Before I played:
＼＼ ＿
　　 ＼( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
　　　 <　⌒ヽ
　　　/ 　 へ＼
　　 /　　/　＼＼
　　 ﾚ　ノ　　 ヽ_つ
　　/　/
　 /　/|
　(　(ヽ
　|　|、＼
　| 丿 ＼ ⌒)
　| |　　) /
`ノ )　　Lﾉ
After I played:
／ﾌﾌ 　　　　　　 　ム｀ヽ
/ ノ) 　）　ヽ
/ ｜　　( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°）ノ⌒（ゝ._,ノ
/　ﾉ⌒7⌒ヽーく　 ＼　／
丶＿ ノ ｡　　 ノ､　｡|/
　　 `ヽ `ー-'_人`ーﾉ
　　　 丶 ￣ _人'彡)

> Be me
> I'm going on a mission in the underground
> Enter a dimly lit great room
> Hear a cry of a monster
> Keep walking and look on the minimap, the number 1 appears
> Walk a little more and the number 3 appears
> Hear another cry, this time coming closer and my left
> Run to a corner and stay there a good 5min
> Turn off the flashlight, not to see me
> Take courage and keep walking with the flashlight off
> Go in a completely dark room
> Turn on the flashlight
> Look to the right and see a Bloodsucker
> Panic and shoot to all sides
> The gun locks
> Mute to pistol
> The pistol locks
> During the panic forget to look for my life
> Died
> The game crashes

1x10 ^ 10000000000/10. Super recommend!!!!!!!!ELEVEN!!!

"Feel the weight on my shoulders.

Hear the click of my rifle.

I am a soldier of the zone."

-First time playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl.
-Start new game.
-Play on Stalker difficulty.
-Walk out of Sidrovich's bunker
-Get gear from Wolf
-Immediately shoot everyone.
-Get destroyed by a random rookie with a sawed-off.
-Load save back.
-Walk over to military checkpoint right from the rookie camp expecting them to be friendly.
-Get insta-rekt by military and their aimbot.

Tip: Never trust the Government

If I had to choose my favourite game of all times, it would be S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. Nuff said.

When I tried to install, Steam crashed.

The slav was too powerful.

If you are the type of player who likes to dig deeply into a gaming experience, bugs and all, then this is the game for you. It may show its age, but there are still some aspects of the experience that remain unsurpassed, such as the environmental ambiance and horror elements. Play without mods for a more authentic experience, or with them in order to smooth out the experience considerably.

TL:DR;
A game that was well ahead of its time, technically and thematically, and has an active modding community and positive reviews to this very day. Highly recommend checking this out, no matter what genre you're a fan of; there really is something here for everyone.

FACTS:
Released in 2007
Inspired "[by] the popular science fiction novella Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky and the 1979 Andrei Tarkovsky film Stalker that was loosely based on it, as well as Stalker, the film's subsequent novelization by the original authors. -Wikipedia, sue me

METACRITIC: 82, 8.4 User Score

Hell, even IGN gave it an 8.2. (and they were whining about the technical limitations of an open-world FPS RPG made by indie developers in 200-and-flipping-7, and how the almost non-existent cutscenes were "badly compressed" despite the fact that Half Life proved you don't need cutscenes for a story to be told well.)
________________________________________________________________________________
OPINION

What the hell CANT you say about STALKER? Its critically renowned, a cult classic, STILL has an active modding community almost 9 years later, helped jumpstart the open-world RPG FPS genre mixture, has one of the most haunting and memorable atmospheres I've ever experienced in any form of media (and I'm a fan of horror) AND your crumb-filled, burnt-smelling toaster can run it now!

Raving over a personal favorite of mine aside, whatever you don't initially like about this game, you'll come to like. What you won't come to like, you can mod out, or, in (a surprisingly large amount) some cases, in. Some things just can't be fixed however.

Yes, it is open world.
Yes, there are fences and loading screens between areas.

Yes, it has an in-depth story, chock full of lore,personality, dark humor, and some pretty mature themes.
Yes, most of it is behind walls of text that instead of reading, you'd rather be AH NUUUU CHEEKI BREEKI-ing the ♥♥♥♥ out of mutants.

Yes, there are not a lot of guns.
Yes, you can mod more in / mod them to feel better/more realistic.

Yes, it can be buggy/glitchy/graphically dated.
Yes, the fans have solved all three problems (mostly).

Basically, pretty much any problem you have with the game can be solved by either sucking it up (which, in gaming, you shouldn't really be expected to), mod it in/out, or learn to love it.

While it certainly has it cons, this is the one game I'm willing to overlook the glaring problems it has in favor of the spectacularly good parts of it.

What S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl does wrong, it can be made right, thanks to an active modding community. What is fundementally wrong with it can be easily brushed aside given the situation of the company and the state of video games as a whole in 2007. What cannot be looked over, modded out, or forgiven, is mostly fixed in the sequels.

And what it does right? Oh, it does it so... sooooooo right.

This game was my first FPS. My soul will loose something important if I forget the endless rainy sky, rusty roofs, nervous squeaking of the detector and muddy walls. This game has become an integral part of my life. Feel free to enjoy the emptyness and despair of the postsoviet abandoned landscape.

10 out of 10.

P.S. If you like this game, it is hardly recommended to play old game builds and mods which are trying to return the builds features.

Probably one of my favorite games on PC, Shadow of Chernobyl will keep you playing for hours on end.


PROS:
-Great Atmosphere
- lots to explore
- pretty in depth weapon system for a game from 2007
- great graphics for its time
- runs great on computers that arent even meant for gaming at decent settings
- Difficult parts are still fun
CONS:
- The weapons at the start of the game are pretty inaccurate, even when ADS, but i think this was a design choice
- Pretty weird complaint but you cant open the steam menu(shift+tab) so you cant respond to messages

9/10 definitley reccommend this game, especially if you catch it during a sale where you can get all three games for $10