Its an actual living world that exists besides you. Animals and mutants roam the land and can attack you, can attack npc's.
4 - When prompted, download the collection of standard effects.
NPC's have relations with one another and can fight independent of you. 1 - Download Reshade from ( 2 - Install Reshade, click on 'select game to install or uninstall from', and when prompted select your xrEngine.exe file (Inside the bin folder of your STALKER installation) 3 - Select Direct3D 10+ on the Reshade window. You have factions that can be your enemies or your allies. The area itself is dangerous, you have anomalies that hurt you. Every location has something to offer and doesnt exist just to pad the game. Every piece of land is unique and hand made. Its the benchmark open world games should adhere to. The map in Call of Pripyat is the best usage of open space in any game. The combat scenarios, everything is so different than anything else i can see how some people would be shocked at the first exposure and not proceed further. The weapons have so many characteristics, the ballistics are amazing. The combat is the best combat you will encounter in a shooter so far. It can be "janky" at times, it's not some perfect game, but it does some things that make it stand out and be such a cult game, such as the excellent horror atmosphere (even though it is not specifically a "scare you" horror game). I followed SoC in particular so long before they released it, the game was always so ambitious and they never delivered on all the promises, but we still got a great game. It's the most atmospheric game I have ever played. That and the fact that NPCs detect you a bit too well in the dark. Fortunately this is simple to do, only takes a few seconds. The only issue with it I've always had is sometimes you need to adjust difficulty, at certain points of the game (it'll be subjective) because some balancing can be off with enemy hitpoints. Shadow of Chernobyl is an excellent game, cult franchise, in my top 5.
On subsequent playthroughs you can use overhaul mods like the excellent Autumn Aurora. Ībsolute Nature & Absolute Structures (texture mods, just higher res, not different) ĭo not install Complete for a first playthrough (or ever IMO), changes gameplay for the worst, makes dumb AI changes, etc. There are some optional gameplay changes like adding a sleeping bag, but nothing significant, you don't need to select them to install). ZRP (Zone Reclamation Project, they are bug fixes. The game really is capable of so much more that the modding community did a pretty good job building upon.The only mods you need for a vanilla SoC playthrough are:
The Atmosfear mod was one of the best of the weather mods, perhaps that was it? I know AO3 includes it and gives a couple option during install to adjust the weather behavior. That mod (or pack, again, I don't recall) really turned an alright game into an amazing game. I recall some really cool times fighting various mutants in thunderstorms in the middle of the night.
Basically, it brought it closer to the original hype that preceded the original's release - better AI, enhanced weather effects, graphical bumps, more weapons, etc. I don't recall what mods I ran offhand, but whatever I used on the original turned it into a whole new game. They don't add a ton of new weapons like Arsenal Overhaul does, but they polish the games a bunch. They are an excellent compilation of improved graphics, animations, textures, sounds, and most importantly, bugfixes. I can also recommend the Stalker "Complete" mod for each game. I think my gaming laptop is currently CoP + Arsenal Overhaul 3 since it's just simple fun and I found Call of Pripyat's gameplay to be pretty well-balanced and not in need of a ton of tweaks like SoC needs. Lots of guns." You can layer it with other mods if you know what you're doing, but if you don't you'll just crash the game. It's all about guns, like that scene in the original Matrix movie: "Guns. I played a lot with the Arsenal Overhaul 3 mod and can recommend it. Or I got better playing it over the years. Call of Pripyat was pretty much great out of the box. Clear Sky is definitely more polished and playable but shorter and the world feels smaller.
It isn't Call of Duty where you're killing bad guys with pistol headshots. Everything kills you immediately, your beginning weapons suck, etc. The first game, Shadow of Chernobyl, is unforgiving in it's vanilla version.