Precursors (2011) (PC) (Deep Shadows)
5Precursors is one of those absurdly ambitious genre-bending titles which in today's gaming market could only have been developed for the PC by an Eastern European developer (in this case it's Kiev-based Deep Shadows, which previously released the rather infamous Boiling Point and its sequel).
Precurors is essentially an open-world shooter with some fairly prominent RPG elements. Also, the game has several planets to explore freely (on foot or with vehicles), tons of loot to pick up, a fully fledged faction system and even some space combat thrown in for good measure. The on-foot shooter mechanics in and of themselves are fairly unremarkable, the art design is mostly forgettable, the English localization frequently comes off as downright laughable and the game world and quest structure predictably have their fair share of open world glitchiness, but there's no denying the sheer ambition that went into the development of Precursors. The game feels like some kind of a delightfully epic mix of Borderlands, Stalker, Fallout 3 and Elite, so any PC nerd with the slightest interest in open-ended action/adventure RPGs should check it out.
As with most any interesting PC titles, the galaxy's best gaming blog RPS has written very informatively about this game;
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/01/04/wot-i-think-precursors/
Buy Precursors here (I got it for much less than the standard price during a sale so it priobably will get cheaper again at some point):
http://www.gamersgate.com/