S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Iceberg Explained #6 - Core Layer

This is the explanation of the sixth and last layer from my S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Iceberg, the so called "Core" layer.

00:00 Intro
00:33 Lebedev replaced C-Consciousness
06:11 Crashed UAV
11:25 Anomalies are human thoughts
15:58 USSR didn't collapse
20:09 2008 Outbreak
25:43 SoC is not canon
36:04 Outro

[anomalousdugout]

This series was nice to make but I'm tired now. Maybe I'll take a break.

[--shaman--]

As for the "SoC is not canon" theory - in early story design documents for Oblivion Lost, it's even mentioned that player was supposed to feel doubt at the ending, no matter which one would be choosed, and wonder if it's not just a 'dream' generated by the Monolith. So the reality of ending being uncertain was an intended idea which the devs had very early in the development.

Anyway, that was a great series, good to see it completed at last.

[kurvakus]

I really like the theory about whole Power plant section being a hallucination, as it puts Wish Granter in a new light, not as malicious as previously thought. In "good ending" Wish Granter lets Strielok accomplish his greatest dream of learning the secrets of the Zone and destroying it, even giving him a happily ever after and letting him live. Only in "bad endings" where he forsakes his true dreams for something petty does Wish Granter get enraged and torments Marked One. This gives a great dimension to the Wish Granter in my opinion.

[ASlickNamedPimpback]

14:00 in CoP, the water in the oasis heals you iirc. Since the Heart of the Oasis Artefact formed there, maybe the water is anomalous in nature, and maybe a positive emotion as it heals

[Manfred_Danfred]

The lebedev one is most interesting imo cause, as much as I am a Clear Sky member at heart, I can't ignore the fact that the leaders of the faction were completely okay with turning Humanity into basically Zombies by modifying the Noonsphere and removing emotions. Guess even good causes have their own bits of Evil in them, eh...

[anotheralpharius]

my head cannon on why you dont need an artifact detector in SoC is because strelok had the ability to see them without one

[JillianPrimrose]

You are missing at least one: the Horror of Pripyat. Supposedly, it was going to be a special enemy of the game that would be found in Call of Pripyat, precisely in Pripyat, and would haunt the school for children in the city where you find the antenna. It would be some kind of physically invisible energetic entity that would only be seen with a certain device that was also removed in the final release. The Horror of Pripyat would have been responsible for killing almost all of the other soldiers on Kovalsky's team and would chase them to their evacuation point at the end of the game, even launching one of the NPCs into the air towards the player. It would also keep the city haunted, causing apparitions in the city, such as silhouettes of people standing in the middle of an open street or peeking out from behind a wall or looking at the player from a distance, from a high window in a building, as well as voices and sounds of footsteps or gunshots in the distance; In any case, they would disappear once the player approached said locations to investigate.

[MidanMagistrate]

The story about the nuclear bomb is likely a reference to Stalker (1979) in which a scientist smuggles a nuclear bomb to the wish granter with the hope of destroying the zone.

[zicaowastaken]

Every stalker game is unique
In SoC you play as a man who dosent know what happened because he got brainwashed by the Common-Conciousness Representatice (made this long on purpose) and he became a good guy
In CS you can join some if the factions and play as a merc who is invincible against emissions
In CoP you play as a military soldier

[jtnachos]

The whole 'anomalies are human thoughts' thing is a belief I've always held, but I believe it to work along a VERY different method than what you seem to believe.
I'm a big believer in the 'perception is reality' phrase, which holds a particulararly interesting implication in reference to Stalker's world.

From my point of view, Anomalies are the result of people's BELIEFS on how things work (IE, the ignorance of children about how fire works results in areas around the leak having fire or other elements function differently, more in line with how children or other ignorants think they are supposed to work), or even the results of their nightmares and dreams bleeding through into reality.

This actually works well to explain some of the more 'out there' aspects of anomalies, like the time space ones and artifacts in general. This also makes interesting implications for things like the 'heart of the oasis', or even other artifacts, coming into existence solely because people believe that there MUST be something special about them. Creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, of sorts. Meanwhile their only 'natural' aspect is the radiation they put out.
Artifacts become akin to the old 'divine relics' of mythologies, being granted special powers because of what people BELIEVE is associated with the element acting as it's source.

[atmcdust]

I always thought that UAV was shot down by monolith, or someone with access to a gauss rifle. Projectile punched through under the engine, left nice enter and exit holes, and maybe hit a fuel line or something else important. That lead to engine failure and crash. And maybe UAV belonged to mercenaries and either provided them with general info about the area and just happen to intercept communications of Strelok`s group, or it specifically looked for Strelok`s group before being shot down.

I assume prices are so nonsencical because stalkers have very limited options when they try to buy/sell something. Traders know this and give you least amount of money when you are selling to them and ask for more when you are buying. Not like you are going to travel outside of the Zone to try and sell artifacts or other loot without food, ammo and with busted armor and weapons.

Maybe Strelok destroyed c-con, got hit with psy-strike/another noosphere disturbance, hallucinated the field and then woke up somewhere in Pripyat, heard gunfire or intercepted military comms and decided to join them to get out of the Zone. Or started hallucinating while damaging wish granter/c-con pods and then woke up in Pripyat.

[yercules]

I was so zoned into this one, that I felt I was actually brainwashed by the c-consciousness. Amazing final episode, thank you!

[Lankyblankman]

A great end to a great series. I do hope that you will one day in the future make a video about about all the inconsistences in SoC.

[thecommentingt]

New Iceberg video?! Came here from Life Of Boris's Cooking with only S.T.A.L.K.E.R. food items.

[NomadShadow]

27:30 “There are many small plot holes, retcons, and other weird ANOMALIES in the storyline…” ahhh i see what you did there 😉👌 nice pun

[mihajlorankovic]

This is the masterpiece, keep up the hard work Anomalous!

[alucardonus]

Well basically... Zone has to be in Belarus as well. Belarus is Ally of Russia. So even if Russian-Ukrainian realtion could have started cold after breakdown of the union, something as dangerous, valuable and interesting as The Zone would be the reason for cooperations not only on bipolar but multinational cooperation. Imagine something as... Antarctical cooperation?

[Matt-mdyt]

Glad you did this one my dude. Take good care of yourself and hope you have a great weekend 😊

[prophetthelast]

Love these lore videos but you're right, they are tiring.Get some rest mate.We'll wait for the next story when you're ready!

[efftohd]

The way I see it, the depiction of the Ukrainian military in the original trilogy from the Russian equipment down to the awful behaviour of its personnel (at least in SoC and CS) is more or less a reflection of attitudes expressed by Ukrainians back then.


The prototype Russian equipment and antagonistic behaviour could be seen as a narrative reflection of the real-life former Soviet military, which pretty much all Ukrainians hated since 1990's and 2000's.

Before Russia began violating Ukrainian territory in 2014, most people in the country treated the military with little respect and saw it as nothing more than a remnant of the Soviet times, but I have a strong feeling that will change in STALKER 2.


In COP, the army got much better characterisation and had a positive side added to it, which I think is more or less telling of the gradual shift in attitude that GSC and Ukraine as a whole showed towards the military at the time (though, COP was created before Russia illegally annexed Crimea).

It may sound silly, but think about it. Video games are a form of art, and art is more often than not a reflection of its creator in one way or another, so it wouldn't surprise me if the internal thoughts and biases of the developers were reflected in the game.