Although they are not to everyone’s taste, achievements have always been one of my favourite additions to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe. The reasons for this are twofold; the first being the fact that, unlike the XBOX or Steam achievements, they actually provide the player with new penalties and perks to deal with. And the second being that it somehow helps make even a five-year-old game feel contemporised. That being said, they still felt somewhat gimmicky due to their impact on your game being negligible. This is something that the Special Edition rectifies in spades. Not only have the achievements been reworked to provide you with bonuses and penalties that have a more meaningful impact on your game, but there are also brand new achievements to earn (and hopefully more to come.). The following provides information on some of the more significant changes and additions that have been made.
Please note, even though not all the perks and penalties are listed here, that they do still contain a lot of spoilers. So if this is going to be your first ever playthrough of Call of Pripyat or you simply don't want to know about the new Special Edition content beforehand, I would advise you to stop reading.
Some of the improvements I'm most pleased with in the Special Edition are to the rewards system. Almost all stash locations, cash amounts and even some items are now randomly chosen, meaning you'll receive different rewards on each play-through. You may even receive an item as a reward for a certain task in one play-through, then receive a cash amount or stash location for the same task in another. This should increase replayability greatly. To compliment this, there is now a "Luck of a Saint" achievement. It is unlocked by gaining several 'best' outcomes from random rewards. This in turn will earn you some larger than normal rewards. For example, Sokolov will also give you some money along with the medkit if you hand in his note. Some storyline NPC may also feel generous towards you during the remaining course of your playthrough. You may even earn yourself unique loot. The fact that earning it is based on random factors means the exact time you earn it is also a random occurrence. Luck may be on your side and you may unlock it very early on in your playthrough, or you may unlock it once in Pripyat or freeplay. If you are truly unlucky, you may not even unlock it at all.
One of the biggest disappointments of the third STALKER game was the loss of hostile factions. The first game had hostile bandits and mercenaries, the second game had the renegades, but the third game makes you wait until the final part of your playthrough before introducing hostile mercenaries and the monolith, and even then, they are limited to that one single map. The Special Edition brings back hostile bandits, and the requirement of having to side with the stalkers over Sultan and his men in order to initiate these hostilities, ensures that it does not break any quests. Once you gain the One of Us achievement, key storyline NPCs will even notice when you are wearing a bandit-related outfit and will comment on it.
Bandits have always been my favourite faction, but in Call of Pripyat they are the least developed of the major four. This is evident in the fact that they lacked any "Friend of... " achievement. This has been corrected by replacing the "Boss" achievement with the new "Friend of Bandits" achievement. Like the other "Friend of... " achievements, "if you find yourself in a pickle," nearby bandits will now come to your aid. Gaining this achievement also unlocks the new "Boss" trenchcoat in Owl's and Dwarf's (the new bandit trader's) inventories, and even unlocks unique bandit-style dialogue choices that you can use to further your game. Like the One of Us achievement, once you gain the Friend of Bandits achievement, key storyline NPCs will notice when you are wearing a stalker-related outfit and will comment on it and more.
The "Wealthy Client" achievement was originally gained once you amassed 100,000 rubles. Whilst this may sound like a large sum of money, anyone who has played Call of Pripyat will know that this amount is very easy to earn. This is why it has now been replaced with the new "Millionaire" achievement. This new achievement also comes with new penalties and perks, and provides the player with two things: a valid reason to keep playing in freeplay mode, and another way to spend their earnings. As a penalty, most traders will increase their prices, but as a perk, you are offered the chance to purchase the "Millionaire's package" which includes three unique items: the Hydraulic exoskeleton, the PKM-LW and the Synthetic Pulse artifact. These are obtained through a failable mini-quest. The perks you originally gained from the "Wealthy Client" achievement are still there, but they are now automatically unlocked once you enter Pripyat for the first time.
As I noted earlier, I love the bandit faction. So one of my goals were to flesh out the faction and help the player feel as if they're walking in one of their shoes, if they so choose. To achieve this, I've made a lot of changes. Most are subtle, like Beard referring to you as a bandit or bandits not requiring you to holster your weapon when you're in their base, others are not so subtle. For example, working for Shishak, threatening the scientists to give you missions, or lying to a drunkard to steal his money. Naturally, if the player chooses to embrace these additions, then it needed to be acknowledged somehow. That is where the Lowlife achievement comes in. This can be earned by the player choosing to do the nastier missions and options, and makes use of the added missions and dialogue choices in the Special Edition. To gain this achievement, you would need to have already earned the Friend of Bandits achievement. This means Duty's leader already refuses to do business with you. Gaining this new achievement additionally means that even Freedom's leader will be embarrassed by any association with someone like you.
Awesome, yeah, Bandits weren't fully developed before so I like how you are going to make some new content for them. This is cool to see someone making new achievments, most mods do not do this.
Thanks! Yeah, I'm trying to add or refine content concerning as many aspects as I can. Some of the weaker areas of the vanilla game have been added more to than others which may have only needed a little tweaking. But I think in the grander scale of things it all adds up nicely.