
My first confrontation with a pack of mutated dogs, leading to near-death and an empty shotgun. Starting the game over, I encounter the same alarming, wonderful Firsts I discovered a year ago. For us seasoned Stalker devotees, the scares and tense battles are familiar, expected delights. Nothing comes close, not Fallout 3 (easily Stalker‘s closest relative in the gaming world, which isn’t saying much), and none of the tired horror games we’re used to trudging through. For these lucky souls, every bitter death, rationed bullet, and terrifying night-time excursion will be a new experience, unlike anything else they’ve played before. This probably works best with new players, people who’ve never played a Stalker game.

As such, instead of flirting with it and then losing interest (as I did with SoC and Clear Sky), I played it through and loved it.Ĭall of Pripyat is at its best when it surprises players. Call of Pripyat blends the best bits of its predecessors, and isn’t broken by bugs and glitches. Clear Sky has a slightly less flimsy upgrade system, but it’s lacking in that trademark Stalker tension. SoC has a nonexistent upgrade/barter system, making item collection and weapon upgrades feel haphazard and tacked on (you can’t repair things in the vanilla game!). Clear Sky had some fun ideas about how to do large, single player armed conflicts (read more about this in my next GSW column), and Shadow of Chernobyl, was the most unforgiving and brutal of the three games (and thus, the game that all Stalker games are compared to on the “super scary, hard, Stalker” Scale of Intensity), but both were badly broken and still are, patches or no patches. Of course, I restarted my game instead, partly because I like to restart games and play from the beginning, especially when leveling/upgrading schemes are involved (there’s nothing quite like being at the bottom of that ladder, is there?), and partially because I’m having trouble getting excited about my 2nd Mass Effect 2 run.Ĭall of Pripyat is by far my favorite Stalker game. There are a few new quests, or something, to entice me back into the Zone. GSC Gameworld added a feature that lets me play on after the credits have rolled. Now, I’ve finished this game once already.



Thus, a new playthrough of Stalker: Call of Pripyat was born. Of course, my natural response to such a mood is to replay a certain type of game, the kind of game I’ve already played through and through. I’m going through one of those stages where I’m out of new games and I’m not inclined to finish games I set aside midway through ( Lost Planet 2, because it’s too foreign for my in-house co-op partner, Starcraft 2 because Jim Raynor’s face makes me depressed, and Divinity 2, because, you know…). Or perhaps “Hiddy Ho!.” Oh, Stalkers of the Zone. Hey Bro! That’s how everyone in Stalker-land greets each other.
