firstly - get rid of the cash, this is a desolate abandoned zone in the middle of nowhere, where supplies should be extremely limited and extremely valuable - what use is a cash based economy?

everything should be entirely item-trade based - so every thing you get, means giving up something else of appropriate value - this would seriously limit your character exclusively to, say, an assault rifle - or a shotgun, or whatever - but i think that would be a good thing, forcing difficult choices from the player would enhance the element of survival

i also think food should be either in short supply or very valuable - or both, i found a general sense of pointlessness throughout most of the game as i casually took my time completing quests, with no real motivation to complete the main quest arc until 'd exhausted everything else - and feel that the need for food and supplies should force exploration and advancement

i also feel that, leading on from that, the mainquest arc should be on a checkpoint timer of some kind - so you can only spend so long in each area - for some reason i do not know, but could easily be worked into the game - and so you cannot waste time casually wandering around, but due to the rarity and importance of supplies, you simply have no choice but to complete optional side missions, for the resources they give

this would lend the game a heavy sense of desperation and urgency, mostly copied from fallout - the sense that you should be doing that but first you gotta do this for the resources it gives, but if you do this you might not have time to do that - i think it would fit perfectly with the feel of the game

right now, for example, i have heavy armour and a rifle with a scope, over 60 bandages and around 700 rounds - i can kill just about anything with any problems, and the game is just a fairly generic (albeit brilliant) run n gun shooter from here on in

and that's precisely what the game shouldn't be