Recent reviews by Licht

In dire need of thorough patching. Playable and somewhat enjoyable only on the normal/hardcore difficulty levels. At some point the higher difficulty levels provide an experience very much alike to the original. Yet, at a few key set pieces the difficulty is staggering. At no point does the game feel "difficult", in stark contrast to the original this at times just feel like you`re getting trolled.

Examples of which are ;

* When the pseudo random generator refuses to provide you with any type of equipment, health pickups or ammunition, but irrelevant amounts of cash. You can no longer "plan head" , sometimes you get the tools you need, sometimes you don`t. The solution is either you run past it or if you can`t avoid it, just "reset" and pray for better RNG. While random drops were also a part of the original game, more static spawn provided key checkpoints and made sure you the player had "something" to give in a "key" situation.

* Enemies in packs no longer get reliably stunned/staggered by your actions. Save for grenades. Sometimes a melee attack performed by the player will stun and/or stagger nearby enemies. Sometimes it wont. Sometimes a point blank shotgun blast to the head, will stun or stagger. Sometimes it wont.
If you pick fights based on the assumption that your actions will have foreseeable outcomes.
You will die. You will reload. You will "try again" until finally the odds are in your favor.

* Enemies are able to activate "sprint" at random. Forget the slow shuffle, casual jogging the Ganados displayed in the original. Sometimes, when there are no objects between you and your target, the AI will activate warp drive and close the distance. At other times, they slowly shuffle endlessly. Inconsistent pathing and behaviour of the enemies, leads to frustrating outcomes.

* Enemy HP is also Random. Yes, while this was a key game play element in the original game. It seems that the disparency is increased thrice. For no good reason. Weapon and equipment damage was not adjusted to take that into account. Which once again leads to frustrating outcomes.

* Input lag will cause you to die repeatably. Sometimes your key strokes do not register. At all. Add to that the facts that you can`t queue actions, you can`t cancel or interrupt animations. Once again, you will die, many times. Good luck planning for that or figuring out what exactly you`re doing wrong.

* The "director" , or in other terms the RNG. Which controls the content of breakable crates, what dead enemies drop, HP of enemies, reinforcement of enemies and other major and minor things. Is out of touch and seems to be just as it was back in the original game. Which fit that game based on the mechanics, levels and enemies. The problem is that the levels, the enemies and the mechanics here are different. So the old system simply does not work.

* The "new" ability to move as you`re aiming came at a great cost. I`d honestly prefer to go back to the old rule set, if that meant that the enemies would also abide by the old rules. As in being tough but fair. Inaccuracy and weapon sway alone make this feature a dubious gimmick at best.

* Weapon upgrades are stream lined and stupid. Magazine capacity upgrade no longer reloads your weapon.
While this may seem minor to first timers. This was a key "non intended feature" of the original. At higher difficulty levels you PLANNED with that feature in mind. Weapon unique upgrades are still lackluster. Pick 1, A) Do more damage per shot or B) Shoot faster or perhaps the very exclusive variant available on 3 weapons C) Have your bullets penetrate multiple enemies.

* The knife has durability, the sole reason being the unnecessary"instant kill/finish him/parry" events This is just plain stupid. There is no need for this gimmick, and there is no need for an instant kill/finish him/block events. They also decided to incorporate this nonsense as a whole stage in a late game boss fight...
Just ♥♥♥♥ right off.

The aforementioned and many other minor complaints leads me to believe this game was not play tested. On difficulty levels beyond NORMAL and EASY.

To be more precise, I am convinced this game was not play tested at all.

The original game is a master piece. Despite the fact that at times it was silly and/or stupid. It never felt broken. I played the original PC release, even prior to the first patch. With the unintelligible joystick buttons during the quick time events.

The overall level of difficulty even on the professional was in tune, it was challenging and required planning and/or prior knowledge. But it was never unfair. NEVER throughout many of my play troughs of RE4(2005) did I feel i was getting trolled by the game. The game felt consistent and you had the right tools for the challenges the game threw at you. You were punished for bad positioning, lack of reflex, poor resource management and bad decision making.

As opposed to RE4(2023) Where you feel like you`re just unlucky, always out of the helpful kind of resources, getting chain stunned and chain staggered. With your inputs at times not registering or getting interrupted/canceled. Enemies either move too quick or barely shuffle along. Sometimes they react to your actions, sometimes they don`t. When you find yourself in the familiar levels and set pieces the game works, but as soon as you venture to the unknown it stops working. The pacing, the difficulty and the progression goes all over the place. Which in turn makes this a dull and an overly frustrating experience.

Due to an excess of cut scenes and over reliance on the "story elements" the replay ability is somewhat spoiled.

Try/buy on sale and for your own sanity keep the difficulty on EASY or NORMAL.
Unless something changes down the line with patches, not recommended for first time players, fans of RE4(2005) or any one really... Yes I`m mad.

" six years of development to the final product."

11 years later its still garbage.

[/h1]In 2007 after what seemed like an endless development hell, a small Ukrainian studio released their magnum opus.[/h1]

Stalker is an unforgiving glitch fest of game. Yet nearly a decade later is still the pinnacle of a post apocalyptic fps.
3`D fallout titles take notes, how you can create a seemingly tiny world. Yet make it seem wast, endless and haunting. How you can create an RPG inspired shooter, without dicerolls and stats. Or simply how to nail an incredibly satisfying, erie atmosphere, without resulting to monster closets and jumpscares.

The overall atmosphere of this game is what keeps giving and never stops. From an annihilated city, all the way trough an underground lab way back to the countryside. It is truly baffling how 2 years short of a decade, this game is still manages to surprise and charm the player.

In short stalker is the deliverance of an unmatched and all too satisfying experience.