10 Flawed Video Games That Are Actually Masterpieces
2. STALKER: Call Of Pripyat
I don't know if it's something to do with quality of life, the cultural history of the region, or just 'something in the air', but there's something about games coming fromRussia and Ukrainethatmeans they'reexcellent at conveyinga bleak, hard-hitting atmosphere in a way equivalent western games just can't.
Open-world survival shooter STALKER is a case in point - a game that could be called the granddaddy of today's trending shooters like DayZ and Rust. It incorporates RPG elements, with a degree of choice to your actions and plenty of side-quests to complete, though the core gameplay entails sneaking, shooting, and being utterly terrified as you tiptoeamong the ruined factories and ghost towns of an irradiated Pripyat.
Call of Pripyat is the best game in the trilogy overall, with far fewer bugs that plagued its predecessors and a foreboding atmosphere that ranks among the most powerful in video games, butmisses out on true greatness because ofa rickety game engine that was outmoded even when it first came out in 2009.