Summary
- GSC Game World launched a remastered trilogy of the original Stalker games on Steam yesterday.
- However, they're not going down well with fans, who are upset at the removal of Soviet imagery as well as several issues such as blurry visuals and input lag.
- While it's understandable given the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, many fans argue that the Soviet imagery wasn't condoning Russia, but spotlighting the Soviet incompetence that led to the Chornobyl disaster.
Yesterday, GSC Game World launched the Legends of the Zone Enhanced Edition on PC, a remastered bundle of the original three Stalker games. There's a lot to celebrate,ꦜ namely controller support and achievements, but one look at the subreddit and store pages, and you'll see that plenty of fans aren't happy, as every game in the trilogy launched to 'Mixed' reviews on Steam yesterday.
The collection has removed or replaced several examples of Soviet imagery, likely due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which forced several developers at the Kyiv-based studio to flee to the country's western border. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:This l♛ed to numero🥃us delays for Stalker 2, with Russia even la꧙unching a disinformation campaign against the game. As a result, the studio refused to launch Stalker 2 in Russia, removing Russian voiceovers and subtit𒁃les. Now, it appears to be following suit with the original trilogy's remaster.
However, fans argue that the Soviet imagery in the first three St♏alker games wasn't condoning Russia, and so it shouldn't have been axed in the enhanced editions. "Most overdone censorship in a video game in ages," writes one reviewer. "The main appeal of game's world set in Chernobyl [sic] is that the place itself is trapped in 1986. 'A museum of time', according to Yaroslav Kravchenko of GSC in their documentary behind the making of Stalker 2. Abandoned buildings and radioactive surroundings serve as a permanent link to the disaster, with rotting hammerཧs and sickles and propaganda posters constantly reminding us who's responsible for this incompetence."
"A Massive Downgrade": Stalker Fans Have Even Penned A Letter To GSC
On the series' subreddit, one fan, u/SurDno, even , signed by the "Stalker community". It congratulates GSC on the launch of the remaster, and thanks the studio for "providing those versions for free" to those who already owned the original games, while also lauding the new features and quality-of-life improvement🎃s (including Steam Workshop support). But they also decried the sweeping changes made to the Zone, and calls on GSC to either revert them, or add an option to add the original content back for yourself.
"The atmospheric integrity of the Zone relies on preserving those historical elements," the letter reads. "The games are set in a place stuck in [the] time of the Chornob🦂yl catastrophe, and the remnants act not as a tool of propaganda but as reminders of the consequences of [a] totalitarian regime. The Zone's appeal has always been about its unique setting - not ju꧑st the anomalous nature of it, but the place and time that most of us have never been to. Removing those elements is directly robbing the players of the immersion that made the original releases so great."
Incredജibly bizarre to remove Soviet imagery from the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone when it practically exists as a monument to the institutional failures of the Soviet Union. It's no𒊎t flattering to Russia in the slightest.
GSC Game World has not yet addressed the backlash, but negative reviews continue to pile in, as many criticise not just the removed So🔯vie🥂t imagery, but the blurrier visuals, input lag, and other issues with the bundle.
&q𝓡uot;Stressed Together": Pioner Feels Like Playing Stal𓂃ker And Metro With Friends
Pioner bottles the survival hor🐠ror of Stalker and Metro effortlessly, and even with other players by your side, keeps its edge.
