How Was This Game Forgotten So Quickly?
This game starts around the time that Strelok turns off the brain scorcher and all the stalkers rush to the center of the zone (I'm not going to spoil anything, the story is too incredible). You play as Major Degtyarev disguised as a Stalker, and your mission is to hunt down 5 helicopters that were sent to the center of the zone that have crashed.
The area that you are in is a bit confusing. The games are based off the real life Zone of Alienation in the Ukraine, the only major thing about the map that was modified was that Pripyat is actually northwest of Chernobyl, and in game it is south east of it. But instead of heading north to get to the center you are heading south.
Which makes sense since you have to go through Pripyat to get to Chernobyl I guess.
The area you are placed in has great atmosphere and the soundtrack couldn't be more haunting. But you need a fairly powerful PC to run the game with the Dynamic Lighting Effects.
I was able to run the game with no lag with this computer (the 2 hours that the power supply lasted before I had to send it off for repairs that is). http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227279
The game adds many RPG elements that the series was lacking. There are multiple ways to solve problems and quests actually have meaning now. You can now sleep in certain areas, but there are very few places outside of these camps that you can store your gear, so no staying out in the wilderness since you can't sleep in any bed outside safe areas.
There are more dialogue lines and you can interact with NPC's more, and they may even give you hints about the quest you are on.
The new A-Life is stunning, you will see stalkers walking about, hunting artifacts with a detector in their hand, slowly making their way through an anomaly field.
The game takes a step back around the combat area. Stalker was known for having the most realistic ballistics model ever seen in a video game, but it just feels weird in this game. I played all 3 games in story order and I must say that the combat feels so sloppy in this game compared to the other 2. SOC's pistols had too much kickback that they were piratically useless, and Clear Sky attempted to fix this by making it have a "zoom" instead of ironsights, which made it harder for people like me who want pure immersion, to play without crosshairs. But the devs attempted another fix, but now it just feels unrealistic, most weapons have virtual no kickback and the ones that do are so unreliable that you feel like a invisible wire is wrapped around your gun and God is jerking it upwards every time you fire your gun.
The first person camera seems to be zoomed in on your hands more than compared to the other 2. And weapons have so much zoom that it's piratically impossible to see anything around you when you aim.
Also, combat seems to have gotten a bit slower.
They still included that insane head bobbing effect that makes me want to bash my head through a wall.
But aside from the bad, the game has a lot more depth to it than the other games. Artifact hunting is a blast and new missions that send you after a certain artifact encourage you to go hunting more often.
I personally like the voice acting, but they could have at least translated the Russian dialogue outside of direct talking to English, as some of the humor comes from their dialogue lines that no one can understand.
The most immersive stalker game is also the most stable one too, the only problem I have had was 1 crash and you have to start the game from the link that was put onto your desktop, or else you have to make another start.cmd file like in Clear Sky.
The map is a bit smaller but covers larger areas.
Some new weapons have been added and several new mutants that were cut out of the original game(SOC) have been added, such as the Chimera.
Exploring is better than ever as there are many easter eggs to be found (such as a certain cave).
The upgrading system has been improved and more depth has been added. It is similar to Clear Sky's system, but instead of searching for flash drives with singular upgrades you need to find tools for entire upgrade trees.
More depth has been added (I can finally get my hands on that awesome trench coat) you will need to constantly repair you gear, which makes since, because if your walking around the Zone with a leather jacket on and you get attacked by dogs when you walk away it isn't exactly going to look like brand new or last as long as in Shadow of Chernobyl or Clear Sky.
You will have to eat more than once per day which adds more realism to the game. Medkits and other helpful items work over time, so no more 'kit spamming' if your cornered. Your characters sounds are much more immersive, instead of just hearing a short drinking sound like in previous games, you will hear him chug it down and burp, when using items like Medkits you will hear him applying it to himself.
But scavenging is unbalanced, as you will never be short on supplies or medkits.
You can finally hotkey items to f1-f4 which makes for much easier combat.
This is a great game that did not receive the praise it deserves, in fact you will find this game rather hard to find in stores, the previous 2 games in the series are practically to find.
Overall:
Unmodded 8.5
(I haven't tried any mods yet)