S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

"Clear Sky Improves on the First Game in Almost Every Possible Way"

Story - 7/10

Clear Sky is a prequel to Shadow of Chernobyl. You control a mercenary named Scar who is chasing after Strelok and his group, who played a major part in the story of the first game and are trying to reach the center of the Zone (the area in which the game takes place). You are doing this because apparently, getting to the center of the Zone causes massive emissions that will kill everything inside of it if they continue. The game makes various references to the first game (Fang is picking up parts for his decoder, you deliver documents that reveal that the Brain-Scorcher and the psy-emissions in Yantar are man-made, there are vague references to how the Monolith group was formed, etc). There is also a war heating up between factions (Duty and Freedom both have different bases from what they had in SoC, and the Bandits have their own faction as well now) that plays a part in the story as well. There are a few plotholes when taken into consideration with the first game (in particular, the scientist at Yantar never mentions meeting you before when you meet him in Shadow of Chernobyl), but they are mostly minor in nature.

Gameplay - 8/10

Compared to Shadow of Chernobyl's excellent gameplay, Clear Sky is both two steps forward and one step back.

The HUD has been updated to indicate the current level of radiation poisoning and to tell you what kind of damage you are currently taking. Radiation and bleeding are both significantly more dangerous to you than they were in SoC as well (it is very easy to accidentally die due to bleeding without bandaging the wound). Medkits do not recover as much health as they did in Clear Sky, are harder to come by, and fetch a higher price if you try to buy them.

Night time is now extremely dark compared to the "faded light" that was present in SoC. Having good night vision in your suit and your flashlight on is essential if you don't want to accidentally run into a fatal anomaly.

Combat is mostly unchanged from SoC. You shoot people and hide behind cover while the people you are shooting at try to kill you. One notable difference is that enemies can actually throw grenades now instead of just keeping them in their inventory for you to pick up when you kill them. Enemies also seem to take a bit more damage then they used to before they die as well. The combat is still very realistic in nature. You will die very easily if you try to run and gun, your weapons are inaccurate, and you will have to try and be conservative with your ammo in case you run into a bunch of mutants. As for the mutants, there isn't much difference in their behavior from SoC. Pseudo-dogs have a much different behavior than they did in SoC and Bloodsuckers now come in one extra variety with somewhat different behavior, but other than that there aren't any major noticeable changes.

Most weapons are upgradeable in Clear Sky. There is now a mechanic located at every major base who can modify your weapons and body armor for a fee, and also repair damaged armor and weapons. You can put together a shotgun that is as accurate as an assault rifle with an increased firing rate, an AK-74 with an increased firing rate with a different ammunition type, or a suit of body armor that has both great bullet and radiation protection (which is a lot harder to come by in Clear Sky than it was in SoC, it helps to be able to modify one of the standard reinforced body armor suits to protect against radiation and anomalies). This helps add a level of immersion that was not present in SoC.

Another major change is the way NPCs behave. NPCs will fight for territory against other factions or mutants even if you are not present. All factions are joinable, and every faction has both friends and enemies.

Blowouts (or Emissions as Clear Sky calls them) are random events that will kill anything that hasn't reached proper shelter. These add a level of excitement to the game, but are very rare. Besides the scripted one at the start of the game, I have only encountered one blowout so far.

However, there are some problems that were not fixed from SoC along with an entirely new set of bugs. Some enemies will still occasionally try to shoot you through walls. Numerous quests are broken and can potentially make the game unplayable. The combat can be extremely difficult even on the lowest difficulty settings (especially at the beginning of the game, where you are constantly outnumbered and outgunned). The game is extremely buggy and prone to crashing even with the latest patch. Hopefully GSC will address the remaining bugs quickly. In addition, several things that were memorable in Shadow of Chernobyl (the research labs and a general "lone survivor" atmosphere) are not present in Clear Sky (whether this is a good or a bad thing is a matter of opinion).

Artifact hunting is the most annoying new "feature" in Clear Sky. Instead of the simple "avoid anomalies, pick up items" that was in the first game, there is now a frustrating minigame where you have to get extremely close to anomalies to pick up invisible artifacts. It is understandable that the developers wanted to link the anomalies and the artifacts closer together, but the way they did it is simply not fun to play.

Graphics - 9/10

The graphics in Clear Sky are a large improvement over those in Shadow of Chernobyl. Specular distance looks great, all objects and models are done very well, and the textures are top-notch. The new lighting effects look amazing as well. The only problem is that you need quite a powerful PC to be able to use all of these new features, and there have been problems in getting some of them to be usable even on powerful builds without major visual bugs or slowdown.

Sound - 7/10

The sound effects are very well done. The roars of the bloodsuckers, grunts of the snorks, and barks of the wild dogs are the same as they were in SoC. Weapons all sound as they did in the first game. Voice acting is still top notch (and still also suffers from a halfway done localization attempt where they will alternate in speaking Russian and English during combat). The music is unremarkable and unnoticeable in most cases.

Overall - 8/10

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is, overall, a great improvement over the first game. The only thing that is really keeping this game from being one of the greatest shooters ever made is a heaping pile of bugs that need to be fixed as soon as possible.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/08

Game Release: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (US, 09/15/08)