S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

One of the worst stories ever (there isn't even one, actually, it's at the end that you learn what's been going on), crappy shooting mechanics - but the absolute best atmosphere in a video game ever, hands down, and it's really enough to make anyone fall in love with and stick through it. Grim, charming, depressing, broken, and comfy at times, that's how I'd describe the game's world.

SEX

Лучшая игра в истории.

I've known about STALKER for years and years, but only recently decided to purchase it as it was on sale. Honestly, I don't understand the love for this game. It's tedious from the word go. The gunplay is abysmal, with enemies needing around 10 headshots before they go down - assuming you can land a decent shot in the first place. Unless I'm right up close to an enemy, I find myself constant missing and failing to inflict any damage whatsoever. I know the pistol is supposed to be poor, but I find the shotgun to be equally depressing to use and the automatic rifles are only a slight improvement. For a stealth game, the stealth mechanic makes no sense. Crouching down and moving slowly through bushes towards an group of enemies seems to just invite every single enemy nearby to begin shooting at me - and hitting me with pinpoint accuracy. In fact, the cycle of dying/re-loading/dying/re-loading gets incredibly frustrating in no time at all. Why swamp me with dogs, boars or bandits right at the beginning of the game and not give me the weapons or sneak skills to deal with them? I like difficult games, but give me some glimmer of hope that I can fend off the enemies or avoid them altogether. I don't seem to be able to do either. I do like the fact that it (appears to be) open world and I'm left alone to do what I want, but the NPCs seem to be fetch-quest givers and nothing more: "Go here and shoot this thing. Go here and talk to this person. Go here and collect this object". There isn't an obvious reason to be doing any of these quests, aside from earning some money. I find myself not caring about any of the NPCs whatsoever and have generally just ignored them whilst I explore. So to conclude, what we have is a FPS/Survival Horror game with poor gunplay, poor stealth mechanics and a plot which I couldn't care less about. Unless I'm missing something utterly obvious, I can't recommend it at all and didn't enjoy my time with the game. Sorry...

I've Heard wonders from this game, that is like a fallout/metro exodus but made by Russians... But one thing is true, this game is hard as hell and I like to take the challenge :D