The Zone is an impossibly brutal place, and at its core, “Call of Pripyat” is about raw survival. Sprinting toward an abandoned elementary school verisimilitude in Pripyat while a thunderstorm rages overhead is an experience that only “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” can deliver. Adding to the atmosphere is the series’ unmatched dynamic weather system. The resemblance is uncanny, and it stands out as one of my favorite areas in any game. But by far the most memorable location is the fully explorable city of Pripyat that the developers modeled on photographs of the deserted city. Some landmarks are strikingly believable, such as the ship Skadovsk, half of which was destroyed by some unknown force, with the remaining half serving as a makeshift stalker camp. Despite running on the ancient vodka-fueled steamboat that is the X-Ray Engine, “Call of Pripyat” still manages to convey an impressive sense of verisimilitude.

When you play a “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” game, you play for the atmosphere.

The crash sites are strewn across three vast areas: the marshes of Zaton, the warehouses of Yanov and the desolate city of Pripyat itself. Set directly after the first game, “Shadow of Chernobyl,” the newest game puts the player in the military boots of one Major Degtyarev, who is sent to the Zone to examine the wreckages of five military helicopters and track down the cause of the crashes. All three are set in a fictionalized version of the real-life Exclusion Zone surrounding the city of Chernobyl, infamous for the disastrous nuclear reactor meltdown that took place in 1986. It’s the third game in the bleak, buggy, yet somehow sublime “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” series. “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat” is an open-world, first-person shooter with heavy RPG elements. For sanity’s sake, let’s get the hyphens and acronyms out of the way first.

Call of pripyat third person