S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat takes PC gamers once again into the vicinity of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor that exploded in 1986. This so-called "Zone" is a highly contaminated area cordoned off by the military and now is combed through by the so-called s.t.a.l.k.e.r.s, modern fortune hunters, in search of unique artefacts. In the role of Agent Alexander Degtyarev, who is dressed up as s.t.a.l.k.e.r., the player has to investigate the mysterious disappearance of five military helicopters and thereby stand one's ground against the various s.t.a.l.k.e.r. groups.

X-ray has come a long way. We've seen it evolve for three iterations in the Stalker franchise. It was a buggy birth to say the least when we saw Shadows of Chernobyl don it. Already steep requirements for the time were compounded into some atrocious optimization and crashing. However it provided a bleak and unforgiving look at the world of the Zone, introducing an addictingly macabre and gloomy visual pallet that would stick to the roof of your mind for every second you played. The atmosphere X-ray provided was untouched, buggy or not. Clear Sky came along years later and put on as many new coats of paint as it could, deluding the simplicity in a wall of new technical features. Distortion, depth of field, god rays, "ultra" texture, DX 10.1 sampling and more were thrown at us like a rich kid showing off his new toys. An already unoptimized engine got a face-lift no one saw coming and to this day not many computers can run Clear Sky well enough at all, not to mention the fact it annihilated the charm and simplicity of Chernobyl's atmosphere.
Lets take a look at the latest incarnation of this bleak, hopeless graphics engine--Call of Pripyat. One could say Shadows of Chernobyl wasn't a technically remarkable engine, but it was artistically outstanding. Clear Sky, whether intending or not, reversed this by filling the empty void full of bloom and neat effects. Call of Pripyat found a balance between the two, providing some eye-catching visuals with some of the bleakest and most torturing visual landscapes to grace any gaming platform. The world created runs smoothly--arguably the smoothest X-ray ever has--without sacrificing on the eye-candy from Clear Sky or the sheer terror of Shadows of Chernobyl. Its ridiculously complicated to describe such an artistic direction on text while portraying my point across at the same time, but I'll give it my best shot as a reviewer and die hard Stalker fan.
Many of us were disappointed Clear Sky was too clear. It was bright, upbeat, almost juvenile in its attempts to portray doom and gloom. Keeping this in mind I launched Call of Pripyat and played for a good six hours nonstop to assess my opinion on the advances (or declines) it made over Clear Sky's failures. I walked through a lake which was a beautiful sight. The god-rays poured through the tall marsh grass surrounding the lush blue pearl in the middle of green and brown underbrush. As I was wading in knee-high water I couldn't believe how astonishing the engine looked and, remarkably, at how stable it was off the bat. Now, a part of me was still semi disappointed you see. Why? It was quite clear at the time. But as I ventured through the massive new map called "Zaton" my thoughts reversed. It was bleak, even wrenching at times, in its direction and design. There is nothing as miserable as slowly walking through low-lying marshlands dotted with gigantic rusted ice breakers in a fog storm, or falling pitifully to your inevitable fate into a deep underground chasm.