Long time STALKER player here - my thoughts after playing for 7 hours

Survival & Immersive Horror
1

Hate to say this but the new game feels off

As someone who loved the original games, this doesn’t feel like real STALKER to me. Here’s what I think after spending some time with it.

What I actually liked:

  • Zone atmosphere is pretty solid
  • Environments look amazing and really detailed
  • Cool to see familiar spots from old games
  • Tons of random objects everywhere that you can interact with
  • Objects make realistic sounds when you knock into them
  • Soundtrack works well
  • Cutscenes look really good
  • Weapon handling feels right
  • Audio design is incredible, maybe the best part
  • Weather effects look awesome
  • Different groups still fight each other
  • Nice references to previous games
  • Main story seems interesting so far
  • Characters feel real when speaking Ukrainian
  • Movement animations are smooth
  • Headshots still kill instantly
  • Running speed feels natural
  • UI isn’t as bad as people say

What really bothers me:

  • Very few dialogue choices
  • Runs like garbage
  • Money system is broken - repairs cost way more than mission rewards
  • Enemies just appear out of nowhere after you clear areas
  • No more watching the zone come alive from a distance
  • Mutants take forever to kill
  • Bad guys throw grenades constantly
  • Your grenades are useless
  • No reason to fight mutants since they drop nothing
  • Can’t run very far without getting tired
  • Radiation effects cover too much of the screen
  • Need to eat food all the time
  • Energy drinks don’t work right
  • Enemy AI is stupid but has perfect aim
  • Stealth doesn’t work at all
  • Towns with shops lag terribly
  • Flashlight is weak and doesn’t cast shadows
  • Can’t tell factions apart easily
  • Graphics pop in and out
  • Lighting glitches when leaving buildings
  • Dialogue system forces you to wait
  • PDA isn’t a 3D object anymore
  • NPCs don’t actually care if you aim at them
  • English voices sound bad
  • No reputation system
  • Faction relationships seem broken
  • No radio chatter between stalkers
  • Control mapping has issues
  • Mouse feels laggy

What needs fixing first:

  1. Bring back proper AI spawning system
  2. Make enemy behavior smarter
  3. Fix performance issues
  4. Everything else after that
2

Definitely with you on that. The enemy spawning is just plain frustrating. Clearing a spot only for them to suddenly appear behind you feels totally wrong for a STALKER game. It used to have a more organic feel where the enemies moved through the zone instead of just appearing. They really need to fix that first before anything else can be enjoyed.

3

Same here, performance totally ruins it for me. Can’t get into the game when it’s stuttering every few seconds in towns. That money issue sounds brutal too. I’m probably gonna skip repairs until they fix it.

4

Totally agree. It’s hard to stay engaged when the game has so many issues right off the bat.