A group of stalkers, for the first time, reaches the very heart of the Zone-the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant-and triggers a cataclysm on the brink of a catastrophe. An immense blast of anomalous energy transforms the Zone: the once reliable and relatively safe roads are no longer so, the landscape is wiped clean by outbursts of anomalies, and previously unknown areas appear on the Zone map. Stalkers and expeditions perish or end up isolated within the lost territories.
After a second play, several years after the first, some reasons for this rating:
1- This is sold as a standalone game while 90% of it was in SoC.
2- The new places are mostly totally linear, and what is the best with Stalker if it's not the non-linearity?
3- How could the quests be still that buggy after all these patches? Holstering your weapon while entering an hostile building, getting missions from enemy factions, having missions that won't end because your team just won't come to the place you cleared... Also, getting unwanted missions that turn to failed missions after 10 seconds before you even can arrive where they take place is pretty annoying.
4- Enemies can throw a grenade to you from 150 meters, while you're behind a wall and under a roof, and the grenade still arrives on your feet and explodes in the same second.
5- You always find yourself fighting the same enemies, in the same places, so many times. Respawning never stops, even for a totally dead enemy faction.
6- The ending is terrible. Actually, everything from the bridge fight up to the ending is bad, but the ending is the worst.
7- Anomaly detectors mostly start bipping only when you're already dying in the anomaly.
8- I finished the game with my very first upgraded rifle (probably picked in the annoying military base), which was still the best I could do in the end.
9- Stalker SoC was a 10/10 game, so CS is still not that bad. But really unnecessary, even for the storyline.