The Zone: Stalker Stories

https://youtu.be/rgSu20QuXQ0 https://rumble.com/v2ugjzy-the-zone-stalker-stories-rpg-card-battler-part-1.html As a finished game this really might be an interesting card battler RPG, for now it's still in early access. I like a lot of parts about it, like the aesthetics, the story, the free roam or the battles. But, I also feel like this game needs a lot of work from now on to rise at its potential. The game crashed a lot on me (going back with 'quick start' seemingly fixed a lot of them, I was in a crash frenzy at one point, every time I was about to fight somebody the game crashed), I hated the fact that you can't see enemies in free roam and you randomly stumble across them in the weirdest places and most of the times they are much stronger than you, I find it weird that you can't see enemies at all on free roam, also, the game could've been more explicative in general about free roam and battles. This is not at all a bad game but it still needs some work unfortunately.

This game is heavy on the story early on but soon as ya get past the gate it opens up a bit with exploration/combat. So far so good. It's a nice simplified staIker like game with a card battler mechanic. I wish there was a bit of voice actin' though. A solid effort from Illuminated Games. Gameplay here: https://youtu.be/mGKBWxsaLTQ

Early Access review 12/4/23, v0.6.6.4 My actual Time Played for this game is roughly 1.5 hrs. This is a first impression review. I played through the first quest (roughly an hour or so of gameplay) of a copy I, ahem, 'found' somewhere and was compelled to purchase the game to support the developer and a product that I am genuinely impressed by. That in itself is a bit of a mini-review, because I am the very essence of a jaded gamer and this is a genre I am particularly jaded about. I've played all the Card Battlers. I've played the granddaddy of them all, Dream Quest. I played Nerdook's Monster Slayers when it dropped. Card Quest. I joined the Early Access for Slay the Spire when there was only one character available and all the card art was placeholder. Same with Griftlands. Probably Monster Train too, I can't even remember. And all the lesser known games also. Deep Sky Derelicts. Deck of Ashes. Gordian Quest. Across the Obelisk. Banners of Ruin. Knock on the Coffin Door. Blood C...

Spend 2.5 hours in game and what i can say -Atmosphere is awesome. A half-mysterious world where familiar things turned into unfamiliar dangers -Unablility of protagonist to read letters add some edge and mystery, also it looks-and-feels pretty fresh -Artworks and design, animations and effects are good but they really can be better but i give discount that is Early Acces -Feel like STALKER, smell like "Roadside Picnic", played as good quality Card Collector game with good mixture of RPG and semi-rouge . Now to bad side -Bugs. Bugs. Bugs. Bugs. a lot of em. But of course it's an Early Access and i want to pay-to-support game development -variety - ain't big but again - it's an EA. Does this game cost it's price? Yes it does. A good tactical adventure in quite interesting world is coming. Definetley support this game.

I've watched both video's found within this game's review area. The gameplay I saw persuaded me to give this game a try. This is my experience: I got stuck in the first area and the game crashed. Restarting the game brought me back to the same area and it directly crashed again. Only restating from scratch solved the issue. I know the game is Early Access, but this spoiled the fun for me a little too early. So I've asked for a refund, sorry.

it was great until i got caught in an infinite loop of dying immediately for unexplained reasons which made it unplayable about 45 mins or so in. EDIT: polite dev with quick response, changed to recommend.

It's fun to play.

i really had fun playing but can you really fix the crash? I played for 4 hours with like 6 7 crashes, some need to reastart hte whole game.

Its been a while since I have played a game I can clearly state is an unsavable mess! Where to start with why this is an utter waste of time, probably with the clashing art styles. It has a really dull first 10 minute intro where you are just itching to get the game started. The labels for the city are really poorly defined. The dialogue is incredibly slow and uninteresting too. I wanted to just skip skip skip but the game makes you move at a snails pace taking in the mundane atmosphere. THEN, when you finally manage to get into a semblence of a game, it throws you into some sort of NES looking exploration game (just after the cliche map of course). The game prompts you to press q for tutorials. But by this stage, I imagine all but the most die hard fans have pretty much given up. FINALLY, I got to a combat. Here, its just that darkest dungeon meets any number of card based deck builders, but done really poorly. It was so jarring to come through all these really mashed tog...

I was pleasantly surprised to the devs take a refreshing approach to the whole "anomaly" trope where instead of it taking place in Chernoboyl, it actually has its own unique setting, as well as the anomalies aren't just the usual old unimaginative "haha physics go brrrrr" people make when trying to emulate Roadside Picnic. Instead these anomalies actually feel feel more anomalous and more at home with SCP.