This is a really amazing game

[Unseen]

I like this one even more than chernobyl, hell I like this game more than a lot of open ended first person games I've played. While fallout3/nv are great games, I just feel like this feels more realistic, structured, real time, and less spammy than the fallout games are. By spammy I mean like carrying 400 useless items you don't need and spamming a bunch of them to stay alive. Fallout just feels easy and almost automatic. While this you actually have to try, not just walk to a map location or instantly target someone, cause the targeting isn't that great in fallout anyway (so you use vats just cause its easier). Not trying to compare this to fallout, love fo3/nv and I got more time in them than prip. But I'm really just looking for a game to compare this to. There's other open world inventory games, like darkwood, or... Deus ex maybe? But this still feels like you got more freedom.

Hunting relics is a lot of fun, repairing and upgrading weapons is a lot of fun, stockpiling is a lot of fun. Quests and missions are fun and don't fail on you just cause you didn't run and go do it immediately. The characters are cool and imo got a lot more personality and don't seem to come off as huge jerks like in most open ended games. Other than bandits lot of the guys in pripyat on all sides generally seem helpful. There's just a lot going for this game that's fun to play, and not in a frustrating way, but not in an easy way either. One example is when I went through to pripyat with my chosen squad. It was rough at first and people were dying, then I decided to play more strategically saving after every big attack, and I made it out with everyone alive. Now back in the previous areas building up for pripyat and making money off relic hunting which is a lot of fun and gives you a reason to explore.

And with the amount of weapon upgrades it seems like this game could have a ton of replay. I liked soc too, but I dunno this one just feels more like a fun game, while soc was more of a narration about some bad stuff that was gonna go down and had a great ending... This game, I don't even care how the ending is because the progression and actually going to work in this world is more fun than I imagined it would be.

I've seen some criticisms on this game, people saying its just a sandbox where you go investigate helicopters. But the story and the events are not what make this game so fun. To me its fun because of the reasons these people bash it for, because it is a fun sandbox with a lot to acquire without making it saturated with junk like uh, fallout. Not criticizing fallout though this game reminds me of how much I got into fallout NV for the same reasons. Because its a super open ended sandbox. Pripyat just feels a bit smaller, and simpler, but that actually isn't a problem because it makes it more fun to explore. NV was cool but a lot of it was open land with a lot of the same enemies and items. This game, it just feels like the items are more useful.

I'm also not in a hurry to finish it, like I got with soc. Just cause in soc I really wanted to see the reactor, and cause it was admittedly getting a little on my nerves with the cheapness. Soc is an unfair game at times, with glitches and random npc trouble that really does turn the game into a getter done, least for me. This doesn't suffer those problems at all, everything you do feels like it builds to a better stalker and not just glitches and roadblocks. Its a hell of a lot of fun to play, and I find myself getting more and more into it. I could see myself playing this stalker off and on for years. That's how good this one is, will try out clear sky more once I beat this, but its kinda just sitting there cause I'm in no hurry to beat this game. Its that good.

Anyway just felt like ranting about this game a little, cause lately when I try and play other games I just seem to get bored of them and wanting to come back to this game. Which is another reason I find this game so great.

I will definetly be writing a positive review for this sometime, this is easily my fav stalker and possible my fav game of this type. When I got the stalker pack it was more of an interest spurred on by stalker 2, and what the original was like. After beating the original, gotta say wasn't expecting this one to be my fav one. But there's just so much about this game that's just a lot of fun and improves a lot on this series, hell improves a lot on most open ended games.

[Cujo]

Glad you liked it! It was always my favorite of the three too, since it's the one I played first and most.

[Cheznik]

I am about to start my first playthrough. Vanilla no mods, I am excited to see what this is about I have always heard great things.

[Unseen]

Just stick with it, the games beginning is a bit slow, but once you get to the 2nd map it really starts to open up and get a lot more fun. The thing I like most about this game is the inventory systems and the merchants. Can do a lot with the stalker system, also playing vanilla. I might try out mods after but not sure where to go with that considering there's so many different mods. I will probably replay this on a harder difficulty.