Very atmospheric and impressing!
One thing that has to be said beforehand about gameplay in STALKER is the atmosphere which the player is unable to escape - this being a good thing though. The player is a nameless stalker that is found half-dead in the zone, an area surrounding the NPP of chernobyl that has been contaminated after a fictional nuclear accident in the year 1989.
The area is swarming with mutated animals, bandits, soldiers and other stalkers that are looking for rare artifacts such as yourself. These NPCs interact with each other, meaning you could lure mutants to a military outpost and quickly run away and the result will be both groups battling it out with each other. You can then have a go at the weaker group and finish them off easily. Tactics such as this one, shouldn't be seen as cowardly, but rather as survival methods - the game is quite tough as far as difficulty is concerned.
All of these NPCs are very believable in their design and work very well with the story. Even the mutants are believable, meaning they aren't tentacled green blobs floating above the ground and spitting death skulls, but rather look like deformed farmland animals - which they are.
Within the zone lie derelict vehicles, broken roads, old research areas and empty villages and cities. These cities and villages are often the base of one of the factions or swarming with mutants.
The AI is clever, with enemies using cover , regrouping to team up on you and fleeing if they feel they don't have a chance. What should be mentioned is the system of factions giving you trust or attacking you on sight. NPCs remember how you treated them and will see you as an enemy of friend from then on.
The only flaw that the gameplay has in my eyes, is enemies taking several hits and living on - not reacting to shots to the arms or legs in any way. This might have been ok in older games, however in modern games I would like to be able to disarm enemies or slow them down by aimed fire.
Graphics 10/10
Although quite dated the graphics can only be described as stunning. Now you don't get fancy effects or Unreal 3 technology, what you get is far better: incredible amounts of atmospheric details. You can go explore each and every cellar or the smallest house in the tiniest village and still find a nice detail such as a poster or a bed and dirty mattress inside. You get the feeling that whatever place you happen upon in the game has a meaning and be it only to add to the atmosphere or a nuclear wasteland.
The animations of the characters and animals are well done, aswell as the textures having amazing detail.
The landscape is believable, with small wooded areas, villages and other places scattered believably around. If you get to a high vantage point and take a look around - and combine this with the changing weather and time effects - you get a truly amazing and breathtaking outlook.
What you should make sure to have is a high end system so you can enjoy all settings on full, which will make for an awesome gaming experience in any case.
Sound 10/10
The sounds in the game are very good, weather effects, equipment sounds and animal noises work very well. The distant crack of fire arms and the growl of mutants behind you in an unlit corridor give you the shivers like nothing you experienced before.
Most characters speak a ukranian accented english, which further pushes the atmosphere - imagine a fat trader in deepest ukrania speaking like your typical texas hotshot - doesn't work, does it?
Value 9/10
Easy: huge environment, hours of exploration, great character designs, superb graphics and a trip to the NPP chernobyl for something aounrd 40$ - if this isn't value I don't know what is ;-)
Reviewer's Tilt 10/10
Since I personally love games like Fallout and this game goes into the same direction, has an awesome atmosphere and plays really well, I give this game a 9.5, which equals to a 10 here on gamespot.
Should anyone like FPS, untypical settings and very atmospheric games, there should be no holding back!