I've always felt this game didn't really know what it wants to be. A new player at the beginning might agree with the game being 'hardcore and realistic' as the devs describe it, and in many cases it does seem like it is, with weapons, ballistics and armor having similarity to IRL counterparts. In short, the game makes you feel something very different to say CS or COD. Where I've always felt this game struggled is with these random patches of a sense of lost identity. You're running around in the dark in Woods, you can hear the rain, footsteps, gunshots in the distance, it just immerses you and feels like you're there. Then the game finds a way to go off into a fantasy direction and throws all this shit at you that goes against everything the game originally wants you to experience. Bosses and guards with ultrahuman HP? Sure. Cultists that beam a light into the sky? Why not! Scavs that can see you from 2km away through 14 bushes and 9 hills? But of course! It feels like there's no consistency, one minute the game is about trying to survive in a wasteland and build your character using what you can find, trade and buy while trying to simulate real ballistics, and the next you're fighting enemies that cannot be seen through thermals, cos why not, and a boss that can tank 66 hits of buckshot to the legs cos he's given a health pool 5 times that of a normal human.
I get that there's going to be 'unrealistic' things about this game, cos at the end of the day it's a game, like stapling your limbs together or putting vaseline on your face/arms and suddenly being pain free. That's sort of the well this is still a game at the end of the day type stuff, but I think expanding it to elements of the game that break away from the initial feel always comes across disappointing. Bosses shouldn't have health pools of 5 players combined, instead they should be smarter, cultists can be a thing, but why they have temperatures lower than thermal detection levels makes no sense. Zyrachiy in the last event teleporting around and killing you without being visible? Makes sense!
