S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The Board Game First Impressions – There’s Not Just People Out There…
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. features high-quality models and top-notch components that transport players to the harsh and cruel Zone. The mechanics have been carefully crafted to provide players with a sense of tension and danger as they tackle the game’s challenges. At this point, we know that the game will please hardcore players while being accessible to people who are just starting their journey in story-driven board games. The core narrative will be based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s campfire stories, and these stories will be our missions. The board game is described as a “zone-crawler” and is suitable for 1 to 4 players. The missions themselves are divided into separate boxes allowing for a smooth transition into the game itself.
BGG Link –
TimeStamps:
0:00:00 – Introduction
0:00:25 – Gamefound Disclaimer
0:01:30 – Overview
0:19:45 – What I Like
0:26:45 – What I Don’t Like
0:29:35 – What I Can See Others Not Liking
0:33:00 – Final Thoughts
0:35:45 – Recomendations
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I totally missed it, but the 8-12 hours campaign is the length of the campaign, but there are 3 campaigns in the core box alone. Which is a huge point considering I was genuinely worried about the replayability because of how much I enjoyed the gameplay.
Seems like this could make a good video game?
Absolutely love your point on watching others play and discovering things that you enjoy. For myself as a dad of two young boys, it’s one of life’s greatest treasures. A little off topic but, any plans to revisit Witcher Old World now that it’s out to the masses?
I’m just exhausted of these big Kickstarter campaign games. I’ve racked up hundreds of hours of a backlog already, and it’s getting really hard to both table some of these games and to get the motivation to table them (especially with how rules complex they’ve become). And I would’ve preferred more of an open world adventure game for STALKER, so this one is a pass for me.
Concerns… 1) Hate the building terrain for walls. Should get rid of them which would lower price. 2) hate stickers and paper map, it hurts replay. 3) cards on what’s in the rooms. If not random it lowers replay. 4) over watch tokens don’t seem to be needed. Just another token to move. 5) enemy line of sight. They look straight /left /right but they don’t seem to look diagonal. 6) everything is either black or gold. Different colors for player cards. 7) too many tokens for noise
Likes… 1) it’s a beautiful looking game just too much black and gold. 2) miniatures are awesome. 3) like the radiation and the counter for it. 4) short campaign. 5) one shot games available. 4) not having to track damage on enemies. 5.) not having to roll for noise all the time like Reichbusters.
I couldn't stand trying to keep track of each enemies vision in burncycle so this is a hard pass for me
I’m learning to say no. Whilst there are so many things I like about this game I do not like it enough to be a priority in getting to the table vs some other games I have on pre order. I want to say thanks Alex as you have help me resist buying due to FOMO and focus on buying games i know i will table lots and enjoy.
Wanted to like this one. Watched available playthroughs and found it boring. Happy to save some moneys 🙂 Although post-apocalyptic setting and especially Stalker universe is straight at the top of my wishlist.
I always enjoy your take on gameplay and this overview was right on track. I have watched a couple run throughs on other channels and found them very informative. Your review just solidifies my feelings for the game, feelings that will more than likely get me into trouble $$$-wise. So far, based on what I've seen, I like this game. The story telling aspect really draws one into the atmosphere of the game. The Anomaly mechanics are really interesting and I love those models. I do have to mention I felt like the noise issues were a bit troublesome but something with which one just has to overcome.
One thing I've come to agree with you on is the 3D structure outlines. I thought they were really cool during the unboxing, though I immediately thought, "Oh oh, more money, more money!" Once I saw how the game sets up, I was of your opinion that they get in the way. I do like some of the other rubble thay have but I doubt it'll all be separate from the set. All that said, once again I fear we'll have a huge issue with FOMO, wanting all the goodies offered. And then, in my case, there's waiting a year – maybe more – for the game to appear at our doors. Love your channel. Peace!
Ramble off.
I am amazed that games are sticking with noise as a thing. It hardly ever works, why not just trigger 'noise' immediately – you run, they chase. Much more impactful, less to remember and less tokens.
I think this game is for the IP lovers.
I'm not and without that connection, the game seems just meh (the visual design seems a bit old school), the mechanics seem a bit bloated and nothing stands out enough for me to be kept engaged.
And the stickers on the map is a big no no.
I'm also bothered how they have three outstanding projects. Hey how about you get some of these guys on my over a year late ISS vanguard
Why do all the heroes in non-fantasy board games look like homeless people these days?
First Apex Legends and now this game.
Thanks Alex I’m looking forward to this one. It’s totally my vibe.
Can’t wait for this! Thanks for covering.
This game looks a lot more enticing now but my bank account dictates Firefly > S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
After watching multiple videos about the game, it seems like the cardboard terrain actually helps making it easier to figure out the enemies line of sight. I read that they consider alternative options for stickers, so I'm curious about that.
The theme is cool. The artwork and minis are awesome. The gameplay? Ehh, that's where the game lost me to be honest.
It just seems fiddly and frustrating. Trying to go stealthy gets impeded by the random movement and the direction enemies end up facing. There's not many ways to mitigate that. Going on the assault seems like it would result in getting assaulted from multiple directions all at once.
Maybe it would work for solo gamers that are fine with that stuff but I'm not seeing how it would work for a group. They pretty much have to move but everyone doing so attracts all of the enemies immediately.
So… Yeah, pass.
I think that replayability should be fine, because you also have the Zone Survival Mode with randomly generated one-off scenarios. While this removes the campaign stuff like map management, it still keeps the story elements and surprises which won't wear off like the ones from the campaign mode.
I refuse to type the 14 character game name 😂. Should be 7 characters 😈.
Sigh. We’re totally going to end up backing this but we really don’t need another campaign game in our collection. I just looks too good to say no to.
Skipping ANY Awaken Realms games at this point. Their estimates are purposely way too optimistic and I am not willing to wait for a board game for 3+ years just to get the base game let alone the expansions. Still waiting for my base game of ISS Vanguard in German.
With large language models and artificial intelligence translation should become easier, cheaper as well as almost instantaneous. Even if it isn't perfect, it can be a first draft and take a huge initial weight off of any translation task. This and given the fact that Awaken Realms has the policy of first having ALL English gaming components done before even starting on the translation process doesn't help.
I may not get all the fancy additional components of the campaign, but who cares? I wait for retail or skip the entire game.
Good preview! Would you say that there is more overall luck mitigation than in Assassin’s Creed. I played hours of V-Sabotage and now hesitating between this and Assassin’s Creed! Thanks for the input!👌
I do like the post-apocalyptic theme but I still have Hunters 2114 that I haven't played yet, so I will probably pass. Beginning to think that I have enough campaign games to last me several years (with more to come). Decided that I am not keeping Isofarian Guard because I don't like it enough to play it for the required hours, so don't really need another campaign game.
Ty for this video!
What would you prefer if compared to the new Tainted Grail ?
I hate stickers in board games!
Thank you for showing me this game in more detaiil point of view. Now I know what I should do about this campaign:) I love your corner "twhat I cna see that others not like" too.
The mechanics as seen in another solo playthrough video seem fairly good (different action tokens, line of sight, combat, wound cards and the radiation).
But such story-driven games are not something I particularly enjoy and I'm not a fan of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. computer game.
And it's too expensive, even without the miniatures most of which you have to buy separately.
And even if I would want it, I think, it has not enough replayability with 3 small campaigns with few scenarios. I think they're also going to offer an expansion box for unlimited play, but I somehow doubt it will work well enough to make it interesting.
And on top of it all, I can't justify another game with several big boxes for the time being.
Don't know how I feel about the prominent grid layout on the board. It's very bold and gets in the way of the art, and by extension, the immersion.
Don’t know if I will back this. Running out of room for big games.
I suspect the sci-fi campaign game you couldn’t think of with stealth was Earth Under Siege Flashpoint
Thank you for the thorough review, Alex! Great as always. 🙂
The other stealth based game you were trying to remember, was it Earth Under Siege: Flashpoint? I'm also quite excited for that one.
Alex, I love the way you are always so upfront (and maybe even overly-cautious) about declaring your relationship with Gamefound and Awaken Realms. I've worked for a bank and for the government, and both of them heavily stressed that it is not just if you have a conflict of interest, it can be the perception of having a conflict of interest.
Your effort to be fair and unbiased gives me even more faith in the accuracy of your ratings. Thank you.
Really sad they took a stealth approach for the game. The video game and books are more about the dangers and caution of the world, you can't avoid the danger, it's present and you can find a way to deal with it. Resources being scarce etc. Here it seems more like a tedious puzzle, where the only dangers lies in knowing you have to hold back or you get overrun. I would much rather they turned it more into a survival game or explored a more narrative driven solution. Although I guess narrative is too rough, since the writing in the books is so good that they would only cause dissapointment.
With 40k followers on the campaign this will be a huge success for sure, at the cost of a lot of disappointments i'm afraid once backers will effectively test this (screwed and approximative, non realistic) gameplay. I awaited this campaign more than any of other campaigns this year and it ends up that, watching the review here and there, i finally must admit that this game will not live up to my expectations.
I sincerely hope that all the ones who will back without even checking a single review or without really trying to know what's behind this nice DA, will be happy with their choice.
Should have played while wearing a gas mask.
sorry but im but im confused so this is a storry game with missions and it has a just survaval mode so a mix of storry games like tainted grail and a dungeon game like cthulu death may die ?
In your opinion, how does this game compare to games like Zombicide or Nemesis which seem to be similar systems? Any reason to get one over the other? Thanks!
I dislike how so many kickstarters are addicted to using IPs. Especially old ones. Dont want to back an ip gane when i know nothing about the ip.
Sounds like the metro series would have been a bigger and newer ip for the same themed game?
There are typos and poor wording on the campaign page. Alex did they get you to proof read the page?
I'm not super sure about another campaign game, but they did a whole dev diary on Zone Survival mode, aka one-shot mode. If that's fleshed out well, maybe it'll be enough to make non-campaign gamers (like myself lol) jump in.
I’m pretty sure there are actually 4 different 12 hour campaigns (1 is a stretch goal) so if you want more stalker just play the next campaign! 🙂
I get a lot of This War of Mine vibes. Can't wait to get this game in my hands 😊
Board game designers really need to find a new system to deal with the concept of noise.
I hate campaign games, but I love Awaken Realms and STALKER, Nemesis is my favorite game ever. Is the Survival-Zone mode enough for purchase in your opinion?
Im starting to enjoy smaller games. These big kickstarters are becoming a chore
Question regarding stealth: could you feasibly make a bunch of noise in one space, then run and hide in another? This would allow you to sneak up behind enemies again. That’s a fun tactic in games like Last of us.
I never backed any AR so far, though always intrigued. This game checks basically all my boxes, but im still a bit unsure about if gameplay is to tactical.
I dont like non scripted playthrough videos, so I wanted to wait for BoardGameCo and the canadian 5 reason not to back before going in.
I love everything about this game that is not the core gameplay (I am just not sure yet):
– Love the theme
– Love those story swap cards (seems bit like a3e archive deck)
– Love more shorter campagins
– Love Hub World
– Love Skirmish mode