Second CDPR game, first Witcher game and what a treat this gem was. I am grateful I played the first game first because it seems like the main thing fans have a problem with is the combat, which not having played the others yet I didn't start with a bias and found the combat to be perfectly acceptable in this game. Story and world building were fantastic. This is a true RPG. Coming off a stent of modern AAA gaming it was a breath of fresh air to play a game that's actually good, engaging, and immersive from start to end. I don't see why (as of 1.5.2025) people are mad that CDPR are woke and full of DEI. It's obvious they have been since the start (this game is basically pro terrorism and tries to make you feel bad if you don't agree with that, and goes out of its way to excuse violence and wrong doing done by minority groups). That said, it's done in a way that didn't result in a bad game so it's fine, as an adult I looked past the insane messages (at time) the game was pushing and just played and had fun like an adult should be able to. The game is worth your time and money.
It was a decent game. As usual, the use of Unreal Engine (the lazy path for devs) comes with a host of issues especially on PC. A lot of the performance issues stem from UE5 just being garbage, good looking engine but a polished turd is still a turd. Would be nice to go back to the days where devs were actual devs and made their own engines. I played with a 7900x, 4090, 32gb 6000 Ram, best SSD money can buy, and had plenty of performance issues at 1080p! For the game itself. I agree with the notion this isn't STALKER it's STALKER- Call of Duty. Much of the spirit that made the original games what they were isn't here. The gameplay is hit and miss. Just gets dumb at times with enemies hitting you three miles away with a shotgun while you're behind cover. Being in cover is more or less pointless because enemies shoot through walls half the time. Game play gets very repetitive. Looking for stashes is the filler in the game and at about mid game just becomes a waste of time. By Pripyat was feeling like a drag so rushed to end of the game pretty much. I can't say why but progression with weapons, armor, and artifacts did not feel nearly as fulfilling as the og games. Guess it's from the whole stream lining of the game itself and when it feels cookie cutter whenever you get a cookie it's whatever. Story was good. Loyal to the lore and new things made sense in the scope of the STALKER universe. That said, I'd say it's 7 out of 10. It has its share of problems but it was good enough to give me entertainment for 73 hours. I bought the ultimate so hopefully the two promised DLCs are worth it, I feel I got my money worth so far for the base game. For most though (I'm a big STALKER fan played the original games a lot) I would not recommend this at full price. Wait half a year or so for both issues to be fixed and to get it at a steep discount.
