I've never actually completed Call of Pripyat because every time I get to Pripyat I'm so well equipped that everything just seems quite trivial.
Hell by the time you get out of Zaton you're so well equipped you could declare the Zone an independent state and supply its military.
Especially after you get streloks assault rifle, which also happens to be the best assault rifle in the game. Also the green dragon M4, crap rate of fire, but it's a bolt action rifle. Second best sniper rifle in the game, the first best being the X8.
Pripyat itself is the most interesting section of that game. I play mostly with MISERY mod though, so a lot of times staying in pripyat or even just trying to get there is buggy as shit, and having the X8 can corrupt your save.
Speaking of the X8, the Gauss rifle in CoP and SoC were great. The Gauss rifle in clear sky was incredibly underwhelming because you only got it at the very end of the game, and only had 100 shots which should only be used against the guy you needed to shoot with it. (spoilers, so I won't say) In CoP though, it was the best. No bullet drop and perfect penetration. You could shoot a duty fighter with an exoskeleton in the leg from across the zaton map and kill both him and the guy behind him. Had to be using the real shots though, the ones hidden in monolith stashes.