



It is surprising to see a developer from Ukraine able to develop a game such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that has its own niche in the market where it combines an open world environment with a nuclear fallout setting, first-person shooter and horror all into one fine game.

Developed and published by GSC Game World and released back in 2010, Call of Pripyat is the third installment in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, the first one being Shadow of Chernobyl and the second is called Clear Sky. I still remember when Shadow of Chernobyl first came out back in 2007, there were very little news of it and it spread by word of mouth like wildfire on how good and refreshing the game was. Even though the first game wasn’t as refined with the original game was in Russian and it got literally translated to English to cater to English-speaking audience. But who cares about it, this is not an RPG game right? Instead the action is what matters.

The learning curve was a little bit tough though. Imagine picking up a gun with no aiming sights and massive amount of recoil as well so best if you shoot while crouching for a better aim. Then there’s the environmental hazard where you have to be careful when exploring the vast open world and not to step on any nuclear waste or it can seriously injure or even kill you. Not to mention the wild dogs that roam in the wilderness. With ammo supply really hard to find, unnecessary combat has to be avoided at all costs.

There’s actually a meaning for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which is Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers. That pretty much sums up who’s who in the game. The game itself is set in the area surrounding the Chernobyl accident site, called ‘The Zone’, in an alternative reality where a second explosion occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant sometime after the first and causes strange changes in the area around it. In Call of Pripyat, it takes place in and around the city of Pripyat, Ukraine. The area is divided into three parts known as Zaton, Yanov, and the city of Pripyat itself. Each of these is a large playable area. It focus heavily on post-apocalyptic horror as well as tactical role-playing action as most of the time you’ll be fighting the enemies all alone.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games in general is really not for everyone. Those who are comfortably playing Call of Duty, Battlefield or Medal of Honor series might want to take a look at it since it’s a good shooter as well but with a totally different setting. The horror is there in patches but it does give you a scare, especially when you’re in some dark tunnel or exploring the vast world during night time.

Being a PC game, there were tons of mods and the community is thriving because of this. Made by fans for fans have really been key in getting people to play the game over and over again with a different kind of experience each time thanks to the mods and really extends the value for money that you spent buying the game.