STALKER Clear Sky (SCS) is a sandbox shooter in the style of Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2. As with those examples, SCS is a long game as compared to many more linear FPS games. The extra time consists largely of traveling from one place to another, but this format also facilitates a more complex scheme of interaction between the player and the game environment. There are many places to explore, objects to uncover, and interactions with the game's many characters.
Being more of a fan of mindless run-and-gun FPS games, this is not my favorite game. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that a huge effort went into creating the STALKER games (including Shadow of Chernobyl) and the outcome of that effort was an impressively detailed and well orchestrated adventure. To me, Clear Sky is a thoughtful improvement over Chernobyl and is the better of the two games, but Clear Sky also capitalizes on the first game. Changing it too much would ruin it and disappoint those who got Clear Sky hoping to get more of what Chernobyl offered.
I admit I did a terrible job of playing the game, so probably didn't get the level of enjoyment possible by someone who immerses themselves in it more deeply. I went from mission to mission with very little exploring. I had no money and never did any trading. I finished the game on the VETERAN difficulty level without ever having a suit with any protection from radiation or bullets. I highly recommend having a look at one of the guides available on the internet. A few pointers can save you some grief and make the game more fun.
At the time I installed it, there was one patch available, which I installed. I had no technical trouble with the game under Vista x64 running on a core 2 duo with 4GB ram and dual SLI-linked 8800GTS 512 GPUs. I had video options set to max and the graphics were definitely on the leading edge of what's commercially available. There is a huge amount of detail to the environment, excellent lighting effects, and weather so real you can almost feel it. The lightning storms are impressive. One in particular was just stunning. You could see the bolts of lighting flash in the sky and the entire landscape would flash in harsh bright black and white with stark directional shadows. The best weather effect I've seen in any game to date.
Depth of field was a nice effect and worked smoothly without being an annoyance. Sound effects and voice acting were also top shelf. Aside from what it takes to accomplish a mission, I don't usually pay much attention to story line or character development, so I won't speak to that. The game allows user saves, including quick saves and it allows you to change the difficulty level mid-game which is a rarity.
I recently finished Far Cry 2 and thought SCS was a far better game in terms of variety, surprises, and action. SCS compares favorably with Fallout 3 in that the area of exploration is huge and each place is not just more of the same (as seemed to be the case with Far Cry 2).
The things I personally didn't care for in SCS were the annoying (invisible) radiation fields that you could stumble into as well as the amount of non-fighting game play that is required. I prefer non-stop shooting, but that's not a strike against the game so much as saying that this game targets those gamers who like to get more engaged in the RPG aspects of the story and environment.
Toward the end, the game seems to slip into more of a traditional FPS in that the missions (and shoot-outs) occur one after the other. As soon as you accomplish one aspect of a mission, you are immediately pointed toward the next step and the shooting is almost non-stop. Also, I really liked the environment better during these sequences. It was tough for me because, having no protection from bullets, I was easily killed and spent a lot of time watching the "LOADING..." screen. The game does not load very fast.
So, if you liked the first STALKER, Fallout 3, or Far Cry 2, you'll probably like SCS, which is the best (in my opinion) of all of them. It doesn't have a long learning curve, but take time to learn about the vests and the artifacts and what you can get by trading and upgrading weapons, etc. The manual could be better, but there are guides on the internet that make up for it.
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Videos
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STALKER Clear Sky - Teaser Trailer
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Gameplay
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Tech Demo
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