Great game for the first few hours, then it gets a little repetitive. Not much depth, length or re-playability.
Ballistics and realism is totally unrealistic in this game. Some targets can take literally half the clip of an AK-74 before they drop dead (that is, to the torso) or one to two shots to the head. Some targets will only stagger after a head shot from a rifle! "Serious" bleeding can be stopped by clicking on a "bandage" button. Unfortunately, the same is not done for radiation medication, so every time you experience radiation poisoning, you have to tediously go into your inventory, locate the drugs, double-click on them, and exit out of the inventory. More often than not, you will have been blasted by some enemy's rifle rounds by this point. Rifle accuracy is just atrocious in this game, since you basically cannot hit anything with a rifle+scope unless it is a few feet away from you. If it's farther than a stone's throw away, you might as well start throwing bricks. Rifles in real life are MUCH more accurate than this, even the relatively inaccurate AK-74. Also, where is the AK-47? Isn't that supposed to be the most proliferate weapon on the planet? I don't believe I found a single one of these in the game. Same for the 7.62 ammo. Rather rare. Hand grenades are also next to useless. After using them a few times, I simply started dropping them and ignoring them. It's not shrapnel that they shoot when exploding, it's apparently some kind of rubbery substance, since you have to stand on top of a few grenades before you die. Also, isn't radiation supposed take a lot of time to accumulate and cause damage? It can kill you in seconds in this game.
RPG elements are very weak. You can trade for money or items, but there is no point in doing so. The sellers charge a killing for even the most basic items and buy your items for next to nothing, with the exception of artifacts. Besides, the weapons are scattered throughout the map like bricks at a construction site. And since weapons wear down at alarming rates, you will find yourself throwing away weapons for less-used ones all the time. That's because a weapon that is even SLIGHTLY worn won't be able to hit anything unless it's at point blank range or 20 feet away. Stealth is kind of useful, but is strategically worthless. If you attack a member of ANY faction in a single map, all of that faction's members will automatically know exactly where you are and come to hunt you down. Doesn't matter if you knife him from behind in a sealed-off room. They all know and they all know right away. On the other hand, if you kill every member of that faction on that map, then leave and come back, they will respawn and act as if nothing happened. Oh, and the missions? They are just pass-or-fail types of things. I guess they are the equivalent of "side quests" found in RPGs. Usually to kill someone or bring in an artifact. That's about the extent of the barely-present RPG system.
Multiplayer mode is also totally simplistic. It's like Quake 3 but without Capture the Flag. I think they just have Team mode, Free-For-All, and artifact collection. From what I have seen, there is no mode to play the game against AI enemies with another human player. What a waste of a great concept!
That said, the sound in this game is pretty good, with attractive explosions, their visual effects and voices. Characters speak in actual Russian, with actual Russian accents, but they usually just repeat the same lines over and over. Plus, it's awkward to hear part of something in Russian and the rest in English.
Overall, it's not a bad game, having SOME re-playability. Unfortunately, the game does not appear to continue past the ending, like many RPGs do (allowing you to play with your acquired items and weapons). It just ends, apparently. Do yourself a favor and don't complete the main quest (don't go to the NPP). This game could have been great, but it just lacks polish. Bugs (including corrupt save games) exist even with the first patch. No polish to multiplayer or RPG elements give this game sort of a FPS feeling like the Doom game, where you can talk to people, but that's about it. RPG is really lacking, is what I mean.