S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Where do I begin? This game has been getting reviews ranging from 58/100 to 93/100. As usual, the gaming community is split between "sucks" and "awesome". No middle ground for the gamers but major sites like IGN, Gamespot, and EuroGamer scored it in the 80% range. Out of 52 reviews only 6 scored it below 80/100.

I was hoping this game was just "good". Fearing a complete mess I was suprised with a great experiance. I was thinking, how the hell could a gamer not like this one?

Here are some issues I think some people had with it...

1) Realistic aiming, No aim assist

This is also scaled by weapon quality. Right-clicking to aim and use ironsights or a mounted scope is the only way to get hits at a distance. So Call of Duty really pushed this on people but there was a little aim-assist. There is none here. If your target is 25m out and you crouch low, line the ironsights on his chest and you will likely score a few hits...with a shitty weapon. Later in the game with better weapons its zoom, squeeze off a burst at the head or zoom and aim at the chest and single-shot rounds up the body and they drop. Later in the game, alot of enemies are heavily armored.

I looked back on the few times I fired a real gun. A milk jug not very far away can be missed easily using ironsights. Once you get a feel for the shooting in stalker its alot of fun. I enjoyed it. Too many games are about lining up pixels (as CliffyB said, hes right about that). How quickly can I twitch and know I'm going to take someone down. Is that the case in RL? What if the player is not a super soldier? Stalker throws you in a very harsh world with nothing but a PDA in hand (which ties into point #2). So as I remember the few times I shot a rifle with iron-sights, this game feels more like that than any other.

2) It is Difficult

Novice, Stalker, Difficult, and Expert...or something like that. Even on stalker (normal?) you can be dusted rather quickly. Especially if you stick your nose where it doesn't belong. Guerilla tactics are important when attacking larger groups. Add to that no quicksave and forgetting to save often will result in annoyance. Just going to the menu and saving alot takes some people out of the experiance. It didn't hamper my experiance much.If it ever gets ported console gamers are already used to auto-checkpoint saves and going to the menu to save. Otherwise, play smart and its less difficult though more rewarding.

3) Story/Quest Direction

Too much open-ended play can result in confusion and alot of screw ups. I like that style of play but traveling on foot is a task at times. Getting jerked around trying to get all the quests can hurt your first play through the game. Until you know how things work. Basically, you are given a main quest, which you should then populate your PDA with sidequests from that same area. You don't know this though, I just figured that was the best way to play after my 1st game. Questgivers don't tell you (most of the time) where a quest is. If you take it (all sidejobs are on a 1-day timer) and its on the other end of the map, the timer can run out while you are caught up in other things and you fail it. Then you can't do it again. If you don't do certain quests it affects the quality of your game ending (this is only the case with 2). It is (in those 2 times)left entirely up to the player to discover the various aspects of the main plot...which can be viewed as good or bad.

Sidequests and their timers is another issue. That system is a major flaw and does nothing to improve the experiance. But, its the best story I've played in a while. If you manage this correclty it only makes the experiance better. The game is not a 1-time singleplayer throw away then go all MP either. So you may find yourself wanting to start a second game...how often does that happen nowadays. Not much with myself.

4) Bugs

Although its way better since the 1st patch there are a few bugs. The 1st patch killed gamesaves. Whoever bought this day 1 with no patch was treated with the chance of corrupted saves.

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Its one of the best games I've played in a while. I know this blog reads too much like, "well, heres why stalker sucks" and maybe I convinced someone not to buy. I just was thinking of the possible reasons why people do not like this game or just stopped playing it, which seems like a waste. I thought I'd write about it here. For every issue I found there where 5 things that were really cool. Although its not a perfect game, if you're a serious gamer with a PC and like RPG elements in games you should play this one.

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Played on AMD 3700+, 1GB PC3200, 7600GT. 1440x900, HDR on objects, view distance 30%, textures 10%, everything else 0% or off. Was getting 25-40fps pn low settings and it didn't bother me at all.