The military had also tried to cordon off the vast Zone, but more of these opportunistic treasure hunters - now called stalkers - found ways back in to continue their black market gold rush. Then there were the physics-defying artifacts that also appeared, irradiated lottery tickets that made survivors rich as czars. In the following years, the curious entered the Zone and discovered strangeness, such as invisible anomalies that exist as reality-ripping holes that can burn, crush or melt the atoms of the careless. In this sci-fi take on reality, there was a second event in 2006 that caused all sorts of havoc. The action still takes place within the Zone, the exclusion area around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (CNPP). With the third game, Call of Pripyat, GSC may have found a middle ground that still has that irradiated touch while easing in new players from outside of its fan base.
To anyone who tried upgrading from a starting pistol in the first game, Shadows of Chernobyl or survived the opening area of the prequel, Clear Sky, you know what I'm talking about. Its challenges have swung between satisfying hardcore survivalists and trying to entice newcomers to its world. series is something of a work in progress.
