tsb247 said:
I am going to have to say that I disagree with you.
The environment in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. promotes exploration and is filled with dangers all of its own. There are burnt out villages with hidden stashes, anomolies that will kill you after mere seconds of exposure, and randomly distributed pockets of radiation that slowly kill everything that ventures into them. Improvised fortresses and camps litter the landscape and often change hands on a daily basis. Once night falls, it becomes apparent that the entire landscape is teaming with creatures that only desire to rip your face off; their cries being heard from miles away as they communicate with one another. Hell, in Call Of Pripyat, there are random emissions from the reactor that roll over the landscape; killing everything in it's path that doesn't take shelter, and it redistributes the artifacts that appear in the anomolies.
The environment in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has far more depth and dimension than you give it credit for. While Half-Life 2 is a great game, for sure, it relies far too heavily on environmentally driven physics puzzles. Believe it or not, having an environment full of physics objects does not necessarily make it better. If nothing else, it can make it cluttered.
Besides, how would you propose we, "Use," the environment in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.? Would we hit our enemies with boards that we pick up off of the ground? To be honest, I am not seeing your complaint. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is best known for it's environment, and you may still feel it is lacking, but there are thousands of fans, and game reviewers, who disagree.
- It is not the environment which promotes exploration, but the promise of loot. Big difference.
- The hidden stashes are good, yes I agree.
- The anomalies are static, and boring. Nothing more than an annoyance after the initial novelty factor wears off. Same goes for radiation.
- The AI in STALKER is not good enough to use these 'fortresses', as you call them, intelligently.
- Similarly, the AI of creatures, night or day, is nothing special. The fear factor quickly wears off when you realise how dumb they are.
- Can't comment on CoP features, I haven't played that game.
- I disagree that in HL2, the environment is simply 'cluttered'. In HL2 the environment matters from a gameplay perspective - it is USED in that gameplay. It is not just scenery like in STALKER. (And yes, deadly scenery is still scenery)
Ok so you would like me to invent some possible ways of using the environment in a sandboxy, open world game like STALKER. I'm not a games dev and I don't get paid to do this, but I can think of a few things off the top of my head.
1) A bridge could be destroyed with a well-placed explosive, bringing it down onto a bunch of enemies.
2) A squad of enemies could be lured into an anomaly.
3) Climb a tree to snipe enemies, or kill a horde of attacking dogs/creatures/whatever safely.
4) Anomalies could be used/controlled somehow to solve puzzles and interact with the environment.
5) Trees could be brought down with an axe in order to cross ravines, get past anomalies, etc.
6) Heavy objects could be used to barricade doors in order to create a defensible building.
etc etc
