I bought the game a couple of weeks ago as it's now down to ten bucks instead of forty, and as there now appear to be plenty of mods. From the perspective of stability and looks, the game is fine once you add a few environmental and AI mods. It looks lovely, the effects are nice and I didn't run into any game killing bugs.
Unfortunately I was a fan of SHIII, and was expecting an improved version of that game. Its not. The addition of the story mission gameplay limits the game when compared to the freedom of SH3s dynamic campaign, and also limits your options elsewhere. You don't get the many different subs to play as you go on, and your game ends midway through the war. Worse still is the interface which is time consuming and clunky, hence the many mods aimed at changing it back to match SH3 and 4. Unfortunately none work completely yet and can cause crashes or are incompatible with each other.
If you have never played SH3 or 4 and can find the game cheap, you should certainly try it out. Add the recommended environment and AI mods and it looks brill too. Unfortunately I was a veteran SHIII guy and it just wound me up with its limitations, and I ended up installing SHIII instead with the Grey Wolves Expansion mod in place. It doesn't match 5 for graphics, but it's not far off and gameplay is much better, IMHO.
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