Stalker fan with a first impressions after about 7 hours.

It pains me to say it but... this ain't it. This isn't Stalker.

First, the Pros:

  • The atmosphere is actually pretty dang good
  • The map is breathtaking, detailed, and well designed.
  • Love the inclusion of old locations
  • There’s a shocking amount of “stuff” littering the environments. You usually don’t see this much.
  • Said “stuff” makes noise when you bump into it. Which spooks me at times. Mostly because I’ve never seen this emergent mechanic in a game. Neat.
  • The music is nice enough
  • The quality of the animated sequences is very good
  • I enjoy the feel of the guns
  • The sound in this game is unmatched. Genuinely. So fucking good.
  • The weather systems are impressive, especially the storms
  • AI factions still attack one another
  • Lot's a great callbacks to the original games
  • Story so far seems good
  • I like the characters and dialogue (in Ukrainian)
  • All the character controller animations are good, they don't overstay their welcome.
  • I like how it's still one head shot to kill. I'm sure that changes later once there are armored helmets.
  • Character movement feels good, you don't run or jog too fast or slow. Nailed it.
  • Hot take but I actually don't mind the UI. Good job. It could be a bit slimmer and less console-y but it gets the job done and I don't consider it a con.

Cons:

  • Conversation options are very limited
  • Piss poor performance
  • Terrible in-game economy. Things cost too much to repair or purchase given the quest payouts. 1000 coupons for finishing tasks which is 2x less than it takes to finish the job.
  • Enemies spawn around you even after you clear an area. Especially after looting stashes or triggering certain events. No more climbing up high and looking out over a living world full of Stalkers and Mutants doing their thing. World is literally dead. Except for the random spawns around you as you walk.
  • Most mutants are bullet sponges
  • Enemies spam grenades
  • But your grenades have almost no frag radius
  • No point in fighting mutants since you can't loot their bodies, just a waste of ammo. Except for dogs because they chase you down
  • You can't sprint long distances (one of modern gaming's lamest trends. Make it more rewarding for keeping your inventory clean!)
  • Radiation effect on screen is unnecessarily intrusive
  • You have to eat WAY too often
  • Seemingly no positive status effects, so downing an energy drink doesn't give you increased stamina over time, just all at once. But stamina comes back almost instantly anyway if you slow down for a second... What? To make it worse, downing an energy drink requires walking anyway because you can't sprint while doing anything.
  • AI are dumb, they don't take cover, flank, or push, mostly just run around like idiots. But they make up for it with supreme accuracy and eagle eyes that make stealth basically impossible. This is lazy difficulty tuning.
  • Towns with traders have terrible performance for some ungodly reason
  • The flashlight is underwhelming and casts no shadows. But AI flashlights do, because of course.
  • This is a bit minor but recticle color on enemies tells you if they are hostile or not instead of giving us a way to see their faction. Which dumbs down the experience compared to GAMMA which relies on in game knowledge of relations system and patches.
  • Lot's of pop-in
  • Lighting can be jank exiting buildings
  • In dialogue you have to wait for characters to end voice lines and the camera to pan around before you can take actions. You can hit spacebar to skip but it's tedious long-term
  • The PDA is a 2D UI instead of a 3D object, and you cannot move during it and it breaks immersion a bit. Lame.
  • The game, like the older games, warns you to lower your weapon around other stalkers, except in this one, they don't actually care.
  • English voice acting is subpar and lame at times
  • No ranking system
  • Seemingly no faction relations system
  • No PDA chatter (Bc... no A-Life!)
  • Button mapping bugs and missing keys
  • Terrible mouse lag

Fix the game in this order:

  1. A-Life
  2. AI combat behaviors including broken stealth
  3. Performance
  4. The rest