With all its faults, i enjoyed the story of Stalker 2. It feels like home.
After 2nd pt, I grew to love Faust, easily one of the most memorable and iconic characters of the franchise. I still wish monolith and ex-monolith had more screentime besides being the go-to adversaries for exploration shootouts. The few quests they had are not enough, especially given the tragedy of Strider and his entire group. I'm still not over his death, he of all people in the franchise deserves better. The way he tried to shoot himself right after the Signal went off broke my heart. And the death scene, where he's free of monolith influence again, realizing he nearly killed Skif........................
Surprised by Korshunov, like super surprised. First time i did Varta-Varta-Strider-Strelok-Doctor (i also did permutations of the last two to see the three other endings), and this time I did Spark-Spark-Varta-Strelok-Doctor. I expected him to be a typical soldier bossman, someone who would betray me and who would try to off me, but nothing like that, and he actually respects Skif and does not consider him to be a meat on legs. He's very convincing, menacing but not evil, likable also. The "i can't even bury them" speech hit right in the heart - he's got his men at the top of his priorities, and it's a breath of fresh air to see a military man in a media to not think of his subordinates as of disposable.
Dalin Jr. is the same revelation. I thought he'd be a scumbag, a scientist without morals, another trickster, but nope, man with a heart of gold following after his not so good father. Feeling a bit guilty for not trusting him the entire time the first playthrough. I laughed my ass off during that one section at the institude where Korshunov casually watched Skif assault Dalin, as if it's a regular occurence at the place.
Scar is one big holy shit. I both love him and hate him. He's definitely not something i thought him to be from Clear Sky, but he's entertaining nonetheless. He is actually the ruthless and crazy motherfucker i believed Korshunov to be, with absolute fuck all about human lives. Proper terrorist. And his S2 story tying with CS - i can't help but pity him, groomed to be used as a modem by people with power.
Separate mention to Spark's Star. The guy had at most 10 minutes of screentime total, but he's got some real good chemistry with Skif.
Richter is a whole nother beast. He's like an autistic golder retriever puppy. Jesus, man, just kiss Skif already, you aren't gonna see him ever again anyway.
I swear, if the game was less depressing, Skif, Richer and Star could be boyfriends.
Strelok is everything i thought he'd be and would become. Definitely didn't disappoint, tho at one point i questioned where tf he got so much money hiring all those mercs lmao. He definitely had his brain scorched with an idea, but he's somehow still rational about everything else. Clever, stubborn in his ways, rigid, unable to see thru some subtler parts.
Really glad to meet Doctor proper after so many years. He's everything I expected him to be and more. What I didn't expect is him throwing heavy as fuck lines constantly, making me question every single step.
Degtyarov... had crininally little time after introduction. Certified badass tho.
Oh my god Agatha the bitch. This is the ruthless person I believed Dalin to be. The Varta ending is easily THE BAD one because of who she is, who she is serving and what their plans are, though not even remotely as depressing as Scar's. The old hag had my homie Korshunov follow her without any doubt. Ugh I wish there was a way to knock some sense into him....
For the Varta ending, Strelok literally says they're going to use the Thread project for something during that one infiltration mission with the TVs, but he doesn't know exactly what for. I followed Korshunov's reasoning and logic that the Zone is to be destroyed, but somehow, i disregarded Agatha completely. And then the ending hit me. Ye, the Zone is gone, but something far more sinister is in its place, with project X finished after so many years and its goals fulfilled. And those TVs at the end, being creepy. Nah, never picking that one again.
The Scar ending is easily the most depressing one. First Korshunov kills Richter, but then turns out that O-Soznanie is legit and exists in the subtle matter, and Dalin is ecstatic to finally be able to talk to his father. And then the O-Soz representative sends you to the generators, and it's surprisingly peaceful and not dangerous at all, rainbows everywhere, and you chill near the blue campfires under emissions with your now suddenly alive-but-not-really Richter and other dead homies from the subtle matter (Strider is suspiciously absent), and Richter shows you the way like a fucking disney princess. And you think, hey, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. WRONG. You get to the X-lab, and Scar is having a life crisis cuz his entire life in the Zone was a lie, his memories have been imprinted from another stalker, and he himself was programmed for this exact job, but then he comes thru and decides to go into the fish tank anyway. And then it's butterflies, poppies, unicorn farts everywhere, all dead people are alive, and Skif be having a grand time of his life chatting with homies.... UNTIL THE FUCKEN CAMERA SHIFTS, and turns out it's all in his head. Yeah no, never again.
The Strelok ending is probably a good one. Or at least neutral. He gives his reasoning, he tells everyone to fuck off, he prohibits exit and enter into the Zone, and he's now the entity guarding her like a loyal dog. The Zone supposedly (because let's face it, this balding mofo's in charge now) has no masters anymore, no one can abuse her ever again, but she's not free either. Tho it's kinda a weird one with him. He wanted the Zone gone, but now he put her under his own protectorate? I mean, it's been 10 years, a man can change, but... would be interesting to hear a more elaborate explaination than "she gave me a new life" or smth.
And then the Doctor ending. Some say it's a bad one, but I really do love it the most. I knew i wouldn't be able to kill him as Strelok wanted, and he gives very compelling arguments against Strelok's crusade... and you spare Doc, run to hide into the basement of his house from the emission... only to find more notes down there, talking about the O-Soz agents and him using them and scaners and alpha-artifacts for something... makes you question if he wasn't the mastermind behind all this. Maybe even his couriers were behind the explosion at Skif's khrushovka. Maybe it was a setup to bring an outsider to make his plan come true. And then, at the end, as the Zone finally frees herself of her shackles, expanding worldwide (i doubt it's an actual expansion, more like local anomalies appearing worldwide), Doc morphs into Faust and makes you question the entire Doctor's story. Was it Faust the whole time? Was he not killed by Skif? Is he a manifestation, an illusion? Was it Faust himself that is the mastermind behind all this? And then remember that reactivated monolith-Strider tried to kill doctor. Was it a coincidence? Was it a command to kill Doctor Kaymanov by O-Soz, was it a command by O-Soz to kill Faust while pretending to be Doctor because he's sorta gone rogue/against his original program, or was it a command by Faust himself to get Skif to trust the illusion?
And the awesome part is that all of the endings-related parties are right about their respective things.
This is the game narrative-wise I wanted Veilguard to be tbh. But here I am, left alone to geek out about stalker 2 instead.
Oh and in this game they drop some serious lines, most notably Doctor, as I mentioned above. His "But how does one know the value of freedom if one has never been free?" hit me like a truck. Strider's monologue after his death about monolithians being puppets brings tears to the eyes.
Ugh, this makes me think what kinda ending woulda been if Strider was alive and still himself, if he went into the aquarium instead of everyone else.
Oh by the way, the Faust theme, 0:40 - 0:50, I swear I can hear "let me out". Not creepy at all, but checks out.
TL:DR i want more monolithian stuff, i want justice for my bestie Strider AND I want a romance-dating DLC because Richter and Star are definitely boyfriend materials for Skif lmao.
