This game is frustrating. Rather than have a more typical design for 1st/3rd person shooters where the enemies die in one or a few hits, depending on the weapon and enemy type, the enemies take damage based on your level relative to the mission level. This means that most of the time, unless you grind ahead, the enemies will be bullet sponges. Even when you snipe an enemy in the head undetected, it won't kill them instantly. I get that this is deliberate, but it sucks. It's not an enjoyable or satisfying way to play a shooter game. The cover-to-cover system is also flawed, and enemies may be able to hit you but you can't hit them, or shoot through a fence that just blocks your shots.

The main missions are pretty cool and fun at times but the side missions are re-used and repetitive. "Go here and kill everyone", "Carry these items that slow you down from A to B while enemies spawn on you", etc. The spawning isn't good either. There's no dynamic detection of where you're standing, so enemies often spawn in droves from a door right behind you or drop down on top of you.

There's no stealth system even though it feels like there should be. You can avoid detection from enemies but if you kill one, it just alerts everyone else.

The looting is OK. You at least get good stuff pretty consistently, but the "quality" the game gives you can be misleading because some of the bonuses a gun has can ultimately be ignored if the other has more damage or a bigger magazine. The crafting is completely unnecessary since you can loot what you need and the weapons are all worse than the stuff you loot at the same level.

The atmosphere is very nice at times, as is the setting itself, but all the characters are ugly and mostly uninteresting. The people you encounter don't look like the last people that would be alive during a pandemic, but the first people to die. I understand the idea that they want to show "regular people" in harsh conditions, but it's like they're afraid to make anyone look even average. On a related note, the customization is abysmal. You have very limited choices in how your character looks and the clothing is all generic junk, so you'll need to spend real money for more cases. Even then, most of the stuff you get doesn't look cool.

But, again, the game design is the major problem. They improved upon it in the sequel, so I guess they made the same realizations (but that one's not great, either). It's terrible, don't buy this.

This game is frustrating. Rather than have a more typical design for 1st/3rd person shooters where the enemies die in one or a few hits, depending on the weapon and enemy type, the enemies take damage based on your level relative to the mission level. This means that most of the time, unless you grind ahead, the enemies will be bullet sponges. Even when you snipe an enemy in the head undetected, it won't kill them instantly. I get that this is deliberate, but it sucks. It's not an enjoyable or satisfying way to play a shooter game. The cover-to-cover system is also flawed, and enemies may be able to hit you but you can't hit them, or shoot through a fence that just blocks your shots. The main missions are pretty cool and fun at times but the side missions are re-used and repetitive. "Go here and kill everyone", "Carry these items that slow you down from A to B while enemies spawn on you", etc. The spawning isn't good either. There's no dynamic detection of where you're standing, so enemies often spawn in droves from a door right behind you or drop down on top of you. There's no stealth system even though it feels like there should be. You can avoid detection from enemies but if you kill one, it just alerts everyone else. The looting is OK. You at least get good stuff pretty consistently, but the "quality" the game gives you can be misleading because some of the bonuses a gun has can ultimately be ignored if the other has more damage or a bigger magazine. The crafting is completely unnecessary since you can loot what you need and the weapons are all worse than the stuff you loot at the same level. The atmosphere is very nice at times, as is the setting itself, but all the characters are ugly and mostly uninteresting. The people you encounter don't look like the last people that would be alive during a pandemic, but the first people to die. I understand the idea that they want to show "regular people" in harsh conditions, but it's like they're afraid to make anyone look even average. On a related note, the customization is abysmal. You have very limited choices in how your character looks and the clothing is all generic junk, so you'll need to spend real money for more cases. Even then, most of the stuff you get doesn't look cool. But, again, the game design is the major problem. They improved upon it in the sequel, so I guess they made the same realizations (but that one's not great, either). It's terrible, don't buy this.