Rogue Keeper on 11/12/2007 at 12:09
As I promised, I'm bringing in some screenshots from Pripyat mission in CoD4.
In fact, it's just one story split into two misions. I'll try not to tell much about what's going on in the missions in case you would be interested in CoD4. I just say it's rather unusual mission in the game, it's a retrospective story recalled by SAS Cpt. Price in the middle of the game, from "15 years ago" back when he was a newbie Lieutenant in SAS regiment. He and his superior were ordered to do some sneaky wetwork in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, but just what you may guess from the pictures, this trip won't suffer from adrenaline deficiency either and our heroes will have to take a speedy departure from Pripyat...
Anyways, I will focus on commenting the screenshots a bit and you may compare them with how Pripyat looks in Stalker.
First some bait. This is a 180deg semi-panoramic view of the Pripyat main square, as seen from the front entrance to city culture centre. I assembled this from 4 screenshots. The edges don't quite match, but it serves it's purpose:
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http://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cod4prip123wj7.jpg) [img=http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8140/cod4prip123wj7.th.jpg]
On the left you can see Hotel Polissia in the backround. Yes, that Hotel Polissia where you had to find the decoder in Stalker. In CoD4 the hotel is important too, it's your destination in the first half of Pripyat mission. Let's just say it's roof may serve as a great place to snipe at somebody far away. Even though it's not the tallest building in the town.
Clockwise to the right the next concrete block house should be one of the 13-story appartment houses in the town - theoretically a better place for a sniper. But in Cod4 it is shorter and it has no characteristic Soviet symbol on the rooftop.
To the right you see a silhouette of the Bloc 4 of Chernobyl power plant. This is a goof. First it should be more to the southeast somewhere behind the concrete bloc building. Second and more importantly, it is too close! The power plant is about 2 kilometres away from the town. There should be more concrete bloc houses where the plant silhouette is. I shall comment on this later.
Next to the right can be seen another building of the culture centre, where in Stalker Monolith established it's HQ.
Unfortunately you can't take a walk on the square because it's heavily irradiated. This has little in common with reality, more like the devs didn't want player to get too close to the borders of the level and hit the skybox hahaha.
Overall the square looks good, but there should be more trees and bushes, buildings to be seen in the backround. It's not as object rich area as in Stalker.
I host a ZIP pack with 45 screenshots in it (12 MB). Download it from :
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http://files.filefront.com/CoD4Pripyatzip/;9234843;/fileinfo.html)
Now I shall comment on the most interesting screenshots in the pack.
CoD4Prip1 (0).jpg - CoD4Prip1 (9).jpg
The mision begins in the outskirts of Pripyat. Comunist Soviet symbols, radiation warning marks, deteriorated village houses, Russian Orthodox church and cemetery, NPP on the horizon - everything makes a perfect clue where you are. It is interesting though that like in Slaker, here too the event takes place most likely in autumn/winter for more depressive atmosphere. Otherwise the place is pretty green just like everywhere else.
Also note that the colors are somewhat washed out. It's only in this mission. This was surely done on purpose, as these events are recollection of Cpt. Price's memories, or just to create that gloomy feeling, or both. In any case, you can see some nice usage of HDR here.
CoD4Prip1 (10).jpg - CoD4Prip1 (11).jpg
Small graveyard of the irradiated military technology, most likely used to liquidate the consequences NPP accident. However I personally doubt any of these graveyards were so close to Pripyat.
CoD4Prip1 (12).jpg - CoD4Prip1 (16).jpg
First buildings of the town you can see. Children's playground. Two goofs are here to be seen. Notice the grafitti. These are 1990s+ in style and shouldn't be on the walls of mid-80s Soviet town. Also the garbage containers, both big and small ones, are of western design.
CoD4Prip1 (17).jpg
A lone wild pooch eating a dead soldier. Kill him and a pack of his fellows attacks you two, efficiently ruining the mission. So better walk around quietly.
CoD4Prip1 (18).jpg - CoD4Prip1 (19).jpg
This would be the most atmospheric interior you come through. As soon as you enter the room, you can hear ambient sound of playing children in the backround. Strong emotional impact, I felt like in Shalebridge Cradle for a moment. Notice the cash register. Although it looks very old, in fact it's again too modern, fully electronic, for mid-80s Soviet town. Another goof then.
CoD4Prip1 (20).jpg - CoD4Prip1 (22).jpg
Interior of the Town Culture Centre. That painting on the wall looks familiar? You can also see Hotel Polissia nearby. Your partner Cpt. MacMillan notes (also to be heard in game intro) "50,000 people used to live here. Now it's a Ghost Town... I never seen anything like it."
CoD4Prip1 (24).jpg - CoD4Prip1 (26).jpg
Finale of part one. You are on the top floor of Hotel Polissia, trying to assassinate certain bad guy, who ilegally trades nuclear material right in front of the heavily irradiated NPP Bloc 4. Also the game is trying to suggest that the target in front of the NPP is just barely 900 metres away to the south of Hotel Polissia. Does it all sound ridiculous? It is. But it looks nice in the game.
CoD4Prip2 (0).jpg - CoD4Prip2 (6).jpg
As soon as you shoot at the big bad guy, the battalion of rogue soldiers who protects him is after your neck, with a Hind chopper blowing off the top floor of Hotel Polissia. You barely escape. You shoot down another Hind, but Cpt. MacMillan is wounded and for the rest of the way to the extraction point you have to carry him, while constant waves of Russian militants are getting in your way.
CoD4Prip2 (7).jpg - CoD4Prip2 (9).jpg
You take esape route through appartments which are IMHO much better decorated than Pripyat interiors in Stalker. Notice the cute Teddy bear for additional emotional impact. I dunno what are those chairs doing on the desk though...
CoD4Prip2 (10).jpg - CoD4Prip2 (14).jpg
Pripyat swimming pool. THIS should have been in Stalker!!! It is quite faithful to the real one, however I doubt that the famous Ferris Wheel is right so close near the pool building.
CoD4Prip2 (15).jpg - CoD4Prip2 (17).jpg
Final part of the mission takes place under the rusty Ferris Wheel - unofficial symbol of post-disaster Pripyat. Bumper cars are also to be seen here - another imprtant landmark of the town omitted in Stalker. The Pripyat finale is one of the most difficult parts of the game. You have to wait for the extraction chopper while you have to fight crowds of incoming soldiers. But eventually you live long enough to see the chopper (it took me about 20 times to survive that long on hardened difficulty) and escape Pripyat - flying away above the burning Hotel Polissia.
In the end I rate this mission as very delightful and it's probably the most memorable mission in the game. It is not as big and open as Pripyat in Stalker, neither as faithfil to geography of the real Pripyat (Stalker wasn't either), there are some factual goofs, but it contains some important landmarks which Stalker doesn't have and interior design is much more interesting.
However, just like in Stalker, most of the time Pripyat is portrayed as a battlefield where you have pay too much attention not to end with a bullet in your head, and you don't have much time to explore every corner. I still hope that someday somebody creates a really faithful model of the town which I could explore in detail to my liking.
