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

This game is amazing, but there's already a thousand reviews telling you that, so I want to quickly talk about the massive modding scene this game, specifically, has.
If you go to google and search for "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly", you will find a link to a moddb page that has a FREE download for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly mod, which is a mod for this game. Basically, it is a fanmade engine update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that was much needed. It also adds a lot of new things and has a far larger map than any of the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, as it's pretty much all of the maps from the 3 games merged into one, and it works amazingly. It also features a main story that is 3 (+1 bonus) chapters long, and while these questlines won't be winning any awards, they definitely kept me sufficiently interested to keep exploring the zone, and also provide some answers to some questions the original trilogy left, though they're obviously fanmade theories and not actually canon.
I will say though, play the original trilogy first, if only to support the devs. A 4th game should also be releasing later this year, so now is the perfect time to get stuck in.
Now things get interesting, mods on mods on mods.
On ModDB there are a ton of mods that you can install ontop of stalker anomaly, which add new animations, areas, weapons, questlines, etc. Though if manually modding games isn't your thing, there are also lots of modpacks that completely overhaul the game in various ways. The main one I want to gush about for a moment is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. G.A.M.M.A.. This FREE modpack has given me the most entertainment I've had while playing any video game for years. Seriously. No games core gameplay loop has gripped me by the balls like G.A.M.M.A. has. It is, for me, the perfect single player FPS experience, and it is entirely free, though it is like 200gb to install (100gb after installation).
One downside with G.A.M.M.A. however, is that it does not like to run well sometimes, as it is a collection of hundreds of mods. I have an RTX 3060, Ryzen 5 3600 +32gb of RAM, which is by no means any sort of super computer but seems like it should be sufficient, however it will still have times where it struggles running G.A.M.M.A., though these are only ever dips down to 40-50fps for about a minute max, then it usually smoothens out again. A YouTuber named "Cheeki Breeki" has a great video detailing how to squeeze the most fps out of G.A.M.M.A. that you should check out if you're interested in playing the game.
There are also other modpacks available for download, some better than others, but after playing a good chunk of them, I can say that, at least for me, G.A.M.M.A. is the best I've played, though the rest are absolutely still worth a go. G.A.M.M.A. is also massively customisable, with a ton of mods that you can enable/disable inside of MO2 after you have it all downloaded. "Cheeki Breeki" also has a great install guide. *
Anyway, all in all, Grok and the rest of the G.A.M.M.A. team have done great work compiling and creating their modpack, and it offers a beautifully brutal experience like no other game I've played, and I cannot recommend it enough for fans of difficult First Person Shooters.
TLDR: The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy is amazing, but it can be better with mods. Try out S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly and, if you have a decent PC, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. G.A.M.M.A.
*EDIT: The GAMMA Discord now has an official channel for optimising the game, and should help get the game to run on weaker PCs. It has a ton of steps that are very detailed and easy to follow so check that out if you're interested.

It took three games to perfect the best S.T.A.L.K.E.R. experience. The amazing environmental mechanics of Clear Sky combined with Shadow of Chernobyl's atmosphere and mystery surrounding the Zone - all combined with amazing gameplay, exciting missions and immersive player choices in one ultimate Call of Pripyat experience. Challenging, exciting, thrilling and rewarding - that is what the Zone was meant to be!

---{ Graphics }---
☑ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☑ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☐ Teens
☑ Adults
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☑ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☑ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☑ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10
☑ 9000

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat is the Final game in the trilogy and by far the best one. I am new to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., last month played SOC and loved it. the story continues from there. CS is a Pr-equal. I thought SOC couldn't be improved but I was very wrong. The Dev put their souls to create this masterpiece.
The first time I booted the game I Played around 3 hours without realizing I was lost in the world. This game defines what is a True Open world game. Every game tells you what to do but this game lets you do your own thing and the world reacts to it. and I am a gun animation kind of guy, so for guys like me, Mods are Blessings.
Thank You to the modding community! You Guys the greatest!
The best mods I Used - (You have to choose between them, they are not compatible with each other)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Call of Pripyat Gunslinger Mod (Includes new gun animation, Atmosphere, and Character animation)
PRP (Vanilla Game With Fixed Bugs)

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS
---{ Gameplay }---
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't
---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf
---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☐ Grandma
---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☐ Potato
☑ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer
---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☑ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls
---{ Grind }---
☐ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☑ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding
---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☐ Some lore
☐ Average
☑ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life
---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☐ Short
☑ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond
---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money
---{ Bugs }---
☐ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☑ Can get annoying
☐ ARK: Survival Evolved
☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs
---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☑ 8
☐ 9
☐ 10

(Just to be clear, I played Stalker CoP Gunslinger, which vastly changes the gameplay, at least in terms of animations and such, but then again, this is Stalker, the modding community for these games is built different. This said, this isn't a review of Stalker Anomaly or Gamma, I'm gonna need a better PC and storage space to get into all that.)
There are few experiences as immersive, as gritty, as atmospheric as what STALKER can offer. There are few games that offer this level of tension, horror and dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay, where everything is going well one minute, before going to absolute hell in the next. It's almost night and the sun has already set, its last rays peering desperately over the horizon and the ominous silhouettes of radio towers, the sky a deep pulsing red, as if preparing for the blood that is to spill, and the crackle of radiation spells certain death if you don't handle the situation quickly. You hear ravens cawing in the distance, and wind in the trees, and the eerie soundtrack wailing quietly in your ears and the panting of the bloodsucker coming ever closer, its invisible form hunting you through the water, its only sign the ripples it leaves in its wake. There is nowhere to run, so you remove the spent ammo from your shotgun, manually slide in the shells, rack a shell into the chamber with the pump-action, and wait with your back to a tree, aiming down the sights with bated breath.
What happens next is completely in your hands. There is no magical skill, no scripted cutscene, no main character bullsh*t to save you. You are just another stalker clawing for survival in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, and whether you live or die depends solely on your reaction time, on your planning and progress in weaponry and armory, on whether you can keep your cool or not, and this dynamic world and feeling of being just another stalker and not the "main character hero" we are so used to, is what makes these games so beloved so many years later, with such a dedicated cult following.
You are just as mortal as any other being in the zone, and often more so, with many of the horrific mutations able to kill you in a matter of seconds. You will hate me for this, but Stalker is perhaps the Dark Souls of FPS games, as stupid as that sounds, where your mortality is what makes your granular progression feel so satisfying and organic. No level ups, no skill trees, no artificial level gating, this is true survival horror. You never truly get to feel at ease, except for the times when you are huddled around a fire with your fellow stalkers, as one strums up a tune on his guitar, mournful song filling the silence. Once you are done resting, you pick up your gun, check your ammo, and head back out into the darkness, lowering the nightvision over your eyes, the darkness giving way to a world painted in grainy shades of green. Whether you live or die, nothing in the Zone will even notice, and that's the magic of these games. The world lives on its own, with the creatures in it, and it could care less about you. You can observe the wildlife hunting each other through your binoculars, or seeing factions slug it out in a compound, gunfire echoing in the empty sky, as you plan your entry into the fray to take out the survivors and scavenge precious ammo and weaponry.
Yes this review isn't very specific and analytical and so on, but really, that's not why or how you should play these games. What I was trying to convey is what it's like playing it, whether that will be to your liking or not is very much up to you, all I can do is try to illustrate what it feels like. I hope I've even slightly succeeded. Stalker's world and atmosphere and AI and music is truly one of a kind, and the fact that it resonates so strongly with so many people so many years later is a legacy only true artistry can achieve.

Kill Burers
Behead Burers
Roundhouse kick a Burer into the concrete
Slam dunk a Burer baby into the trashcan
Crucify filthy Burers
Defecate in a Burers food
Launch Burers into a Burner anomaly
Stir fry Burers in a wok
Toss Burers into the active Brain scorcher
Urinate into a Burers gas tank
Judo throw Burers into a wood chipper
Twist Burers heads off
Report Burers to the CCCP
Karate chop Burers in half
Curb stomp pregnant Burers
Trap Burers in Vortex anomalies
Crush Burers in the trash compactor
Liquefy Burers in a vat of acid
Eat Burers
Dissect Burers
Exterminate Burers in the gas chamber
Stomp Burer skulls with steel toed boots
Cremate Burers in the oven
Lobotomize Burers
Mandatory abortions for Burers
Grind Burer fetuses in the garbage disposal
Drown old Burers in Fruit Punch
Vaporize Burers with a Gauss Rifle
Kick old Burers down the stairs
Feed Burers to Hamsters
Slice Burers with the fucking knife
if there's burers in STALKER 2 i'll end it all
I HATE BURERS o(>^<*)o
good game 10/10