Call of Pripyat, the third release in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has finally been released in the US. I’ve been impatiently anticipating this release for a long time. The first two in the series, Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky, while requiring more costly PC hardware, have made a huge fan out of me.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, if you haven’t played it, is a survival first-person shooter experience that takes place in the exclusion zone which was created by horrific Nuclear Power Plant explosions in and around Chernobyl, Ukraine. What really stood out and sucked me into this game, apart from its plot, was its realism and vivid atmosphere. While playing, you feel like a vulnerable human who runs into trouble with jammed guns, bleeding wounds, and energy-draining hunger. The length of time you can run will depend on how much weight you have in your backpack–which is filled with your weapons, ammunition, food, medication, bandages, and artifacts (highly valuable radioactive rocks that you can either use for their physics-defying properties or sell for large sums of money). All of this is before we get into the affects of radiation, anomalies, and numerous other dangers that reside in the zone’s environment. In order to survive you will also need to loot various buildings, stashes, and yes, even corpses. Advice to first-timers: learn the keyboard shortcuts (especially for quick-saving), otherwise you will die … very often.
The player will also interact with many NPC characters who belong to various waring factions in the zone, and who also exhibit impressive AI capabilities. In the second installment, the prologue Clear Sky, it becomes possible to join these factions and carry out faction-specific missions and objectives. For the most part, it is an open-world game where you can find much to do and explore without following the story’s main objectives. I found this non-linear approach very refreshing. However, I would be remiss if I were to avoid mentioning the unique and humorous bugs that have plagued these games. Patches have fixed many issues, but be forewarned, you will see glitches and oddities on occasion. Without patches, these games have been notoriously so plagued with bugs, that it becomes difficult or even impossible to accomplish tasks and missions. Call of Pripyat has been rumored not to have this problem.
A copy of Call of Pripyat is currently heading west in a UPS truck, and is due to be delivered to my house in a couple days. I will update you with a fresh review once I’ve had sufficient time to play it.
