The Precinct’s focus on proper protocol eventually wears a little thin, but its gorgeous, top-down take on GTA-inspired action from the right side of the law is undeniably arresting.
Finished Stalker 2 last night. I really enjoyed it overall, thought it's not without some issues. While the performance has improved, it's still not great. Lots of lower frame rates and a few instances of it stalling really hard or even crashing. Also some ghosting here and there, but all that could be in part to my older graphics card. Had some weird bugs here and there as well, like weird NPC interactions and enemies randomly coming back to life after killing them (only happened a couple of times). But I think my biggest complaint is with some of the weirdness of combat. Enemies can spot you from way too far away, and are often crazy accurate with their shooting. On top of that, they can often shoot through barriers that they should not be able to, stuff like solid concrete walls or giant steel machinery.
Enough of the negatives, let's talk positives. I played on Stalker difficulty (medium/intended difficulty). This felt really balanced in my opinion. There's danger pretty much everywhere you go, and it was fun knowing that I could run into a quick death at any given moment. And I died A LOT. I wasn't getting one tapped by anything, but I also wasn't taking a leisurely stroll through an army of people. Mutants often felt a bit spongey, but that's a good thing. You would want to avoid them in a real life situation, and that applies here as well. As for fighting humans, that's also really good until near the end of the game. For I'd say 90% of the game, a headshot is going to end things quickly, 1 or 2 shots is all you need. Body shots take much more, which makes sense since everyone is wearing armored gear. Near the end, most enemies are in exo suits, so they can sometimes take 3-4 headshots, but I really liked how this series emphasizes quick accurate shooting under pressure. The gunplay is really nice, even better than previous installments imo. Exploration is also fun - I love a game where I can just go roam around and look for loot. No rush to do the main quest, just go explore. Finding artifacts is fun and a good way to make money. Plenty of value in exploring too, especially seeking out the drops that get marked on the map. Weapons, blueprints, ammo, and armor. I had some good gear early, and didn't change much until right near the end. Nothing locked out by levels or anything either, if you can get to it, it's yours.
This is getting wordy, so lets skip to the end.
Did a little peeking at guides when hit with the major choices, but only because it wasn't always clear what each choice would mean. Probably could have went with my gut though, because what I thought each choice might provide was usually accurate. Ended up going with the Doctor/Kaymanov ending. Thought The Ward was a bunch of meatheads military goons that would use the zone for the things the military would use it for. Thought I was going to side with Spark, I liked Scar's vision of the peaceful shining zone, until Kaymanov revealed that it was just a psi hallucination. Then I thought I was going to side with Strelok and help protect the zone, until he turned on Kaymanov, who had saved him several times. The clear choice for me was to free the zone. Don't know if that's actually the best ending, since the zones then start popping up all over the world, but the other choices all seemed to ideological. This place is not something that can or should be controlled in my mind, so setting it free was the best option. Plus, ain't no way I was going to shoot Kaymanov. I also saw that in some of the other paths you have to fight Richter, and he was my BOY through and through! Always helpful at just the right moments, no way I could turn on that.
Final thought: if you like the other Stalker games you'll probably like this one too, just be warned there's still a lot of problems, if that's something that BUGS you! I'll see myself out...
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