STALKER: Clear Sky

[@Warlockracy]

Playing Fallout: Nevada rn

[@JellyJman]

That’s what I like to hear! 😀😀😀🙌🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@michaeldebellis6171]

Dope :) Can't wait to see the review!!

[@Raum2901]

Wait a seccond, what happen to your shadow of chenobyl series you were making? Edit: (after seen the epilogue) oh i see, its a shame that world events have to affect the internet in this way

[@ClarkKentai]

You'd find Consortium to be kinda neat, I think.

[@sedsitametadinterreteliber2937]

How is it?

[@maxr2743]

30:35 Fun fact - in the Ukrainian version of the game the Duty is the only faction to be voiced in Russian. No idea why, but I've heard theories that it's because of the association with rigid Soviet army culture (since Freedom is indeed often said to embody the "classically Ukrainian" anarchist sentiment). UPD: Looked it up - Military, Duty and Mercs are all voiced in Russian "intentionally", as stated by the developer. Before 2014 Ukrainians didn't really have a high regard for the army, and thought of it as a Soviet remnant - hence this approach to localization.

[@Warlockracy]

That would be my guess as well.

[@fullmaster8211]

Another version which is most likely to be true, is that they forgot to localise Duty or simply didn’t have time/resources to do it. So they just decided to leave it like that. And came up with an excuse that people speak both language in Ukraine. I believe to this explanation considering the developmental and management issues GSC was notorious for

[@maxr2743]

@@fullmaster8211 >Another version which is most likely to be true And yet is completely false. Looked it up and the official description of the localization patch outright states that the Military and Duty are both voiced in Russian "intentionally", since Russian used to be the language of the army (back when the army was unreformed and plagued with Soviet heritage). Funnily enough, Bandits of all factions (who use Soviet prison cant) got new lines by the same actor, so this wasn't the case of translating as little as possible.

[@fullmaster8211]

@@maxr2743 well, you saying it yourself your version is what creators said officially. Do you think they would tell their customers “guys we were lazy to complete transaction for Duty”? Usually when a fuck up like this happens, you come up with an excuse, which is how their explanation sounds like. I didn’t play the Ukrainian localisation so I don’t know, do bandits speak Ukrainian there? Cause it they do, then it supports my version. Criminal dialect that they use in russian translation doesn’t exist in Ukrainian language. All the criminal culture that Bandits faction represents came from russia during USSR period, so making this faction speaking Ukrainian while Duty speaking russian doesn’t make much sense. I’m not saying that I’m 100% right, but it’s a known fact that GSC were constantly in developmental hell while creating Stalker series. I tend to believe that it was more fuck up on their side than the real decision, cause their explanation has some holes in it

[@odinatra]

@@fullmaster8211 Bandits in Ukrainian version speak Surzhyk - mixture of russian and Ukrainian, associated with low culture. Interestingly Renegades kept russian voicelines. As for Duty, you're right. If they tried realistic approach, then game would have russian and Ukrainian for all factions - engine supports that. @Max R Military DID get Ukrainian VO eventually - in Call of Prypiat. Strangely they also spoke Ukrainian in alpha of original game - and only them.

[@redacirvinskaite9115]

"i cannot leave the zone until the clear is sky" john stalker

[@ОлександрФілипчук]

As an Ukrainian (of course I know russian) I confirm that the translations of rus comments are correct and literally accurate 😅

[@Chertila_Art]

That's because he's russian.

[@mechanicalmyhamgg3707]

Rest in peace Volodymyr Yezhov, the game you helped develop will live on

[@ninjartist36]

He was a good stalker

[@minelayer26]

at least we still have his likeness in call of pripyat

[@rkuper95]

🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@hansmoleman2666]

Haha don’t kid yourself, Stalker is dead as fuck, the Unreal engine is where original games go to die. If you’ve seen the footage of the leaked game before why abandoned their original engine and compare it to the lifeless shit we’ve seen in the Unreal engine footage you would have to be absolutely stupid or just blindly naive to believe Stalker isn’t dead.

[@BrotherSurplice]

Damn this war

[@DemonLordRaiden]

I love how your videos are both the story of the game you're playing, but there's usually a second story running alongside it, usually about politics, culture, or history. It really makes these videos feel less like video game reviews and more like a video essay using the real to explain fiction and fiction to explain the real. Amazing work as always.

[@kawamura6706]

Regular Car Reviews of gaming world)

[@nut_z667]

Great seeing you play the "weird child" of the series

[@planescaped]

I always thought Clear Sky was like a multiplayer focused game with a tacked on single player. I have a vague recollection of seeing E3 footage of them showing it off, and based on what they were saying, that is the impression I got at least. The location they were showing was the one at 37:30 and it was multiplayer footage IIRC...

[@zetetick395]

Clear Sky's only real problem is that it was taken out of the oven waaaay too early! Good ingredients, but very sloppy. 🤢

[@justinayers3589]

It doesn't deserve the bad rap. Limansk, Red Forest, and Great Swamp should be in anyone's top ten maps. I was super disappointed when the faction war mechanic didn't make a return in CoP. The only downright bad thing was the vanilla game removing pistol irons and making the spread insane.

[@BerndN3]

@@justinayers3589 It only got bad rep because it was buggy as hell, and since it was released before it was considered OK to have constant updates and bug fixes it irritated the hell out of everyone. I bought a box set and I remember it being literally unplayable.

[@aeonsbeyond]

Dec 28, 2022. Volodymyr Yezhov was killed defending the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine's Donetsk region on December 22 2022. He was one of the developers behind the successful video game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, which was released in 2008. One of the game's characters, Loki, was based on Yezhov's face.

[@bionicallychallenged7290]

The online stalker community see's your attempt at slaying a pseudogiant. We are pleased.

[@booradley6832]

Pseudogiants are toughest in CS as well, a very noble attempt.

[@DS-wl5pk]

@@booradley6832did it with a 45, they’re really slow. Everything else was way more of a threat. As a matter of fact, a strange thing I noticed, pistols (specifically anything in 45) did AMAZING against mutants next to shotguns,rifles sucked against them apart from the stupid damage rifles and pkm obviously. The human enemies spamming grenades and hitting 80% of their shots if you weren’t in cover (which would prompt grenade spam) is was made this game go from “challenging” to bullsht Hated parts of this game so much. Never even used the grenade launched or rpg, why are they even in the games

[@nealwang481]

I 😂a wee

[@AdahnFlorence]

Man I remember the instances where I had all of my shit taken away, I actually fought my way through the first garbage border because of how much I didn't want to lose my money, and during the section where you lose all of your items I actually quick saved beforehand and dropped my items preemptively so they couldn't take it all away.

[@vintheguy]

Updated my journal

[@Zugbarrh]

I remember loading then spending all my money on items I knew I’d use so I would only lose like 31 roubles

[@5t3v0esque]

If I'm not misremembering my experience you can actually get negative money by using the fast travel with other stalkers feature and when you get robbed a glitch causes you to gain an absurd amount of money. I seem to recall hearing about it from the gsc forums.

[@AdahnFlorence]

@@5t3v0esque lmao

[@thebigdgamerboi6332]

I played the game a few times and i am Shocked yall experienced this.. I just shoot them without talk.

[@Arkady20]

GOD I've been waiting for this SO LONG! Clear Sky is my favourite STALKER - probably because it was my first game. My mom gave it to me as a surprised when I was fighting deppression. Dunno why she considered a post-soviet survival shooter a good choice, but the game actually was one of the things that helped me get out of it:) Love U mom :) And love you, Warlockracy. Best wishes from Poland, dear friend!

[@sev343]

Same

[@bodimirboda8863]

Glad people like it the same as other games

[@jessyavila5317]

That's great man I hope you're doing alot better

[@Tinyuvm]

"We are living in the Tom Clancy Boomer Timeline" best line

[@zetetick395]

Just with an awfuly depressing ring of truth about it....

[@DIEGhostfish]

Oh no, far worse than that. Clancy was an optimist on the former soviet Republics, Russia in particular. This shit would have been handled more quietly, a couple unreasonable types on bot sides assassinated by the heroes or some fellow villains turning on each other, thr EU/NATO offer being extended simultaneously to both, some sort of fancy negotiation.

[@mememachine-386]

"Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of."

[@АлексейСизёмин]

@@mememachine-386 Log in, Max.

[@Chetverikov]

Worse. As was noted, in Tom Clancy's books, Russia comes out of the 90s liberalized and much more politically and economically integrated with western europe and ends up as a military ally of the US -against- China and terrorist threats.

[@DurrDerp]

Duty and Freedom as main competing factions/ideas remains a fresh and unique concept to this day. Often in RPG storytelling the dilemma is a boring option of 'the obviously good guys' vs 'the obviously bad guys' who are evil for no other apparent reason than spite and doing it for the lulz. Be it rebels vs. empire, enclave vs the rest etc. It just falls flat and isn't immersive. Whereas 'Duty' and 'Freedom' (with all the alternate meanings of those faction names in original russian) is a much more thought provoking dilemma not just about the zone but life in general and neither can really even be characterized as 'the good' or 'the bad'. Also, good observation about the cultural feedback loop of Russian turbofaithful to the USSR basing their beliefs on American boomer (though not just of Tom Clancy types) perceptions which in turn were based on warm colored Soviet propaganda posters. It's quite a widespread phenomenon. And it feeds itself. The meme of 'authentic Russian sources based on authentic Western sources based on authentic Russian sources based on...' is real.

[@supertaoman12]

You must have not been playing many newer games, because "fascists vs hippies" has been the new hotness for factions in open world games the last few years

[@DurrDerp]

@@supertaoman12 I would not agree with Duty being 'fascists' and Freedom being 'hippies'. Yes, some aspects are there, but Freedom for example could also be viewed as crazy anarcho-capitalists. Yeah, taking shiny floating ball out of the zone to share with world is cool but what if also bring super-ebola out of the Zone Mr. Le Chill Freedom guy?

[@beanie7965]

Shout-out to Stalker Anomaly, the free standalone mod I've been having a blast with. The best free game I've ever played.

[@theblobconsumes4859]

My only major complaint with Anomaly is that the blowouts don't have details like birds dropping dead and the deep red hues.

[@delta1404]

@@theblobconsumes4859 Crows do drop dead actually, though maybe not as much as Clear Sky (I've only played SOC and COP). In fact there's an encyclopedia entry and a very rare item drop from skinning them. The red tint though yeah, maybe just didn't jive with Anomaly graphics/lighting style? Could be mods for it, idk.

[@anarkisgaming]

100% agreed, all the stalkers and more in one convenient, updated and stable package :)

[@Prof.Pwnalot]

You are going to love Gamma. It's the best stalker mod currently out. EFP + Anomaly + updated textures.

[@Prof.Pwnalot]

@@theblobconsumes4859 They do, also run reshader, better graphics. Or better yet play Gamma, more hardcore version of Anomaly, basically the same but better, massive modpack included, can customize to your liking. Cars, and MUCH better emissions.

[@thepinkplushie]

Yknow the STALKER purists give the Anomaly devs a lot of shit for some of their changes but I gotta say for the most part the layout of the zone makes way more sense in Anomaly. I only played Clear Sky once and it was years ago but I think I forgot just how disjointed it was, and Shadow of Chernobyl wasn't that much better in that regard. Anomaly does away with setpieces for obvious reasons, and that does kinda lessen certain areas that were specifically designed around scripted events, but it makes much better use of a lot of areas. For example rather than Garbage being a bandit stronghold, in Anomaly the trader is actually a hunter who buys mutant parts and sells specialized hunting gear. This is a great placement as some of the most reliable mutant hunting in the game is around Garbage and its adjacent areas. It actually makes hunting a viable way to make money like searching for artifacts. It's also under the protection of Duty, which makes sense since, yknow, their job is to hunt down bandits. Just in general faction placement in Anomaly is top notch. Having Freedom and Duty next to each other is great, as is having Freedom act as a natural barrier against Monolith (either be friendly with Freedom and buy their much better weaponry, or side with Duty and prepare yourself for the fight against Monolith by killing Freedom on your way).

[@JesusChristDenton]

anomaly devs didn't chose that layout what the hell. it's been used in other mods like call of Chernobyl

[@Mr.Sylky0]

@@JesusChristDenton I was going to comment on this, you are right, the anomaly is actually just the most acceptable adaptation from misery to the call of chernobyl since the other attempts, last day, call of misery, road to the north, were either unfairly difficult or extremely problematic with crashes every 5 minutes such dead air.

[@theblobconsumes4859]

@@Mr.Sylky0 I didn't find Last Day and Call of Misery 'unfairly difficult'. Anomaly is better, though.

[@Mr.Sylky0]

@@theblobconsumes4859 as I said, either problematic or very difficult, last day is the most unstable mod I've ever seen, call of misery is unfair because just stepping on the micro puddle in front of skadovsk is reason enough for you to contract doses of radiation . the only one that enters these two categories alone is dead air that in the first beta anything was hitkill

[@tobytobacco1733]

I think our biggest issue with Anomaly is that its based off of Misery, which is without question the very worst mod. The difficulty of Misery (and by extension Anomaly) isn't the issue, its the addition of unnecessary items that turn the game into a tedious, boring, ugly (why is rust on literally everything? tree's dont rust so why is there rust on the wood of my rifle?) mess. Anomaly fixes a bunch of this but is really only enjoyable for long periods of time once its fixed with even more addons, then causing it to run like shit.

[@remembertotakeshowerspleas355]

It would be sick if Scar and some of the more prominent Clear Sky members came back as monolith in the next game. With Shadow of Chernobyl spoiling all the mystery surrounding the Zone itself (it was aaaall the work of crazy scientists with psychic powers) I hope they emphasize the relationship between Stalkers themselves in the plot of STALKER 2 instead of another "fight your way into the center of the Zone" story. Call of Pripyat was very promising to me with how it de-emphasized the combat and set pieces and encouraged you to just wander around and talk to people - you can't even leave the first area without initiating an unmarked quest that involves hanging out with a crazy weirdo hiding in a boat, which you can only discover by exploring or chatting with random NPCs. That's the kind of game design that has me optimistic for the next game.

[@garethelder7715]

the way the quests and their interplay was handled in CoP was always my favorite, i felt if they had some time to refine it and expand a bit they could really make it feel more rpg than most 'actual' rpgs these days without any personal stats

[@dmin5782]

Late, but as CoP revealed, SoC didn't really spoil anything. With the C-Con gone, the Zone got even more "alive" and would expand to cover the world. The scientists didn't create it as much as they tore open a portal and invited Cthulhu in. AFAIK STALKER 2 will focus on both the new factions relations + solving the mysteries of the Zone which sounds really ambitious. Really excited to see where it leads, when it eventually releases LOL.

[@Asonunique23]

Scar is brainwashed and becomes charon the monolith leader(they both got the same signature weapon)

[@dmin5782]

@@Asonunique23 Either that or the big emission just killed him. Both makes equal sense, as I see it.

[@southernbrain691]

Scar is aliven

[@necticaLDS]

It's funny you said we'd never see Scar again since a recent trailer for Stalker 2 features him lol

[@BoxcarWillie42]

Just read that one of the developers for this game just died fighting in the Ukrainian Russian war. RIP 🙏 ✊️

[@ratratratratratratratratrat69]

News just got out that one of the developers from GSC Game World was KIA defending his country. RIP king, thanks for the memories.

[@Kishy]

"It's over for AKcels" made me laugh so loud

[@conner4547]

So fun fact, the STALKER AR-15 style rifle isn't an AR series at all, instead being based on the LR-300, designed by Allan Zita. However the rifle is exceptionally rare these days as it never really took off.

[@garethelder7715]

also i always remember it stood out in a interesting way cause it was based on the ar-18 so it had a folding stock and just looked r cool to me

[@TheRedKing247]

LR-300 is based on the AR-15 though so it's not entirely inaccurate.

[@AveSicarius]

It's even called an LR-300 in the game, no?

[@garethelder7715]

@@TheRedKing247 if the lr-300 was based on the ar-15 the DI system's buffer tube wouldn't allow for its folding stock, which is why they went for an interesting take on modifying/modernizing the ar-18 and its short stroke gas piston system

[@garethelder7715]

@@AveSicarius its the 'trs-301' in game but yeah they didnt r try to hide what it was or anything

[@JonnyJoestar_]

For anyone interested in the lore and secrets of the zone, I highly recommend a channel by the name of Anomalous Dugout. Incredible content on theories, gear & items as well as a very highly detailed Stalker timeline.

[@TBRACKET]

Most possibly scenario about what happend to Scar, it's that he becomed one of the Monolith commander at the end of SHoC "Charon". because it's the only Monolith stalker using a VSS Vintorez

[@TBRACKET]

@B.L.I.N. It's not the same in SHoC, just end level stalkers seems to spawn with it, and even that it's rare to happend as far i know in SHoC the best way to get one it's by Freedom Barracks in Army Warehouses and i think Voronin gives you the quest for it but i agree in not making sense a lot. GSC really did a Adrian Shepard with Scar

[@TooMuchSascha]

Fun fact - in Anomaly because they used the same map almost exactly, you can go into the tunnel Strelok destroys in the Red Forest and see how it works. There's just a ton of grenades on the ground with a bunch of red barrels - the scripted sequence sets off the explosives to create the effect and that's kind of it. Not super interesting but still funny that they just kinda used ingame items to do it rather than spawning the explosion effect on its own.

[@vladcucu9186]

Two small things not touched in the video that are interesting: - You can actually find Scar's Vintorez from the intro in the swamp, although it's completely broken and has to be repaired - This was the first Stalker game to have combat music; Shadow of Chernobyl had some very action-y music composed by the band FireLake (the tracks Fighting Unkown and Against the Ionized Odds), but as far as I can't tell, they were never used despite being associated with the soundtrack; it's quite good and weirdly fits, but there's only three tracks so they get repetitive

[@polishdronestrike1797]

It's incredible how fast you are able to put out videos, another comfy watch. Thank you.

[@kurvakus7256]

I wouldn't go as harsh on the game myself, it's not "the worst" in the series it's... "least best". Still my biggest problem is the dissonance between the story and the gameplay. In the plot, you're constantly on the Strielok's tail, just one step behind him, desperately trying to stop him. It facilitates a sense of urgency, while the game is best experienced with leisure exploration and getting bogged down in sidequests and faction struggles.

[@Usual_User]

++

[@maxr2743]

"Least best" is a great way to put it.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

It's like the Temple of Doom of the series. Not as god as the other two, but still good.

[@trollreign1046]

@@HappyBeezerStudios Hope the next game isn't like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

[@thebigidea9659]

Always a good day when you post a video Warlockracy.

[@sketchyforlife]

i absolutely love your stalker series. i know this is a common sentiment but your perspective offers a very new and refreshing interpretation of the themes and events in the games. Warlockracy has been, hands down, my favorite channel to follow in the last couple years. keep up the amazing work!

[@mikedrop4421]

I can't wait to see what crazy stuff makes it into the next Stalker after this year.

[@Lely2.0]

i get the feeling its gonna be the bad version of crazy

[@jargohersek1192]

Xray engie stop "We miss you" ❤

[@bigboi7817]

Apparently one of the lead Devs sons was KIA by Russian artillery

[@VanBourner]

Pretty certain the baddies will speak Russian. Otherwise the game may have the story line set from before the war.

[@56bturn]

@@VanBourner I don't know, because the existence of the Zone would probably prevent a war. The Zone really changed things in STALKER's universe, especially if you count one of the books where a Zone formed in _the Middle East_

[@Dennis-ud2nh]

There’s a side quest to find a “legendary AK-47” in Cordon for a stalker in the neutral base. Had a lot of fun with that rifle. It has high damage and uses either SVD and RPK ammo. In a quest in Red Forest you can find I think 4000 RPK ammo in a tank. But by that point you can get a Thunder S14 which can be upgraded (unlike the AK-47).

[@BB-wz6bx]

For a full Stalker circle after CoP you should do a review on Narodnaya Solyanka if you feel crazy enough.

[@r3v4n21]

Theres a bit of enviornmental storytelling in Call of Pripyat that confirms Lebedev to be a former member of the scientists that created the zone. I read a fan theory somewhere that the whole Plot of CS was really Lebedev trying to join C-Con and that he is the green exposition Hologram at the end of ShoC

[@urgadurga]

Wow that's actually a super interesting theory

[@javi9928]

Your videos are great. I can’t wait to see what you do next.

[@elderyaag3534]

Your videos are great. Fun and unbelivable interesting. The mix of game story and real history is great. Thank you

[@EmeraldLavigne]

Hey bud, you've been really cranking out videos lately. I just wanted to say thank you for all your videos. You're one of my favorite KZbinrs. 👍 It's cool getting to see all these different games, and then to hear your perspective on them!

[@EmeraldLavigne]

Plus, it's great to see someone from Russia who's not an utterly unhinged homophobe!

[@lhfirex]

This channel is doing a lot to get me to give this series another chance. The head bob in Shadow of Chernobyl was one of the only times a game gave me motion sickness but otherwise it's pretty much exactly up my alley as far as design and atmosphere go. Now I just need to figure out a good Ukrainian charity to support for a stream, I think.

[@Warlockracy]

ukraine-helpers.com/

[@ahugefan7059]

I find it strange with the head bopping. In my case having it on the latest patch (v1.0006) generally gets rid of it, because I usually always update my retail-bought ShoC whenever I reinstall it. Except if certain mods require a different patch to function properly.

[@MeatSnax]

If you try again and bounce off of it, I'd recommend checking out the Stalker Anomaly mod (or any of the big stand-alones). The community is pretty gung-ho about experiencing the games vanilla-ish before diving into conversions, but I wasn't really able to get deep into these games until I tried Anomaly.

[@JohnDoe-cb8ie]

There are console commands to reduce the movement head bob. You can set cam_inert and cam_slide_inert to lower values.

[@RobertStineIsTheBest]

@@Warlockracy thank you bro!

[@sleepshouter5017]

14:10 I thought the exact same thing my first play-through. I beat the game not even realizing they weren’t initially hostile until I raided their base with Duty lol. You can actually glitch the game in Shadow of Chernobyl and join Freedom, which is the only way to join any faction in that game. It’s possible to beat the game, but it messes with faction relations so bandits and mercs are friendly, and ecologists and of course duty are hostile.

[@whoknows8264]

Modern Russians having an American memory of the USSR is both hilarious and depressing.

[@shahramtondkarmobarakie1824]

well modern russians,unlike their soviet ancestors also live under a similar socio-economic system and indoctrination to americans, just in different directions, i've seen just as many ultra-nationalist russians/ukrainians/belarussians as i've seen americans but they're less visible due to the fact that they mostly use VK which is like russian facebook

[@jacqirius]

to be fair considering how large the USSR was and how many countries it included plus the different treatment of people inside it left a very wide array of sometimes even contradicting memories of individuals and groups

[@Bravebear333]

Interestingly Clear Sky features time travel device from soviet TV series called Guest from the future. It got me thinking that the main value of ''stalker atmosphere'' for post-soviet players was not survival or general post-apocalypticness but specifically post-apocalyptic Soviet shit like old cars, Soviet architecture, posters, Pripyat. The exclusion zone is a conservation zone of late-Soviet era. Stalkers even use Soviet rubles for some reason. The original game was mostly about the creation and fall of USSR from some point of view. C-Consciousness scientists are essentially bolsheviks and their goals are communist goals (they're rather romanticized sci-fi communists longing for a better tomorrow without greed and conflicts, people who believe in the fantasy of commie-futurism, people who want to create future from Guest from the future or future from Strugatsky's Noon Universe, which is kinda Star Trek but without the Prime Directive). From this point of view stalkers are early post-soviet people with (small) businesses, people like Grigorovich maybe. Thus bandits are kinda 90s post-Soviet bandits. That's why I'm very interested in STALKER 2 -- the original game had musings on post-Soviet 90s, logically STALKER 2 will have to be more about what came next, like Maidan and all that stuff.

[@maxr2743]

@@dmitryfedorov114 >the authors will have to do away with entirety of "rusty soviet playground" aesthetic That's not going to happen and there's no reason why it would. The location is the same, and the aesthetic comes with the location.

[@brandonmorel2658]

So according to your interpretation, the ending of the original game is one where the early post soviet generation kills the stalinist nomenklatura and is clueless after - the - fact about where exactly it is heading? If so that is an interesting reading. I do doubt that STALKER 2 would have that kind of interpretable subtext, it strikes me as a happy coincidence. It would obviously include comments about Ukrainian nationalism, that is 100% sure.

[@PoliPantev]

​@@maxr2743brother, the rusty soviet playground is even rustier now. I don't know where you are from but commie neighborhoods still look the same here albeit they have insulation pannels on the outside and the cars are a bit newer but on a cold wet autumn night the vibes are there

[@Coolman-hb2vu]

I love the stalker series, I love the setting, factions, the stories but most of all the community. It radiates this energy of mystery, but also something familiar. The factions are believable, they aren't some wacky Hyperborea-type esoteric schizophrenic boogaloo (excluding monolith) and you can really see and understand what they're about. The stories, while generic, offer a fair bit of entertainment and the lore behind it is, to me, amazing. I can't wait to see what mods the community comes up with before stalker 2 comes out. The games while running on a truly magical engine are fun and remind me of an easier time for me. When I was younger and not in the state I am I really enjoyed them, I remember watching the funny Russian cyka blyat man aka life of Boris play them, that's how I found out about the games and I don't regret it. Thank you for making this video I really enjoy your content, it's almost therapeutic.

[@Ma_ksi]

So true

[@Stalkerfan498]

I'm not sure if you've heard of him, but back in the ancient days of youtube many hundreds of years ago (when channels could edit how their webpages looked), I watched a channel called Tolkkiez32. He was a Finnish guy I think. The channel is long gone and maybe he's off of twitter as well, but I remember him playing the Stalker series and other cool games of the time like Fallout 3 and Dark Messiah of might and magic, all in glorious 360p. He inspired me to try out Stalker at a young age and to me at the time, it was the best thing since sliced bread. The CoD-like roleplaying game of my dreams.

[@Stalkerfan498]

This was my very first stalker game that I played when I was 13 years old and the environment kept me loving every single bit of it. I would quite literally fall asleep in my chair sometimes because I would simply stand on a watch tower or sit by a campfire at dusk. To this day I have good memories of how lively the train depot in the garbage was and can't help but be melancholic seeing it again in Anomaly being occupied by at most 6 or 7 people. And fuck me yeah, the game is downright peaceful; in Anomaly, my head is constantly on a swivel trying to avoid getting a surprise bullet or have my ass jumped by lurkers, cats, or worse. Was a joy to see you cover my sweet nostalgia. Also yes, I completed the entire game on "Stalker" difficulty. Yes, I still loved it. To this day people give me strange looks because of it.

[@Henry_the_Eighth_]

By Azura, by Azura, by Azura! A Warlockracy upload! We are truly blessed! A side-note question, can you name the most obscure old game (not mod) that you've played overall? Just curious.

[@Warlockracy]

Dungeons of Kremlin

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

@@Warlockracy There was an apparently illegal remaster of the game on steam last year, wonder if that's still floating about.

[@fitz_pan6916]

@@Warlockracy do the vid on that, bro

[@Henry_the_Eighth_]

@@Warlockracy Oh, that one, now that's old school. Read about it quite some time ago on Lurkmore, I believe (I'm sure you know the website). You've reminded me about one yet another forgotten old game - You Are Empty. It's not really in scope of your channel and kinda clunky, but it just oozes grim Soviet atmosphere. Kinda like Stalker, but from another angle.

[@manigoldo8736]

@@Henry_the_Eighth_ You made me remember some obscure but not too bad games like Collapse and Černaja Metka, both published by Buka Entertainment. They're not great games but like You Are Empty they have a stunning art direction!

[@AbstractTraitorHero]

12:15 Utterly brutal, cold-hearted and perfectly imagining what a bandit would do, true roleplaying at it's finest.

[@nananamamana3591]

Now, Warlock, buddy. As an American, I find it _very_ hard to believe that Russia _isn't_ everything Command and Conquer: Red Alert 1-3 taught me it is, not _because_ I'm an American, but because Russia doesnt ever act like they _aren't_ cartoon bad guys.

[@bulbigood6558]

locked in their own cliché 😅

[@SuperAleksandar94]

Ukraine is part of the same country as Russia in Red Alert, american.

[@HellgradeBallin]

Yeah, if the only news sources you listen to are the western media outlets, ran by CIA. You Americans never learn a thing. They come out and say "Oh, that thing 30 years ago we told you was someone else? Nah, that was us. But anyways, listen to this!" and then they tell you some other bullshit they use as an excuse for whatever foreign or domestic policy they want to implement. Still, the average American has the memory of a goldfish and as long as Hollywood keeps making evil Russian movies, you know whose side you're on. Clowns 😅

[@philmcwonder8173]

Wait, Russian Nationalists are angry because Stalker 2 will be in Ukrainian? Well damn, now I want Stalker 2 even more!

[@markasap2593]

they don't view themselves as "nationalists", everyone is a "nationalist", but not them

[@Yora21]

Totally from nowhere, I was thinking again of Jagged Alliance. That's totally the kind of game for a Warlockcracy video.

[@daWoofQuean]

Another incredible vid for the post apocalyptic internet vault. Glad you're still doing okay and able to keep up the stupidly good work. also, funny story I live in Nevada rn. should be fun to see what old timey modders imagined it would be like

[@TheGregoryodd]

Always glad to see new content from you, good sir. Think I can safely say your videos, more than anyone else’s have got me playing Arcanum and VTMB so far. Got this in the library too so I imagine this’ll be next up for myself. Thanks for all the great work!

[@planescaped]

Ahhh, that classic Stalker feeling of only hearing some guy speaking Russian in your left ear. And man, it would've been interesting if an actual anarchist state survived long enough to see how that would actually work in practice. Though it'd likely just be coup'd and become another military autocracy eventually.

[@casanovafunkenstein5090]

Read about the Anarchist Spanish Commune and Rojava in the middle East. Both are excellent examples.

[@postindustrial76]

Read up on the Zapatistas in Mexico. I'm not a communist but those guys are pretty based.

[@MrHat.]

Anarchist state

[@brandonmorel2658]

We gotta make it happen, not the autocracy part I mean.

[@3dcomrade]

​@@casanovafunkenstein5090 Rojava? That Kurdish ethno state akin to Israel? Rojava works on an ethnic basis rather than a humanitarian one. Zapatistas is a better example

[@TalkernateHistory]

We are living in Tom Clancy's real-time Earth Simulation. The watchmaker is dead but the mechanism continues to unwind.

[@swip]

Im honestly more hyped for your new videos than actual series and movies i enjoy

[@Ian.420]

Man i love getting your perspective on games like this and the translations that come with them. I learn so much about cultures that I probably would just never know about otherwise.

[@markasap2593]

I like your videos very much, and I'm a stalker enjoyer too. And also, as a donbabwe ukrainian. Your opinion on ongoing events is based, you do understand the nature of vatniks pretty well.

[@KrisXIV14]

Fun detali - you can find Scar's signature gun around the 2 train wagons where the first cutscene took place. Gun is on the ground, in a bad condition and you can't get more ammon for it anytime soon. Unless I'm just delusional, or ir was added in the Complete mod.

[@ThomasShatter]

It's there. Sadly it's useless at this point

[@bread1958]

This video and its side discussions of Ukrainian anarchists and the current war has me reflecting on my latest English final. Just months before the war in Ukraine kicked off I was in the last stretch of my English course on rhetoric and activism. Having recently read Black Square, an American journalist's account of then modern Ukraine, my choice of subject for the last paper was Euromaidan. Focusing on the rise of civilian power, and the extremely rapid and organized mobilization of protestors as well as support structures for them, I said "These were aspects of its (Ukraine's) historic national character waiting to be unearthed and used for a movement like Euromaidan." In that paragraph the main example of historic national character I spoke of was the anarchist movement. Not long after that semester the same force of civilian power was turned towards a new and unfortunately much more traditional war. I think I got a C+.

[@3dcomrade]

I think the lack of "credible" citation killed your grade. Unfortunate, but its reality Patterns of the past are still relevant now. For example, my country Indonesia has always existed with a center ruling by proxy of local nobles/oligarchs, this applies to Majapahit, Dutch East Indies and modern Indonesia. There are 39 years of 2 dictatorships trying to fight this norm, they fail to hold it Downsides of this, is that unlike Ukraine. The weakness of a government is non existent politically when the local lords have their share of power and wealth

[@zZGzHD]

I never thought about the Freedom faction being a reference to Makhnovshchina...huh...

[@josszarnick2393]

Love your videos dude, it’s an awesome insight into so many cultures and politics! Loved the translations of people BabyRaging over the announcement of Ukraine voice actors. Good stuff!

[@murisbukvic2496]

Clear Sky is also my favorite game, but besides the Faction Wars, new locations and other things, one thing i liked is that it stays consistently difficult. The main money well (artifacts) is a finite resource, the faction war windfall can only last so far and even after getting all the best gear, you are only a single well placed burst, a single snork/boar/whatever ambush or a single well placed grenade (OH GOD THE GRENADES) away from death. Sometimes i felt that my armor felt like tissue paper, but that might be because i stuck with the Clear Sky armor (the strongest one) and not SKAT's or Exoskeletons... When it comes to weapon accuracy, the issue gets worse if the weapon has low durability. AN94 when upgraded for accuracy, equipped with a PSO and in full condition is deadly, with the 2 round burst a nice bonus. But it has very low durability (like in IRL) so accuracy very rapidly plummets and it starts jamming often. I remembered once that i was carrying Annie and SIG rifle (which i got from Freedom's final reward) and wanted to spend as much 5.45 ammo before going further in story. Eventually i got sick with Annie always jamming, so i switched to Sig and the difference was immediately noticed. Also, after the part where the bridge in the Red Forest is lowered, you can get back to the CS base in the Swamps to get a reward, and the reward would be the FN F2000 rifle, which is basically that AR-15 rifle and Groza in one. Limansk and the areas after are basically combat-exclusive areas anyway. Finally, the first time when i reached CNPP and was fighting Strelok, i encountered the same glitch- after the first teleporter, Strelok was just standing there under the bridge, so i could easily deplete his health. Also that Gauss rifle doesn't damage enemies. Apparently it doesn't fire "real bullets" In SoC and CoP, it was very easy to earn money, and the universe felt fairly static, at least until the endgame. CS has it's classic jank, but it has that good balance and dynamic that makes it stand out. I hope that Faction Wars especially makes a comeback in 2. Looking forward to Nevada video, would love to see what they did before NV was cool.

[@berkan7662]

Absolute king for making this one

[@branzinofish3641]

no way my favorite KZbinr and my favorite series!!!!

[@crassiewassie8354]

I love the 300 years old joke Idk if it's a reference or an injoke or a meme I dont know about But this is the kind of joke that creeps up on me while i'm making myself some tea and I just start laughing

[@okami_issho]

Was very happy to see you made a video on this somewhat overlooked part of the Stalker series :) I wish i could play Clear Sky again, but last time i tried, i spent multiple hours trying to solve a reoccurring crasn in the swamp that prevented me from progressing. But at least i got Anomaly to scratch that very specific itch to visit the swamps (actually one of my fave areas in CS despite it being what it is).

[@hemangchauhan2864]

You're like Civvie for game genres liked by East European/Russian parts of the internet. Keep up the good work, such genres rarely get any coverage, let alone a decent one. P.S. - Any essential mods for Clear Sky to reduce frustrating parts?

[@baldr2825]

As an ethnic east slav, its actually embarassing seeing those forum posts. Also the phrasings like "russophobia, racism" etc. is a telltale sign someones been watching too much television. Great video, also nice calves bro)

[@sleepshouter5017]

Glad you’re continuing with the stalker games, it’s one of my favorite series. Might I suggest you cover some of the standalone mods as well? Wind of Time and Lost Alpha:DC are some of my favorites, there’s a few more that are worth playing but idk about reviewing. It’s always interesting to hear what you have to say about these games/mods, you have a unique way of reviewing them that I haven’t seen anyone else do. I’ve rewatched the Morrowind series 2 times now, it’s one of my favorite things to watch when I’m winding down for the day. Anyways, thanks for the hours of entertainment, looking forward to seeing your experience with Call of Pripyat and Fallout: Nevada.

[@m.streicher8286]

Esoteric videogame overviews laced with Ukrainian cheerleading is something I didn't know I needed

[@SAUglaz]

37:53 This area awakens the Survarium memories. Didn't play it for long, but that map was fun, especially while being one of the few players who realize it's not deathmatch.

[@enterthegungeoneer7226]

It was really great to watch these videos just after completing the games myself. As someone not from Ukraine or Russia your videos help me better understand the culture behind these games that i love so much. I was introduced to them a while back by a russian friend, But at that time i only played Shadow of Chernobyl. Now i recently played Shadow of Chernobyl again, and then Clear Sky before watching your videos. I kind of rushed through Clear Sky, not really engaging much with the factions, which ended with me going through the last section of the game with poor armour, no artifacts and no upgrades because i had no money, and on master difficulty too. After watching your video i've decided to play the game again and to do more of the faction side-quests, after i've completed Call of Pripyat which i am playing through now. I hope you'll do a video on that game some day too. These games, and your videos on games from Ukraine and Russia have made me really interested in that part of the world, and the Soviet and post-Soviet culture. I hope some day when Ukraine is no longer under attack, and the Russian state is not like it is now, that i can visit Ukraine and Russia to learn more about their culture myself. Maybe i can even learn a bit of the language, to better understand bandit quips and campfire stories. Thank you for making such insightful and interesting videos.

[@VenomSward]

Glad to hear you alive and well.

[@danielcallahan2981]

Makes my day whenever you upload, brother.

[@TURBOSLAYERPWNZ]

its probably hard to maneur around without choosing side and keeping appeal to your viewers, which have some side you expect them to have.. you are doing a great job!

[@WTFisTingispingis]

I love your videos because they're partly history lectures about Slavic stuff, part political lectures in an easily digestible format, AND an overview of the game you play.

[@Aar1sW]

Just don't try to pronounce Russian words the same way he does. For some reason Warlockracy pronounces most Russian words incorrectly with a weird accent, the kind of accent Russian person would think foreigner will have pronouncing them, not how actual foreigners do that.

[@praporbarton3961]

I rewatch your videos with more attention than most films I watch for the first time. Truly your channel is a gem

[@surprisedchar2458]

Steve Blum putting on a bad Russian accent is something that brings great joy to my life.

[@r-saint]

My favorite Stalker tbh. I love the faction mechanics, the skies themselves, the feel of freedom, and the world felt alive.

[@mikemandalorian9226]

Shooting crows was like the nightmare, it was so hard but money was to tempting. I did it once for the highest bid. Totally wasn't worth the time :D

[@mobymobymobymoby]

I love that your channel is mostly jank mods of games, which is exactly what clear sky feels like as is

[@TheZerech]

There *is* Ukrainian VO, for each faction except Duty. Duty is supposed to be a sort of post-Soviet veteran group, red is one of their colors. Freedom has a tryzub on their patch, plus a Ukrainian flag. The commentary is quite interesting. I wonder how, comparing STALKER from SoC to 2 will measure Ukrainian society's evolution away from Moscow. I always play STALKER on Ukrainian VO for practice.

[@Warlockracy]

UA VO was patched in iirc

[@OmegaEnvych]

@@Warlockracy Yeah, my cousin has official disc and it's russian only. Ukrainian wasn't there back in the day as far as I remember but at that time, we didn't had PC that could properly play game anyway

[@philswift906]

Honestly having Duty speak in russian in 2, at least some voicelines or vocabulary, could be a neat touch.

[@TheZerech]

@@Warlockracy That might certainly be. Since I always mod it in. I had assumed it was a Ukraine release only thing, but that may not be the case. They are mostly the same voice actors though, which is why I had thought that. Edit: Do any of the Russian VOs have Ukrainian accents? I can tell that many are native Ukrainian speakers, because they speak very good Ukrainian when they do the Ukrainian VO, but idk if the accent comes through with the Russian since I only speak Russian.

[@ThePieceofmeat]

​@@TheZerech That's an interesting question about an accent. Generally, all Ukrainians are bilingual, freely understanding both Ukrainian and Russian. But when it comes to speaking - it can be 100 shades, from clean Ukrainian through surzhik (mixture of both), to clean Russian. Surzhik is considered to be (but not always is) a sign of rural / less educated society. City residents usually speak cleaner Ukrainian and Russian both. And ironically, it's easier to distinguish Moskow people by their accent (I am from Ma-a-a-a-skva-a :)), than russian-speaking Ukrainian from Kyiv, Kharkiv or Dnipro from Russian, especially from southern regions of Russia. There is only one prominent feature in Ukrainian pronunciation I can think of - it's fricative g ( [ɣ] ) sound, which often goes hand-by-hand with surzhik, instead of voiced [g] in Russian. But Stalker VOs, being professional actors, can surely control that and speak clean Russian if needed. So in case of Russian VO - if you hear some surzhik, fricative g-s or "sho" - it's rather on purpose, to emphasize origin or personality of a character. Bandits and some lone stalkers speak wild surzhik, while Duty, Monolith and (for some strange reason) Ukrainian army speak clean Russian. For some characters it can depend on position of constellations in the sky, or script writer's mood at the moment. Sidorovich in 2007 VO says "shto" (clean Russian variant for word "what"), in 2008 VO he says "chyo" (vulgar Russian variant), and in Ukrainian VO he says "shcho", which is very literary Ukrainian variant.

[@SpencerBurkett]

I love your style of videos. Really happy to see you reviewing my first introduction to the Stalker series.

[@Pro_Ha]

That feeling when the world of Stalker seems more attractive than today's reality

[@Ciretako]

I mean, yeah, a global trade in exotic, anomalous materials creating massive leaps forward for science and for our global technology base sounds pretty nice. How are you feeling about that impending collapse in the cosmological fabric of reality though?

[@gusess5743]

At least giant global psychic farts would be more exciting than the mundane, grinding one-day-at-a-time collapse of society that we have now 🤷

[@I_am_Kaz]

Would love to see you cover one of the really huge Stalker mods like anomaly or gamma! I know you mentioned it a few times briefly, but a full video would be really nice to see. As a westerner, your snippets of Eastern European politics are super fascinating.

[@lowenergyvideos4658]

When the first Stalker came out my PC barely could run it. It was the high water mark for my first PC and it always makes me both sad that it couldn't run it and happy because now I think my smart fridge can run it with a bunch of mods.

[@Stalkerfan498]

Oh and I recalled you somewhere saying that you were quite nervous about playing Disco Elysium. I tried it just a couple of days ago, not quite finished yet, but sweet mother of god it's awesome. I'm convinced it's right up your alley. It's insane fun. The voices in my head all agree.

[@theraptorcommissar1015]

The most terrifying and broken part of this game was the Monoliths. Everytime I hear a Slavic man yell "Grenade" I breakdown crying and screaming... I can hear them in my head yelling "Grenado!" Every 5 seconds and popping out of existence and killing me instantly with a VS Val... Even with a fully upgraded Exoskeleton they didn't care.

[@maeson676]

Hey honey, a new Warlockracy video is out. Clear my schedule so I can rewatch it 5 times.

[@5t3v0esque]

One thing I remember from the early days of the full scale invasion is when the stalker subreddit had a thread where everyone switched their flair to the Military faction. You had dutiers, free stalkers, freedomers and even monolthians commenting on their switch.

[@ВиталийДымашок]

Отличное видео, как и всегда. Тебе не приходило в голову сделать видос касаемо билдов сталкера? Поднять диздоки 2004 года, пройти сами билды, упомянуть "Тот Самый Сталкер" как культурное явление, описать development hell и feature creep сопровождавшие разработку ТЧ, вот это вот всё. Инфы в англоязычном интернете об этом довольно мало, так что мне кажется это было бы интересно.

[@cloacky4409]

There's an amazing video about stalker's development, here's a link! : kzbin.info/www/bejne/rWGsnpd5er-Nis0&t Covers the development of the game and what the devs went thru.

[@Oroberus]

@@cloacky4409 Haven't seen it yet but as far as I know, they even lost on of their devs that joined the Ukranian Forces (lost along the lineso f he got killed fighting and not along the lines he left to fight)

[@cloacky4409]

@@Oroberus what?

[@Kevbo2040]

"Power breeds parasites". Truer words have never been spoken. Fantastic video as usual, and filled with that Taste of Slav(tm) we love so much from Warlockracy.

[@56bturn]

"14 years from now, these guys are going to become the best army in Europe." Amazing.

[@zetetick395]

Time to sharpen up my 'throw grenade back' keypress skills! @_@

[@SuperAleksandar94]

Hardly 😂

[@Mrtrollgood]

Best army in europe? Lmao

[@DigitalApex]

Ehhhhh

[@maxjoechl5663]

16:15 The AR in the game was based on the Z-M LR-300. It holds the curious distinction of being an AR-15 derivative with a side-folding stock (which would be impossible on the basic AR-15 design, since the buffer tube extends past the rear of the receiver, limiting it to fixed or telescoping buttstocks).

[@5t3v0esque]

I keep hoping that someone will buy the rights to the patent and actually produce it again(or the current owner who I think is Springfield armory gets their head out of their ass) but alas, no stalker fan has gotten high enough in the American gun industry to do it. I think I saw a guy on reddit who built one from a parts kit and I'm pretty sure he said he got it because of stalker. I hope to at least do the same one day.

[@solwindp78-1]

@@5t3v0esque The main problem is that the iconic variant we see in videogames is a very specific LR-300, the ML-A 11.5" upper with the nylatron handguard. As a result if it were to be reissued it would have to be as a factory SBR which are notoriously hard to sell to the general gun-buying public. Ownership of the design went ZM weapons -> Para Ordnance -> Remington/Freedom Group and as many folks remember, Freedom Group ran Remington into the ground and sold off all its assets. So it's likely the design is never to return.

[@5t3v0esque]

@@solwindp78-1 ah right... Mixed up who got Para, and of course it was the freedom group. I previously worked for a company that acquired part of them during the vulture fest a year or two ago and even though it was a smoother process than others it was still a mess comparatively. Cant imagine it is easy to know who ended up with it, maybe the guys who got what was left of the Remington rifle division but they're not making more than their hunting rifles iirc. Definitely not Ruger, and probably not Franklin armory unless it was put under the bushmaster umbrella upon purchase. Oh well... A man can dram. I'd still take an elongated version of it though. Or at least a recreation of the original stock for an Mcx or something.

[@Arthur-rh3oo]

the fact that I can click on a stalker video and aslo get a summary of the ukranian free state is what makes me LOVE your videos. Keep it up

[@VadymMykhailovskyi]

Obviously it was the Volkov Commander :)

[@Warlockracy]

I thought about mentioning Volkov, but that would have broken the pacing of the vid

[@maximmachinegun7206]

Clear Sky isn't as well regarded as the other games, but it has a special place in my heart. After finishing a vanilla playthrough I decided to try out some mods and used some arsenal overhaul mod that gave everyone more "realistic weapons." Lemme tell ya, nothing makes you appreciate solid cover and put the fear of the Monolith into you, more then Monolith soldiers armed with 7.62 battle rifles loaded with AP ammo!

[@MeatSnax]

I really love the format of your videos. I'll tune in for games I'm not even interested in just to get the little asides and narratives you throw in (not to say I'm not interested in Stalker).

[@VeryMelonCB]

6:52 Fun fact: The STALKER games do, in fact, have bullet penetration of cover. The tree doesn't provide much protection from the MG, the bullets used by which have very high penetration value due to being the wrong type (it uses the sniper rifle version of the ammo instead of the MG one).

[@mvdokon4181]

Yeah, the lovely modders behind the Anomaly standalone brought those cats back to life, and sometimes I wish they didn't because they are the absolute worst mutant you can run into.

[@loriw780]

Thank you for providing maria nikiforova with some visibility! I had no idea she existed and always thought it was just Makhno.

[@dash1141]

You tease us with the Last Express!

[@conusbis1148]

Keep it coming my dude, you make it way cooler to watch you talk about these games than if I played them myself. I have no idea how you do it