Review by Serafine666 - MISERY mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

Just to be clear: I really, REALLY enjoy this mod. I like how it's been given a facelift so everything looks smoother and nicer. I like that the designer either borrowed or made the effort to add in cool bits and pieces like a WW2-era assault rifle and the Mosin-Nagant 91/30 rifle. I like that he made the sleeping bag and repair kit work the way they were supposed to and I thought that the amusing little touch of a porn magazine giving you psychic protection was funny. As I see it, though, the mod-maker made so much effort to make the experience grittier, more realistic, and harder that he tipped into the territory of the slightly absurd. A zombie stumbles towards you emptying clip after clip from an assault rifle... but has 1 bullet if you snipe him before he starts shooting. Dressed in a Kevlar-lined vest and steel helmet, a dog bite takes out a big chunk of health. You can empty 7 .45 caliber bullets into a dog and it just makes them limp. You have a situation where every vaguely human person in an area is running around with assault rifles and no one has more than 6 extra bullets on them. The above situation and a shady black marketeer type has enough bullets that you can fire one at a zombie and one into your own head. Merchants won't buy a weapon unless it's brand new in an isolated area roughly analogous to a frontier on the edges of civilization where the only weapons that exist are in less-than-perfect condition. These things read less like "making it harder and more lifelike" and more like "tormenting the poor player for giggles". For me, this sinks a really fun and well-made mod that I like to play (as in, like to play so much that I happily restart the entire game multiple times after it crashes to desktop for unknown reasons) from "awesome" to "average."