Many will remember S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl for its gritty and engrossing atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was a bit rough around the edges, and was hampered by a buggy interface and a poorly optimized game engine. The follow up prequel, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky was supposed to fix the issues that plagued the first, but unfortunately only made them worse.
GSC Gameworld has now officially announced that a third edition to the series will be released this year. Like its predecessors, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat will be exclusive to the PC.
While Clear Sky was set before Shadow of Chernobyl, Pripyat will pick up where things left off in the original. As an agent of the Ukrainian Security Service, players will have to venture into the zone in order to collect sensitive information regarding a failed military operation.
GSC Gameworld confirmed a number of new gameplay features that will be added to Pripyat. The game will employ a brand new storyline with new characters, locations and enemies. The side quest system has been expanded upon, and enemy behavior has been tweaked. An interesting new feature will be the ability to sleep, which should give players better control of the 24 hour day/night cycle. Players may even be able to continue playing in a freeplay mode after having completed the main story quest.
The prospect of S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat fills us with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. On one hand, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, despite its flaws, has maintained a unique and gripping atmosphere, unique and engrossing locations, and some thoroughly terrifying gameplay. On the other hand, Clear Sky was incredibly buggy, frustratingly difficult and badly optimized. If GSC Gameworld can release a stable game, and do away with the crippling shortcomings of ClearSky, then S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat will be something special.
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