Should be a slightly better review than last time (my fingers are crossed).
[HEADING=1]S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat.[/HEADING]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Games are well known in terms of it being generally unique. However, despite the uniqueness it offered, it was also a flawed game series. The story was generally uninteresting, the game-play was the type of thing you struggled to hold patience for and the lack of an auto-save left you annoyed as you're left redoing everything you've done in the last hour. So, you can tell why I was reluctant to buy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat after S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chenobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky left what could be considered a sour taste in my mouth (which serves me right for going on my hands and knees and giving them money instead of them giving me money for the service).
However, there was a sale. £5 off if I was stupid enough to of bought the previous two games (I was let down to not get £10 off for buying both). So, reflecting upon the bare cupboard called the release calender containing noticeable games, I spent £15 on it and begun downloading it while I curled up in a ball on my bed and hoping the developers wouldn't return for sloppy thirds.
You are Major Alexander Degtyarev, a secret agent (because secret agents still give people a sense of excitement) who is tasked in finding out what happened to five helicopters. I can't help but wonder... ?A secret agent...To just find out about five helicopters? Isn't this janitorial work? Shouldn't he be swinging through the air on a cable, kicking an evil mastermind into a vat of boiling acid and kissing the sexy model who you've saved??. I then realised that he was Russian and most Russians in games and movies are shown to be bad guys.
The game-play is solid and, surprisingly, fun. It fixes what was wrong with the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R game beginning (you now have a gun that can actually kill someone) and the second S.T.A.L.K.E.R game beginning (the environment is now actually enjoyable to transverse and you're not dumped in at the deep end like a toddler with inflated water wings). There are some control issues, which can be easily fixed with a quick check with the options menu.
Just like the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game beat Fallout 3 to the idea of a FPS in a wasteland, this S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game has beaten the Fallout New Vegas to the weapon upgrade system; and you know what? It works! Sure, it's nothing clever and it's somewhat tedious as you have to feed someone vodka, choose between two seemingly irrelevant upgrades just because the game forces you to pick one upgrade only (for example, one of the shotguns you can either have a polish thing that increases reliability, or change the handle to increase handling), but it works. Does this mean S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat is better or will be better than Fallout New Vegas? Oh god no, just like Fallout 3 was a better FPS (oh, and a RPG as well) than S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
One thing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Was well known for was the amount of bugs in it. It made a deli-takeaway look like a clean master-piece. Well, to my knowledge, there are much less bugs. Another improvement on the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R is journeys are now more eventful and less about dodging weird anomalies. No more you're just wondering along, and then you're hit with a burst of pain. Now, they are just about far and few and they don't always guarantee you're just going to fill a jolt of pain. For instance, you'll come across one of the helicopters and suddenly your vision becomes a grainy blue. You'll then feel pain. You'll turn to face what it was, ready to blow them away with your shotgun. What you'll face instead is a box flying into your face. Meet Mr Gravitational Anomaly. He'll be beating the shit out of you until you get away from the helicopter. This sounds like more of a nuisance than it really is, because it changes up your tactic for what you're going to be doing. You'll also sometimes have what are called emissions which makes you run for cover before you die (the nearest suitable cover is shown on your PDA map). While this sounds like a pain, it isn't due to suitable cover being not near enough to make it an easy diversion, but not too far where you're doomed if the emission is going to start shortly.
The last point I'd like to make that they fixed was the auto-saving. It's now a lot more often. So no more will you end up getting frustrated and turning off the game when you die just because you lost an hour of work because you don't save every time you make a step.
As with every game, there are faults dragging it down like the toddler before with concrete water-wings. You'll load up the multiplayer mode, hoping to have a refreshingly new experience, once you manage to get onto the Gamespy log-in (which I got frustrated enough that I had to make a new account and new e-mail address so I could get on) just to find an absolute copy and paste of the previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky game. Come on, two years in development and you couldn't at least throw in a new level or a new game mode?
Another problem I had with the game, was the lack of a working map system outside the PDA. Come on guys, do I really have to keep checking back on the PDA, checking where I am, closing and then rechecking? Not even a small HUD screen of my surroundings or the option to hold the PDA in one hand, a pistol in another and to run around watching my surroundings? No option to put on a custom marker? This kills the flow.
A third problem is the inventory. Now, as you'll quickly find if you like to have an assault rifle (ranged and main), a shotgun (for close range) and a pistol (back-up) collection is the limited amount of weight you're given. You're given 50KG until you walk slowly and 60KG until you can't move and you're given only one upgrade option to make it bigger by 10KG. You may be thinking ?Riobux! But it's limiting what you carry so you don't just hoard everything together and make the game too easy?. You are right, to a degree. You are right that no limit on the amount of slots or even ?here's a bag, it's got so much slots? is unrealistic since how much we can carry is often based on weight. However, this is where realism can sometimes infringe on the fun. You'll be walking along to do a mission. You'll pick up a canister of evil toxic gas the evil government were transporting to do evil things (so a British or American secret agent can save the day and kiss the girl) and there goes 10KG. You'll be carrying so much medical supplies and ammo that you'll be unable to move until you use the supplies, dump the ammo or dump one of your guns (which, when you're done upgrading, you'll be saying god no every time). While I appreciate the realism, it cuts in my fun as I'm left with ?item management!? in what is sometimes a dangerous zone (e.g. helicopter in a gravitation anomaly) just because I just didn't check to see if I had a spare 10KG.
One thing that will also annoy you to a degree is being unable to sell most guns. Weapon deterioration happens, like Marmite you either love it, hate it or don't care either way. However, it's gotten to a point where you'll be hoarding about five guns on you, you'll drag it to the nearest shops only to find out that the dealer doesn't want to deal with goods that are only slightly damaged and worn. While it serves a good purpose (don't hoard weapons in hopes of selling), you can't help but think you should be able to sell weapons but at a significantly reduced rate (e.g. sell a gun at only 100 currency, instead of 1,000).
So, in conclusion, it's by no means a bad game. It's not something to rush to the shops (or onto Steam) to get, but it's enjoyable. As Yahtzee once said ?there are two reasons why you'll stop playing a game, one is if you become bored of it and another is when you realised you should have had your meal hours ago?, and I ended up missing a Dawn Of War 2 Q&A session event so I could eat and unable to ring Sony to fix the Heavy Rain soundtrack problem because I had been on the game for a very lengthy time with no concept of how much time had passed.
Recommendation: Buy it for no more than £15 if you even remotely enjoyed the first two S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Games (which you get that chance on Steam). You could give it a bash also if you liked Fallout 3's apocalypse feel but don't expect to get addicted to it. You could buy it for £15 if you are new to the series since it's the best one in the series and you don't need to know the previous story, just expect spoilers of the previous story.
[HEADING=1]S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat.[/HEADING]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Games are well known in terms of it being generally unique. However, despite the uniqueness it offered, it was also a flawed game series. The story was generally uninteresting, the game-play was the type of thing you struggled to hold patience for and the lack of an auto-save left you annoyed as you're left redoing everything you've done in the last hour. So, you can tell why I was reluctant to buy S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat after S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow Of Chenobyl and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky left what could be considered a sour taste in my mouth (which serves me right for going on my hands and knees and giving them money instead of them giving me money for the service).
However, there was a sale. £5 off if I was stupid enough to of bought the previous two games (I was let down to not get £10 off for buying both). So, reflecting upon the bare cupboard called the release calender containing noticeable games, I spent £15 on it and begun downloading it while I curled up in a ball on my bed and hoping the developers wouldn't return for sloppy thirds.
You are Major Alexander Degtyarev, a secret agent (because secret agents still give people a sense of excitement) who is tasked in finding out what happened to five helicopters. I can't help but wonder... ?A secret agent...To just find out about five helicopters? Isn't this janitorial work? Shouldn't he be swinging through the air on a cable, kicking an evil mastermind into a vat of boiling acid and kissing the sexy model who you've saved??. I then realised that he was Russian and most Russians in games and movies are shown to be bad guys.
The game-play is solid and, surprisingly, fun. It fixes what was wrong with the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R game beginning (you now have a gun that can actually kill someone) and the second S.T.A.L.K.E.R game beginning (the environment is now actually enjoyable to transverse and you're not dumped in at the deep end like a toddler with inflated water wings). There are some control issues, which can be easily fixed with a quick check with the options menu.
Just like the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game beat Fallout 3 to the idea of a FPS in a wasteland, this S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Game has beaten the Fallout New Vegas to the weapon upgrade system; and you know what? It works! Sure, it's nothing clever and it's somewhat tedious as you have to feed someone vodka, choose between two seemingly irrelevant upgrades just because the game forces you to pick one upgrade only (for example, one of the shotguns you can either have a polish thing that increases reliability, or change the handle to increase handling), but it works. Does this mean S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat is better or will be better than Fallout New Vegas? Oh god no, just like Fallout 3 was a better FPS (oh, and a RPG as well) than S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
One thing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Was well known for was the amount of bugs in it. It made a deli-takeaway look like a clean master-piece. Well, to my knowledge, there are much less bugs. Another improvement on the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R is journeys are now more eventful and less about dodging weird anomalies. No more you're just wondering along, and then you're hit with a burst of pain. Now, they are just about far and few and they don't always guarantee you're just going to fill a jolt of pain. For instance, you'll come across one of the helicopters and suddenly your vision becomes a grainy blue. You'll then feel pain. You'll turn to face what it was, ready to blow them away with your shotgun. What you'll face instead is a box flying into your face. Meet Mr Gravitational Anomaly. He'll be beating the shit out of you until you get away from the helicopter. This sounds like more of a nuisance than it really is, because it changes up your tactic for what you're going to be doing. You'll also sometimes have what are called emissions which makes you run for cover before you die (the nearest suitable cover is shown on your PDA map). While this sounds like a pain, it isn't due to suitable cover being not near enough to make it an easy diversion, but not too far where you're doomed if the emission is going to start shortly.
The last point I'd like to make that they fixed was the auto-saving. It's now a lot more often. So no more will you end up getting frustrated and turning off the game when you die just because you lost an hour of work because you don't save every time you make a step.
As with every game, there are faults dragging it down like the toddler before with concrete water-wings. You'll load up the multiplayer mode, hoping to have a refreshingly new experience, once you manage to get onto the Gamespy log-in (which I got frustrated enough that I had to make a new account and new e-mail address so I could get on) just to find an absolute copy and paste of the previous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky game. Come on, two years in development and you couldn't at least throw in a new level or a new game mode?
Another problem I had with the game, was the lack of a working map system outside the PDA. Come on guys, do I really have to keep checking back on the PDA, checking where I am, closing and then rechecking? Not even a small HUD screen of my surroundings or the option to hold the PDA in one hand, a pistol in another and to run around watching my surroundings? No option to put on a custom marker? This kills the flow.
A third problem is the inventory. Now, as you'll quickly find if you like to have an assault rifle (ranged and main), a shotgun (for close range) and a pistol (back-up) collection is the limited amount of weight you're given. You're given 50KG until you walk slowly and 60KG until you can't move and you're given only one upgrade option to make it bigger by 10KG. You may be thinking ?Riobux! But it's limiting what you carry so you don't just hoard everything together and make the game too easy?. You are right, to a degree. You are right that no limit on the amount of slots or even ?here's a bag, it's got so much slots? is unrealistic since how much we can carry is often based on weight. However, this is where realism can sometimes infringe on the fun. You'll be walking along to do a mission. You'll pick up a canister of evil toxic gas the evil government were transporting to do evil things (so a British or American secret agent can save the day and kiss the girl) and there goes 10KG. You'll be carrying so much medical supplies and ammo that you'll be unable to move until you use the supplies, dump the ammo or dump one of your guns (which, when you're done upgrading, you'll be saying god no every time). While I appreciate the realism, it cuts in my fun as I'm left with ?item management!? in what is sometimes a dangerous zone (e.g. helicopter in a gravitation anomaly) just because I just didn't check to see if I had a spare 10KG.
One thing that will also annoy you to a degree is being unable to sell most guns. Weapon deterioration happens, like Marmite you either love it, hate it or don't care either way. However, it's gotten to a point where you'll be hoarding about five guns on you, you'll drag it to the nearest shops only to find out that the dealer doesn't want to deal with goods that are only slightly damaged and worn. While it serves a good purpose (don't hoard weapons in hopes of selling), you can't help but think you should be able to sell weapons but at a significantly reduced rate (e.g. sell a gun at only 100 currency, instead of 1,000).
So, in conclusion, it's by no means a bad game. It's not something to rush to the shops (or onto Steam) to get, but it's enjoyable. As Yahtzee once said ?there are two reasons why you'll stop playing a game, one is if you become bored of it and another is when you realised you should have had your meal hours ago?, and I ended up missing a Dawn Of War 2 Q&A session event so I could eat and unable to ring Sony to fix the Heavy Rain soundtrack problem because I had been on the game for a very lengthy time with no concept of how much time had passed.
Recommendation: Buy it for no more than £15 if you even remotely enjoyed the first two S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Games (which you get that chance on Steam). You could give it a bash also if you liked Fallout 3's apocalypse feel but don't expect to get addicted to it. You could buy it for £15 if you are new to the series since it's the best one in the series and you don't need to know the previous story, just expect spoilers of the previous story.
