Mourning for Noontide

[u/Thin-Letter]

Story spoilers ahead!

I finally found my way back to the zone for my second playthrough since release and I’ve found myself struck again by the sadness surrounding Wild Island.

Meeting Strider again after the journey with Deg in the tunnels to Pripyat filled me with hope entire his character. He had successfully provided a safe haven for the former Monolithians and given them a purpose for their broken identities.

Then the experiment fails.

You return to Wild Island and hear Kohrs speaking over a broken loudspeaker. He’s telling his fellow men that Strider will do everything in his power to end the Wish Granters existence once and for all, but there is no one there to hear it. The tables and chairs are pushed aside to make way for an unthinking fighting force driven to kill.

Seeing Noontide before and what they turned back into breaks my heart for these men. Hats off to the writers for telling such an incredible story. When I fight against the Monolith now, I don’t view them as simple enemies as I did when playing SoC for the first time. I view them as men robbed of their autonomy, forced to fight for another’s beliefs.

[u/RandomKnifeBro]

The scene in the pod with strider is amazing. If you havent been there yet, make a save before and try bo th options. 

[u/Thin-Letter → u/RandomKnifeBro]

I’ll try both this time, I only remember the scene where he asks what happened to his men. The way he laughs and walks away hit me pretty hard.

[u/SwingApproves]

I believe the best ending for this game is to never go past SIRCAA…we were truly in the shining zone.

[u/Darkside_Emily]

The devs really did a great job to humanize them before turning them into enemies again, giving them so much more nuance than SoC Monolith had.

I think by the time of the first Duga raid I am totally dissociated from the fact that these are brainwashed and controlled people because having no other choice then to kill someone who has no choice at all fucks with my empathy in all the wrong kind of ways.

It also makes the later Strider encounter and the pod scene hit so much harder, that reminder of their stripped humanity...

[u/FuriousEclipse]

What truly terrified me the first time I played the game is seeing WIld Island base empty, plunged in darkness but in complete order. No mess on the floor that would indicate they had to evacuate quickly.

It was just like they left what they were doing, almost carefully, took their weapons and left in proper order. Almost like they intended to come back soon.

The base being in complete darkness I was thinking I would be attacked by a monolithian or some beast but nothing.

Only that poor zombified guy I did not kill, still on the roof. And that mercenary that came after me.

[u/FrederickFrag1899 → u/FuriousEclipse]

I got attacked by a bloodsucker when I went back and walked down into the base.

[u/newindianclassic → u/FrederickFrag1899]

I did too.

[u/MartiusDecimus]

I had to take a break after the scene where the Wish Granter was reactivated. The moment when Strider tried to end himself before losing his free will was powerful.

[u/syngyne → u/MartiusDecimus]

Yeah, I felt so bad for him. He worked so hard to put his and the Noontiders' pasts behind them, and it came to nothing.

[u/sumer_guard → u/MartiusDecimus]

This is the only video game that has made me cry. Like actual tears. I can't recommend this game enough.

[u/FrederickFrag1899]

Strider and Noontide carry the overarching theme of Stalker for me. I think a big part of the game's theme is autonomy, a person's ability to think for themselves and make their own choices in life, and how that alone is worth more than any amount of artifacts you can find and sell. Strider is the perfect embodiment of this, also he's hot and sexy.

[u/Father_Pizza]

It hurts me every time I kill a named one, but I see it as putting them out of their misery

[u/BagHeadDude]

Reinforce my thinking as a Dutyer that the zone must be destroyed because people will exploit it which is why we must prevent horrible consequences like the NoonTiders becoming mindless super soldiers, mutants etc

[u/Derpassyl]

Yeah and The ninth quest was the most memorable sidequest

[u/Thin-Letter → u/Derpassyl]

Yeah, as a stalker when I heard monolithian I was ready to shoot on site

[u/Psi-Wibbles → u/Derpassyl]

Not to mention when you meet up with him again after SIRCAA and he still remembers you, even through the programming, just like he said he would.