CoP boasts impresssive visuals, a surreal atmosphere & polish, however the game stumbles in terms of plot and locale
Graphics - 9.5/10
Wow Wow Wow. DX11 capabilities are fantastic. Guns are detailed, most character models are good, and interiors of bunkers and buildings look fantastic. The lighting effects are absolutely amazing. To see the game's full beauty play it at night. Lightning storms illuminate the surroundings and the flash of lightning shows just how fantastic this game is from a technical standpoint. The game is also far more stable than Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky. Call of Pripyat never crashed once on me in game or when I would minimize it. However when I was benchmarking to see what my computer could handle setting the GPU settings too high did cause my game to lag out on the loading screen, which was kinda odd, but I guess implied my computer couldn't handle it.
Environment - 8/10
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has by far, the most surreal and fantastic atmosphere of any game. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the Forest, all of the Faction bases, the bandit camps, the mutant lairs, are just so awesome and so well put together.
However the three locales aren't as interesting as the two previous games. There are no where near as many anomalies, although to its credit, some anomalies are by far more trippy and interesting than other games such as recurring areas/loops, anomalies that float around across tree branches or weird lumps that rise and defy gravity in lakes...just to name a few. But the areas you explore just aren't that interesting. The swamp level has nothing marshes etc. with 1 or two buildings but other than that theres nothing else really looking into. Same idea with the other two areas. However with the lighting effects and lightning storms at night, the games environment is taken to a whole new level of creepy. The weather effects take the already bandit, warring factions, and mutant infested world and make it even more surreal and bone chilling.
Plot - 7/10
Not very interesting. Starts out really slow, and never really picks up much until the end.
The voice acting is so mediocre. The voice acting is rare though. However thats not a good thing. Most missions and plot advancements come from you reading through pre-written dialogue. Which is very odd for modern games since most have pre-recorded dialogue you listen to.
Some quests can be broken if you accidentally kill a NPC vital to that quest.
This entry of the series does take a step at making its presentation much better. The game starts and ends with a summation of plot and characters entries. Some quests in the game do go to an in game cut scene of short mediocre dialogue.
Gameplay - 9/10
The lack of anamolies, as well as the interest lacking environments and the lack of firefights going on between bandits and factions and mutants cause a deduction to the gameplay. Also the only means of traveling in between areas are through guides. However...
The game received much polish in the gameplay department. Finding and taking on quests are so much easier. The PDA has been revamped andis much more streamlined.
Weapon and Armor upgrades have been brought over from Clear Sky. Ballistics have been significantly improved. Poor deprecated and non-upgraded weapons function crappy like they should, and good condition upgraded weapons will help turn the tide of battle and be far more accurate and deadly than non upgraded weapons. Also the inventory system has been revamped and is much more streamlined.
Free roam has finally been offered with a chance of continuing after the single player experience.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Stalker Call of Pripyat is by far the best looking, most stable, and most polished of the series. However the game lacks in terms of areas to explore, anomalies to behold, and is terrible in the dialogue department. As always I feel these games want to be amazing, and have the tools to be amazing, however they just seem to fall flat in certain categories, and those short falls hold the game back. Nonetheless a fantastic game with some annoyances that can be overlooked.
8.5/10