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

O...K.... Seeing the previous reviews I realise there's a lot of love for these games out there. This sort of game is my favourite genre (system shock, bioshock, fallout, Metro, Witcher - you get the idea). I gave it a good shot but after about 3 hours I just felt like I had no purpose - the quests seemed generic and the travelling was tedious. Yes, I know the lore is deep and the actual game is unquestionably well put together but I just didn't feel that I needed or wanted to continue. By all means give this a go - I seem to be in a significant minority here. I just felt I had to put my views out there to give balance to the others. Perhaps one day I'll return to C.O.P and give it another go. If so I'll post again if my mind is changed.

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).