I give this 3 Stars even though i think it only deserves 2 atm because i do think it can be fixed, has potential and i probably wont (be able to) edit this review in the future. Exceeded all my expectations at the start. Looks great, good atmosphere, good framerate, clunky but serviceable combat a bit reminicent of metro, which im not too keen on tbh. Quest design and writing seem decent so far, but really too soon to tell for me atm. But after the Tutorial the performance really tanks. Every few minutes i have to quickload to make the framedrops go away for another few minutes. Some areas are completely unplayable though. The game needs some serious optimization work. Graphics customization options are also very barebones. Like cant turn off motion blur just turn to 0%. I dont understand decisions like that. Its just a toggle button.... add it! Also most options seem to do absolutly nothing at all. For me the biggest issue however are all the cutscenes and the way the world interacts with the player (and not the other way around sadly). Its supposed to be an immersive sim. The original Stalker got that down. This seems like a huge step backwards and reminds me a little of that awful Thief reboot, although not nearly as bad. Far from being this living World from past Stalker games everything just spawns in right in front of you based on radius. Why even have sniper scopes? Stealth is not even remotly an option, all NPCs have superman senses. Silencers do increase detection time but only from nearby enemys that have their backs turned. As soon as they turn around they instantly see you no matter how many bushes you hide behind. Grenades are also seemingly useless. Hit a bugged Bloodsucker with 5 of them and got barely a grunt out of it. Fighting mutants all you can do is run around or stand there like an idiot while they hit you. I dont feel like a Stalker that carefully plans his next move, i feel like a CoD Protagonist. Also (some) hardcoded keybindings! WHY!!!???
This is the first time i write a review for a game i haven't even finished yet, but this game deserves some attention here. I read a review on some site, that said it had a lot of halfbaked ideas, bad combat and runs poorly, and i don't agree with any of that. So far the game has a really interesting mainstory and fun sidequests. The mood is lighthearted with some very dark undertones - these start quite subtle though and im curious where it will end up. I loved all the characters i encountered until now. The voice acting is fantastic and the writing is generally clever and very funny. The combat ranges from simplistic but OK to very good depending on map area with a little lack of varity but relativly challenging optional Bossfights and doesn't feel cluncky at all. It isn't up to "Horizon Zero Dawn" standards but what is? Also there is a story mode option, but no other difficulty setting. The skills are useful and the morality system should offer at least 2 somewhat different playstyls (i only tried one so far). The Exploration is where the game really shines - it has a large open world, that doesnt feel empty like a lot of indie games and never gets grindy like a ubisoft game for example. The environment is good looking and very colorful with a lot of varity in mood and tone, and the savesystem keeps up the tension in the more dangerous areas where there are less savepoints around but isn't unfair or overly frustrating. In over 12 hours playtime i haven't encountered a single bug, and haven't even gotten stuck in the environment. It runs very smoothly on my system with a tiny amount of stutter after entering a new area that quickly goes away (there are no loadscreens), although i do have a good PC that i built myself. I haven't enjoyed an open world game this much in quite a while. If you think you might like this but are on the fence for some reason, i would very much recommend it, especially for this price which is a steal in my opinion.
