Annoyingly Russian, but very fun!
The main feature that separates this game from other FPS's is certainly it's inclusion of an inventory and a vast array of weapons to choose from. Of course those weapons come in a hierarchy, but still, I'm not using one or two guns the whole game and I like that. It does make you feel as though you've progressed even though there is really no character development. At the beginning of the game I was lucky to hit the broad side of a barn with a shot gun, but at the end of the game I could snipe a running dog from two blocks away, and it's was much more a change of equipment rather than skills.
Another departure from the norm was the multiple endings, I'm not going to say anything about them, but ending the game the way I did made me want to keep playing, so I did! Now, without alerting the player to this possibility in game somehow, certainly promoted the overall Russian-ness of the game, along with every cut scene in the game.
I'm now certainly looking forward to Clear Sky!