A bit flat story-wise and with very simple mechanics. A veteran of rpgs should play this on hard as it is too easy. The crafting system is simple but adequate for this game and it is rewarding. The dialogues are yes or no and can be repeated with no penalty. I think I cloaked at less than 20 hours with meticulous exploring. Still I enjoyed it and at that price it is a steal.
Well perhaps not metro but somewhere between that and fallout. The setting is an alternate reality where an incident at Chernobyl created a strange zone where laws of nature break down and mutants and radiation are a constant threat. Braving these threats lured by mysterious artifacts are the stalkers... The game features a free-roaming world like Far Cry 2 consisting of 3 medium sized areas that can be fast traveled back and forth. Graphic-wise, with the use of the "complete" mod the game looks very nice and I must say night and weather were better than say Fallout NV. I especially liked the lightning during storms. There are some not especially memorable quests. They do, however, set the mood and tone. Combat is mostly satisfying and different opponents require different strategies. For example there is one mutant that can see you only when you move. Human opponents display somewhat decent AI and you will be flashed out with grenades if you camp. There are a lot of hidden stuff for the explorers to find and some of them are pretty hard to reach. There were some issues with merchants and weapon damage (merchants not buying less than 75% durability items and some weapons felt like bb-guns) but these can be edited. Lastly, the game supports modding and there are quite a few mods out there that enhance and add to gameplay and graphics. Most importantly though, anyone can change many game parameters as easily as editing a text file. I didn't give the game 5 stars cause it could do better and have more content but make no mistake the game deserves your time and it will keep you entertained.
After having conquered 24 shards and about to lose from a scripted event I have this to say. The game would be great. It is solid in strategic gameplay. BUT... crashes, corrupted saves, the tedium of having to start from scratch over and over again and a large shard requiring many hours to complete made me uninstall it and write this review. The devs to their credit tried to fix many of this things. The amount of crashes has reduced significantly. You can now spend resources to have your powerful hero join you on your next conquest. However, the crashes still occur and the corrupted saves as well. Also you won't have the resources to bring the hero unless you skip turns and then you get scripted event that tells you you lost. You have been warned.
