Firstly, Sup com is a complete rehash of Total annihilation but in 3d with 5 new units. they called a few units different names but most of them were all but identical. the game is 10 years old or so, it was world class, it was/is fantastic. Supcom bought entirely, i mean completely nothing new to the table at all. ok scroll zooming is great to that degree but thats it. TO anyone that played TA and waited 10 years for a sequel, i think we mostly expected a touch more effort and originality than mostly the same units but prettier. i was bored in minutes.
On to Stalker, firstly 2 artifacts about an hour into the game gave +300 or 400% health and -100% bleeding(edit, wasn't clear, that was EACH artifact, not combined), almost invunerable at that point, i found another 2 way before all the later game stuff, basically unstoppable. why need stamina to run everywhere, its a small game, you could run around and do all the side missions, except they are completely worthless, as was the faction rep stuff as was, most of it.
story, weak as hell. you start off the game not knowing who you are, you are told to kill a guy, thats it. Within minutes you are told to just murder people with no reason. most games let you choose to be a murderer or give you a damn good reason why you should. they are evil and genocidal people, you are saving lives, blah blah blah. or , sneak towards the core and well, they might shoot at you so you have no choice but to shoot back. but here, its just, go murder these guys and i can't be bothered to tell you why. THe story makes little sense anywhere in the game, and is mostly terrible coupled by awful endings, all of them.
AI, terrible, missions, awful with most of them completely pointless. quest rewards or stuff you can get in shops after, all available as random finds WAY before you can buy them. The two good fights in the game, the very first farmhouse(ignoring lack of reasoning) is great, scripted and hard, the next scripted attack is in the car junkyard place. the enemy are heavily scripted, an attack begins, they actively search and hunt you down, this doesn't happen anywhere else in the game in the same aggressive way. infact most of the game they will basically only run behind nearest cover and run from one side of it to the other, or run completely away.
first upgraded gun you get, that ak47 with increased fire, firstly, increased firing rate leads to less accuracy in real life(more bullets = more recoil = less accuracy). yet that gun was over its non improved version, more powerful about 20x as accurate and fired faster. the same non improved gun you aim properly at a wall and fire a single shot, aim at same point and the bullet would go almost anywhere in a certain radius, the improved version you did the same, you could pretty much hit the same spot time and time and time again. before headshots were almost impossible, especially at distant, all guns after that i could headshot most guys miles away before they could get close.
complete lack of balance in the game, stupidly easy, awful story, terrible endings, fantastic scripted attacks, only 2 scripted attacks, both scripted attacks in the first hour, nothing worthwhile after that point... some nice level/area design and nice atmosphere but did entirely nothing with it.
