Posted on: April 12, 2022
Daktary
Verified ownerGames: 550 Reviews: 7
2 / 10. No redeeming qualities
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is a clear departure from its predecessor in more ways than one. The thing you'll notice immediately is that the game feels more "full", more "meaty". You are now able to participate in firefights, the armor feels "there". There actually is a repair system with the added bonus of upgrades. The problem is that there isn't anything else. The game feels hallow. You can go anywhere you want (but are blocked by literal closed doors until the specific trigger happens). Radiation isn't really anywhere to be seen but random hot spots that instantly sicken you. Enemies are the same and always engage in the same way. They spawn indefinitely in some per-defined areas and there's no real point in pursuing them. Usually they can just be avoided. Weapons feel really bad, inaccurate and are barely usable until fully upgraded on the "accuracy" tree. The upgrade trees themselves limit your choices and creativity big time. Grenades serve no purpose in this entry and the constant need of the scanner to actually find anything is just annoying. Enemies still drop only weapons, no armor. The faction war serves no purpose whatsoever (as most rewards can be found by playing) and as enemies are of specific factions, you may loose more than half of your reputation when engaged by a random aggressive group. Making guides faction specific and "expandable" makes travelling inconsistent and cumbersome. The game is constructed to work against the player as its predecessor. Difficulty is ramped to extreme and by the end of the game you'll probably be using med kits after every shot as your armour drops to zero. The last section of the game is downright rage-inducing. The overall experience is just miserable. It just feels like playing a rushed sandbox game what was tweaked to make the player's life hard. It's also packed with progress-stopping bugs even with the SRP mod. Would not pick it up again even if fully modded.
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