Scary as being lost, on your own, in a nuclear wasteland with strange noises all around...then having to go underground!
The windswept wastlands of Ukrainian countryside broken up by abandoned buildings gives a real sense of what the real zone must be. The ever increasingly strange creatures and then mutants that wander the lands also make the world for a place you don't really want to venture into. That is the precise feeling I got early on. I was very hesitant about going into every building and exploring dark rooms.
Trading, buying better good and scavenging for ammo and weapons also add the survival horror aspect of the game and make the sense of further exploration even more scary. The game is tough and realistic (Especially with the Oblivion Lost 2.0 mod!).
If all that wasn't enough, you'll find yourself out in the wastelands all alone and having to then go underground! At this point I really did want to turn back! Down in the depths you hear strange dripping noises, creeking metal doors and other not so identifiable noises. This is one area the game absolutely excels at. The sound effects are haunting yet clear. They really nailed this aspect of the game and the sounds in the depths make for a truly terrifying game. There are some shocking parts that follow shortly after you first venture down, so without spoiling the experience, let me just say, they are memorable if only for the sheer heart-pounding, gut wrenching experience they invoke!
There are some let downs, such as the game's story isn't the easiest to follow. You know that you're trying to get to the reactor but you're never really forced to find out why. The side quests do not have any real purpose and the vanilla-unpatched version of the game is awefully buggy!
The graphics are stunning. The landscape, the HDR and in particular the bump/texture maps combine for a very detailed landscape, long forgotten. Shadows and light are very well done as is the overall art direction for creating a destroyed world! It's sad to say, the same level of detail hasn't been passed on to the character models. They are flat and do not seem up to the same standard as the game world, almost out of place!
Overall, the game achieves something that is much more than the sum of its parts and I enjoyed it more than man other games which tecnically and critically scored higher!