14 DAY TRIAL // GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat may have been launched in the CIS back in October 2, 2009, but the game finally got its English localization just ten days ago. The title does the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series honor, and it's a good gaming experience, but there's something missing. Just like with the previous games in the series, while outstanding titles, there was always something about them that didn't make them rise beyond excellent B titles. Call of Pripyat is the same, and while there are a lot of great things about it, with enough changes intertwined with familiar things to keep fans interested, overall, the game falls a bit short.
The story in Pripyat takes place soon after the Brain Scorcher has been handled, and an entirely new part of the Zone becomes available for exploration. Second only to the Stalkers, the military was quick to rush to the new patch of land in an attempt to seize control, but the recon mission failed for unknown reasons.
You, a special agent working for the government, are sent into the Zone, with the mission to discover what has happened to the helicopter teams sent to reach the center of the zone. While you may be from the military, you won't get any help, as you are going in undercover, acting as a regular Stalker. Sent in with basic equipment and minimum rations, you have to make do in order to complete your mission.
The first two helicopters are a pretty easy assignment, a walk in the park if you will, and you can do it without any kind of combat at all. Of course, the park itself is in the Zone, so it's radioactive and filled with anomalies and dangerous mutants, but it doesn't take anything special to get the job done, just a clear head and some Zone basic know-how.
So, honestly, the game only begins when you try to reach the plateau crash site, which, to your surprise, is inaccessible, because humans can't possibly climb a 15-feet hill. Yes, the area is inaccessible, at a frag-grenade's-throw distance away, but you can't get to it because it's up a slippery slope. If anything, they could have made the hill a little bit higher, for the sake of realism and less player frustration.
The only hint you're given is that you'll need to talk to Stalkers in the area in order to find a way to reach the plateau, and things really pick up from here. From here on out, the game really becomes a S.T.A.L.K.E.R., as the quests, NPC interaction and scavenging really begin. Sure, you could have just found a rope, or a tall box to help you get over the dirt mound and to the helicopter, but it's a lot more fun to do it the way GSC wants you to.