The Top 5 Best Stalker Call of Pripyat Mods

Stalker: Call of Pripyat

Most first person shooters nowadays feature realistic graphics, addictive gunplay, and psychotic enemies hell bent on destroying the world…or you. Stalker: Call of Pripyat is no exception to these generalizations, but it does add something entirely unique to the current FPS genre; atmosphere. If you are a fan of the first two Stalker games, you owe it to yourself to check out Call of Pripyat.

However, despite Call of Pripyat’s excellent all around pedigree, it still has it’s fair share of problems. Glitchy monster spawns, *interesting* dialogue accents and choices, and sometimes absent artificial “intelligence” are the usual suspects here. Thankfully, the Stalker modding community has saved the day yet again, producing a multitude of impressive Stalker CoP mods in the past year. Unfortunately, there are also quite a few mods not even worth the code they were written from, and it can be difficult to find the proverbial needle in a haystack from large mod databases. That is why the top 5 best Stalker Call of Pripyat mods list exists, to help give you the best Stalker experience possible.

5. AtmosFear

The absolute best thing a survival-horror-radioactive-first-person-shooter like Stalker can have going for it is fantastic atmosphere. Luckily, Call of Pripyat has that in spades, and why let a good thing go to waste?

This is the exact mindset of the team that developed AtmosFear for CoP. This mod changes a great deal of the sounds, sights and scares in Stalker to be even more realistic and beautiful. Primarily focusing on the sky and weather of Call of Pripyat, AtmosFear adds over 90 new high-res sky textures, a dual weather cycle and probably weather patterns for different game areas. Expect Jupiter to be red and sunny, while Pripyat is going to be dark, stormy and very wet. Also retooled is the weather sound system, expecially blowout effects. Expect to hear loud crashes of thunder when lightning gets close, and the screeching and booming of an approaching blowout is even more ominous when paired with increased visual effects such as red flying dust clouds and mini-cyclones.

Aside from stormy, gloomy and basically creepy effects, AtmosFear also improves the field of vision throughout the game. On a clear day in Jupiter you can see all the way across the map, while a fog bank in Pripyat will make it difficult to see much more than your hand in front of your face. All in all, AtmosFear extracts quite a bit of beauty from real world weather patterns and imports it all right into Call of Pripyat. The result makes for a beautiful and intensely satisfying audio and visual experience.

4. More Campfire Music!

A day in the life of a Stalker is not complete until you finish off the last of your vodka and drift to sleep listening to the sweet tunes of Sergei the resident Zone guitar master. One of the better extra touches added to the Stalker series has always been the small pockets of humanity that Stalkers form in the face of the harsh Zone. At each of these outposts it is not uncommon to find a sleeping bag, a fire, some guards and an impromptu blues or bluegrass performance.

But after listening to Sergei play the Russian equivalent of “Dont Stop Believin’” for the thousandth time, a Stalker can go a little stir crazy. Thankfully, a faithful Stalker modder named Domovoi has released his gem of a mod, titled simply “More Campfire Music!” . This fun little mod adds all 11 original guitar and harmonica songs from Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky, as well as over 20 original tracks. All of them sound great, fit the theme of the Zone surprisingly well and are a welcome respite from your frequent forays into the wild. More Campfire Music is a wonderful additional to the Stalker universe, and absolutely one of the best Stalker Call of Pripyat mods out today.

But wait! There’s more! Click on Next Page to see the rest of the Top 5 Best Stalker Call of Pripyat Mods List!

3. Better Weapons

The most important aspect of any first-person shooter is almost always the shooting part of the game. Stalker: Call of Pripyat is, of course, a survival first-person-shooter, and a great one at that. Thus, Call of Pripyat should have great guns, ballistics, and enemy shooting AI right? Well…kind of.

Call of Pripyat does have the basics down pretty well. Instead of a fast-paced, twitch-based focus, the Stalker series is more about intelligent firefights, utilizing effective approaches, cover, and controlled bursts of ammo. Unfortunately, CoP has its fair share of gun related missteps including bizzare gun names, weak sounding gun noises, and unrealistic ballistic effects.

Of course there is a mod for these ailments, and it is simply called Better Weapons. Better Weapons reworks every gun in the game to have a much more heavy, lifelike feel to it. The Ak74 is loud and in charge, with a powerful recoil mechanism, yet its bullets fly straight and far. Even shotguns get an effective facelift with this mod, as the Spas-12 can finally perform the heavy lifting it should for many indoor situations.

Aside from more realistic ballistics and noises, Better Weapons also slightly changes the way shooting from the iron sights works. While some may lament the loss of the added zoom-in effect of the traditional CoP iron sights, most will rejoice. Shooting from the irons is now an absolutely critical part of Stalker’s gunplay, and you don’t feel like you are firing from a telescopic lens for every gun. Frankly, Better Weapons is an absolute must try Stalker Call of Pripyat mod.

2. S.M.R.T.E.R. Pripyat

One of the most popular and best all around mods for Stalker: Call of Pripyat is the oddly named S.M.R.T.E.R. Pripyat. This is what is known as a compilation mod, and is a complete game changer. Some of the changes and improvements included in this mod pack are:

• 65 New hidden stashes for players to find - complete with new hints
• over 150 new anomaly locations throughout the Zone - some may move after blowouts
• Integrates Modern Weapons Mod - improving and adding over 30 realistic weapons
• More compact HUD, better bloodied and wounded effects
• Environmental effects like heat and radiation are much more deadly
• Integrates Natural Weather Mods

The best part about S.M.R.T.E.R is that the list above is not even close to being comprehensive!

However, there are some unfortunate side effects of a mod pack this ambitious. First off, the mod makes the game quite unbalanced in the favor of the enemy. The AI now has what is seemingly a direct bead on your location if you so much as dare to breath loudly. Combine that with added ballistic damage and realistic bleeding effects and the lump sum of S.M.R.T.E.R’s equation is one dead player character. Second, the intensity of all of these changes can be pretty overwhelming. Just when you are getting accustomed to the new and improved Zone, this mod throws something like an unpredictable and fast moving blowout that can completely destroy your enjoyable Stalker experience.

Still, the positives of this impressive Stalker CoP mod clearly outweigh the negatives. S.M.R.T.E.R. is absolutely one of the top 5 best Stalker Call of Pripyat Mods available right now.

1. Call of Pripyat Complete

Any Stalker mod list is not complete without mentioning the modding genius known as Artistpavel, and his seminal works Stalker Complete 2009, and Stalker Clear Sky Complete. Both of these mods were award winning professionally done works of art. Thankfully, pavel has decided to finish his latest project, Call of Pripyat Complete, which he sums up perfectly in his own words,

“Call of Pripyat Complete is the third entry in the Complete mod series, which is a set of modifications created by professional artists dedicated to enhancing the production quality of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series. The Complete mods emphasize on improving the original graphics, sound, and atmosphere of each game while preserving the core game elements.

Built upon the success of Stalker Complete 2009, which was downloaded by one in every five S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl players, this entry in the Complete mod series is the cumulative culmination of the series’ achievements in aesthetically updating the game without introducing unnecessary or gameplay-redefining features.”

Basically, Call of Pripyat Complete is a texture, sound, balance, and atmospheric Stalker overhaul. While its improvements are too many to name, a select few such as 11 new realistic weather patterns, full constellation and moon maps, a complete texture overhaul and high resolution field of view effects are among the best graphical enhancements of any mod…ever. CoP Complete also effectively tackles gameplay issues, overhauling enemy AI and communication - prepare to be flanked, and better stealth options to create a much more tense environment.

Add numerous bug fixes and realistic sounds to a multitude of other improvements and you end up with the absolute best Stalker Call of Pripyat mod ever. If you even think you kind of like Stalker Call of Pripyat, you owe it to yourself to try CoP Complete.