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The “One-Click Mod” system on GOG — a DRM-free digital distribution platform for PC games offered in alternative to storefronts like Steam and the Epic Games Store — allows you to install and play many of the best mods out there with a single click. And now, one of the biggest, most-popular modpacks of all time has joined the program.
That modpack is STALKER GAMMA (Grok’s Automated Modular Modpack for Anomaly), a huge collection of add-ons for STALKER Anomaly (also on GOG), which is itself a free, standalone STALKER FPS game built using the open source 64-bit version of the X-Ray engine the original trilogy of STALKER games use.
Anomaly is essentially a free roam, exploration-focused version of all three of the late-2000s STALKER titles combined into one, and GAMMA builds on top of it with over 400 curated mods from the Anomaly modding community that transform it into a hardcore survival experience.
Grok, the modpack’s author, has gone to painstaking lengths to adjust and tweak each add-on in the suite to finely tune the gameplay difficulty, and also to ensure that everything works and plays nicely together without any compatibility-related issues.
The key defining feature of GAMMA is the fact that trader NPCs throughout STALKER’s fictional, supernatural version of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone — simply “The Zone” — don’t sell weapons or armor, instead dealing only in ammo, food, and parts for said pieces of gear, among other supplies.
That means the only way to get stronger is by finding loot in stashes you come across or on the bodies of hostile stalkers you kill, or by completing quests. And since that loot will almost always be damaged, you’ll need to spend a good amount of time saving up to buy the parts and supplies needed to fix and maintain them, or hunting for them in the world.
This balancing results in a significantly slower and more difficult progression curve, but it also makes moment-to-moment gameplay more dynamic and engaging, as you’ll be driven to explore more thoroughly and be far more thoughtful about the missions and engagements you choose to get involved in. Unlike regular Anomaly, GAMMA’s limitations stop you from farming money from easy missions in early locations and buying your way to late-game strength.
That more patience-driven, methodical pacing is complemented by mods that increase the lethality of gunplay and introduce locational damage, meaning you have to be extremely careful in your approach to firefights (or battles with The Zone’s mutants) and contend with wounds to specific limbs and their effects. A broken leg, for example, will prevent you from sprinting.
Indeed, GAMMA is brutal, and far more hardcore than STALKER’s normal open-world gameplay. But it’s also ridiculously immersive — the modpack’s transformative graphical enhancements help a lot with that — and importantly, fair. With time and experience, you can master its challenges and overcome them, and doing so is immensely satisfying.
Installing GAMMA normally has always been a bit tricky since it requires going to its Discord server and following some lengthy directions, but thanks to the GOG release, it’s easier to get playing than it’s ever been. However, there is one downside to using GOG to play it.
That caveat is the fact you have to own either 2010’s STALKER: Call of Pripyat or last year’s official sequel from GSC Game World, STALKER 2, on GOG specifically to download and install STALKER GAMMA. The modpack itself is free, but Call of Pripyat is $20, and STALKER 2 is $59.99 (though the former is discounted to $13.99 at GOG and the latter is down to $41.99 at GOG right now).
I own these games on Steam instead, so I can’t use GOG to play GAMMA without buying one of them again — something I’m not going to do. So if you’re like me, or you’re simply willing to install GAMMA the harder way to avoid spending money, going about it through the modpack’s Discord is the way to go.
Still, it’s awesome that this option now exists, and if you already have one of the aforementioned titles on GOG or you’re willing to buy one to easily install GAMMA, you can get playing right away.
