BioSentral

Yes, the long awaited Prologue to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl has arrived and with all the same kind of pre-alpha game play and stability we've all come to tolerate.. almost. This game can't be finished. It can't. The faction wars have been improved but I'll be damned if it doesn't cause a whole set of new glitches and failures, such as: friendly fire, spontaneously canceled missions, and the AI eating its own head. Money is now very hard to come by. In the first game, I easily hoarded a million rubles in no time. Now I've yet to hit $30,000 as you need to spend your shit to get places and do things.

The AI is actually a bit improved over the first game. Faction wars works now so they will battle amongst each other randomly and you can join up if you like. It's kinda fun working with a group now. You get to tell them when to attack by hitting K after they've told you they are in position. If your group dies before you take the point (even if you survive and complete it) you fail the mission so don't let your guys die. I've found that running ahead and killing the enemy before your team gets there works best. You'll be damned if you are standing in close quarters with other NPCs. They will push you out of the way and block you in at every fucking retarded brain-fucking-dead chance they get and there's nothing you can do about it. Don't stand anywhere near them either when they are engaged or you'll catch a load of shot in your back.

You are significantly easier to kill and there is less stuff conveniently lying around to save you. The weapons are still just as ineffective against enemies (3" slug to the back of an enemy's hooded head does little to no damage but a 400' peppering of shot from an enemy sawed off will put you in a state of panic from all the red gushing out) and the maps are still huge. On the up side, you can now pay a guide to take you from point A to point B instantly and there are some new cool weapons. Bandages don't give you health anymore but they do stop bleeding and are the only way to stop bleeding other than the mama's beads artifact which will give you cancer if you don't have a jelly fish or slime (understand?). The best strategy when fighting enemies is to spam from a distance in 90% cover. And watch for the vocal queues of the enemy's now. They will tell you that they are throwing a grenade at you. If there is a group of enemies all of them will throw nades at the same time and they are surgical. Bolt at the first taunt or you're dead. Shotguns kill mutants the best in every case. Don't bother with pistols; just keep a shotgun (with shot) and rifle with you.

Most of the artifacts have gone through a name swap as well and a change up in their characteristics. They are harder to find now too as they are hidden inside of anomalies instead of just dancing across the ground everywhere. They work properly now though in that they do what they are supposed to. Each stalker suit has a certain amount of containers for your artifacts and you can purchase more containers at a couple of technicians.

New characters include traders, technicians, guides, bar tenders and some random NPCs will have extra missions for you to complete for a reward. There is one trader in just about every area of the game so it's not just Sidorovich sitting on the wrong side of the map the whole game. You collect rewards for completed missions from traders. Each faction has at least one Technician and one trader. They're prices vary and of course your guy is a moron and sells things for 10% of their value. Technicians can upgrade and repair your stalker suits and guns for a rather large fee. You have to find flash drives with upgrade information on them to access the upgrades. You generally get them from the guys who sell you information about the location of some stashes. The flash drives are in the stashes they sell to you. Buy all the stashes but go for the expensive ones first. Guides I've already explained. Pretty simple. Point A to point B for a fee most times. Bar tenders will buy your food and drink for way more than full value so save all that diet sausage and vodka for him and you'll make bank.

Zone emissions are storms caused by the Zone. They kill people with a wave of energy if they are out in the open. There are very few places to hide from emissions and they take forever to pass. The game will queue you to find cover and things will start getting all crazy. When you get situated in the safe zone go get a drink and take a piss because you'll have about 4 minutes of waiting if you get to the safe zone quick enough.

The x-ray engine constantly crashes so save every 30 seconds just so you don't play for an hour and get sent back to the start because you turned too fast. The bug report system doesn't work either. SLI WILL FUCK UP THE GAME SUPER HARD so turn it off. In the end, this game is another huge disappointment but we all know I'm a self deprecating fool who will play almost any game no matter how much it sucks.

If I forgot anything I'll add it in the comments.