S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Lost Alpha—Director's Cut

Stalker: Lost Alpha—Director's Cut is the post-apocalyptic shooter at its best

Perhaps the definitive Stalker, and it’s free.

There is a scene in the classic Tarkovsky film Stalker, the game’s inspiration, where a fog rolls in and seems to change the landscape. The enigmatic Zone shifts around its guests, turning the familiar into the strange. Lost Alpha, an effort to recreate a version of Shadow of Chernobyl that never made it to the public, is like this. It’s a space you know and yet nothing is where you remember it. Those familiar with the games will wonder in confidence only to find themselves lost.

In that sense Lost Alpha was a remix. Not an improved or ‘ideal’ version of the original Stalker but rather a reimagining of it. Familiar components were reshuffled. Areas were redesigned, made bigger. New ones were created entirely. The story was the same yet followed a different series of events on way to its conclusion. There were new set pieces littered throughout that gave some direction to a traditionally formless experience. It wasn’t always enjoyable, however. An adventure through Lost Alpha exposed why the creators probably dispensed with certain ideas, such as huge stretches of empty levels and unforgiving set pieces ill-suited to Stalker’s kind of gunplay. Though in making the familiar new again, Lost Alpha was certainly an interesting experience.

The Developer’s Cut, then, is an attempt to turn the original Lost Alpha into a polished, coherent experience. This starts with the visuals. This is easily the best-looking version of any Stalker game and certainly the most appealing for modern players. Time hasn’t been kind to the character models but the environments, lighting and weather still have the power to make you pause. Nowhere in gaming has ever captured my imagination quite like the Zone, the radioactive and twisted world surrounding this alternate universe Chernobyl. None of the ambience has been lost here. Washed out landscapes and dreary buildings remain but with a dose of lush foliage and high-res textures, the Zone is able to exist in the haunting beauty you recall instead of the now dated version from 2007.

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henriquejr said:

I always dreamt of modding my S.T.A.L.K.E.R to a more beautiful world, but I think my current video card will not <ahem> respond properly <ahem> to this. (I have a GTX 760 4 GB VRAM).

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JDR13 said:

I haven't tried this particular mod, but I think a GTX 770 should be fine after watching some gameplay videos. Just Google the system requirements.

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