This is the single most terrifying game I have ever played, and one of the most striking I have ever experienced. The sense of isolation, of total fear, is unmatched by anything except perhaps if you played System Shock as a child. A gun will keep you alive, but it cannot defend you from the anomalies, the radiation, the hunger. It cannot penetrate the darkness for you. It cannot be a friend, a confidant, or an ally. All you have is yourself, and man has made his own personal hell in the Zone. Coupled with mods to alleviate the worst of the bugs (and what game of ambition and vision has been anything but buggy?), I rate this as one of the most compelling experiences I've ever had in gaming memory, even six years after its release.

This is the single most terrifying game I have ever played, and one of the most striking I have ever experienced. The sense of isolation, of total fear, is unmatched by anything except perhaps if you played System Shock as a child. A gun will keep you alive, but it cannot defend you from the anomalies, the radiation, the hunger. It cannot penetrate the darkness for you. It cannot be a friend, a confidant, or an ally. All you have is yourself, and man has made his own personal hell in the Zone. Coupled with mods to alleviate the worst of the bugs (and what game of ambition and vision has been anything but buggy?), I rate this as one of the most compelling experiences I've ever had in gaming memory, even six years after its release.