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

There is a reason so many people are heralding S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as one of the best open-world FPS series ever created, and it’s a pretty solid one. The three games released under the franchise provide the players with unparalleled freedom, an RPG-like experience, as well as a captivating world populated by mutants, lonely artifact hunters and unruly bandits.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Chernobyl is far from a simple mod, because it brings together too much content to be on par with most other mods of this kind. There is no actual storyline involved, but a variety of levels and maps have been combined from every one of the three games. Not only that, but the graphics have been heavily improved as well, together with an intense weather system to make your experience in the Zone even more dramatic.

As we all know, the series has always had problems in the bugs department, because GSC had to release plenty of patches to fix their mistakes. The mod at hand comes with optimizations in this regard as well, in case you were worried about incompatibilities and errors. Not only that, but you can also select your faction at the beginning of the game, and there are more than enough options to choose from.

Since there is no story to follow, it’s all about exploration and survival. To keep you from getting bored, there are almost three dozen levels included in this mod, such as Red Forest, Dark Valley, Yantar, Zanton, or Jupiter Underground. These levels are populated by hundreds of mutants and stalkers, each one of which is programmed to go about their business and create their own paths through the Zone.

As mentioned earlier, the graphics have been improved too. Besides new textures and a lot of added post-processing effects, the game comes with a tool called AtmosFear, which allows you to customize things like the weather, events, and various other options that affect the gameplay. You might stumble into a couple of glitches along the way, but everything runs pretty smooth overall.

In the end, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Chernobyl may not be the perfect choice for newcomers to the series, mainly because it lacks a story, and the difficulty level can be a bit daunting. However, if you are familiar with the games and you want something more, this is definitely the way to go.

Note: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat has to be installed on your computer for the mod to function.