The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise is based on an alternate history in which the Chernobyl area was repopulated following the nuclear meltdown, but then a second disaster happened in 2006 which either killed or mutated nearly everyone. The story picks up some years later as people have started coming back to the region searching for artifacts, things to sell, and scientific information. In the original game the player is just one of many S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s exploring The Zone and doing missions, but is ultimately the one who can get to the ending and eliminate the C-Consciousness. It was an incredible game full of choices and consequences and different endings based on your decisions.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat picks up shortly after the events of the original game, with the introduction indicating how after the collapse of the C-Consciousness the government decided to take control, but after their initial assault failed they sent in a single S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Alexander Degtyarev (your character) – to work your way to Chernobyl and figure out what happened.

Technically, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is a first-person shooter with light RPG and survival-horror elements thrown in. But at its core it is a story- and character-driven open-world FPS. You take on missions in The Zone, which is a large and sprawling area surrounding Chernobyl. There is a large viewable area, with the detail dropping off in the distance as expected. Character models are very detailed, look better than ever and compare nicely to even current games. Overall the game still looks great, but is now beginning to show its age – and yet it still chugs away at times!

The audio is austere but effective – mostly environmental sounds and some solid voice acting. The controls haven’t changed much – standard PC shooter layout that is fully customizable. I am happy that there isn’t much else to add – nothing special to consider, nor any constraints around what you can and cannot do. It is a reminder of how well things can work when a game is developed purely for the PC.

When you shoot at something, it is the skill of the player that matters – well, also the health and status of the character, the weather and other environmental factors, and also the state of the weapon. You are never the classic over-powered character with the mega-weapon that can just plow through enemies. Every fight feels tense and frantic as you are constantly struggling with ammo and health concerns.

One of the coolest things promised in the original game – and still great after being trimmed down for the actual release – was the sense of a ‘living world’ in which life was actually happening around you. There wasn’t a fancy name applied, but as you traveled around you would see things going on without you needing to be involved – and sometimes they would impact your missions. In S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, GSC has realized the concept much more fully: you can easily see a pack of mutant dogs taking on some humans or other STALKERS, and you can also see other STALKERS roaming The Zone taking on missions. Sometimes you can even tag along under their leadership and actually help them on their missions.

Wait … did I just say that not only can the AI act independently, it can take the lead on missions and STILL produce satisfying gameplay? Yep! Amazing stuff!

Further along those lines, I got a new gaming laptop about a month ago, and this one doesn’t have an optical drive. So I ended up re-buying S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat on Steam (they have a nice ‘loyalty’ discount if you already own the earlier games), and when I started I immediately headed in a different direction than I did before and made a number of different choices – and it made a HUGE difference in how the game played.

Considering I just mentioned that I bought a second copy of a game so I could continue playing it on a different computer without a DVD drive, it should be pretty clear that I really like this game. The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was a great game, but riddled with bugs to the point where before patching I felt like an apologist just enjoying the game. The second game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, seemed like an attempt to add more stuff in but ultimately felt a bit scattered and was still problematic.

Now we have S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, and it is truly the ultimate realization of the concept: a huge open living world in which you are just one of many potential heroes. The game still centers around your actions, but more than ever the world truly feels alive. You will spend a couple of dozen hours getting through the game, and the open feel predictably narrows towards the end of the game, but I never felt that the game was rushed or unfinished. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat is a satisfying third entry in the franchise.

Pros:
+ Loads of content
+ Loads of replayability
+ Top-notch AI in a living world
+ Great story, missions and characters

Cons:
– Game is still somewhat buggy
– Performance is still problematic
– Engine showing its age

Game Info:
Platform: PC
Publisher: Viva Media
Developer: GSC Game World
Release Date: 2/2/2010
Genre: FPS
ESRB Rating: Mature
Players: 1-32
Source: Review copy provided by publisher

GSC Game World continues to plug away at its S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, this week announcing the third installment, Call of Pripyat.

Slated for release in the fall, Call of Pripyat will pick up shortly after the closing events of Shadow of Chernobyl with the government launching a military operation to take control of the CNPP. The mission fails, of course, and the Ukraine Security Service sends an agent into the Zone center to investigate the situation and figure out what went wrong — that’s where you come in.

Along with the new story, Call of Pripyat will benefit from an expanded side quest system, deadly new monsters, an improved interface, an in-game sleep function, and something called the A-Life system which was created from the “best-liked” features from the first two games. But perhaps the feature I’m most pleased by is how you will be able to continue your adventure in the Zone even after you’ve completed the story. This is something that really hurt Fallout 3 for me. Once the story ended you either had to start over or load up your save data from before the final mission. It seems like a minor detail, but it makes a huge difference in a game like this.

More than anything, though, I want to see GSC finally launch a game that’s stable from the get go, not riddled with bugs and performance issues like both previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R.‘s. I’ve had a copy of Clear Sky sitting by my PC since last year that I simply gave up on because of crippling performance flaws, and it’s been killing me because I loved the original game so much. But now that Call of Pripyat is coming I’ll definitely take another stab at it and see if it’s been patched up enough yet to be somewhat playable for me.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat announced [S.T.A.L.K.E.R. official web site]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky ‘First 25 Min.’ gameplay [GameVideos.com]

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