I was quite worried that UE will look like a shiny cartoon mess, but there is definitely some grit to it visually. The atmosphere is unique and immersive. Unfortunately some console UI and gameplay has made it into the game which cheapens the experience.
The combat is not great on my system because everything registers late. I have an RTX3060 and an i7 but I struggle to play even on the lowest settings. That said I do want to come back to this game which is a wonderful thing. The low graphics are quite nostalgic to me frankly and look passable.
This is one happy player. Over 130 hours and just finished Cordon (half way?). But I dig to walk around and take all side quests, just enjoy being a stalker. You know when something is good. This is it.
The gunplay and anomilies are both fantastic and the game looks good. The main issues are the spawning of enemies and the constant frame drops, even on a 4070.
Hopefully the next few patches are able to fix those issues with the return of A life 2.0 and performance fixes.
For a Stalker fan there is much to like here. The game feels like a modern take on the original Shadow of Chernobyl and does not water down the experience to cater to the masses. The moment to moment gameplay is great and as in the originals the atmosphere is incredible.
For players new to stalker or those who can't tolerate bugs it might be good to wait for a few patches before deciding to hop in. Since the release there have already been multiple patches and some balance changes, which have improved the game a lot.
The game still also needs quite a lot of optimization. At this point it is recommended to use upscaling and with that it is possible to achieve a playable 60 fps most of the time (Specs 7900 XT, Ryzen 5700X3D with 1080p resolution).
To summarize the game is good and will be even better when the issues get sorted out. As with the originals there is a lot of replay value here and I cannot wait to check the game out again in the future.
I know I need to go to work but this game is such a blast! Great visuals and really nice plot. What else do you want? As for bugs and some optimization issues, with a huge community and responsive game devs of this game, you know they are going to be fixed
