Not Excellent, yes not bad by a long shot!

User Rating: 8.3 | Cold War PC
After reading reviews of this game one would believe that it sucks. In fact I find it quite the opposite. Sure at first glance you think you are playing a Splinter Cell wannabe that just doesn't add up, but in many ways this game is better than most.

Graphics are very very good IMHO and while some of the locations are redundant, that doesn't take away from the detail. Sounds are ok, but could actually be better. Lot of reverby sounding weapons that don't come across for me and the music, while suspenseful and appropriate is not varied enough.

The true winner here to me is the AI. I have played many many games that market themselves as having smart AI. None and I do mean none have come close to what I see in this game. Again, you have to pay attention to really see how good the AI is. At first glance you may think there is nothing to it but then you realize it is quite smart. For example, I pressed 'L' to snap my fingers and get one of the guards on the move looking for the noise. He walks over to the area where I was hiding, finds nothing and starts to walk around looking for where I may have gone, rather than just going back to his normal routine. Another time I shot at a spetnaz soldier, and he starts down the hall after me. I ducked around a corner to try and come around behind him thinking he would be stupid and just follow me. He didn't, he instinctively stopped, turned around and was waiting to pick me off as soon as I came around the corner. That's what I would have done in a real situation.

Still another instance of using smarts is this case... I was hiding between two computer racks about to snipe one of the soldiers through a crack between the two servers. I shot at one of them, hit him in the head and then put my back to the server waiting for the other to come around the front. He did make that move, but stopped short when he realized he could get at me through that same crack. No other game I've played would have done that.

In my book this game is well deserving of a good rating. It has great graphics, smart AI, oh yeah and the story is intriguing. Weaving in and around the chernobyl accident with an undoubtedly false but very believable tale.