S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (series)/Awesome

• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Hard to pin down any specific ones, as the game plays out differently every time, but you're bound to experience at least a few on every playthrough.
  • In the first few missions, (at least, it happened to this troper) getting caught in a three way brawl between Military, Bandits, and fellow STALKERS and helping take out most of the Bandits and Military leaving the rest to scatter into the wilderness to be mauled by the wildife. All while having an early game load consisting of, at best, a double barreled shotgun and a terrible pistol, with only a leather jacket for protection and a few bandages.
  • The final assault on Pripyat in the first game certainly qualifies, with the player and a half-dozen of the most experienced veterans in the Zone fighting their way through a brutal, chaotic warzone while four different factions battle for supremacy around them.
  • This happened once to this troper. Once he spotted a group of a military squad and thinks that he could handle them with a pistol, 3 grenades and a sawn-off shotgun. Turns out he can't, so he start running to the rookie village to get some help. Then he realized the actual squad chasing him is much bigger than he thinks. So he decides to hide while the rest of the village being butchered. As military comes in the house he was hiding he pulls out the sawn-off shotgun and start shooting them one-by-one. In the end, he killed around 10-12 men alone. Oh, and this is the first few hours of his gameplay.
  • During the battle for Limansk in Clear Sky, Scar takes down a platoon-sized Monolith force and a helicopter gunship. By himself.
  • One that pops up for the player themselves for a lot of people is their initial venture down below into the sewers, in the first game, where you first encounter a bloodsucker. The weapons and equipment you have by that stage are generally poor, and that single creature is more than enough to either kill you outright or give you a big beating for a crowning moment of your own.
    • That area forces you into a very tight, narrow corridor to get around a huge generator. You can't climb over it. You see the bloodsucker on the other side of the room. You move into the corridor expecting it to come at you in a frontal attack, but it attacks you from behind. Considering that a player is lucky if they have a barely functioning AK 47, there are a lot of tales about encountering the bloodsucker, having both weapons jam, forcing you to go toe to toe with the bloodsucker using the knife or die.
• Crowning Music of Awesome: Call of Pripyat outro. Well, if you got the good endings.
  • The up-tempo song that plays during the Call of Pripyat credits, after the ending, is pretty damn good, especially if your adrenaline is still pumping from the insane final battle. Although it's in Russian, so English-speaking players can't tell what the lyrics are.
  • The Firelake song Dirge for the Planet is also pretty good in the Bar area in Shadow of Chernobyl. Almost impossible to continue on your business when it comes on.
  • Many of the guitar songs played by various stalkers resting near camp fires. (Especially the part around 1:52-2:53 in the vid. Kickass...)
  • The generic "Combat" tracks in Call of Pripyat.
  • Many stalkers end up spending hours in the Bar just because of this.