Rather obnoxious of people to be complaining about a bundle like this. They're decent games, and at the price you can get them for it's dumb to stomp your feet and demand better.
Been meaning to try Dark Siders for awhile now, so.. yay.
RIP in peace, THQ. It's been nice knowing you.
That's why you need me.... Need someone to punish you for your sins.
Before I played Darksiders through, I was thoroughly sold on how much it seemed like a rip-off of God of War. In reality, it is much more like Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess - Except War's Midna is voiced by Mark Hamill and every shop keeper is a demon voiced by Phil Lamarr. It doesn't win any awards for deep thought provoking writing (then again, neither does Zelda), but everything from the combat, to the platforming, to the camera (I DESPISED Twilight Princess' camera) were all very smooth. I really wanted to dislike it for it borrowing heavily from other titles in the genre, but I was having too much fun.
Nothing is really original anymore, but there's the difference between "taking inspiration from" and plain cloning something. I'll admit both Darksiders and Metro 2033 are more the former than the latter, but the games they're influenced by are pretty obvious.
Darksiders has elements from other games in it (Legend of Zelda, as mentioned), but its hacky-slashy gameplay style and "gather souls from shit to kill to make your ridiculously over-compensating sword kill shit more better," system is ripped out of God of War almost whole.
Metro 2033 is very similar to a linear, easier STALKER that takes place entirely in underground areas. Was-once-human mutants caused by radiation, alien-like "super mutants", they even have the electrical "kill you dead" anomalies and ghost-like entities. Oh, it's Russian, too (okay, fine, STALKER is technically Ukranian, but western audiences won't know the difference unless you explain it to them.)
Understand, I'm not saying either game is boring - I got Darksiders for free with the Space Marine pre-order and enjoyed it and Metro 2033 is plenty fun - but that both games borrow very heavily from specific earlier games and just barely fall on this side of the "clone/not-a-clone" line.
STALKER isn't a linear game for one.
If the settings are 'similar' does not make it a knock off of another.
In fact, Metro 2033 is based off a book called... Metro 2033. Hell, little books are scattered around the whole game.
It is inspired by a book, not another game.
Pretty great deal, thanks for sharing op
Aside from worrying about food and other stats, gameplay is very, very similar between the two titles. The only difference is that Metro 2033 is linear and always "indoors" (in the sense that the outdoor areas are walled off by debris and straight up invisible walls) while STALKER is free-roaming and full of largely meaningless side jobs to inflate play time and drag out the game.
That went from setting = the same.
Then it became gameplay = the same, whilst ignoring the stuff the made STALKER itself, and then saying Metro 2033 is linear, much like a lot of game.
Metro 2033 is following a story by a book, there is no "oh let's go do this random other thing" in order to make it non linear.
STALKER has inventory management, faction, npc interactions, storage, weapon durability and fix (Call of Pripyat), armor and health. Radiation, poison, bleeding, etc.
Metro 2033 comes in large with ammo conservation, interesting currency method, and largely, it is still based off a book. It is meant to be story driven.
The game play, if you want to say and ignore everything else.
Getting shot in the face = dying.
Falling off a cliff = dying.
NPCs see you if you screw up stealth, and then proceed to get shot in the face.
Shooting people hurts.
The genre is FPS, you can't change that. Every FPS game is going to be what it is. The core is the same, everything else they do is what makes a game unique.
STALKER follows Roadside Picnic. In fact, one of the characters in Metro 2033 even finds a copy of Roadside Picnic in the library and makes a joke about it.
All of which are, ultimately, fairly minor elements of gameplay without modding.STALKER has inventory management, faction, npc interactions, storage, weapon durability and fix (Call of Pripyat), armor and health. Radiation, poison, bleeding, etc.
And I'm saying that Metro 2033 isn't very unique because it borrows a lot of primary gameplay elements from STALKER's underground sections. When you go into the labs or other underground areas in STALKER, inventory management and resource (ammo) management becomes very important because you can't easily return to the surface and superhuman sprint to the nearest shop for a resupply.The genre is FPS, you can't change that. Every FPS game is going to be what it is. The core is the same, everything else they do is what makes a game unique.
Metro 2033's limits on how many weapons you can carry as well as scarce ammo (some of which doubles as the currency, very slightly emulating STALKER's pretty scarce Rubles) is very similar to these sections of STALKER.
I've played every single game (including all God of War games) multiple times to completion. I'd say I know plenty on the subject. Good of you to provide such a well-thought, reasoned, insightful, and overall useful post, though.
Watching the counter is surprisingly entertaining. It's crazy how fast the internet goes.
Mentioning is not the same as actually using it.
http://stalker.wikia.com/wiki/Roadside_Picnic
The story is not based off of Roadside Picnic, which was the whole premise. Not the similarities and just taking ideas off a book.
Minor elements...?
It is what makes part of the game, you can't dismiss the game because you dismiss it.
This is not borrowing from STALKER, it is basically borrowing from Resident Evil 1's survival horror, which as it was, made it so you had very limited resource. Again, you are saying one came from the other except it is the genre in itself.
STALKER's Rubles are hard to obtain? O.o
It's not emulating when Rubles are quite literally just currency without the potential use as being an ammo source.
You can repeatedly kill people, sell their equipment, and make money (ruble) that way. It is tedious, but it isn't hard to find.
Military grade bullets are limited, period. You shoot it, it's gone forever, there is no method to farm it or anything.
Catches on rather quickly. Should have it record and see how fast it goes up in time lapse.