The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series is a funny one. As one of the lone big named PC exclusives to come out this year, a lot of the hopes of PC gamers rest on the shoulders of this game. Like many these days, I am not predominantly a PC gamer. I haven’t been playing PC games for very long and thus I have watched the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series from a far, wondering what the game would be like. I jumped at the opportunity to review the game, but as it turns out, I should have just kept watching from afar…

First impressions for a game are important. The developers try and hook you into the game, story and the visual appeal and keep you playing. Generally the opening scenes will have a good portion of story tied into a tutorial and something to show off the game's visual prowess. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. has none of these things. You get a power point presentation with an introductive narrative. Don’t get me wrong the story is interesting to the point where it grabs you and makes you listen - as long as you are interested in sci-fi stories that involve radiation; and let's face it, you're playing videogames, so you probably are interested - but then the game begins.

Sure, who needs a real intro right? Who needs an instructions, tutorial or any other mechanic that were introduced in good, polished games over the last five years, making the game easier and more accessible. These are things we have come to expect in a game, yet S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and its apologists somehow make a case that it is ok for the game to drop you on a random road with no clue of what to do or how to do it. I’m sorry, but as games have become more complex and innovative, so too have developers tried to discover new and innovative ways to teach players the ropes, besides punishing the hell out of them. The ability to quick save at anytime is a welcome consolation for a game that would be nearly unplayable due to its steep difficulty curve.

PC games have a stigma for being hardcore, so I thought to myself, 'Just suck it up and enjoy the graphics that the PC can throw at me'. This is the 3^rd S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game using same engine and it shows. It's obvious the developers are comfortable with their tools as they've produced a game with very few bugs and a version that's much more stable than its predecessors. The same can't be said about the facade though. Muddy textures, terrible animations and an uninspired art design leave the visuals lacking in variety and the fidelity that we have come to expect from console games, let alone a PC game on full settings.

The entire game isn’t a total write off though. This game nails the weather effects and is some of the best we've seen in a game. In a game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R where atmosphere makes up for a great chunk of the gameplay, it's nice to see. One of the more impressive moments was walking through a thunderstorm terrified of being attacked in the rainy haze.

Atmosphere is something that the game does really well. Specific missions set at certain times of the day and varying between open outdoor areas and tight corridors, the game really achieves that survival horror feel. The majority of weapons and gadets that S.T.A.L.K.E.R dispenses to you throughout the game are just plain cool. What doesn't sound cool about a post apocalyptic russia crawling with crazy mutated animals?

The two games that come to mind when I think about S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s premise are Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. Both are open world games, one focuses on gunplay while the other focuses on the world and story. While Far Cry 2’s biggest problem was its narrative, at least interesting people were in the world to talk to and the missions, while repetitive, were enjoyable and they treated the player to some great looking scenery and a world that had a fair bit of variety. Fallout 3 suffered mainly because of its combat system, yet it won a ton of awards because of the interesting world and the characters and stories that are contained within it. At the very least, neither of these games make you read a ton on text to know what is going on.

These two games seem to have evolved past S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. If you loved both of these games, then there will be something for you to like in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. But you may, like me, find you can’t get past its numerous shortcomings and lack of polish that we've come to expect from videogames in 2010.