Reviews - the_sextein

The gunplay in Anomaly is my favorite of all the stalker mods. It won't one shot snipe you from outside your view but it is very dangerous and forces you to take cover. The AI will then move in on your position in ways that will challenge and sometimes even surprise you.

Anomaly and Dead Air are probably the best looking mods out there for stalker. I feel like Dead Air is playing catch up to Anomaly now that Anomaly 3.0 is out. Anomaly has UHD textures, unique vegetation with new tree models, custom fog and dust particle effects. It's own gas mask overlay with animated rain drop shaders. A nice user interface that properly scales to 4K resolution, huge draw distances with quality lighting and shadows as far as the eye can see and a perfected weather system.

Anomaly also has the benefit of a 64 bit engine which allows the use of all of the above mentioned improvements as well as new HD character model packs without sacrificing stability. No more memory errors.

There are lots of small things that show that the dev team is really working hard to improve things in anyway possible. For example, Anomaly has a nice detailed guide in the PDA system that is all in English (a rarity for these mods) complete with pictures and in depth explanations of game options and where to find them. Support for advanced AVX instruction on modern CPU's to try and squeeze out every last drop of power ect.

Anomaly also includes Misery inspired mechanics which add depth to the gameplay and in themselves, are not really difficult to utilize. Difficulty is actually very customizable in this mod. Everything is customizable from how much loot you find to how expensive things are to the accuracy of enemy gunners and even your own recoil.

I've played the mod at 4K with max everything other than grass density which is two clicks from max. I have a powerful rig but the game has stayed above 60FPS at all times and I have not had a single crash in nearly 25 hours of play using the new 3.0 release.

Normally I would give this mod a 9 but I've decided to give it a 10 to try and balance the childish knee jerk reactions from players who don't like or understand difficult games and can't be bothered to customize the game to their own skill levels. Gamers who get mad because it crashes on their potato ect. It's sad to see gamers who don't seem to understand that It's ok for things to exist that don't appeal to their own entitled existence. There really is no excuse for giving this mod a rating lower than 5 in my opinion. It's impossible to overlook all of the work and polish that has been applied here.

Areas that I think could use some improvement:
-Hunger issues after sleeping.
-Character models are very dated compared to the rest of the game world.
-More modern animations when possible
-I can't comment on the story yet because I have not experienced it (currently playing it) but more story and missions are always welcome in any stalker mod.

It looks nice and runs well while including a large variety of areas to go to while improving AI. I was never hyped for this mod because I like to play missions and go on quests but this mod was basically created to make life easier for other modders. It's a great accomplishment and will do nothing but help other mod makers improve future mods. In the end this is a very solid step toward making everyone happy. Both modders and their mods as well as gamers and their gaming experiences. How could I not give it a 9 considering how nice everything is and how easy to use it is?

The most expansive zone available with some great content. Now that things are starting to get more stable and streamlined the mod is a really good time. You can tell a bunch of work has been done to this over the years.

This mod is not perfection and anyone playing mods should know better than to expect perfection. It is very intense on the GPU and some bugs exist.

However, the level of improvement to the game engine alone is extreme. Adding in a DX10 path, making new tree models, buildings ect, is pushing this old game engine to heights it never would have reached otherwise. The game looks amazing and the added content is also very profesional and when combined with compleatly new areas in the game world this mod has truly made this game seem new again. It really is basically a new stalker game. I wouldn't call it stalker 2 because it's not a new engine but it's a more signifigant stalker game than clear sky ever was.

This is my favorite mod. A darker and more difficult version of COP. The style is more in line with SOC. This mod is stable and adds challenge to the game. This is far better than any DLC offerings I have seen for other games. I am looking forward to v2.0 more than any up-comming game. Thanks to everyone involved with misery I will have something to help me relax after work for many days. I think the niche that really makes stalker a popular game has been keyed into and deepened by this misery mod. Only true fans who understand these things could make a mod this ambitious and solid.