S.T.A.L.K.E.R – First impressions
I have managed to get my hands on a copy of the long awaited title, Stalker. I have been watching stalker since it was announced about five years ago and have since awaited its (often delayed) release.
First things first! Stalker was supposed to bean open world for the player to explore freely. instead you have access to smaller parts of the zone and kind of warp to the other parts when you head in that direction. Hard to explain.
Another disappointment is the questing system. Its about as intuitive as quantum physics to a toddler and took quite some time to get used to. I cant imagine them going through playtesting without anyone bringing this up as a serious issue! oh well.
There are quite a few bugs too. Quite a few times I have experienced time fast-forwarding where the player is constantly hungry and the weather changes very rapidly. The only way I was able to overcome this is closing the game then starting it.
The AI in stalker is amazing! Creatures all act like real creatures! Its hard to imagine, but the creatures feel real, full of life. The other humanoids also stand up to expectations with their group tactics and warfare skills.
Those are the most important aspects of stalker which have impressed me (both good and bad. Stalker is an amazing game which almost makes it worth the wait, but it could have been more. I wont be soft on that issue just because I am glad to finally be playing it. In the hands of a different team I think we would have gotten a much nicer game, but I am still thrilled at the experience it has given me so far (been playing around six hours all up). The excitement level is on par with Half-Life 2! No that isn’t a typo, I really like the atmosphere and story of stalker 
