Thank you for a great Expansion!
Just wanted to give some thoughts after I just finished the expansion.
First of all, I thoroughly enjoyed getting back to this game. The new zones where rich with detail and fitting environments. With decent exploring in each zone. Just like the main game it felt like a post-apocalyptic world.
I liked the story, it was a bit obvious but so was Return to Eden. I don’t really mind that as long as it’s good. I also liked that there where more short interactions throughout the game, they add to the characters and the world but they don’t interrupt gameplay.
What I disliked was how disconnected Pripps side missions where, I guess that they were meant to show that there still is life and threats in the old zones. However they where on one side of the map and our current mission is on the other side, why should my stalker team spend days traveling back and forth, delaying this rather important mission for some minor ghoul events.
I did like that there where side missions, I just know you can do better.
It was nice to see some new enemies, although I assume most of them work just like the original ones. And I write assume because they didn’t really have a chance to show what they could do, there where like 1-3 fights through the entire DLC that the enemies had a chance to actually do something (and no, the police-bot and the last fight where not among them).
This type of gameplay is both a strength and a weakness. I like the fact that I can control the fight and very little (nothing) is left to chance. However I would like to see a little bit more tactical “actual” combat and less alpha striking (killing all enemies on first turn).
Farrow was one of my main characters in Eden due to her ability to reach 100% crit chance in ambush. So I was kind of disappointed in the new character when I saw he was mainly just a copy of her but with his own major mutations. Which also looked rather weak, due to the fact that combat is really short. A fight is over in 1-3 turns, and what use is fire damage or knockback in that timeframe (the most likely outcome if I used them is that I would prolong the fight and he gets hit, a lose-lose situation). But everyone doesn’t play like me and maybe he suits someone else playstyle. I did like the theme of them and if gameplay was a bit different, they would probably have been useful.
So he quickly got benched and so did Farrow due to the fact that VR googles turned Selma into a goddess.
Again thanks and I really hope the game has done good enough to warrant a sequel. Because I really want to get back into the Zone and explore more, with a bit of refined gameplay.
Looking forward for more
