There are hard games and there are unfair games and then there is Blood West, a game that is so unfair that you will likely never have seen anything like this in your gaming career unless you played those very early 90s rpgs where you lose all of your gear each death. I really gave this game a fair chance, played all of chapter 1 and most of chapter 2, but it just gets worst and worse. Enemies pretty much oneshot you and if you dont sneak around and stealth kill all of them one by one, they will insta team up and kill you, which is very hard by itself, but thats not the problem. The problem is, if you die you get teleported back to your base (which is mostly on the other side of the map) with stacking curses (like more bleeding dmg, or less xp and so on), no new ammo, no healing potions and all enemies just respawn so you have to do it all over again and again and again. Then there is the "story", a ghost telling you to purge the evil from this land by bringing him items or finding people, it's the same cheap kill and collect quests over and over again, no help at all of course, so prepare to run around in underground caves for hours on end without even the slightest hint. I am not masochist enough for this game, but i will at least give two stars for the cool artstyle and immersion (thats where this game shines for sure).
I am gonna cut my review short, i got the Ward Ending (Stalker Difficulty) and did most of the quests, so i think i am able to rate the game in a fair manner. The gunplay is extremely good and the story is awesome (best STALKER game for sure), but thats where the good things end. The level design is horrific with thousands of unnecessary barriers that make you run around in circles for hours, the quest markers are useless, the loot is ridiculously bad and you are running out of ammo all of the time (so you are forced to use guns that you dont like), not to mention game breaking quest-bugs and unbalanced enemies (some are target dummies and others are unkillable supersoldiers for no reason), in its current state the game is a boring running simulator with very bad lighting (way too dark and way too many nights) for hardcore STALKER fanboys who just want to play the story no matter the cost. Unless you want to install 20 different mods and enable cheats via the UE Console you will have a very bad time with this game, so better wait for the big patches (i played on 1.0.3) and buy it on sale with a big discount.
If you collect 70s and 80s horror movies you will LOVE this game, its pure blood and gore with true horror elements that you will not find in any other game, but on the same hand it does not take itself too seriously and has many references to popular horror movies as well as cool oneliners and funny eastereggs. The new remaster (Fresh Supply) is far superior to the original DOS release in every way, it feels and plays like the first quake, has very fast shooting and very good sound, the different enemies also are very well made (especially the cultists will make you smile). I recommend you to play all the episodes without mods first and then install the legendary "Extra Crispy" mod (can be found on moddb) which gives you many more weapons and enemy types.
Super fast gameplay with no lag (comparable to the original Quake), awesome weapons, realistic setting with cool characters and the most brutal gore effects in gaming history, yeah thats the fist SoF, sadly the sequels are all pretty lame compared to the original game. If you ever wanted to feel like a real mercenary who is hunting down hordes of bad guys all over the world, then this is your game.
I have been playing every shooter i could get my hands on since the mid 90s and i have to say, this is by far the most brutal and satisfying one i have ever played, absolute perfection from every angle, runs great on Windows 7 too (also no problems with offline safes, no Internet connection needed to play).
