The concept of this game sounds pretty awesome and I love the STALKER series. But it suffers greatly from a severe balancing issue. While you don't run the risk of losing your own personal gear, the materials and loot you gather from the forced free-for-all areas is. Constantly up against players with maxed out endgame armor and weapons, skill matters very little. Countless times where I've empty an entire magazine into a player only to be two shot by an extremely visible spray-and-pray tactic. You can only be so stealthy in this game, you're required to interact with the pve aspects of the game to obtain materials which shows up on the mini-map for everyone in your area. Absolutely loved the game up until the near end. The endgame is extremely disappointing and painful. If the developers goal was to make newer players put this game down, they're extremely successful at it.