Oh you Stalker...
I think CoC/Anomaly/Last Day/Whatever offer the most realistic experience. It has nothing to do with shooting mechanics, the survival aspect, the AI, no. You're just a stalker, pretty much on your own. You're no hero, you're no Strelok, you're no Merc or Major disabling powerful Psi-emitters, taking down pretty much the entire Monolith faction or making your way to a ghost city taking down hordes of Monolith fags.
You're (INSERT YOUR NAME HERE), a lone guy trying to make a living in the zone. It's open to you, you don't have an actual goal, you just go around talking to other stalkers, asking them if they need help.
If the Zone was real, it would probably be like that. Common loners doing various missions, earning their cash working pretty hard. You'll have factions fighting for territory and mutants hunting down the remains or lone stalkers. And you fit into any of those, maybe you'll like to be a cheeki breeki adidas lover robbing loners or some rock fanatic helping your faction take over the entire zone...
Well, you can be the hero and disable the "Miracle Machine", you have some sort of "Story Mode" but it's optional.
Still, I had a mission at the Truck Cemetery, a new area. I had two contracts to kill two stalkers right there. As soon as I got there, under the rain, one of my targets was killed in a firefight with the military. I still had one guy left to kill, so I slowly made my way into the cemetery. It was filled with old trucks and vehicles, some of them with radiation. I encountered a party of Zombified stalkers chilling around, all armed with shitty sawed-off shotguns and Makarovs. I dispatched them with my near broken silenced AEK-971. I looked around for a good place to stay while the storm passes.
I saw a big tower, you know the very same towers that you'll find scattered around in the Great Swamps. So I sneaked into one of those, avoiding another party of zombified stalkers mixed with actual zombies. I had a fantastic view from up there, scanning the horizon I quickly spotted the glow of a campfire about 250 meters from my position, a pack of Boars, a group of Fleshes and two creatures.
These guys are called Lurkers I think, they're a chimera-like monster, they run very fast, they jump but unlike a chimera, they don't deal a lot of damage nor have a lot of health. These two guys were chasing off a boar, from the safety of my tower I was able to watch the new mutant working, I'm not sure if he killed the boar or not, but he passed twice next to my tower without seeing me, or maybe he did, I dunno, I don't have any indicators in my HUD anymore. While watching the local mutants do shit, my target was killed by a flesh. Damn.
Well, that was enough for me. I decided to pack my things up and leave before the emission that was going to happen in a few hours, according to the PDA. When I got to the stairs I heard that dreadful sound. I couldn't see him, but that's always his intention.
I rushed back upstairs and took out my MP-133 shotgun, and the waiting game began. A few minutes after, the monster ran into some anomaly and died. Welp. That was my very first encounter with a Bloodsucker in Anomaly so far, good thing it ended in a spectacular way for me. I haven't had the chance to meet more still, I've been to Cordon, Great Swamps, Dark Valley (Apparently a bandit killed one according to PDA messages), Meadows (new area, very small but fun imo), Garbage (saw a Lurker, a Snork and a Burer, pretty high tier for a southern area), Rostok, Truck Cemetery and Army Warehouses so far... I wonder how many high tier mutants would you encounter up north, in places like Pripyat.
I like Anomaly. It's not super hardcore, yet it's still a challenge. It's a good mix between realism and fun.
I haven't played much of Dead Air yet, it seems that it needs a lot of work, especially because the mod is confused on what the developers are trying to achieve...