S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (PC DVD)

This is a very good game - and it may even nudge at greatness once or twice. It's not perfect of course, but it is very good, exciting, thought provoking, very puzzling in parts (but always logical), difficult and easy, simple and complex, and hugely immersive. To say up front, I've played the Russian-released game, so the cut-scenes are a bit hard to follow (!) for me.

Coming in three large (not huge, but large enough to feel big) maps, how you play influences aspects in the game. I suspect some (particularly experienced stalkers) may feel that the game is a bit easy in parts, and sometimes a little too heavy on atmosphere (versus shooting). Certainly the third map (in my opinion excellently) conveys the desolation and hollowness of a city bereft of inhabitants - trust me, after a while it really does 'get to you' - others may just find it a bit too empty.

For those who have played neither Shadow of Chernobyl (SoC) nor Clear Sky (CS) before, be warned, it can feel like there is quite a bit of 'just walking around' to be done, interspersed with some sometimes quite sudden deaths. Previous Stalker-series players will know well what I mean here.

There are many (many) hours of game play here, and a lot of exploration you will have to do for yourselves to crack all of the game, and all the side-tasks. For those who prefer their game-play to be spoon-fed to them and be supplied 'on rails' (I'm thinking of the Call of Duty'ers), avoid this game as you'll hate it.

The game is very stable right out of the (Russian) box, and looks really nice, with fully functioning dynamic weather and day/night cycles. There are some underground parts to the gameplay - not as many as SoC, but more than CS. Sleeping is woven in well, but not mandated. The nights are inky black and, until you get night-vision, largely sensible to sleep through.

Artefact hunting is pretty key to your survival and progress - but again not mandated if you don't enjoy - both to generate money as well as augment the armour/weapons - all of which can be upgraded to personal taste by the mechanics dotted around. The guns sound fab and seem well aligned to the game. The ballistics are fab, seeing a target hit (and damaged) by a ricochet deserves 12/10.

There are serveral truly excellent set-piece tasks to think (as well as fight) your way through, and some very tense periods of exploration to do - I shan't spoil them by saying more! Albeit it's not as scary as SoC - the only game that still scares me!

Like I say it's not perfect thought - the head wobble/bobble is a bit excessive (fixed by a mod), the weapons wear out far far too fast (fixed by a mod), the flashlight is a feeble joke (fixed by a mod), the HUD is a big bulky and intrusive (fixed by a mod), all the text (in my game) is in Russian (fixed by a mod), the players field-of-view is too narrow (fixed by a mod), the iron-sights of the guns also need a mod to work properly... are you getting the picture yet... for, as with all the Stalker games, the modding cummunity is already very active on this game - and with this excellent base to work from, I think we can expect much.

Oh - and it has on-line game play too... Well I'll stop now, there's really a lot to enjoy in this game, and it marks a good evolution of the Stalker series! Only minor worry, GSC don't seem to have found publishers easy to come by - I suspect a facet of the previously unreliable 'fist releases' of SoC and CS. No such problems here - it's working first time!!!

Summary: if you like open and multi-faceted games where you can do what you want, and explore and play the game as you choose to, then buy this game - it would be rude not to, and you'd be missing a little gem!

Call of Pripyat shares none of the frustrations of Clear Sky, it brings back the FUN of the original game, and improves upon it in a multitude of ways. Yes, this is still Stalker, and the game mechanics are similar: open world, shoot blokes, avoid mutants, hunt anomalies etc. But the faction wars are toned down, and you feel like you actually stand a chance from the off. At first you are somewhat fragile, but not stupidly vulnerable. I started venturing out to places and noticed that, like the better-tuned RPGs, there were areas that I could just about tackle, but others for which I'd have to improve myself before I could return to them. Feels just right.

There are two weapons slots, in which you can put whatever you like. This was curiously limited in Clear Sky. The main plot arc isn't entirely linear, the first 5 "quests" for it can be tackled in any order. The "world" comprises 3 large, distinct areas that are naturally shaped and do not feel like long corridors. Keep walking in any direction and you'll see one completely different thing after another, a wrecked ship, swamps (very scaled down compared to Clear Sky), chasms, bridges, burned farms, anomalies, plateaus, and buildings.

Call of Pripyat is designed to be "open world" immediately. Day and night cycles are still there, and you have a permanent clock in the main hud. Clear Sky got one thing right with artifacts: hard to find. This is still the case, and detectors are required, making for a tricky but compelling challenge whenever you attempt it. Earning money is tough, but a little easier than Clear Sky, and feels about right. Shotguns are no longer nearly-useless, and the new Protecta is a solid, satisfying weapon. Weapon upgrades are present again, but futher tuned, and even more essential. Some of the dread and scares of the original game are present, if not to the same extent. There are a lot of things that, if not frightening, are certainly odd and will put you on edge. There's more "weird" in this game than "scary", put simply. How many FPSs engage your imagination as much as your trigger finger?

And I found it absolutely reliable, too. No crashes here, on an Intel-chipset-based PC with Windows 7 64-bit and a Radeon 4650.

Niggles:
Realistic but frustratingly small carry limit early on.
That damned view-bob.
Vanilla game could do with more AI spawns.
Short, some are saying 20 hours.
Could do with more dungeons!
Weapons degradation is a more prominent factor than Clear Sky, and if anything happend a tad too "rapidly" for my liking.
You'll wish they mapped more of Pripyat (but what's there is fantastic).

To conclude:
One of the best first-person-shooters crafted from Ukranian soil. A unique, compelling and satisfying experience, and recommended to absolutely everyone. Google for the "SMRTER mod" after you have played the full game, to add more goodies and replayability.

Call of Pripyat is almost as good as the first in the series, Shadow of Chernobyl. There's three huge levels to explore. Levels are nicely done except last one, which feels a bit unfinished. All the characters and monsters are nicely done too. The game has quite a bad stuttering problem however. Stuttering is a feature of the game engine and can not be fixed. You can alleviate this somewhat by enabling vertical sync and rising the refresh rate of your monitor as high as possible. Also when you run the game, check that the game is using two cores (or more), for it is known to use just one core by default. This fix can be performed on the Windows Task Manager / Processes tab / right click and change "affinity" to one core, then back to two or more cores. This will activate all cores and you can get 50% more framerate! As to the game itself, it is much of the same as the other Stalker games. Exploring places and doing missions. It can be boring if you're not into wandering. The game world does feel a bit empty and liveless like all Stalker games do. Not much happens or moves and what does feels scripted. There's no real-world lively feeling into it. Anyway, the game lasts about 30-40 hours and there's plenty of interesting and scary places to visit during that time. In Stalker games you need to add a bit of your own imagination on top of it and just enjoy the scenery. It's a trip to your on mind too. Btw, using your own background music while playing is worth trying.