The game has some very interesting features, such as customizing and enhancing the "Marked One" with radiated artifacts. These little irradiated treats come in all forms, including "Jellyfish", "Flash" and "Stone Flower", plus many more. These can increase things like radiation resistance, electricity resistance, health and many other things. However, most have a side effect. Some even cause radiation to the character, in which case he should have something else decreasing that effect.
On the negative side, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. does contain its share of problems. Nothing that stops the game from being enjoyable, but a few bugs put a dent in the fun. The game sometimes randomly minimizes itself during a strategic firefight or while sneaking up on someone. It can also spontaneously exits when opening the save menu. This really hurts because the game lacks a quick-save feature, so that menu must be pulled up to keep anything stored. There remain a few movement and graphical problems that run amok in most shooting games, but can be repaired with time and troubleshooting. Things like floating bodies, peoples' limbs coming through walls, and one particularly annoying problem with shooting grass, instead of shooting through grass. This makes foliage very poor (or very effective) cover material.
In such an overwhelmingly free game, there must always be some goal, if only to find more that is new. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. provides this and much more, but it was not designed for the run-and-gun player, or for players who want a few quick shooter minutes. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. takes time, effort and determination, not to mention patience if players want all seven endings. It could have been game-of-the-year material, and with proper patching support it might still have a chance.
Final Score: 7 (out of 10)
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