I played maybe until the end of the first half but it got repetitive and depressing. With the improvements CS could get a very good game, personally I would say it needs more freeplay, much larger maps, and much less humans you have to kill. With the small maps and enemies around every corner it becomes more of a linear game. It simply doesnt befit the setting if every areas are a deathmatch, there should be roaming and stalking, and a lot more RPG elements, right now they had to make amends to the FPS crowd.
Lastly GSC has a real problem with project management. It is always the same pattern: Big promised followed by long silence. Then the cycle starts over with excuses and new promises.
I simply cannot believe anything they say before I hold it in my hands. Go to the link kiwi_2005 posted and read about the original Stalker - it already sounds like best AI and most dynamic gameworld of all time. Having seen the reality, why should we believe their overbounding promises about CS?
This is how GSC is marketing the original Stalker SC :
As a player you are free to explore the entire world of the Zone. No physical restrictions. No time limits. You will become a Stalker - a cross between a mercenary and treasure seeker ..
All your actions have consequences and will impact on the world around you. Not only that, this world exists whether you are there or not. Time passes, the weather is notoriously changeable, anomalies assault the landscape, players and characters interact and feed off each other ..
From that moment on it is your independent explorations and fight. The gameplay will be reactive to the way you construct it: prefer noiseless stealth operations with multi-hour ambushing? Instant assaults? Perhaps you like to explore and trade? Or maybe deep in the heart you are a warrior?
Freedom of actions is the basis for the game you can't play twice in the same way ..
So you got used to the fact the game world is static? Forget it! You are no longer a release for triggers and script scenes ..
The world lives its own life, it has a lot of events happening independently of your actions. You are to choose whether to calmly observe the happenings or become their active participant ..
What makes the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. world alive? It is the system of life simulation (otherwise known as A-Life), a groundbreaking AI system of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which is responsible for controlling all of the game characters and events in the Zone.
Over 1000 stalkers go accomplishing their tasks, exploring the Zone, combating, taking rest, eating – they truly live in the Zone. Monsters get in packs to attack stalker camps and fight with each other. On the global level the AI controls even the wars of factions.
Creating background events? Generating an unlimited number of secondary tasks and random quests? The A-Life takes care of it all. Owing to the efficiency of our innovative A-Life system your playthrough of the game will not only be every time new, but also completely different from other players.
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