Being set in Chernobyl gives it extra points but that doesn't make Stalker a great game...
Stalker has this weird map which is sooo hard to use and not because it's complex but just because it wasn't very well made and when you zoom right out to see the full map the icons vanish, so then you have to zoom in and scroll about. Also theres like several icons on there to different missions and it's quite hard to see whats the main mission and you'll often get lost in a sea of missions. You'll often get dragged into side missions without even knowing it and you'll find yourself coming off the main story and doing some side mission. Brings me to the other problem which is side missions arn't fun and have no real story to them or a reward that matters. It's funny because theres all this money and mission rewards and yet it's all completly useless cause everything you need can be looted off of corpses, so theres a giant problem right there.
The shooting in the game is just sooo bad because you can stand right infront of someone and unload whole mags on them and they just don't go down. I reckon theres some problem with the hit detection which makes sense as the character models act very weird. Yet the enemy seem to be able to hit you spot on everytime and makes no sense to me what so ever.
The movement in Stalker is very weird aswel because it just doesn't feel right most of the time. The running in the game is way too fast and urnealistic and it's like they made it super human fast as a excuse of not bothering to put vehicles in. Alot of the time you'll be running and you come upto a stair or something and it's like you trip and just doesn't act right. Also when you kill a enemy there seems to be no rag doll physics and no good animated deaths, everyone seems to just suddely drop to the ground like they forgot to add the animations in...... one second they are standing up the next they are laying down sorta thing. The AI might be good i'm not sure because it's held back with all these tech issues and they often get stuck onto things and i dunno just the tech issues that hold it back.
I hate the level design aswel, i thought it was going to be a big open world with no restrictions and yet theres restrictions everywhere like barriers and stuff. Also they've used radiation as a excuse of places you can't go to where they havn't made part of the map which feels weird. I also don't like all the loading times between zones... in this day and age it shouldn't be used and really hurts the game for me. So you have to run round in what feels like a maze because theres certain places you can go and can't go and it only loads into different zones at certain areas which is annoying. Also no vehicles in the game which sucks so makes everything sooo much more boring and less realistic.
The graphics are fantastic however and they do look dated but all the lighting effects and details are sooo amazing. The character models are the worst thing though they have detail on them but sooo low in polygons they look like 2002 graphics or something. Stalker just gives a great atmosphere and a very scary one and that's the best thing about the game. The Chernobyl they've created and the areas around and the attension to detail of the old plant is just sooo lifelife and amazing it'll take your breath away.
The sound effects and music are all great too and help improve the atmosphere and stalker does this better than anyother game. Soo many times i was scared by them and they just sound sooo lifelike it's really amazing. The company needs to give however done them a big raise because it's the best thing about the game other than the Chernobyl setting.
I'm not going to talk about the multiplayer because it's not worth it lol.
Anyways Stalker has a great setting and atmosphere and if it wasn't set in Chernobyl then i wouldn't like it at all. It's such a shame the gameplay is that bad and you often get lost in the mess it is.