Having played the old stalker games (soc and cop at least) this feels like a true successor. The current downsides are the absence of A-life 2 and performance, but I'm quite confident that both will be managed as reported by the devs and what modders have found. At launch the prices of repairs were shit, mutants were super tanky, but they have since been fixed, likewise some soft locks, though, I've not encountered any as of yet. Anyway, the visuals are extremely good, but mostly so up close. This is perhaps a drawback from UE5. A lot of distant things look very bland and pops in rather. This translates into gameplay too, where snipers are not really efficient. Otherwise, gameplay is superbly immersive, has good gunplay and artifact hunting. Atmospheric weather and environments. Really nice sound design, from nature to the clicking of gun attachments. The map is very big, like an expanded Call of Chernobyl map, though, it can sometimes feel a bit empty without the "A"-life with wandering squads or mutants fighting each other. The framework for A-life seems to be in the game's files, so I'm positive devs will eventually fix this. But even without A-life the game is extremely enjoyable. The Ukrainians have really nailed the thick atmosphere from the older trilogy, in a manner very few modern games succeeds with. A noticable addition is all the animations that add to gameplay, like opening the backpack or taking up the PDA. The game stands as a fresh breeze in a sea of mediocracy. I also see a lot of potential. Empty places can perhaps be filled in future updates and so on. Ultimately, I give it a score of 4/5 as it really delivers as one of most immersive games I've played, even with all the jankiness. Despite bugs, performance, some weird "anomalies", and importantly no A-life as of yet, I'm having fun! There is some true love put into this, even if it needs some fixing to become stellar. I strongly recommend, but you may need a beefy computer
