Finished the game. Master difficulty. Practically vanilla outside of a stabilization mod (Sky Reclamation Project) to make the game not ♥♥♥♥ itself every 2 seconds and fix a multitude of bugs at the same time.

Let's start with the positives: there are some actual decent moments in this game. I honestly had fun joining Freedom and fighting off Duty with squad members once I understood that this game forces you to upgrade guns in order to have any chance of hitting things farther than 5 meters. It was engaging and tense, and it didn't feel like the game was actively trying to screw me over at any given point (although the constant barrage of defense missions made running around from place to place kind of annoying). But that is an insanely small part of the game. Faction wars, while fun in concept and executed decently here, play essentially zero role in the story. They're pointless to do unless you want a chance at better loot and more money -- which is helpful, sure, but it's not required at all.

I'd say about an hour of my 13 hours of playtime was spent on the faction war system after the introductory sequence (where you're forced to partake in it for a bit). The rest of the 12 hours I spent on this game? Utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ miserable. This is one of the worst games I have ever played.

There's way too many glaring flaws in this game, whether it's through mechanics they introduced here or through changes to existing mechanics from its predecessor. Almost all of these introduced mechanics and changes to existing mechanics are negatives that detract from this game substantially.

From what I gathered in my playing time:

- Bleeding has different tiers. This was the case in Shadow of Chernobyl as well, but it rarely was utilized outside of a few areas. Generally speaking, if you get shot, you're required to use a Bandage twice -- occasionally you'll get lucky and only require one. This in and of itself is not a problem, and I think it could work well if done properly. The problem with this system rears its ugly head when enemy mobs a) shoot at you through walls like they have aimbot, causing you to start bleeding, b) have inhuman reaction times to the point where even if you could get the drop on them, if you miss once, you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥ regardless, and c) barely drop bandages or medkits to begin with. The end result of all this, especially the last point, means you're going to be spamming save loads constantly whenever you get shot -- a majority of the time, you aren't going to have a Bandage, and you're screwed if you get shot at all. This turns the game from a frantic open-world exploratory survival game into an absolute slog. You have zero reason to bother getting into random encounters because of the risk of being shot and/or mauled by mutants solely because this game's bleeding system is fundamentally broken. This is my major gripe with the game as it stands, and it's what prevented me from enjoying 90% of it.

- Enemies throw grenades. A lot of them. They're programmed to land directly where you are no matter what, so you're required to move whenever one is thrown -- and they give you very little time, if any, to react to the HUD indicators for it. While they are choreographed through voice lines most of the time, which does help the latter issue, occasionally the game just gives up and throws one at your forehead with zero warning, killing you instantly. At some points it's honestly laughable how many grenades are thrown at you because of how often enemies are programmed to do so. You can find videos online very easily showcasing just how bad this phenomenon can be.

- Indicators have been changed on the HUD. While most of this is straightforward and easy to understand, the game doesn't inform you that these indicators still apply even when grayed out. As an example, if you go into a radioactive area and suffer from radiation poisoning, even after getting out of the area, you will slowly die and nothing on your HUD tells you about this. Occasionally you'll get text on your screen if it's severe enough, but a vast majority of the time, there's nothing to inform you about what's happening. This becomes a huge problem later in the game, when it throws radioactive areas in places seemingly at random with nothing indicating it as being radioactive to begin with.

- Level design in the new areas are horrible. Without getting into heavy spoilers, the new areas introduced in this game not found in Shadow of Chernobyl are a complete joke. You're railroaded into going a very specific path, and at times this path is not clear in the slightest. Impassable areas generally use radiation as a deterrent (which then tanks your health unless you use anti-rads, as mentioned above), and pathways are rarely coherent or have thought put into them to usher the player in the right direction.

- The entire ending sequence is laughably bad. For the last 2 hours of this game, I felt like I was throwing my head against a brick wall doing anything. Enemy encounters are, for the most part, entirely scripted, which completely ruins any immersion that would otherwise be present through the game's A-Life system. These enemy encounters also happen to give you very little cover most of the time, so you frequently get melted by bullets or grenade lobs. The final boss sequence is also a complete joke and feels like it's tailor-made solely to piss you, the player, off, and nothing else. Enemies spawn out of thin air both in front of and behind you, and there's no cover to utilize at all. I literally had to run past encounters and hope I got lucky with the AI missing just to progress through this part. The ending cutscene itself is horrible, too.

I could go on and on about more minor nitpicks that I have with the game, but they don't matter in comparison to the issues I mentioned above.

This game is not fun. It's a chore to start, with its unfair difficulty thrown right at your face in the beginning (through god-awful weapon accuracy and you only having a pistol to begin with for long-range fights), and it's a chore to end through one of the worst ending sequences I have ever played in a video game. You can find some enjoyment here, like I did with the faction war system, but you can also find enjoyment in watching colors flash on a screen for 10 hours, so that doesn't really mean much.

If you're interested in getting into the STALKER series, hard skip this one. You will hate yourself and this series otherwise.

Finished the game. Master difficulty. Practically vanilla outside of a stabilization mod (Sky Reclamation Project) to make the game not shit itself every 2 seconds and fix a multitude of bugs at the same time. Let's start with the positives: there are some actual decent moments in this game. I honestly had fun joining Freedom and fighting off Duty with squad members once I understood that this game forces you to upgrade guns in order to have any chance of hitting things farther than 5 meters. It was engaging and tense, and it didn't feel like the game was actively trying to screw me over at any given point (although the constant barrage of defense missions made running around from place to place kind of annoying). But that is an [i]insanely[/i] small part of the game. Faction wars, while fun in concept and executed decently here, play essentially zero role in the story. They're pointless to do unless you want a chance at better loot and more money -- which is helpful, sure, but it's not required at all. I'd say about an hour of my 13 hours of playtime was spent on the faction war system after the introductory sequence (where you're forced to partake in it for a bit). The rest of the 12 hours I spent on this game? Utterly fucking miserable. This is one of the worst games I have [b]ever[/b] played. There's [b]way[/b] too many glaring flaws in this game, whether it's through mechanics they introduced here or through changes to existing mechanics from its predecessor. Almost all of these introduced mechanics and changes to existing mechanics are negatives that detract from this game substantially. From what I gathered in my playing time: - Bleeding has different tiers. This was the case in Shadow of Chernobyl as well, but it rarely was utilized outside of a few areas. Generally speaking, if you get shot, you're required to use a Bandage twice -- occasionally you'll get lucky and only require one. [i]This in and of itself is not a problem[/i], and I think it could work well if done properly. The problem with this system rears its ugly head when enemy mobs a) shoot at you through walls like they have aimbot, causing you to start bleeding, b) have inhuman reaction times to the point where even if you [i]could[/i] get the drop on them, if you miss once, you're fucked regardless, and c) barely drop bandages [i]or[/i] medkits to begin with. The end result of all this, [i]especially[/i] the last point, means you're going to be spamming save loads constantly whenever you get shot -- a majority of the time, you [i]aren't[/i] going to have a Bandage, and you're screwed if you get shot [i]at all[/i]. This turns the game from a frantic open-world exploratory survival game into an [b]absolute slog[/b]. You have zero reason to bother getting into random encounters because of the risk of being shot and/or mauled by mutants solely because [b]this game's bleeding system is fundamentally broken[/b]. This is my major gripe with the game as it stands, and it's what prevented me from enjoying 90% of it. - Enemies throw grenades. [i]A lot of them[/i]. They're programmed to land directly where you are no matter what, so you're required to move whenever one is thrown -- and they give you [i]very[/i] little time, if any, to react to the HUD indicators for it. While they are choreographed through voice lines most of the time, which does help the latter issue, occasionally the game just gives up and throws one at your forehead with zero warning, killing you instantly. At some points it's honestly laughable how many grenades are thrown at you because of how often enemies are programmed to do so. You can find videos online very easily showcasing just how bad this phenomenon can be. - Indicators have been changed on the HUD. While most of this is straightforward and easy to understand, the game doesn't inform you that [b]these indicators still apply even when grayed out[/b]. As an example, if you go into a radioactive area and suffer from radiation poisoning, even after getting out of the area, you will slowly die and [i]nothing on your HUD tells you about this[/i]. Occasionally you'll get text on your screen if it's severe enough, but a vast majority of the time, there's nothing to inform you about what's happening. This becomes a huge problem later in the game, when it throws radioactive areas in places seemingly at random with nothing indicating it [i]as[/i] being radioactive to begin with. - Level design in the new areas are horrible. Without getting into heavy spoilers, the new areas introduced in this game not found in Shadow of Chernobyl are a complete joke. You're railroaded into going a very specific path, and at times this path is not clear in the slightest. Impassable areas generally use radiation as a deterrent (which then tanks your health unless you use anti-rads, as mentioned above), and pathways are rarely coherent or have thought put into them to usher the player in the right direction. - The entire ending sequence is laughably bad. For the last 2 hours of this game, I felt like I was throwing my head against a brick wall doing [i]anything[/i]. Enemy encounters are, for the most part, entirely scripted, which completely ruins any immersion that would otherwise be present through the game's A-Life system. These enemy encounters also happen to give you very little cover most of the time, so you frequently get melted by bullets or grenade lobs. The final boss sequence is also a complete joke and feels like it's tailor-made solely to piss you, the player, off, and [i]nothing else[/i]. Enemies spawn out of thin air both in front of and behind you, and there's no cover to utilize at all. I literally had to run past encounters and hope I got lucky with the AI missing just to progress through this part. The ending cutscene itself is horrible, too. I could go on and on about more minor nitpicks that I have with the game, but they don't matter in comparison to the issues I mentioned above. [b]This game is not fun[/b]. It's a chore to start, with its unfair difficulty thrown right at your face in the beginning (through god-awful weapon accuracy and you [i]only having a pistol to begin with for long-range fights[/i]), and it's a chore to end through one of the worst ending sequences I have ever played in a video game. You [i]can[/i] find some enjoyment here, like I did with the faction war system, but you can also find enjoyment in watching colors flash on a screen for 10 hours, so that doesn't really mean much. If you're interested in getting into the STALKER series, [b]hard skip this one[/b]. You will hate yourself and this series otherwise.