A great game that added some extra mechanics and polished from Shadow of Chernobyl, with the biggest new addition being the Faction system, that sounds great on paper, allowing you to join almost any of the big stalker factions: Duty, Freedom, Loners or Bandits
Though the reason this is still the worst, while still good, STALKER game is that it's so buggy, especially the faction wars. It's more likely you'll get softlocked on the faction war mechanic than that you'll get through it, so you most likely shouldn't even invest in it. Just join a faction you like so you can use their base as your hub for trading and upgrading gear

But, the ultimate reason where this game falls off from the others is one simple little round thing: Grenades
Every human enemy carries grenades, they don't feel like saving them for later, and they throw them at you with pinpoint accuracy even if you were behind good cover, and you will die after less than a second from the indicator popping up. I've died more to grenades in this game in one playthrough than I die in most games at all. ♥♥♥♥ it, I've probably died to more grenades in just one hour than I die in most games at all through an entire playthrough

And the ending in this game is just unbelievably unfair, throwing enemies at you left and right in big bunches, if they don't shoot you down in seconds they'll throw grenades at you. It just becomes ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with quicksaves and hoping you didn't save a second before exploding

This is truly the one game where the Vintorez will NOT carry you through your problems, because it can't protect you from grenades that are thrown by people who have 1 000 hours in Worms

I'd still recommend it but only if you really want to play all STALKER games

A great game that added some extra mechanics and polished from Shadow of Chernobyl, with the biggest new addition being the Faction system, that sounds great on paper, allowing you to join almost any of the big stalker factions: Duty, Freedom, Loners or Bandits Though the reason this is still the worst, while still good, STALKER game is that it's so buggy, especially the faction wars. It's more likely you'll get softlocked on the faction war mechanic than that you'll get through it, so you most likely shouldn't even invest in it. Just join a faction you like so you can use their base as your hub for trading and upgrading gear But, the ultimate reason where this game falls off from the others is one simple little round thing: Grenades Every human enemy carries grenades, they don't feel like saving them for later, and they throw them at you with pinpoint accuracy even if you were behind good cover, and you will die after less than a second from the indicator popping up. I've died more to grenades in this game in one playthrough than I die in most games at all. Fuck it, I've probably died to more grenades in just one hour than I die in most games at all through an entire playthrough And the ending in this game is just unbelievably unfair, throwing enemies at you left and right in big bunches, if they don't shoot you down in seconds they'll throw grenades at you. It just becomes fucking around with quicksaves and hoping you didn't save a second before exploding This is truly the one game where the Vintorez will NOT carry you through your problems, because it can't protect you from grenades that are thrown by people who have 1 000 hours in Worms I'd still recommend it but only if you really want to play all STALKER games