I, like many other had been waiting and waiting for this game to be released. It was the game up there with Duke Nukem Forever (a game still to show the light of day). This game promised a massive engrossing scary experience in a post apocolyptic world. The developers bragged about its A.I system and how amazing it was. And now its finally here, and was it worth the wait. The long and short of it is no... "why the 4.5 score?" I hear you ask, well it deserves it. All in all it is an awesome game, the graphics are a little ropey, though the dynamic lighting system is simply awesome and shodows cast over every rock making dungeon/sewer sections that more scary and believe me its scary. The storyline is different and its a good storyline. You play a man in the middle of a nuclear waste land in the middle of russia islotated from the rest of the world due to immense radiation. The people left in this new world fight for survival and people call themselves S.T.A.L.K.E.R.S hired hands for "business men" if you want to call them that. You seemed to suffering from amnesia and are supposed to kill a certian man. The aim of the game is to get your memory back and kill this man. Cue in a lot of side missions and a great journey that can be very very long indeed but its worth it for the ending which has a nice little twist (given you get the best ending). The gameplay is top notch and is were the game shines through gunfights feel real and challenging. Though quests can get a little linear they range from "kill someone" to "give this object to someone" and thats basically it. The world is massive and very detailed the trees look 100X better than in Oblivion. Overall the game was let down by the over the top hype its a game u could buy and play a few times thats it, its no Oblivion, its no WoW, its no Guild Wars. The graphics look no better than HL2 with a better lighting system and higher texture size. If you have a decent PC (easily over $1500) then rent it, or download it first to see if you like it.