first played this game when i was like 7 or 8, everytime i got attacked by a bloodsucker i would pause the game and leave it out of fear, now 7/6 years later i take them down with barely any problem lol. 10/10

In my opinion, this is the best Stalker game out of the trilogy. All of the good parts from the previous 2 games are there and the bad ones have been polished. The side quests feel very meaningful and a lot of them will translate into Stalker 2. The game map might feel small but it is very much packed with content. I highly recommend playing it, especially the people who want to jump into Stalker 2 without playing the trilogy.

At last ploughed through the third game in the series. Let me tell you, this was quite a ride and not always a good one. However, this time they got it right... ish.


You're a USS officer going into the zone to investigate the cause of a handful of helicopters crashing. It will not make a huge difference to you, as you will still play as you would have in previous STALKER games. Heck, you can side with the factions through choices in your missions, just not quite as in depth as in Clear Sky. It's a shame they removed the whole affinity and ongoing war mechanics, but I guess they deemed removing it was easier fixing that mess; just keep it simple to avoid f*cking it up. And good for them, because the result is a game that can actually be played without constantly calling the devs names. There were no crazy, quest-breaking bugs this time; you know the kind, "you can't finish the game because you picked up a chicken sandwich before talking to Steve and after obtaining the dragon blade; now you have to start over". And for the record, I completed pretty much all of the side quests and played it without mods.

It's not functionality alone that CoP stands above its predecessors for; there are some really nice additions to the core STALKER experience. For instance, I love the new anomaly landmarks. In previous games you could only find tiny anomalies here and there by exploring the map. In CoP we have landmarks on the PDA, which are big, permanent anomalies. I think this makes a lot of thematic sense; why just have tiny anomalies and not larger areas? It made so much sense when I saw this; brilliant. Something they've introduced - and would like to see grow in future/present games - is anomalies that have an effect on reality, such as the maze leading to The Oasis. In addition, the despicable price variation is gone and the loathsome bullet roulette has been smoothed out; very pleased with these adjustments.

The map is new, which is refreshing. It's divided in 3 sections and Pripyat is the only common area that was present in SoC & CS. Immersive and well-designed as with previous entries, it will not disappoint. One thing I found annoying is that you need a guide to move between sectors - and you have to pay for it. Story-wise, once more, we have a rather simple plot with a bit of an underwhelming ending; not that the endings were ever mind-blowing... SoC still remains the strongest of the first 3 games in this aspect, although the journey is most certainly the critical part of the STALKER series. In any case, I'd love these games to present the player with stronger characters and storylines in STALKER2 and other future content.


Weak story aside, I thought the radiation was almost irrelevant in CoP. It will be an issue during the first few incursions into the wild, but nowhere near the levels of the first 2 games. While I found it annoying whilst playing the older games, it was good annoying; made the game more challenging and thematically it just has to be there. Maybe this is one of the reasons I found CoP to be far too easy on veteran difficulty. Combat was tuned down too; no massive firefights that stood out for me. And of course, there's still no bloody tutorial. It's probably unlikely that anyone would start with this entry in the series, but is it that bloody hard to create a tutorial to run through the basics? I didn't give a sh*t. As soon as I started I knew I had to rebind a few keys, prioritise armour & weapon upgrades, get rid of the worthless detector and get a Veles ASAP, and start hunting artifacts like there's no tomorrow. That's me though. A new player won't even know they can equip an artifact or how important upgrading stuff is. I wish I could have played SoC knowing what I know now. Do you know what would have been even better though? If SoC had had a frigging tutorial explaining the basics so that I didn't have to wish for anything now.


All in all, I managed to enjoy this game far more than the first 2. General polish, good new features, interesting areas to explore, and strong theme. The perfect STALKER game would have had; SoC's story, atmosphere, and action; CS's faction wars and mechanics, armour & weapon upgrades, and artifact searching; and CoP's graphics, level of polish, lack of bugs, and anomaly landmarks and effects on reality. I'm hoping all of these things are a long-winded way of saying "STALKER2", but I suspect it is not the case.

1. Don't start with this entry, play SoC first
2. Mod the ♥♥♥♥ out of SoC
3. Search for a proper beginner's tutorial online
4. Skip Clear Sky; it's utter rubbish
5. Play this one