Following up on the previous articles, I believe it is time to tackle the last and probably most beloved of the original STALKER games – Call of Pripyat (or CoP for short)! Developed by Ukrainian developers GSC Game World and released in 2009, this is one of PC Gaming’s most vaunted titles and an exemplary open world FPS game to this day.
Let me tell you why it earned that title.
Wait, is this something like STALKER 2?
Call of Pripyat is the third of the original games and is a standalone title just like Clear Sky. A full playthrough that explores all quests and events in the game ought to run players around 30 hours in total, so this is not a short game at all.
As for those who are brand new here – the STALKER series is an open world first person shooter series with some survival and tactical and RPG elements thrown in. It takes place in a fictional version of the Chornobyl exclusion Zone where a second disaster in 2006 turned the entire area into something beyond human science – full of monsters and wondrous artifacts and anomalies. And in this land full of riches and danger, this gold Rush for the dispossessed – that is where the series takes place!
Third time is the charm for GSC? What is new for Call of Pripyat?
GSC Game World incorporated lots of lessons they took from the reception towards both Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl when making Call of Pripyat. They also did look into some of the early mods for the originals such as Priboi Story among others.
So… what does all of this mean?
Well, the first and in my opinion biggest change is the far more sophisticated side quests system. In the previous games, most side quests bar a few exceptions were super simple fetch quests or assassination quests. Or perhaps a clear the area quest too. Now the A-Life or Faction War systems could make the journey or action far more complicated and memorable, but that was really a luck of the draw. Call of Pripyat instead has from the get go far more complicated and well written quests, often with multiple branching solutions and some level of interconnectivity. Some quests affect the game’s ending and the world states, and a few have a relatively convoluted quest chain with multiple different branches affecting multiple factions.
Made a deal with these bad guys… let’s hope they keep their word.
Honestly, its solid stuff. Sometimes the developers even thought about alternative ways to solve the task at hand, for example just because the game suggests you go to a specific person who may be able to help you does not mean they are actually the only person who has that information or is even the best choice. Think about who may be able to help you… or ask around. Speaking of which, the characters and dialogue tree systems have been expanded over the first two games, better even than what was available in Clear Sky. Normal Stalkers are now often invaluable towards giving you tips or hints or rumors on how to best solve an issue. Of note is that the A-Life system can still affect at least a few of the side missions, still lending some of the previous title’s chaos even here. Sometimes for bad… other times, it may end up assisting you, massively.
New dialogue system is dope!
When it comes down to the A-Life itself, the Faction Brain is alas no longer active. Instead, the game is somewhat closer to Shadow of Chernobyl though most Stalkers in the Zone prefer to not go alone in it but rather in groups of twos or threes. Stalkers now can hunt down mutants even more actively and scan anomalies and move around the world, playing their part in making it seem lively. Faction clashes still do happen of course.
The Stamina and medicine system has been expanded, alongside the food systems. New consumables can assist with exploration and this small change makes planning for missions and artifact runs a bit more involved. Medkits are now slow to heal, making firefights in theory a bit more intense.
The artifact exploration system is back from Clear Sky. Call of Pripyat though has the anomalies themselves be somewhat more interesting to traverse. They are often ominous and grandiose features within each level and require some thought to learn. The artifacts they spawn, alongside quest rewards, are the main source of money inside this title.
A couple of really powerful mutants are now officially back in the game and they do make a strong impression. The super-fast and extremely powerful Chimera is a top predator in the Zone. The Burer’s psychic abilities and mimicry make for a memorable enemy to fight, a brutally powerful one too. All other mutants have gained some additions to their statistics or attacks or capabilities, making them even more dangerous opponents.
The last big change I’d say is that GSC have improved on their promise from Clear Sky is that weapons are now far more usable from the get go. I still have minor qualms overall and think things could be made even better, but the gunplay in Call of Pripyat is the best the series has ever seen (without mods), hopefully until STALKER 2 launches. Oh, and the upgrades system has returned and it is quite good yet again! This time with cool new options such as more advanced night vision options for helmets (now a separate category for some suits) or even dynamic enemy scanners, plus cool new scopes for extra weapon customization. By 2009 standards, the roster of guns and their mod ability is quite impressive.
As for the locales we explore, it should be noted that Call of Pripyat takes place in an entirely new location and features 3 separate major areas to explore, alongside a few smaller underground locations. Zaton, a swampy and gigantic level serves as the introduction though do not let that fool you. Some dangerous beasts patrol the reeds and hills! Jupiter is the second area the player enters, a location surrounding a huge factory and housing the iconic Freedom and Duty factions. And lastly, and the legendary city of Prypiat. One small part of it, made in a detailed manner far eclipses its initial introduction in Shadow of Chernobyl. All 3 maps are huge by STALKER standards and Zaton and Jupiter are the 2 biggest vanilla maps in the series (before Stalker 2’s release). The entire area of the game is actually close to what the original two games had and they had dozens of (smaller) locations!
What about the Plot?
Call of Pripyat takes place after the events of Shadow of Chernobyl and has the player work as a Ukrainian Military secret agent within the Zone on an investigation to understand why the previous operation(s) failed despite all the preparation and thought that went into them. Iconic characters from Clear Sky and Shadow of Chernobyl make an appearance and the extremely creepy secret laboratories are also back! The Mercenaries are back to their old tricks and are now among the most important players in the game. And the ever-present Gold Rush is yet again present in the Zone – though this time you are exclusively in locations deep within, close to the Center. Not very well explored before the events of Shadow of Chernobyl so you are in uncharted territory from the get go!
It is a pleasure working for the eggheads… thank God I have support this time!
As always, I do not like spoiling the plot of the game, I want you guys to try it out. Do note that the side content is quite vast but the main story itself is not quite as long. I would say the mystery set up by it, is one of those things where an attentive player would likely already have a decent hunch towards most of the solution a mere minutes after engaging with it. Still, all the characters and moments are standout for the series and stand above the average FPS or most open world games. The lore itself though is very much in the excellent tier once again, the Stalker wiki lore experts were eating well when CoP came out for sure!
What are the weaknesses?
I love the series and love CoP, but as an honest Stalker fan I need to talk about what I don’t like about the game.
The Map Design is one of its biggest issues in my honest opinion. And not because it is bad, but because it follows a more modern and, in my opinion, inferior manner of world design as compared to Clear Sky and Shadow.
In this article we go over a part of it but to give you the gist, the 3 new locations are very big and they are full of content. But they are also very artificial with how their content is spread out. Basically, the developers ended up placing points of interest at near equal distance from one another, spacing out quests and NPCs or enemies and mutants. As a result, this ends up harming how realistic the area feels since real world locations are not spaced out in such a manner.
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Do note this isn’t aninherently terrible game design. Actually, many good open world games do this because it spreads content and keeps players engaged. But I feel that it doesn’t work for STALKER as much. And Call of Pripyat was one of the first games to do this type of design and did it very well to boot. But I just never really liked it as much, I prefer it when my maps have space to be different, to be quiet or a hellhole or peaceful… you get the idea. Something the previous two titles did very well as do games like for example Elden Ring. To be fair CoP has a couple of such locations but it just doesn’t feel complete like it did in the past titles where entire regions of the world just had a different flow and it made in-universe sense why they did.
This is a real world location BTW!
Another thing I believe is a bit of an issue is with how the A-Life functions within the map. Now a large map is great news for A-Life but it has some limits placed there that never get lifted. This matters because a few quests would break if the AI could just enter the area they take place in. I understand limiting that. But once the quest is completed, the AI ought to have had its restrictions lifted and be allowed to move there dynamically, at will. Alas this does not happen, the location instead becomes somewhat dead after that point.
Were this to be fixed it would have helped alleviate an issue that the game now has where once you finish all side quests and play the main story there is very little content remaining. Just some repeatable missions in Zaton… and that is it. There is no Faction War system like in Clear Sky to give nigh endless combat-centered quests and alas only one repeatable task. GSC really should have done more here, doubly so since I believe it is one of those easily solvable game design problems.
The technology and – is it finally stable?
I have some good news here at last! Call of Pripyat released in a far better manner than the previous titles did and it seems GSC’s money spent on playtesting the game paid off! Make no mistake, there are some lingering issues with the game, but right out of the gate it showed a serious improvement over GSC’s previous efforts. By modern standards, this is a downright stable and finished game.
There is a Reclamation bug fix mod of course, the community was able to fix most of the remaining bugs and glitches. I do think checking it out is a good idea, I mean it is there after all, why not make things even better. But thankfully, the game is a great experience from the get go this time!
Some anomalies look impressive!
As for technology itself – Call of Pripyat is an AMD-sponsored title and one of the first games with DirectX 11 support. It made use of this at the time brand new API to increase its performance (under equal settings, DX11 is faster than DX9 or 10) and to also introduce tessellation to some of its models and add Contact Hardening Shadows. A technique which improves the realism of shadows making sure they are realistically softer or harder depending on the light source’s origin and proximity to the shadow-casting object. The addition of advanced Ambient Occlusion techniques like HBAO and especially HDAO was also something quite good for the game!
However, I need to mention – while the engine is indeed objectively superior to Clear Sky’s, GSC took to heart some of the criticisms on how heavy their games were so they toned down certain effects in CoP. The lighting system isn’t as extreme with the volumetric light rays as before, the general map geometry is slightly simplified too. Still even with these cuts it was a handsome game for its 2009 era and looked noticeably better than for example Fallout New Vegas (which is an awesome game too mind you!). But dethrone Clear Sky? In some ways yes… overall though – no.
PCMR Modding Supremacy
Being the last of the original three games, Call of Pripyat is the most modded. The reason is actually quite logical, it is the one with the overall best engine and base to start modding work upon.
The vast majority of current modern high-end STALKER mods come from X-Ray 1.6 or its further enhanced by fans variants. Once you own this title, you officially have access to one of PC Gaming’s most modded and content rich titles, ever. From story driven mods like Shorohov or Spatial Anomaly, to the GOATs of Sandbox open world design such as GAMMA or Anomaly or the sheer Godlike weapons of Gunslinger and every single wacky or serious mods in-between… gamers will be eating good here.
The Ukrainians should stand proud here – their title is among the apex of our entire medium when it comes to modding. And to top it off, even our console friends have access to some level of mod ability now, though it’s still early days for them.
Conclusion
When it comes down to it Call of Pripyat is a really strong game. In some ways, namely mechanical, it is the strongest unmodified STALKER title and it sits head and shoulders above most open world games even to this day.
It is not my personal favorite of the franchise (so far) but it is a game I loved playing through. Also, since it is more balanced out of the gate, I can see it as an excellent entry point into the series or its mods.
So, for all PC Gamers who are yet to try it as well as all the new console gamers who are just now accessing the series – I highly recommend Call of Pripyat and I believe it is one great starting point alongside Shadow of Chernobyl. Do yourselves a favor and try the Zone and its horror and beauty out.
Who knows. It may become one of your favorite games – the same way it managed to capture me forever.
The articles content, opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in SAPPHIRE NATION are the authors’ own and do not necessarily represent official policy or position of SAPPHIRE Technology.hei
