There's definitely signs of work-in-progress such as missing or incomplete features and of course numerous crash-to-desktop bugs. One thing I noticed is that it seems far more linear than Shadow of Chernobyl is, but then again it might be because theres several places you can go to from each area, not just one or two at a time. Many places I try go to automatically sends me back to where I came from as if the game doesnt want me to go there yet. Which is a darn shame considering they have made all these goddamn beautiful revamps of the areas and completely new areas to fill in gaps and you cant freely go explore them until the game wants you to.
I guess I never tried to go directly to Dark Valley from Garbage in SoC so I dont know/remember if you can actually do that in it or not, but in LA it seems more on rails. Not that its exactly a bad thing, you are still free to roam the areas you do get to go and you have no sense of urgency on doing anything in a rush.
Graphic enhancements are simply amazing. It looks so fantastic when you find a good medium in the settings that your PC wont get as heavily tanked, game runs smooth and still looks breathtaking.
So far I've felt like I am playing a new STALKER title, not just a mod, but a new game. I dont really mind the fact that its the same story of a game I've already played million times and that its the same areas and in some cases missions that I go through, the changes are so big that it makes me feel like I am not playing a mod.
This is something that every STALKER should experience and it doesnt matter if you have Shadow of Chernobyl or not, you can download Lost Alpha for free and play it without any official STALKER games since the mod is a standalone. If you can live with the fact that it is not completely finished and you will encounter crash bugs and other bugs (hey, this is STALKER, theres bound to be bugs, right?), then I dont see a reason why you should give this one a pass, otherwise you'd be an ass.
Highly recommending it and I cant wait for my next venture into the Zone. I am still far off from finishing it but I cant wait to dwell in again.