Let me just get this out in the open before I get too far. I never
finished this game. Take that for what you will, but I'm the kind of
person that typical finishes every game I play.
I've been a fan of FPSs for several years now and a fan of RPGs for as
long as I can remember, so you can imagine that I though that STALKER
would be a perfect fit for me. Everything about this game sounded
interesting to me when I decided to but it. Unfortunately, I started
running into problems almost as soon as I started playing. My computer
easily exceeded most of the game's recommended requirements and yet it
chugged like Thomas the Train-engine through out most of the game. The
controls were another issue; it took me a good fifteen minutes to
rearrange the controls so that they resembled something that was
actually meant for human fingers, and even then some of the controls
(like the backwards mouse wheel when zooming) were unchangeable. Even
after all this the controls still felt clunky much of the time (why is
it that I can only sprint straight forwards?).
The RPG elements were probably the biggest disappointment. finding,
organizing and completing quests often felt like a chore. They were
usually vague and frequently wore down into a monotonous grind as you
slowly walk (you're severely limited on how far you can run) huge
distances to complete quests. Compounding this, I also sometimes found
quests spontaneously declaring themselves failed if I didn't manage to
get back to the quest giver soon enough. The inventory management
system was even worse. By the time you add your armor, the huge variety
of health items you'll need, your weapons and ammo your character is
walking at a snail's pace and every time you need to pick up something
you're more than likely going have to drop something else. The weapons
were a particularly big problem as ammo was ALWAYS in short supply.
Some people feel that the constantly hunt for ammo added to the game's
atmosphere and believability, I think it was just a constant cloud that
hovered over my enjoyment of this game.
The environments were fitting for the nuclear waist-land theme with
lots of signs of abandoned urban decay and strange mutant lifeforms
everywhere. However, even here there were some disappointments. First,
the sound was all around dull and almost absent in the longest
stretches of waits-land where it could have been used to break the
tedium. Second, there were to many areas with little going on in them
beyond an occasional mutant or bandit. Third, after a while all of the
urban decay and barren waist-land begins to look the same.
I'm not sure what to say about the game's story line. Judging by
walk-throughs it seems that I got a little over half way through the
game before calling it quits. In that time I only found myself growing
more confused by the main quests and the infrequent, vague cutsceens.
Maybe all that would have made since in the end, but it definitely
wasn't driving me forward in an attempt to see what happened next.
I really wanted to like this game, but ultimately its flaws
overshadowed its strengths for me. Maybe other people can look past
them and find a good game underneath, but I'm not one of them and I
can't recommend this game on the off chance that someone else may be
one of the lucky ones.
