First impressions after beating the prologue: it is exactly what I hoped it would be.

The spirit of original games, the soul of the Zone, deadly anomalies and mutants - it's all here.
Ability to completely disable UI is just awesome, master difficulty + no UI mode is, IMO, the best way to play this game.
I love how the game looks, I love how it sounds, I love how it acts. I just love it.

Update after beating the story (3 out of 4 endings): it's worth every penny.

What I'm missing is CoP-style side quests and in-game "achievements" which affect the game somehow. One more thing I'm missing from the CoP/CS: the chance to get more than one artifact in one anomaly - it was interesting to hunt them all, even if not all of them are "rare" (in HoC only Circus anomaly spawned 2 artifacts for me, but I think it was patched).

Better interactions with factions would be a great addition to the game - currently Duty/Freedom are pretty much just a background and pretty boring background, TBH. IMO, SIRCAA events could easily trigger a new war between old rivals and it would be great to at least observe the changes in the balance of power within the Zone.

The last, but not least - the campfires. GSC created a great trailer with campfire stories. It would be awesome to have something like this in the game. To be able to communicate with stalkers, listen to their stories, tell about your findings or encounters, hear some rumors about strange places (arch-anomalies, some not-yet-reachable places (whole Swamps region before the quest about reaching them), events happened in the other parts of Zone). But, I guess, it's not really possible without real A-Life.

Pros:
- atmosphere;
- story;
- map;
- new weapons;
- new mutants;

Cons:
- softlocks (I still can't get the Spark ending);
- memory leaks/FPS drops;
- bugged artifact spawns (I've got 3: near Lodochka bunker, in the bloodsucker case near Zalissya and on the Pol Depot);
- no A-Life/annoying enemies spawn;
- not all keys can be rebinded properly;
- stashes are almost useless (except "Journalist" stashes);
- some old weapons are missing (FN2000, SG 550, Striker, and my favorite pistol from previous games - Beretta 92FS)

I hope devs will have time to solve technical issues and my list of cons will be reduced or will be gone completely. If you're having doubts about buying this game - wait for patches, I'd not recommend it for non-fans in its current state (v1.2.1).

Thank you GSC, I haven't felt this kind of emotions from any game in the last decade.
Слава Україні!

First impressions after beating the prologue: it is exactly what I hoped it would be. The spirit of original games, the soul of the Zone, deadly anomalies and mutants - it's all here. Ability to completely disable UI is just awesome, master difficulty + no UI mode is, IMO, the best way to play this game. I love how the game looks, I love how it sounds, I love how it acts. I just love it. Update after beating the story (3 out of 4 endings): it's worth every penny. What I'm missing is CoP-style side quests and in-game "achievements" which affect the game somehow. One more thing I'm missing from the CoP/CS: the chance to get more than one artifact in one anomaly - it was interesting to hunt them all, even if not all of them are "rare" (in HoC only Circus anomaly spawned 2 artifacts for me, but I think it was patched). Better interactions with factions would be a great addition to the game - currently Duty/Freedom are pretty much just a background and pretty boring background, TBH. IMO, SIRCAA events could easily trigger a new war between old rivals and it would be great to at least observe the changes in the balance of power within the Zone. The last, but not least - the campfires. GSC created a great trailer with campfire stories. It would be awesome to have something like this in the game. To be able to communicate with stalkers, listen to their stories, tell about your findings or encounters, hear some rumors about strange places (arch-anomalies, some not-yet-reachable places (whole Swamps region before the quest about reaching them), events happened in the other parts of Zone). But, I guess, it's not really possible without real A-Life. Pros: - atmosphere; - story; - map; - new weapons; - new mutants; Cons: - softlocks (I still can't get the Spark ending); - memory leaks/FPS drops; - bugged artifact spawns (I've got 3: near Lodochka bunker, in the bloodsucker case near Zalissya and on the Pol Depot); - no A-Life/annoying enemies spawn; - not all keys can be rebinded properly; - stashes are almost useless (except "Journalist" stashes); - some old weapons are missing (FN2000, SG 550, Striker, and my favorite pistol from previous games - Beretta 92FS) I hope devs will have time to solve technical issues and my list of cons will be reduced or will be gone completely. If you're having doubts about buying this game - wait for patches, I'd not recommend it for non-fans in its current state (v1.2.1). Thank you GSC, I haven't felt this kind of emotions from any game in the last decade. Слава Україні!