Very good game despite a poorly executed, vague story
STALKER's drab atmosphere was strangely alluring, even if it made me want to kill myself a little bit because it was so god damn miserable. Graphically it isn't spectacular but the various camps, towns and wilderness achieve an anarchic and dangerous feel that is easy to be immersed in. The underground areas are generally fantastic. I literally jumped the first time I saw a monster underground.
When combat worked, it worked really well. The guerrilla style warfare rocked. The interface was surprisingly intuitive and gave you a lot of control to switch weapons, use health packs etc quickly during combat. I felt knifing could have been significantly improved. You actually have to use to the cross hair right in the middle of a person to knife somebody. You also have to switch to your knife which takes a few seconds so you can only really use it in very specific situations. There's no way to melee either. The other issue with combat, is that sometimes it's completely ridiculous. You can load entire cartridges into enemy's faces and they just do not die. The diversity of guns and ammo makes for very interesting shooting though..
STALKER's biggest flaw was that it was far too ambitious in its story telling. I may have played through the game a little quickly but even still... Throughout the game the origins of the Zone etc are shrouded in mystery. You're not given an opportunity to make deductions and hypothesise what is happening. The entire story is just lumped on you at the end. Not even a good story. There are no "ohhh that makes sense." It's like you're playing one game, and then when it finishes you get told a story after. That's if you actually finish the game 'properly'. The ending I was offered was "click F to make a secret wish." My character says "Humanity is corrupt. It needs to be controlled." and the game ends. Are you ****ing kidding me?