S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has been in development for a very long time, longer than Half-Life 2, and longer than many other blockbuster titles of recent years, and yet it falls short of these other games voulentarily in favour of an innovative open-world rpg style FPS.

The game is far from perfect. There isn't nearly as much voice acting as text, which I certainly can live with, but it's quite inconsistant in choosing who actually gets to speak. The graphics are dated, understandable, but they're still dated. Also, at the time of this review (March 23, 2007) the DX9 dynamic lighting is almost completely broken, and if you expect playable frame-rates, you're probably going to have to use the DX8 static lighting.

Speaking of bugs, many review sites and forums have been reporting issues with crashing on Windows Vista, however I have not yet run into any of these problems, and there is supposedly a patch in the works.

The A.I. is some of the best I've seen lately, it reacts appropriately when injured, sometimes retreating when it figures out you're tougher than it, but more often than not you'll end up flanked by some hot-shot dude with a machine gun, and that really adds a nice touch, however, the low ammount of health the game gives you in addition to enemies that can actually aim makes STALKER a little difficult, so PC shooter novices beware.

The multiplayer is fun for a while, but it's nothing you're going to see a ton of people playing.

To sum it up, STALKER is a competant entry to the FPS and RPG genres, and is a must have for fans of Deus Ex or System Shock, or anyone anticipating the upcoming Bioshock.

I'm sure I've left a few things out, but if you have any questions, PM me

Learning Curve: Takes a while

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