Call of Chernobyl is a free-play sandbox mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. : Call of Pripyat created by TeamEPIC. It features 32 explorable maps, reworked level design and level fixes, new original level, Trucks Cemetery, Full AI and A-Life overhaul, engine and script enhancements, Repeatable task system which bases itself on A-Life events, Customizable weather environments for every map as well as surges and psi-storms from AF3, Character creation which includes name, portrait and faction selection; Several optional modes such as Ironman mode, story mode and zombie survival mode, New achievements, rankings and reputation system, PDA leaderboard and enhanced PDA statistics, Companion system with keyboard issued commands, many optional side-features and community-made addons . Call of Chernobyl was player's choice Mod of the Year 9th place in 2015 and 1st place in 2016!
10/10 - Agree (1) Disagree (1)
STALKER – CALL OF CHERNOBYL REVIEW
- Introduction
First of all, thank you so much for creating this amazing (standalone) mod!. A part of my biggest dream came true. (and for those who are going to read this review, sorry for my bad english!)
- Installation
The installer sadly didnt detect my legit copy of Call of Pripyat (cd), so I used the inno GUI application from the forum to unpack and install the mod. Its not the easiest way to install a mod, but I’ve seen much worse installers than this one.
- Startup and main menu
When I launched the mod, I was worried about the fact that it might woudnt start (because the installer didnt detect my copy of cop). However, this mod appears to be a standalone (which is really awesome!). The main menu is designed well. The faction selection is very straight-forward.
- Beginning of the game
I started 5 new game’s total to check each difficulty setting and the famous monolith faction. My first game’s fction was the monolith (on highest difficulty), the others where all with the loner (all difficulties).
Oh, I really love that psuedogiant at the start of the game when you select monolith. To make it even better, a bunch of bloodsuckers surround the area and a controller joined the battle, too :D. You might want to change the monolith’s start weapon with a more advanced one (a rifle for example?).
- AI
After getting killed by a bloodsucker who killed me in one blow, I tried the loner faction on rookie difficulty. I can understand why some people think that the AI is braindead. On higher difficulties, the game is great in every aspect. But when the difficulty is stalker or lower, the AI is easy to kill (you can just walk to the person and knife him while getting shot the whole time) and the weapons arent strong enough to actually do some serius damage to the player (the SVD from the millitary coudnt even kill me from an distance while hitting me twice!). I was suprised to find a lot NPC’s from the original games (ShoC & CS) in this mod, but a lot from COP werent included (snag for example).
- Environment
Holy S***, the mod looks AWESOME! (and even better with absolute nature & structures). It really felt like if I was playing the old STALKER games on a much better engine. However, some structures (in Pripyat, Jupiter) didn’t look like those from the origional game (call of pripyat). Also, the areas from the COP games felt really… lonely. I haven’t found one single soul exploring the surroundings in zaton and Jupiter. The stashes of the original games arent included in this mod.
- Missions (Quests)
It is awesome that the game is really dynamic, and especially this part. The random quest system really made me feel if I am the main character of my own storyline. But, I really miss those pre-scripted missions, like where you have to get that stash container for snag for example, or that you could do a raid with skull.
- Economy
The weapons and armory are really exspensive, which made me feel if the mod was not well balanced. I really liked the prices from the vanilla COP. And since money is hard to earn, it will take a really long time before you can afford a slightly better gun.
- Conclusion
I think that this mod is an really awesome mod (you can make your own story), but there is some stuff to be done before its alive (in my opinion).
There is no better mod resource than this one for modders, but it isnt as polished as call of pripyat (but its really impressive how polished it is for a mod).
If the mod would contain the original stashes, more human NPC spawnpoints and pre-scripted missions from the original games, then the mod is perfect n.n
Once again EpicTeam, thank you for creating this mod.