I think it is actually pretty alright. It's a beautifully realized world, it is very atmospheric and moody. The story so far has been pretty lame (I think they are going for a "oh no the zone is getting commercialized we punks need to fight against it" kind of plot, which is kinda meh as far as where they could have taken the story), although there is some character to it (but there's also a pretty regressive streak to the whole thing, with there still being no female stalkers or any real diversity to speak of).

The more pressing and obvious problems the game has are balance and the complete absence of A-Life. Supplies are much too plentiful, while repairing any of your equipment costs way too much and without roaming bands of mutants and stalkers the game really does lose a lot of what made Stalker special (endlessly respawning enemies is hopefully just a bug).