Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

I got this game in the recent steam sale. I was never really turned on by what I heard about it when it was released but I thought that it would be worth a punt, specifically I wanted to try the coop with a friend. Bear in mind I'm playing the latest version with the latest patch on a game released 2 years ago.

I'll start with what I liked about this game. Well, pretty much all of it. In terms of the mission structure, the free roam dynamics etc, it wasn't what I expected at all and a very pleasant surprise. It seems a tremendously ambitious game. The areas are huge, the detail is noteably very impressive for what is supposed to be a military simulation. In several missions you can go about your objectives in a variety of different ways and the outcome is dependent not only on how you perform but when you go to an area or what you choose to do first. It gives the impression of a living world you are in, which is always changing and that adds hugely to the realism. If I had one complaint it would be that the mission structure and goals could be a little more clearly structured and comprehensible.

The combat is absolutely superb, far better than Operation Flashpoint DR. Tense gun fights, taking cover, trying to see the enemy etc etc, it is very immersive and very enjoyable. Obviously not for you if you are expecting COD gun mechanics. You won't be quickscoping here. You will however feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction in overcoming your enemy precisely because it can be so challenging and unforgiving. I can't emphasise enough how fantastic the combat is in this game when you get it. I absolutely adore it.

There is also much more of a plot than I expected and it is reasonably good for such a game.

All in all there is so much to love about this game. It really is not only relatively realistic but it is also incredibly fun, such a hard thing to get right. On top of that the ambitious world/mission design really is impressive. Which is why it's hard to understand all the bugs and problems.

I can only really speak of the coop. I've played a couple missions singleplayer but almost all of my play has been with a friend in coop. The bugs, oh god, it's absolutely insane. I've never encountered anything like it. Teammates will ignore commands, my friend will load into the game and find the controls don't fully work...the savegame itself seems to get corrupted or something because the only way to solve this control issue is to start the mission again ignoring the saves made up until then.

In one mission our main objective was randomly completed by a helicopter firing rockets at a base whilst we were doing another task (we could see it in the distance). In a way I like the fact that the world is so variable like that but at the same time it's a little odd. My friend also inexplicably has major issues connecting, not at the start of any mission but if we load a savegame in the middle of a mission. At the start they immediately join in and start with me, but if we ever load a save my friend takes ages to join if it joins at all.

Missions don't finish when you complete the goals, or they finish and random things flash up on the screen before I go back to the main menu where I note the next mission is not available as if I hadn't completed the last. When we clearly did.

Later in the game after we completed one mission, the next mission starts but everytime my friend joins, we get the message "someone was killed"...the "bad" music comes on and the mission ends without explanation. No one has been killed, everyone is standing there upright and nothing is happening. This meant skipping certain missions as they were completely unplayable.

There are so many bugs and problems and this is 2 years and several patches after release???? I can only imagine the frustration of people playing this game from the release date, it must of been a nightmare.

In between the bugs you get brief periods of pure brilliance. It's one of the strangest gaming experiences I've encountered. I absolutely love this game but it is so broken it is borderline unplayable. Certainly for coop on the campaign. If this was any other game I wouldn't have touched it again after the first night of playing.

So I have no idea whether to recommend this game or not. I never expected it to be as large, diverse, immersive and enjoyable as it is. It really is one of the best FPS I've ever played but at the same time it is easily the buggiest most messed up game I've ever encountered...and I played all the Stalker games at release.

If this game got rid of the bugs it would get 9.5/10 from me, it is that good.