Shadows of Chernobyl is the one universally praised. The other two are stand alone expansion packs and not as good. Of those two Call is the better game and Clear Skies is less liked.
...safe" areas in the game. Firefights break out in towns. Bandits show up as to wild animals. You will see people walking on the road and you don't know until you get close whether they are friend or foe. It's really neat stuff.
Ok you are kinda doing a good job on selling it to me, but I am still kinda on the fence because of all the "Janky" talk, that's what really bothered me about METRO 2030, as much as that game was good at creating atmosphere, many times the immersion was lost due to a very inconsistent optimization (example: game runs smooth and great in a small indoor level, you step out in an open battlefield with lots of enemies, all a sudden it's a slide show, I had to pause the game and re work the graphically settings just so the game became playable again and I could advance through the level) kinda hated that part of M2030, but eventually I found a good middle ground and enjoyed the game, and even got used to the jankyiness.
The reason I love the Fallout games is becasue of pure atmosphere, the amazing, alternate universe-post apocalyptic world it throws you in. You really feel like the inhabitants of DC and New Vegas have been living there for years, all of them, mutants, creatures alike, they don't feel like mindless AI, NPCs put there for your amusement. You really feel like you are an outsider stepping into their ground. And if that's how STALKER feels, like a genuine post nuclear reactor incident town of eerie Chernobyl with some scary creatures thrown in, I'm all for it.
And again going back to playing the original and first instalment vs Call of Pripyat. I am not too concerned about the size or length of the game, I actually like it if the experience is more of a short and sweet experiencing, I don't really wanna delve into a 30-40 hour game.
I'm guessing CoP is the refined and condensed version/continuation of the original, if so, I'd take that over the original.