S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
Well hello, stalker. Sit down, sit down, don't be shy. Tired, I suppose, wandering around the Zone? Whose will you be? Oh, it doesn't matter ... Do you know the jokes? Not the one about the tree on the hill. I've already listened to it fifteen times today. Do you know any others? Oh, the young people have gone today, just throw nuts and you can, you don't know anything about the Zone. Sit down and listen, I'll tell you now.
Welcome aboard our swamp icebreaker!
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat ("S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat") is the third game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, which, in fact, is more of a plot addition to the second and continues the events described in it.
In Shadows of Chernobyl, the story revolved around the stalker Strelka. He got to the very center of the Zone, turned off the Brain Burner, and since then the area around Chernobyl has become a little more populated. Researchers made their way to the center, and the fields and forests near Pripyat were occupied by the military. They have become a rather dangerous and powerful force, which will now actively interfere with local stalkers and bandits.
The main character of Call of Pripyat is also a military man. Major of the SBU Degtyarev, a former stalker, was sent to the Zone by the command to find out the cause of the mysterious crash of five combat helicopters at once. Apparently, the arsenal of the armed forces is somewhat exhausted. Degtyarev is thrown almost into the center of the Zone with one feeble automatic machine, a can of canned food and a pocket computer.
With all this good Degtyarev goes to the old dry cargo ship "Skadovsk", which has run aground in the Chernobyl swamps. Now there is a base of stalkers. From this begins Degtyarev's journey through the Zone, which almost half of the time consists of walks through forests, swamps, fields and other attractions of the post-apocalyptic Pripyat.
And there are plenty of sights in Pripyat. Here is the gloomy backwater - a swamp from which the skeletons of a rusted ship stick out; and the creepy "Yanov" - a railway station, next to which there is a zombie village; and many life-threatening archianomalies. In general, there is where to wander.
Pripyat itself evokes a very strange feeling. On the one hand, this is a typical Soviet city - here are panel high-rise buildings, here are sports grounds, here are bus stops, somewhere in the center there should also be a department store. Any provincial settlement of the post-Soviet space can be recognized in it. On the other hand, it is all abandoned, extinct. This only intensifies the dark feel of the game.
Walks in the Exclusion Zone in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat
The Call of Pripyat leaves a very dark and depressing feeling. It seems to fill with hopelessness. As it turned out, there is nothing good in the center of the Exclusion Zone - there are very few artifacts, each of them is surrounded by dangerous anomalies, all around are enemies.
The atmosphere of "Call of Pripyat" is very vividly conveyed by a single episode at the Yanov railway station. The player there is surprised to find representatives of "Duty" and "Freedom", who throughout the rest of the Zone are constantly at war with each other, and here they just sit under one roof, talk and dream about simple human joys: delicious food, a cozy home and everything this despair ended as soon as possible. And simply "Yanov" is a station on the outskirts of the village of Kopachi, which is teeming with zombie stalkers.
And even the zombie stalkers themselves also dream of a home! They mutter under their breath something like “Daughter, daughter, dad will be back soon”, “A little more - and I'll go home, just to find my way,” “Oh, how it hurts, mom, save me” and the like. It quickly destroys all the romance of the Exclusion Zone, reminding that this is a merciless place that grinds people into meat.
Monsters S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat
"Call of Pripyat" expands the universe of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. not only new locations and storylines. He brings a couple more new monsters. And they, as the inhabitants of the center of the Zone, are extremely dangerous.
Chimera is a two-headed creature that is almost silent, moves with huge leaps and easily survives wounds, blows and injuries. It is nocturnal, so it does not pose a danger during daylight hours. Found almost throughout the entire territory of the game.
Burer can control gravity - first he will snatch the weapon from the hands of the stalker, and then he will let him into fragments. It also knows how to defend itself against bullets. Requires special tactics, including the use of a knife and skills in using cover. Similarly, it is very common, but at least not numerous - only in the laboratory X8 is found in several copies at the same time.
