Stalker 2: Scar

[Part of the Wasted Land story]   

My first stop in Pripyat is to assist the vanguard (another faction) defend their base from monolithians. Despite this their leader is very anti-ward and refuses to provide info, so Colonel K gets me to snoop around the vanguard's past operations and I find and report in details to an underground passage taken from a crashed helicopter (which I have to steal from a chimera who has made it his home).

There must be a leak though, because I soon come across hostile Spark forces vying for that same maintenance passage, led by Richter who meets his end in the gunfight. Colonel K and a squad of Ward arrive soon after, advising the now late Dr. Dalin was the traitorous snake. The next segment to get to the C-Consciousness requires lots running between bunkers between emissions, monolith defenders and two surprise bosses who get in the way as neither wants Ward to succeed:

Strelok himself, now wielding a powerful artifact is much like a wizard now - zipping around the chamber and throwing lightning anomalies left and right which really batters my gear. I end him from afar. And Scar, who has gone crazy after realizing his shining zone is not real, needs to be TV migraine induced to die just like Strelok did with Dark previously. With that Colonel K sacrifices himself to eliminate the C-Consciousness program, and I'm free to leave with a pretty decent report on what transpired within.

Duty above all.

Stalker 2: Surprise

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

Apparently "FIBER" is the pass code that translates to "please kill me" or something, because all the Ward guards at the base immediately attack and I'm forced to murder them in self defense! Colonel K soon arrives to sort things out, explaining they are protecting the FIBER program (which implants missions like Dark's one) from those who would abuse it until they can work out how to track the affected people (some having already escaped the zone) and to shut it down afterwards.

With that regretful misunderstanding out of the way I'm next tasked to get through Yaniv station and on to Pripyat in the North but due to the increased monolith threat they won't just let anyone through, as the monolith themselves find out when they attempt to take Yaniv station and fail miserably (without any participation from me).

Richter is here too, upset with my Ward allegiance and voicing how he should have left me in that anomaly field all those weeks ago (because Ward wants to "kill the zone"). He still helps get the border open though by suggesting I trade passage for a special detector that only needs leg work (in the Red Forest) to retrieve. As a bonus, I also finally find an Exo-Suit of my size and can get it and my more advanced firearms upgraded with the Yaniv technician, Harpy. I believe she is the best in the zone, and she definitely invoices like it!

Stalker 2: Strelok

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

The Doctor turns out to be a pacifist who lives on a small island in a highly radioactive lake and is horrified to learn the C-Consciousness project is still running so he reveals Strelok is somewhere at the Cordon, an area near where I first entered the zone! The boss of the rookie village there (who is also feared by the local bandits) partners me up with a capable stalker named Dark who is already on Strelok's trail, which leads to another abandoned underground lab full of anomalies and mutants, including a pseudogiant we manage to slay!

Surprise!

Soon after, Strelok gets the drop on us and kills Dark with a TV induced migraine - revealing Dark was an unwitting C-Consciousness assassin sent to kill him. As we're on the same side about "killing" this C-Consciousness he sends me to turn on another installation nearby, this one with ghostly type poltergeists in the way and a trio of burers down below. These mutant dwarves have powerful telekinesis and can use scattered weapons to fire or throw at their prey meaning it pays to fight them in "clean" areas.

After turning on the power I'm jumped by Scar and his Spark fanatics, who question my allegiance with Ward. I basically tell them what they want to hear, that I support their vision of a "shining land" to make the zone paradise for all to trick them into letting me go without harm. To help me see the "truth" about Ward I'm told to go to one of their bunkers and ask about "FIBER", which seems like a reasonable request.

Stalker 2: Subliminal

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

After finally getting the helm (it's actually a helmet upgrade that can be installed in any armor) I regroup with Ward forces about to stage a second attack on Duga, with plans to blow up the base of the radio wall. Led by Faust, the monolithians put up a decent defense but the helmet is effective and after a decent fight with his illusory tricks he falls to my shotgun.

Dr. Dalin is interested in Faust's pendant so I deliver it to him at STC Malachite just in time to witness Colonel K, now in exo-suit armor to compensate for his helicopter crash injuries, execute Professor Ozersky who actually sided with monolith and activated the Duga radio wall from here to begin with! Using the pendant, a shaken Dalin puts us in contact with C-Consciousness : the minds of seven merged scientists uploaded to a server hoping for people to join them in immorality. No wonder Faust was a nutcase if this is who he spent all his time talking to.

It's decided that these creeps need to be turned off, but to do that means having to find the one man who has navigated the dark valley in the past: Strelok. After running down a bunch of false leads I finally get one that pans out for winning 5 rounds at the Rostok arena (head shot vs humans and jump up on crates vs mutants). "The Doctor", an associate of Strelok's apparently frequents the Red Forest, a place high in psi-radiation. Gotta pack those Psi-block meds since this helmet won't be enough.

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.

Stalker 2: SIRCAA

[Part of the Wasted Land story]   

I'm welcomed with open arms at the SIRCAA research institute by Dr Dalin who is happy the device has finally made it to him in one piece. Colonel K and Ward soldiers are present too so I warn them about the impending Spark assault so we setup an ambush for the raiders and kill a lot of them, but are blind sided by additional Noontider troops now somehow fully back under the thrall of the Monolith who perform a secondary attack and throwing SIRCAA into disarray.

The retreat order is issued and while Colonel K and Dr Dalin manage to get to the evac chopper it leaves me and the remaining Ward soldiers behind as a pseudogiant joins the fray! The Colonel tells me there's another way out via some tunnels so I rush to that, leaving the pseudogiant battle to instead fight through an array of other previously caged mutants underground, like snorks who happen to be scary and hilarious at the same time.

The danger continues once I exit the tunnel as I happen to wander next to a chimera den, angering the two headed inhabitant which forces me to tumble down some cliffs to escape. While getting my bearings down at the riverbank Colonel K radios in saying massive psi-spikes were detected near my position and I am to check it out. It's a bit of a trek and the four blood suckers who ambush me on the road are more of a surprise than the Monolith troops now guarding my target location.

Stalker 2: Swamp

[Part of the Wasted Land story]  

On the hunt for the Clear Sky base I run into Richter again at the Sultansk loner base (and bar) who provides directions to get through the swamp to the distant village but warns about the defenses setup to protect it from outsiders. Sure enough, a number of psi-emitting towers need to be disabled before I can proceed - one guarded by a mutant cat in a dark church!

Even without them the swamp is a hellish place to traverse with all sorts of anomalies, mutants, and hyper radioactive water - but I make it to the ruined and empty village and find the scanner in a basement, but no Faust. Now of course I have to make the trip back and running face to face into a pseudogiant was not on my bingo card. I fight for a bit until it's apparent that I don't have the ammo to take this monster down so I jump a broken bridge and flee through a bubble anomaly field which seems to make it lose interest.

Exhausted, I try to rest up at the nearest ranger station but instead encounter the Sparker faction and their leader Scar, who know I'm on the way to SIRCAA with the device. They don't want to stop me, they just want me to open a door in an underground tunnel while I'm there. Before I can give a proper response, Ward troops arrive and begin a gunfight so I dash out the backdoor to let them sort it out while continuing to jog to the SIRCAA research facility. Good thing I'm loaded up with energy drinks!

Stalker 2: Sabotage

[Part of the Wasted Land story] 

The Ward badge grants me easy access to the Noontider base where they are having some leadership dispute due to recent sabotage. Luckily I can dodge that problem and just talk to one of their egg heads who claims he might be able to track down the SIRCAA device if he could get his hands on an inductor from the nearby Waste Processing Facility... which is now home to a controller mutant who uses mind controlled "zombies" as guards. This bastard is a tough cookie, more resilient than the kangaroo rat, blind dog and flesh packs I've been encountering so far but not as scary as those damned cloaking bloodsuckers (who for some reason look like Cthulhu).

With the inductor in hand I'm directed to install it at the Ward controlled Azimuth station and find the defenders all slain by traitorous Noontiders! A number of head shots and jammed weapons later I finally have the place to myself and use the plot device to boost the antennas strength, letting me eavesdrop on a conversation between Noontider Faust and a mole he has in Ward.

As Ward Camp Icarus was mentioned and is nearby I go there next and stop a sabotage attempt (by diffusing a psi emitter - with bullets) just in time before it can fry anyone's brains, then taking out the Ward traitor as he's on a call with Faust. Faust is crazy enough to then chat with me briefly, inviting me to find him and that scanner I've been trying to get back at the old Clear Sky base - if I can. Challenge accepted.

Stalker 2: Sheriff

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Using advice from the local one legged technician I activate a number of radio towers to triangulate Squint's position (the idiot left his PDA tracking beacon on) and reclaim the Ward device he stole but not my own as he no longer has it, claiming he sent in on to his boss whom I learn (from Ward, in exchange for returning their doohickey) is some crime lord based in a depot at Garbage.

By the time I get there the depot has been wiped out by Ward soldiers led by a Colonel with a really long name so I'll just call him Colonel K, but the bandit boss man isn't among them. I offer to help track him down as it might be easier as someone without their badge and the Colonel accepts, suggesting I ask around at the neutral tenements of Slag Heap on his whereabouts.

Turns out he was captured by a rival crime lord so I end up fighting this batch of bandits to free the bozo, only to discover he has already expired in his cell. A hidden note on his person leaves a clue that he was dealing with someone from the Monolith faction and upon hearing this Colonel K deputizes me with a borrowed badge and sends me off to Wild Island, to get more information from the Noontiders... who are all ex-Monolith. This is because he is actually working with SIRCAA, and the scanner I was bringing was ultimately meant to get to them.

Stalker 2: Start

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

It was supposed to be an easy job, to infiltrate the exclusion zone around the Chornobyl power plant and get a report back. Using the cover of being a courier for a new scanner device handled the paper work while good timing and cardio for a night time run got me through the military border to the nearby mobile bunker lab where I was to drop off the device (and collect the report from the inside contact).

Everyone in that lab was dead, and before I knew it I got jumped by some goons who took the device and left me for dead in an anomaly field too. Lucky Richter the wanderer showed up and taught me how to disrupt said anomalies to make them temporarily safe to pass through, then pointed me to the small village of Zalissya where there is tension between the local stalkers and the members of the Ward faction (who seem to be like the police) who have taken up position in the town hall.

I managed to radio HQ from there but they've tasked me with scouting the zone myself, specifically the SIRCAA research institute which is only going to let me in if I can get that scanner back. Asking around town I learn about Squint, the local sticky-fingers who has gone into hiding for stealing something from Ward (and why they've moved in), might know where my own missing equipment has gotten to.

Chernobylite: Heist

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Thanks to Mikhail the team gets their hands on an anti-air missile system which Igor uses to shoot down a chopper carrying the NAR top brass. This includes a general whom they interrogate and execute and Igor's pal Dr. Semonov who is the head researcher at the plant. Igor leaves him to die in the burning chopper as the team leave to finally hit the power plant heist/rescue mission!

Disguises and the general's pass phrase get the team past most of the checkpoints as does Tarakan's hacking but upon reaching the side door into the power plant Sashko is sniped by Olga who is now a fully indoctrinated NAR whore! Luckily Igor can still get Sashko's explosives to get through a locked door later on, and Mikhail manages to clear out some civilians with a prank evacuation drill.

Eventually the NAR do catch up to the team though, with Tarakan being gunned down for going to slow and Ollie shot in the face for going to fast. The Black Stalker confronts Igor in the finale, and their gunfight draws out into a fist fight with the Black Stalker losing only to reveal that he is actually Igor, which kills both of them in a mindsplosion. Luckily Mikhail survives to disconnect the portal that is letting the sentient Chernobylite into this world which immediately makes most of the alien crystal vanish. Now only the monsters remain.

Chernobylite: Enemy

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

With their success against the NAR a local village girl named Olga joins the squad and teaches Igor how to master the humble AK47, which he then upgrades to be a drum fed, long barrel sniper rifle for close to mid range - which is EPIC as now only duster squads pose a threat in combat. Despite this, the team still refuses to attempt the "heist" mission (a strange thing to call the rescue op) until they have more intel and tools.

So Igor follows their leads - collecting explosive charges for Sashko, stealing NAR lab data for Tarakan, saving a contact of Mikhail, stealing NAR uniforms, and exploring a secret prison in the Red Forest for Olga. At every important decision Igor doesn't side with Olga which upsets her so much that she leaves to join the NAR instead. LOL.

Most importantly, the Black Stalker has now taken a personal interest in Igor and pursues him into each zone with his cheating teleportation tactics and BFG. This means stealth is almost out the window altogether as Igor opts to rush objectives using his newly trained parkour skills from Sashko to avoid the stalker.

Chernobylite: Acquaintance

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Igor's previous explosive adventure caught the attention of elderly crazed hacker Tarakan and his more nimble parkour buddy Sashko who organize a series of mental and physical tests for Igor to see if he is worthy of their help against the NAR, which includes exploding more things, dodging deadly traps if you recite a children's poem's incorrectly and racing across a zone to get to the top floor of a hospital within 10 minutes and then jumping off the roof.

While that last test gains Sashko's trust, Tarakan only joins when Igor rescues him from NAR troopers making him dig his own grave. As thanks, the old hacker upgrades Igor's detector to have very little downtime and also highlight enemies (as opposed to only resources). The upgraded revolver is also doing really well against the ever increasing NAR presence with the addition of Chernohosts - humanoid monsters who happily walk out into the sunlight, unlike their shadow variants.

These soon give way to the most horrid critter type: dusters - teleporting spiders that spit radioactive goo! Igor does his best to avoid them while intercepting  NAR scientist Dr. Semonov, an old acquaintance of Igor's, who says he is being pressured to continue research for the NAR. Unfortunately he has no useful intel to add at the moment so Igor lets him leave, hoping he will be an "inside man" when the time is right.

Chernobylite: Rent

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Igor and Ollie begin separately scouring areas for food, weapons and intel - mostly stolen straight from the NAR - but thanks to Ollie's stealth training tutorial Igor manages to sneak around the NAR soldiers without too much hassle and makes it a point to take them out quietly. Good on the game for punishing your mental health if you just knife everyone, and that Ollie can train you in choke holds so that you can actually KO the soldiers instead of killing them which doesn't wreck your sanity.

On the fifth day, Mikhail, the owner of the warehouse they are based in calls in the favor Igor owes him (nothing is a "free" rental after all) - he wants an NAR database wiped. Igor does the task but only thanks to Mikhail causing an explosion in a building nearby to distract the guards, and the fool catches himself in it - getting stuck in a dark building so it is up to Igor to rescue him.

It's a good thing Igor brought Ollie's revolver for this one because there are also Chernobylite shadow monsters lurking in the buildings, and they quite happily make portals on any flat surface to enter / appear from. Doubly unsettling when the entire structure is filled with poisonous hallucinogen! After a stressful few minutes, the two men manage to escape and return to the warehouse.

Chernobylite: Sarcophagus

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

Igor stopped for a moment to admire the "sarcophagus" that now shielded the Chernobyl nuclear reactor number 4, but despite this a strange green mineral known as Chernobylite was still spreading throughout the zone which has attracted the attention of NAR troops who now controlled the site and for some reason have taken Igor's wife, Tatyana, hostage.

I'm still amazed how they got that on there (this is not an in game picture)

Under the cover of night Igor and his two allies Anton and Olivier barely mange to infiltrate the exterior portion of the plant when they are discovered by "the Black Stalker" who is ultra bullet resistant. This enemy breaks Ollie's arm and kills Anton with ease. With no choice but to abort the mission, Igor uses his portal gun (I assume kindly provided by one Dr. Rick Sanchez) to get himself and Ollie out of there.

Not about to give up just yet, the pair setup shop at a rundown warehouse that overlooks the entire zone around Chernobyl and Igor begins cleaning up and doing some minor base building (a major part of this game) to ensure all the base "stats" are at least in the neutral level.

Voidstar: Semi-Finals

[Part of the Voidstar: Warframe-128 story]

As fewer combatants remained standing, the call of the promise signal grew stronger in each of their minds. An explosion in the sky signaled the destruction of the Balor Fomorian as the Void Angel ripped it apart from the inside, and this was echoed by an explosion on the ground where Kela De Thaym put an end to the heavily damaged Exploiter Orb.

While the sword wielding Shadow Stalker got curb stomped by the Profit-Taker, Vor and his Janus key further damaged Nef Anyo's Razorback but could not defeat it as the war machine's autocannons ripped him in two. Elsewhere, Malice managed to snipe at the Gantulyst eidolon before being caught and destroyed by one of its energy pillars, Zuud was put down by Parvos' Protea, and Teshin put up a heroic but ultimately doomed battle against Archon Nira who turned him to stone [and then broke his neck :P].

The easiest Archon.

Her brother Amar faced off against the Rhino specter in an equally long battle, and after dealing considerable damage to each other the Rhino's Soma and Dual Raza are not enough as he falls prey to the highly aggressive wolf archon. [Also, Amar is basically a Rhino Prime with cheat codes enabled so... there's that.]

Voidstar: The Queen of Rathuum

[Part of the Voidstar: Warframe-128 story]

With the number of combatants halved again, Mania jumped the Rhino with his twin Lacera but was easily laid low since he's almost exactly like a Loki. The last remaining acolyte, Malice, was more successful in sniping the wounded Ember with its Opticor while the acolyte leader, Shadow Stalker, carved up Amaryn and her ancients with his War great sword.

Executioner Dhurnam's close range weaponry [and previous injuries] also spelled his doom against Archon Amar, while the Profit-Taker destroyed the Bonewidow after taking some damage. The badly damaged Exploiter Orb was also still standing after torching a limping Zanuka. From the ridge, Kela de Thaym observed the Gantulyst eidolon annihilate the Nova specter who was only armed with kunai and ether daggers before she heard a tell tale "RRRREEEEEEEEEEE!" scream from beside her - the Teralyst eidolon had spotted her! [total role reversal because in game it is YOU that has to find the bloody hide and seek eidolons]

She looks like this guy from the Fifth Element.

Quickly jumping out of the way, the Queen of Rathuum deployed multitudes of rollers to distract the simple minded creature. It was too dangerous to get close to use her shotguns so again she employed her orbital strikes to destroy the last remaining weak spots on her opponent and finally destroying the eidolon!

Voidstar: Kahl Fight Good

[Part of the Voidstar: Warframe-128 story]

Explosions continued across the battlefield as more demolishers did their suicidal work. The Jackal survived its encounter with the bursa demolisher with heavy damage as did Grustag-3 member Shik Tal who barely scraped by against the machinist demolisher thanks to his rockets and giant shield. His brother Leekter was exploded by the hyena demolisher - a fate shared by the Valkyr specter whose talons took her too close and her paralysis skill too ineffective against the satyr demolyst. The Stalker was also obliterated when trying to melee the anti-MOA demolisher, but afterwards he just reconstituted himself to become the Shadow Stalker!

Elsewhere the sniper Ven'kra Tel was torn apart by Amaryn and her ancients, the Bonewidow defeated Misery who was self limited with only his scythe, Raptor RX had no chance against the Profit-Taker, Executioner Zura burned the Paris wielding Trinity specter to death with his Ignis, Executioner Gorth's Ogris rocketed the students of Cephalon Suda, the Sergeant [how did this guy even survive the landing] was easily handled by Parvos' time altering Protea, Zenith Galactical Tia Mayn was sniped by Executioner Harkonar, and the duel between specters Excalibur with dual skanas versus the Volt with a heat sword ended with victory for the latter.

Up on the ridge Kahl-175 faced off against Tyl Regor. "Would you look at you?" Tyl asked. "So fascinating. Tell me, why would you fight someone of your blood? Someone that loves you?" Kahl grunted, "You not like Kahl. Only Kahl like Kahl." Regor just laughed. "Foolish tube man, I AM YOUR FATHER!".  "Kahl has no father!" Kahl growled as he opened fire with his Grakata, but couldn't land a hit against the fast teleporting, hammer wielding scientist who thwacked him right in the chest plate. Kahl quickly rolled aside to evade Regor's follow up flying fist and in a smooth motion hacked through him with his Slaytra machete before sheathing it again.

"Kahl protect brothers."

"I'm not... done with you," the injured Regor coughed, suddenly unable to stand. "You done," Kahl answered. "Bleed to death. Kahl no need waste time on you." Grimacing, Tyl finally collapsed dead as Kahl walked away.

Warframe: Xoris and the Steel Path

After completing all the nodes in the original star map you are continuously harrassed invited to attempt "the Steel Path" which basically lets you do all the nodes again, but this time with super powered enemies (+100 level, armor, etc). Since I'm now Mastery Rank 18 (which is the same level as our guild hall in Neverwinter Online) I thought I'd give it a try - and promptly found myself overwhelmed.

I wasn't ready!

Which is great, as it forces you to learn more about weapons and builds to actually handle the increased threat which now includes acolytes of the Stalker invading every five minutes or so. It's still early days but I've found a solution in the Xoris, the frisbee Nef Anyo gives you during the rather early "Deadlock Protocol" quest. Using a heavy build to capitalize on double explosions (because apparently warframe frisbees can explode AND still come back to you) I've Firewalker Loki'd my way through a few of these now, with a Scourge primary to corrode the ones that need some armor reduction before throwing the Xoris at them.

It's good that there are five steel path alerts that take place regularly too, increasing the odds of finding a squad to go with. What I've noticed though is that in all of them I'm the only one using non-prime / non-lich gear. Maybe that will be my thing, to try beat the steel path without any primes. They're a pain to collect / pay for anyway. We'll see how we go. In the meantime, my reward is the Xoris totally obliterates everything in most normal missions now which is pretty sweet. :)

Metro 2033 Redux

If it's hostile, you kill it.

Since I was sad that Stalker 2 got cancelled, I decided to play this retelling of Metro 2033 - a first person stealth shooter that mostly takes place in the claustrophobic underground of the titular Metro, which is where humans now try to coexist along with the horrors in the dark to escape the nuclear wasteland on the surface.

Russians love exploding things.

While it's mainly a railroaded experience (it is the Metro after all) there are opportunities to explore in many levels and this really sets the bar in world building as you travel from station to station. Unless you pick the "action mode", you will also likely be low on ammo for most of it - especially since the military grade bullets are what is used as currency, a system I really enjoyed. Obviously stealth is my jam, so I also loved trying to sneak around everything.

That said, fighting works just fine though your guns will feel weak towards the end if you aren't using the "good" currency ammo. Also I really appreciate that they took the time to make monsters actually behave differently. Big things charge and pounce, little bastards nip and run, spider bugs can be fended off with light, and the gorilla type librarians can actually just be stared down to convince them to leave (aim at their face). All excellent design decisions which make for an excellent game. It is no wonder that it was followed up by Metro: Last Light and Metro Exodus. Highly recommended!