The Good, The Bad - A Stalker Review ( With minor spoilers )
So I acquired Stalker the other day...
Before I start this review, i'd like to mention that this game was in development for about 6 years... thats like a third of my entire life. Props to the devs for making it. I've come to known this game about 3 years ago, and have been waiting patiently right until yesterday.
Naturally such an ambitious and hyped project got my hopes and expectations extremely high, which at start, left me disappointed with the game. After a few hours I realized I had to imagine I never heard about this game, and after another few hours I fell in love with it.
There are quite a few flaws and bugs in this game, both minor and major, but mostly nothing a patch or two can't fix.
The pros:
The fighting system.
The Atmosphere.
The characters
The Ai
The cons:
The Open-ended-ness of the game.
The Quests.
First of all, the open-ended-ness of the game. If you imagine Oblivion with guns, you will be disappointed. Sure, the world is big, but its not as open-ended as you would like. The world is divided into levels, the levels themselves are BIG. Nothing too huge unfortunately. These levels are then surrounded by impassable barbed wire.. which you can't pass... another bummer. This really takes away from the experience.
There are 2 types of quests. The main quest which takes you throughout the zone, trying to figure out who you are ( you apparently suffer from amnesia ) and what the hell is going on in the Zone. So far im really enjoying the story, albeit its a little confusing at times.
Then there are the side quests. There are 3 main types of side quests - Kill X, Find X, Eliminate the camp of X. Occasionally there are more interesting quests which could take you on small raids of sorts with other npcs, but these quests are very rare.
One thing that confused me was the fact that you are limited to carrying 50kg to 60kg ( 50+ your endurance drains much faster, 60+ you can't move ) of items, which is great, I love that, but you can carry hundred thousands roubles worth of money with ya. Where do you put it? o.O
What really amazed me was the whole fighting system. If you were a fan on perhaps, Rainbow Six, you'll love this. You can't just run and gun, thats suicide in the real world, thats suicide in Stalker. Instead you always have to use cover. Aiming is important too, you may spend a clip shooting a heavy armored soldier in the torso only to realize he is still alive, while carefully aiming at his head can bring him down in 1-3 careful shots. Which also brings me to different types of cover. The ballistics system is awesome. You have to find cover, then you have to judge if your cover is good enough. For example if you're hiding behind a wooden plank, the bullets can pierce through the wood.. and through you. On the other hand if you hide behind a solid concrete wall.... Which reminds me of the ricochet system ; Bullets ricochet just like in real life, and not against everything either.
This game sports one of the best Ai's i've ever seen in a videogame. These guys really know how to fight. They for the most part, work as a team. The enemy always tries to flank you, they support each other with covering fire while the other reloads, etc. Infact some of them are so good, you really have to pick your fights, because these guys can rip you apart withought you even knowing what hit ya. On the other hand the ai still has a few bugs. Sometimes they decide to shoot the enemy through a solid concrete wall, doing nothing. Other times they just stand and do absolutely nothing, which is extremely rare, but happens.
The atmosphere is really what did it for me. Each level is completely different from another. While the graphics look a little bit dated, the game still looks gorgeous on full lighting and maximum settings. This really does feel like a living, breathing world, and for once, it doesn't resolve around you. You can find mutants fighting each other, or stalkers attacking a bandit camp. The weather system itself is wonderful to look at. At night you may get caught in a huge thunderstorm, which is just beautiful to behold as the whole level is only being lighted by the rather frequent lightning.
Other stalkers in the game really do have a life of their own. Although its surprising how many of them carry guitars with them. They also tell stories and sing songs and tell jokes to other stalkers around the campfire. Unfortunately, they mostly talk in Russian, but the main dialogue like quest information and essential dialogue is all in English, so don't worry. I laughed when after a recent gunfight a few stalkers got around the campfire, then one took about a guitar and said "Time for a music break"
The economy in stalker was a little bit disappointing. There is really nothing that you can buy that you can't find on your own. And you will have absolutely no problem getting rich, very quickly. But the inventory system is great, you're not a packmule, you can't carry everything the enemies drop. Which makes you think what you should take and what you have to leave behind.
I have yet to play multiplayer so cannot comment on that. Personally I can't imagine how this game took 6 years to make, but considering the fact the game changed engines and ideas very frequently, its no surprise.
In closing, this game is a true masterpiece. There is simply nothing like it in the market and it delivers a unique experience to the player. But like any other game on the market nowadays, it does have a few bugs, but nothing gamebreaking. Its really one of those games that, if you allow it, will grab you by the balls and never let go. There is really not a dull moment when you play it.