This s**t is like cocaine. Addictive as f*** but has some side effects.
The wind blows by as the grass sways, the crackles and pops of the fire calms your nerves and you find yourself staring at the setting sun. Nearby sounds of an acoustic guitar echo in your mind as you prepare for the road ahead. Bread and canned goods, as well as a trusty bottle of vodka should help keep you energized. Your newly acquired scope on the AK should pull you through the masses of foes you are going to face. You listen to the last guitar song as you check the PDA for nearby stashes on the way. And now it's dark...
Bandits, army personnel, mutated freaks, wild animals, and anomalies are now about all that stand in the way. ...You'll wish you brought more bullets.
---------------Overview----------------
Gameplay (8.5/10):
+Amazing sense of exploration and immersion
+Great weapon variety as well as armors
+Great balance between shooter and RPG
+Thick as **** atmosphere
+Great enemy AI (some issues here and there)
+Good challenge in the combat
+Pretty good stealth mechanics (unless enemies have night vision of course)
+Variety of hazards such as telepathic mutants, armed squads of foes, and anomalies
+Decent story (-could have been presented clearer)
+Huge amount of sidequests
+Weight mechanics are pretty interesting as you can't carry too much, but if you do you will be too exhausted to walk
+Choose sides between factions (optional)
+Lots of endings and a unique way of getting them
-Very little impact of bullets on enemies
-Still glitchy
-Respawning is way too frequent
-Last stage is annoying
Graphics (9/10):
+Huge amount of detail on everything
+Great lighting
+Very distinct visual style
+Superb art direction
-So so character models and animation
Sound (9/10):
+Great music (especially at campfires)
+Great sound effects like footsteps and gunshots
+Rich atmospheric sound design (birds chirping, wind, NPC's talking, and animals growling)
+/- Ok voice acting
-Terrible writing (relating to main quest dialogue)
+Some funny writing related to side quests
-Some sound glitches and annoyances like reverb heavy footsteps occuring outside of buildings
-No option for everyone to speak their native language (NPCs speak Russian to each other, but heavy accented English to you)
Value (10/10)
+This is one ****ing long shooter...
+Sidequests
+Mods
+Multiple endings
+Relatively cheap, especially on STEAM sales
In the end, it all comes down to weather you can ignore a few annoying bugs and odd design decisions to enjoy the most atmospheric (even better than HL2 in this regard), unique FPS to grace the gaming community in years (well, years ago to be more precise).
I highly recommend you get this game, especially if it's on sale.