S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

You can holster/unholster weapon by repeatedly pressing this weapon selection hotkey (by default 1-6).

My 1st STALKER game. Its story and quests are basic, in a world populated by interchangeable, 1-dimensional characters, with voice acting ranging from okay to laughable - and yet, somehow, I became totally immersed in STALKER's world. To me, the focus of the game isn't really on the characters or the story - the main character is actually the Zone itself. The Zone feels alive, full of visible and invisible dangers that will kill the unwary in an instant, but it just as easily plays host to the quiet moments: Simply walking from place to place, exploring the world, feeling the melancholy of solitude. Seeing the decay of what used to be home to thousands of normal people, now home only to corpses and monstrosities. Slowly picking my way through anomalies in search of artifacts, the beeping of my detector and a handful of bolts guiding my way one cautious step at a time. Clearing a pitch-black cave one corner at a time, leaning forward in my chair anxiously expecting a mutant to leap out of the darkness at any moment. Hearing the distant boom of an Emission and dropping everything to sprint for the nearest cover, hunkering down as the storm rages and reality collapses around me. It just WORKS. After playing all 3 games, I find Call of Pripyat to be the most polished, "definitive" version of STALKER, and the best vanilla experience. If you're unsure about STALKER or only have time to play one, try CoP. If STALKER sounds like exactly what you're looking for, however, I strongly recommend playing the whole series in release order. STALKER is hard, but fair. It punishes the careless and overconfident, but it also rewards the cautious and thorough. It's not for everyone, but if that style of gameplay appeals to you like it did me, then you'll probably have a fantastic time as well.

Many of gamers have experienced Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but not everyone has experienced the wastelands over in old Soviet Territory. You start off hunting down clues as to what happened to some military helicopters exploring the area of the game map, but the game dramatically expands as you help the locals with their own situations in areas outside the primary mission goals with results of confrontations with monsters that take after H.P. Lovecraft's style.This game has a good focus on immersion with things like leaning around corners, worrying about bleeding effects, and a need for food to consume. This game has earn a rightful place next to Fallout.

First game bought on GOG and my first review. I had it for a while in my wishlist, so when I saw the discount I grabbed it without hesitation. I need to mention that I played and finished STALKER SOC and COP some 10 years ago (Clear Sky had a lot of bugs at that time and couldn't play it). I wanted to see if the game can hold my attention again in the year 2020 or if it was nostalgia that dictated me to buy it again. Short answer? YES ! I still think STALKER is one of the best FPS out there together with Half Life, Bioshock, Fear, Metro, Dishonored and so on. After 39 hours of gameplay, with all the quests and side quests done, traversing the map back and forward and I still couldn't get enough of the atmosphere in this game. Is that phenomenal. Yes, there are a few weak moments in the story, the gunplay is ok at best, the graphics are somewhat outdated, but at the end I didn't care. Really had a sense of accomplishment finishing this. A few things I want to mention. The FOV bugged me for a while so I installed a little mod (fov_switcher) and changed it to 75; default was 55. Other than that I had no problems with the game. I had no crashes whatsoever, encountered just a little bug (the door in Scientists' Bunker/Jupiter). But I loaded a quicksave and it was gone. Conclusions? I strongly recommend you play this game ! Now get out of here Stalker ! PS. The modding community is really active and there are tons of great mods out there, if you still want to play STALKER after your first experience in vanilla. Just to name a few: Anomaly (didn't really like it, maybe others will), Misery (not fond of it, but is pretty popular), Gunslinger + Absolute Nature 4 (probably best gun mod out there, still in development, huge potential), Call of Chernobyl Back to the Roots (fantastic freeplay mod), Valley of Whispers (short cool story mod).

I remember the time I spent waiting for the release of Shadow of Chernobyl, and even though it was buggy it still is one of my favourite FPS games ever. After a few playthroughs I lost interest in STALKER series, so I started playing the sequels pretty late. While Clear Sky was bugged into oblivion to the point of unplayability, the Call of Prypiat is pretty well made. Of course not much changed, since they used the same assets for all three games, so graphically it's identical. The biggest problem with that game is that it feels... short. 3 areas in total, each self contained and sparsely populated. While the areas are decent in size, the problem is, that they are empty. And not empty as: "ooh, deserted villages, some leftover cars and some scenery that actually makes you curious", but "oh no, I need to walk through that road, where there's nothing besides grass and nothing ever happens AGAIN". So the most time in game is spent not exploring, talking or fighting, but just walking between points. It felt way more organic in ShOC. I really like how they changed the anomalies, so that they are grouped together and artifacts spawn inbetween, that's actually pretty good. The number of quests is only half decent, and they are pretty easy even on hardest difficulty. So you basically just effortlessly slide through the game with no chalenge, and the only thing that keeps you from finishing early is either your greed, walking or waiting for events to trigger. My biggest issue is with Prypiat location. You land in an almost legendary city, and there is nothing there. A few mutants, a few zombies, that's it. It's empty, quiet and sunny. It does not build the atmosphere as it did in ShOC. Moreover, there are almost no quests and most buildings are basically closed for exploration and just stand as big brick blocks of scenery. So that's my opinion: a good game, however it is short and uneventful. Oh, and the ending is so anticlimactic, that you wouldn't believe.