simply pop out of portals when you reach a combat space - which is made worse when particular enemies can only be damaged if they are within a colored aura that the ghost sister can create, and there's more than one color which seems to just be arbitrarily annoying. Just like the fixed camera angles during exploration and jumping puzzles. The camera is free to move in combat so... why force it to be fixed when out of it? Still an enjoyable enough game I suppose, but there are definitely better ones out there.

Decluttering Day 6 : 4-6 pairs of women's footwear. Yeah, these are my wife's efforts but we're a team so I'm going to let it count - especially since she seems to be more into this than I am after I mentioned it to her! ;)

Dragon's Dogma: Aught to Kill You

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Deciding that it is time to confront the dragon, I return to the Dragonforged who is nice enough to tell me where to find him. He also mentions that when he tried, he lost and is now just a ghost. That does explain why only I can see him! The beasts lair is beyond the Great Wall, guarded by hell hounds, succubi harpies, and gorechimera. It is also strangely familiar in that it is the same place I dreamt of at the start of all this... only Savan and his team were the ones hunting the wyrm.

More awesome than Zhaitan.

We eventually reach it and I am surprised that the tavern keeper Inez is a prisoner here, and the dragon offers me a choice: fight him and potentially end the world, or kill Inez (who represents my love interest I guess?) and live forever... which is what the mad Duke did. Obviously I fight the dragon - and what a glorious fight it is, covering a huge distance as we run through and a top of ruins, shoot at it with ballista, ride on it's back, and ultimately face it in a big arena!

Heat seeking magic arrows are very handy in this fight, but in the end the dragon goes down due to my learning how to double jump and grab onto its chest - followed by daggering its heart ad nauseum. After a long battle, the dragon falls and I eat its soul (Dovahkiin)! Well, not really - but he is nice enough to magically return my missing heart before disintegrating. Afterwards we take Inez back to Cassardis afterwards where she shows her appreciation, by giving free drinks and snacks all around! :P

Dragon's Dogma: There's your god

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

On the road we encounter Ser Maximillian and some guards who are hurrying to the Great Wall to stop some massive Salvation invasion taking place. Since they don't know what I was up to in the last entry, we join the ranks and reach the citadel to find it already overrun by cultists, undead, harpies and armored cyclopsi. There's even a chimera upstairs! At the top of the fort we finally catch up with the leader of Salvation who throws two final liches at us but they are easily destroyed.

Even combined they weren't as tough as the bich.

He then runs to a higher vantage point and begins giving his spiel about the dragon being the god of the new age and is cut short by having the very same dragon (the heart eater), crush him unceremoniously under foot. The beast proclaims he has no love for the Salvation idiots, and renews his challenge for me to face it since I am now stronger. With that he flies off because I suppose he likes playing hard to get.

I take the time to return to Gran Soren where I am surprised to find Madeline back in town, apparently being hunted by the guards for being allied with Salvation! I'm not sure how she escaped from the goblins and while I try to help the guardsmen arrest her, they are idiots and go the wrong way. Madeline thanks me for diverting them with that very unclear quest option and asks for 20k gold to restart her shop elsewhere. Sure why not - I've got gold spilling out my ears at this point anyway.

Dragon's Dogma: Safe as China

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Back in the city we recruit the sorceress Yennefer (taking a break from adventuring with Geralt I guess?) who has an awesome lightning whip spell and are also joined by the Pawn Guild manager Barnaby on our next outing since he wants to take a more active role in ending the dragon threat. Too bad he is an idiot as demonstrated on our first outing to the Northern hill where harpies manage to keep putting him to sleep with their singing.

We save him from that and from many the big white dire wolves in the region, managing to meet an old guy called the Dragonforged who supposedly once faced the dragon too. He's not very forthcoming with information at this point but does give me some cool stuff to help in my quest. We also explore the dead woods where Sara died previously and take out a few chimeras. At the very center of it is an Abbey of nuns, because apparently that's a "safe" place? Lol.

Tell that to all the prowling chimeras!

We continue up the mountain, fighting past a clan of female bandits who become less hostile as we get closer to their mountain top fort. Once there they let us pass with no hassle into a dark marsh inhabited by a lich. He is no match for the team, but is also not as strong as the Bich on Bitterblack Isle. Eventually we reach China - because we reach a massive fortress called the Great Wall, which also is keeping monsters at bay. I wonder if Matt Damon is around?

Dragon's Dogma: Into the West

Adventures of Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Back at Cassardis, we meet the busty merchant Madeline who asks for an escort to the encampment which is easy enough. She even comes along for a short detour in clearing out lizard men from the town well. Once there she parts ways with us and I recruit Rook's replacement, a veteran warrior of infinite battles: Lily. We decide to go exploring to the West, stumbling across a friendly young witch who makes ales and less friendly foes in the form of brigands, goblins, phantoms, ogres who are "excited" by women, a chimera and even a drake!

This game makes a big deal out of hearts.

The drake is extra challenging since it charms Lily mid combat, meaning I have to fight her as well. Fortunately my magic ice sword from Bitterblack Isle deals with her effectively while skirting around the beast. Fortunately knocking her unconscious is enough to break the monster's will over her and it is over powered in a long fight. More difficult however are the phantoms, since our melee weapons go right through them.

It is up to Rose's magic to keep them at bay as the eerie cloud form ghosts (ghosts done well, better than TESO for sure!) take turns "latching" on to us to drain life force. At one point it seems the forest is filled with these bastards but with the dawning of the sun they vanish - which quite literally saves us. Anise, is clearly shaken by the experience so we head back to the encampment to rest.

America! Fuck Yeah!

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Heading North through Garbage I was jumped by a pair of pseudodogs that managed to hurt me a bit. Kept pressing forward to the Duty outpost and just as I was about to reach there all hell broke loose - I had to sprint to cover as bullets flew everywhere and in quick order the Duty guys were dying left, right and center! A large mercenary group was attacking, all armed with Colt M16s so I figure they're Americans. Bastards were trying to kill me too though so I had to put an end to all of them. Only two duty guys were left alive after the massacre, and it took me a few trips to Raven, the fat merchant at the depot, to sell all their stuff. Continued to the Bar, killing a chimera and bloodsucker duo and a (tough) pack of dogs on the way in. Once there I figured I'd do the arena circuit, easily completing the first bunch of fights but could not finish since I was "not experienced" enough to proceed. Took my winnings and picked up quests from all over, without any real intent to do any of them this time. This time I'm looking out for numero uno.

Just like Team America!

Continued the march North where I found a friendly group of Freedom dudes in a farmstead I could trade with. Also took out "Master" again at Wolf's camp - this time with a bullet to the head after selling him all my stuff (then taking it off his corpse). Seems that somewhere during the arena battles I had misplaced my knife! Oh well. Since I was nearby I decided to clear out the bloodsucker village again but without my fancy radar thing or my good guns this was a little more dangerous than usual. Fortunately the quest completed after I killed just two. Snuck into mill to collect gear and got out of there before I woke up anything else. I was told by the Duty guys (back at the Bar) that there was a good rifle held by some mercs nearby so I went hunting that - found a few of them camped out in another farm, but the main group was at a roadblock. Managed to catch them unawares and only had to fight their two sentries. The rifle was a little underwhelming though. Interesting to note these ones too all had Colts - more Americans?

Still, I took it and their gear then sold stuff at the Freedom base at the Warehouses before proceeding to the barrier again, hearing gunfire as I approached. No monolith dudes rushing it this time, but a pair of bloodsuckers had killed all but two dudes. After reloading all my weapons I pushed on to the Radar.

Breaking Dawn

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

The sun had begun to rise as I made my way towards the small stalker camp North of the rails where I met "Guide". The asshole didn't want to help me unless I got him a Tunder rifle though so feeling dejected I came back the way I came, sniping a few soldiers and wiping out a large bandit crew that had taken a farmstead before reaching the newbie village. Got a bunch of rewards from Sid, and handed in the laptop to Fanatic who then told me that opening a portal requires an artifact, and to open the next portal I need another laptop from the other lab. Bastard. Fortunately I had the "soul" artifact he wanted and he opened up the warp North of the railtracks (ofcourse, because putting it right there would be too easy). Sure enough I found it there, and after eliminating the pack of dogs wandering around it I stepped through to find myself at the Army Warehouses which was now the Freedom base. Seems that portal was a one way deal - typical.

The Freedom guys were quite passive, not caring if I took all their food and stuff though I did make a point to restock on VOG grenades from the people that had them. Outside the area was littered with anomalies and I found a neutral stalker camp led by Wolf (finally handed in his quest) in a metal scrap yard. Part of his group was "Master" who I also had to take out, so I punched his lights out too. He managed to stand up with his exo suit though but wasn't fast enough to retaliate. My next task here was just over the nearby hill covered in mist - to eliminate a bloodsucker village. Once I got up there my radar was just going crazy with how many of them there were. As soon as I opened fire, seven of them (and two zombie rats) rushed the hill I was on - stopped only by Saiga shells to the head. There were six more in the village as well as two Izolm. The radar adjustment ensured that none of them could get the drop on me anymore.

With that clear I did a West-East sweep of the region and decided to hike up to the next area called Radar. Before I got there I reached an Freedom outpost called "the Barrier" that only had two living soldiers left. They asked me to help them against an incoming wave of monolith troops. I looted their buddies and took up position watching the road. Soon enough three squads of Monolithians came charging down, but not one of them got past the makeshift fence. Can't speak for the two chimeras that wandered in afterwards though. After two trips back to the warehouse to sell loot I decided to push further into the next area known as Radar. It was foreboding that the road there was guarded by eight izolms.

Monolith is out there, and they don't like trespassers.

Another Lab of Horror

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Not that type of Lab.

With my psi-block helmet on it was time to march into that facility, and by march I actually mean very cautiously navigate past a deadly anomaly field. I had been warned that once I stepped in, the helmet could only protect me for so long so I made it a point to move a bit quicker, using my spray-and-pray Necro rifle to hose down the numerous zombies and snorks lurking within. The building I was meant to explore was blocked by a nasty teleport though (it threw me to the snork swamp - reload :P) so I had to find my way up to the higher levels using an adjoining structure and sneak in through a window. Once inside it was down, down into the darkness. This lab was pretty straight forward, just dark and home to more dead brains and jumping idiots. Eventually I reached the multi-level core and that's when the timer started. I had to shut down the death machine quick or I'd soon be one of the dead heads. The Necro served me well here as zombies began piling in from the higher levels and from behind me. With four switches to hit on various floors I had no time to take cover and had to spray from the hip. Eventually I made it to the top control and managed to shut that bastard
down. Huzzah!

Now I just had to get out - the ladder I used to drop down was broken and I couldn't go back that way so I forged ahead to the final chamber but stopped quickly as five burers blocked the hallway ahead. This was a challenge but I managed to get past them by using a turn in the hall and their greed. I noticed most AI here like to loot things so I tossed a rifle out at waited at the corner with my Saiga shotgun. Sure enough one of the dwarves shortly showed up, going directly for the item. A single shell to the side of it's head finished it. Soon after the second dwarf came to loot the first - he met the same end. This repeated until all five were dead in a humorous congo line with none of them having noticed me at all. Victorious I marched up to the door confidently and was faced with the largest group of fleshes, rats, and dogs I've ever seen! With a quick switch to the Necro I hosed them all down, as well as the Controller lurking in the back behind them. Having collected what I came for I found a hole in the floor which indicated my exit. Sure enough I found myself in the now unused tunnels beneath the facility, now inhabited only by snorks and a pseudogiant. The sounds of a helicopter outside plus heavy gunfire was not good but it turns out the military was not what I had to worry about. After climbing up a tall ladder I saw that there were now two "super" chimeras running around along with a whole pack of snorks - I call them "super" because they had lightning circling around them and each time I tried to shoot at them from above my shots reflected back and killed me! :(

After much loading, I decided to be quiet and watch what they'd do - the lot of them jumped straight down the long shaft I just climbed up. While they were down there I took the opportunity to FLEE. Didn't get very far before they caught wind of that and began chasing after me though, but now being on lower terrain I filled their bellies full of holes and they died before their claws could finish me off. With my armor in ruins, I hobbled back to the Research Outpost and handed it as many quests as I could, earning a bit of cash which I quickly spent on medical supplies of all kinds.

Another Mans Treasure

My journal through Stalker Soup - a mega mod for Shadows of Chernobyl! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After camping out to recover and continued up the road north when the sun was up which was a good call since I ran into a pack of around 20 doggies. Shot what I could as I sprinted back to Stargazer's team who helped me clean up the rest. Pushed on to the checkpoint guarded by two bandits who were easily dispatched. FINALLY I get a 2 shot short-rifle from them. Also found an amusing TV inside, displaying a clip from Silent Hill. Once it started to loop, I made my way to the next area: Garbage.

The first thing I ran into was a group of three thugs robbing another Stalker so after sneaking to a good spot I took them out before they knew what hit them. The dude I rescued was thankful but also in a hurry since another blowout was on the way. Not knowing where the nearest shelter was I decided to backtrack instead and hide out at the checkpoint which protected me pretty well. Back at Garbage I came across a vehicle graveyard occupied by a squad of stalkers led by Bes - he asked if I could help them kill some inbound bandit reinforcements and I agreed instantly. Soon enough the fire fight began, the enemy outnumbering Bes' well-armed squad. I let them take point while I waited from an opportune position and that's when I heard something lurking in the tall grass nearby. Spinning around I saw the beast do an incredible leap towards me but I dodged just in time and clambered up on a nearby rotting APC.

It was a Chimera!

These things didn't come out till the 3RD game! WTF - Awesome! I took on the beast on my own to cover Bes' flank and managed to take it down pretty quickly with the sawn-off rifle. Advanced into a broken down bus and took down the remaining bandits from there with pistol head shots. At the end, only Bes was left alive and after thanking me he headed off leaving me to pick up the (plenty of) loot from the fallen. Now well equipped I headed to the North part of the Garbage where I was tasked to hunt down a particular bandit. It was easy enough to kill him with my plated combat gloves, having snuck up on him while he slept in the middle of the field.

Not so easy was evading the Merc squad that suddenly showed up right after, apparently they were also after his PDA. Bolted to the nearby silos and used them as cover to take down the 5 man team after me - including their leader who like Bes, was in full power armor. Too bad I couldn't loot that. The next road checkpoint was nearby, controlled by the "Duty" faction so I headed there to trade off some gear and recover. Interesting to note that non-merchants no longer trade ammo, it certainly makes the game more challenging. :)