Recent reviews by Minds

A just slightly worse Battlefield and a casual and simplified version of Tarkov in one game... for free.

Graphics are good, Performance is good, hitreg sometimes is a bit off but overall decent. Progression system is alright. Constant Events make it rewarding to play. P2W aspects are somewhat redundant since it is easy to get stuff in the extraction mode. But apparently people buy the battlepass so they have a good cashflow setup for a long lasting game.

BUT they use Kernel Level Anti-Cheat which apparently stops nobody from cheating as this might be the worst cheater experience i have had in the last few years. (at least in Operations Mode) This makes me believe, that the "kernel level Anti-Cheat" is just a Data-Rip off. My Distrust in the Devs grows.

Zombies is decent. Reward systems are the same as always, so decent.

Servers are pretty bad. Force online play is bad. Force Crossplay for PC Players is terrible as aim assist is better than ever.
This game is 100% meant for console players so if you are not one of them leave this game alone. Its not worth all that money just to play Zombies. Rather play Bo3 with modded maps.

This is a continous review. I will be updating as i go to document my thoughts while playing.

First thoughts (12 hrs played):
It is a very similar gameplay and atmosphere as the old titles just newer and bigger. Honestly so far the older titles might even have the better atmosphere.
It's not a bad game but it lacks some things in quality. Optimization wise it seems pretty bad. DLSS is expected to save the performance... modern "optimization" i guess.
The Map size and sounds are nice. The lighting is partly really good and partly pretty bad. The flashlight range makes it really hard to fight at night but the inside to outside shift in brightness looks really nice. Reminds me of Dying light.

The Dub is just the wrong choice tho. Had to switch to the ukranian version to take the game seriously. In the english version everyone has a scottish, irish or some other UK accent which completely ruins immersion for me.

The best thing about STALKER is the gritty ex CCCP apocalyptic style with the depressing Chernobyl vibes. The english Dub does NOT in the slightest fit into that.

So Far I'd give the game a 6,5/10 tendency to get better tho. I hope they will put in Mods since this has so much potential to be a great Shlooter or grindy RPG. Just the setting and the definition of a STALKER make such a good setup for an endless gameplay loop. I hope it can live up to that just a little bit in the end game.

Current rating 6.5/10


Edit 1 (21 hrs played):
I can now pinpoint what the atmosphere lacks. The world AI just doesn't do anything without you. They did not nail the "you are not the main character" feeling in this title... yet. I am hopeful they will fix AI so it does more stuff on their own. Also i was already forced to continue the main mission multiple times as i couldn't get to places i wanted to explore or all the npcs were locked because i was at a certain point of the story. It's a pretty standard thing for most games but somehow i hoped STALKER would do it better. This part of the series really makes you and the main mission the top priority of the game. You are not just some zone dweller in this title.

Story is pretty good so far.

Bug wise it is okay. Most can be resolved by quicksaving and reloading. Frequency of bugs is about average for this type of game.

The constant Storms are just annoying at some point. Its too much noise and crazy lighting to be there 70% of the time.

Visuals are a real rollercoaster ride. Some things look incredibly nice and others look like ♥♥♥♥. More of the good stuff tho.

good: Lighting, Models of Equipment, Artifacts, Anomalies, Water (except rain on large bodies of water), consumables animations

bad: large areas of foliage (at native res), skybox (in some cases a plain image would've been better), Mutants look the same as 15 years ago i think, animations of player models, my shadow animation

In some gameplay aspects it might have kept too true to the old titles. It's almost like a remaster in terms of loot. Maybe add a crafting system or something that makes it worth looting stuff. (beer, vodka, bread, sausage get useless super fast and that is like 50% of the loot pool excluding weapons)

Current Rating 7.0/10

I upgraded my screen to play UHD / WQHD and it makes such an insane difference. On 1080p you get weird flickering where Anti Aliasing is applied, which makes it pretty unpleasent to look at. With higher res it is actually a very pretty game.

Also apart from some annoying bugs and invisible gauss rifle bots the game keeps getting better and better. A bit too much running back in forth in between some quests and gunplay / combat and AI is not that good. Otherwise i really like the game by now. Still hoping for A-Life

8,5/10

Menus are pretty buggy, to the point where you get hardstuck every hour or so and have to restart the game... for 70€ i'd generally expect less bugs. If you haven't bought a soccer game in years (like i have) it might be worth getting but if you already own an older version, i don't see the point in buying this.

Old but incredibly good atmosphere even though the graphics are ♥♥♥♥. I don't know how but it is pretty immersive. It is advised to mod the game to fix general bugs. For example you game will crash if you use items from a corpse inventory and your settings don't get saved. But there is a mod that fixes most basic bugs. Forgot the name tho since it is a while since i installed it.

Still feels a little wonky here and there. Servers are often overloaded which causes rubberbanding. Otherwise a good game. Needs some polish here and there but it is a lot of fun.

NOW ITS A GOOD GAME AND ALMOST COMPLETE!

For now, it is not worth it.
Sure its "early access" as every other game that has been released in the last few years. People will be mad for criticizing an early access game. But for now it is really not worth it. In the beginning it is pretty immersive but once you have played for a few hours and understand all the game mechanics it gets boring rather quickly. You feel like being "end game" and dont have to fear anything. But i see a lot of potential in this game and i hope the devs will keep adding stuff to make it complete. Also add to the story a bit and be able to find more interesting things. like add a deeper lore. The bunkers seem super interesting and intriguing at first but there really isnt that much to find and explore there. It's mostly linear designs that automatically push you towards story progression without finding out a whole lot on your own. A few more puzzles and clues would be nice and make the game even more immersive.

It is decent and has cool aspects but if you look for a game you will put some hours into dont buy it yet unless it is on sale or you get a cheap key. I think it is dumb to have a story driven game as early access anyways... now i basically spoiled the whole game for myself without finding all the finished features and getting to enjoy them in a natural way.

Edit: If they keep updating at this rate, you can buy it.

If it wasnt published by EA i would probably be able to recommend this.
For some reason they did not manage to fix their servers since launch. Since day one a LOT of people (appearantly not everyone for some reason?) gets huge packet loss issues every 10th game or so. Sometimes more sometimes less. Anywhere from 6% to 35% packet loss which makes the game pretty much unplayable. Only happens in this game. and completely random from game to game. i have no idea how such a bug can exist in one of the most played BR games for what? 3 years now? ridiculous.
This is also a known issue that has been discussed with ea moderators in their threads for 2+ years.

EDIT: Packet loss is still not fixed... they just point fingers at network hubs that they supposedly cant fix... funny how this is the only game i ever had packet loss in, on different rigs, in different networks, different installs.

EDIT: By now the game is decent and i had a few fun hours recently. Some issues remain... like the lack of a frontline and easy flanks, although they added rush which helps a lot with that problem. All in all i would now say it is worth getting. I dont even know if it is f2p by now but if it is under 20€ and you like battlefield... get it. The reviews could be a bit more positive by now. Still launch was a travesty.

Below is my old review :)

Everyone knows that this game had a terrible launch so i will disregard that. I gave the game 4 Months to improve. All in all: still trash.

I really was hopeful when i launched it but i merely lasted for about 2 hours before i had to permanently quit the game. They improved the performance a bit to the point where it is almost alright i guess. They introduced 64 player modes which dont really help with performance and also does not decompress the adhd ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that the 128 player mode is since there are only half as many objectives. flanking is still way to easy and you feel like you are in a tdm all the time. even without the wingsuit its just too easy to appear behind enemy lines. Its not what Battlefield always was. But it also is not good in any other way that would not fit the battlefield genre. I had a lot of hope and patience with this game. But it just isn't enjoyable. if you want to play battlefield just get bf4 for 5€ and play that for a week to satisfy the annual Battlefield cravings.

Better luck next time Dice / EA. Although i probably wont be there at launch with you next time.
Maybe i will check into the game in another 6 months or so but till then. I really cant recommend this game.

can be addictive...
will be tilting!