This review contains spoilers
It was doing so well up until it ran face first into a cinder block wall like SoC did with it's final gambit. It's extremely forced and feels like someone made an asset and you're just kind of thrown in so it isn't wasted.
It feels absolutely insane to say that one of the strongest areas next to the Showpiece area, that being Limansk, is the starting swamp. There's something refreshing about the cleanliness and lighting to the entire swamp, it was extremely enticing at first. Everything between there and Limansk is, well, okay. The gun-play is much more pleasant than SoC as the enemies are less spongy which lends to it being just a better experience in that regard. The quests in the middle of the game are fun but lack any actual purpose beyond doing a favor to get the next puzzle piece to move on. Feels like they completely abandoned the faction war mechanics after pitching them because they only come into play in the swamp as a showcase, where they're tedious but conceptually cool. Only for you to look back 40 minutes later and realize all of your work was undone because the AI is just that useless.
Overall, it gives a strong positive impression at the start, it's an impressive jump in appearance and gunplay quality which is very impressive for the meagre one year gap between SoC and CS. Limansk is a fun showpiece but it's unoriginal and easily equalized with Pripyat in SoC, and everything after the streetfights are an insufferable chore as you face Monolith glitching through walls and shooting through foliage/destructible material killing you instantly on higher difficulties. The NPP is just godawful and the fact the strong gambit of Limansk, whatever the fuck the catacombs are, and then the NPP are fully intertwined with no time for rest or recovery or supply replenishment is insane considering the end is by far the hardest. Your decisions throughout the game don't hold much weight and the faction system that connects them feels abandoned or neglected, given how extensive the exposition was at the start. It's a cool jump in raw gameplay and appearance but nearly every other aspect suffered. Along with the game being somehow more unstable than SoC.
It feels absolutely insane to say that one of the strongest areas next to the Showpiece area, that being Limansk, is the starting swamp. There's something refreshing about the cleanliness and lighting to the entire swamp, it was extremely enticing at first. Everything between there and Limansk is, well, okay. The gun-play is much more pleasant than SoC as the enemies are less spongy which lends to it being just a better experience in that regard. The quests in the middle of the game are fun but lack any actual purpose beyond doing a favor to get the next puzzle piece to move on. Feels like they completely abandoned the faction war mechanics after pitching them because they only come into play in the swamp as a showcase, where they're tedious but conceptually cool. Only for you to look back 40 minutes later and realize all of your work was undone because the AI is just that useless.
Overall, it gives a strong positive impression at the start, it's an impressive jump in appearance and gunplay quality which is very impressive for the meagre one year gap between SoC and CS. Limansk is a fun showpiece but it's unoriginal and easily equalized with Pripyat in SoC, and everything after the streetfights are an insufferable chore as you face Monolith glitching through walls and shooting through foliage/destructible material killing you instantly on higher difficulties. The NPP is just godawful and the fact the strong gambit of Limansk, whatever the fuck the catacombs are, and then the NPP are fully intertwined with no time for rest or recovery or supply replenishment is insane considering the end is by far the hardest. Your decisions throughout the game don't hold much weight and the faction system that connects them feels abandoned or neglected, given how extensive the exposition was at the start. It's a cool jump in raw gameplay and appearance but nearly every other aspect suffered. Along with the game being somehow more unstable than SoC.