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

Original, unmodified game, 2nd in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy. This FPS is very fun. There are bugs, and you could ckeck out the Sky Reclamation Project and its add-ons to fix them, but it works without that pretty well and is a hoot to boot!

Game is not even half way complete yet however, I just finished S.T.A.L.K.E.R SOC the first game in the series. I can say at this point Clear sky is way better, I can upgrade my weapons so they have better accuracy, which as we know from the first game is horrible. I can upgrade, and repair my armor. This one is huge. In the first game I was always keeping 2 or 3 suits in reserve because they wore down so fast. And the weight restriction was awful. In clear sky your starting armor weighs so little you can carry so much guns and loot to sell. Another positive. Negatives so far, during my time. You still have horrible accuracy like the first title, you need to collect flash drives and return them to a technician in the camp who will then upgrade them making them outshine previous games guns. This is not explained. Nor is it explained your armor can be upgraded to slow or stop bullets, or to add pouches to wear artifacts. This is not a perfect game. My 4 stars is in comparison to the original which I enjoyed but also hated lol and I would have rated it 4 stars if I could have repaired my armor or guns or upgraded them. It is a HUGE thing for me anyway you may feel differently. Expect it to be buggy, though I've not run into any that I know of yet. Now get out into the zone.

I agree with everything other reviewers pointed out, just one more thing I would like to add. The final drop that spilled the ocean for me was AI. I remember years ago when I played this game....sometimes, you were supposed to fight with your desired faction but weird and highly annoying stuff happened like your own ally pushing you out of your cover because he intended to use it. And obviously, that wasn't the intended game mechanic, that was another developer oversight. I like the idea of fighting with other groups but it was poorly executed. Also,when enemies threw grenades, they tended to kill themselves or throw them at impossible angles with perfect 100% accuracy. And what I mean by that is, almost every grenade will hit you in the face, not just land close to you. Popular mods for Shadows of Chernobyl that gave enemy NPCs ability to throw grenades have the same problem, but the developers didn't bother to fix it and probably thought it's good enough. Acceptable for free mods, but unacceptable for a paid product. Call of Prypat fixed all of that, you should buy it instead and skip this one.

Widely considered the worst S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game for good reason. There's now a ham-fisted story, uninspired boss fights, and linear corridor shooting with monster closets. And the new additions? Well, there's like 3 new areas, but they aren't very impressive (or used for anything other than set dressing for the linear endgame). There's also a faction war mechanic, where you lead a faction to domination. The problem is that it's really on a per-map basis --it's far from a full-scale conflict. And in reality, you just choose between two sides three times. Or you can be like me and skip it and suffer no consequences. Other than that, it's pretty much just Shadow of Chernobyl. If you've never played a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game and you plan on playing the whole series, this one might be the best to start with. Why? Well, it only gets better from here.

My least favourite of the three. I'm a hardcore S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fan, but it's hard to recommend this. In this prequel we follow a merc named Scar who has been hired by a faction called Clear Sky to find Strelok, the main character from Shadow of Chernobyl. He went to the heart of the zone and triggered a huge blowout. Scar needs to stop him from trying it again. The positives: + Great graphics + Haunting sfx and soundtrack + New hubs and changed old ones + Still very atmospheric + Very challenging gameplay + Mechanics can repair and upgrade your gear + Extremely moddable The negatives: - Bugs, bugs, bugs - Needs the Sky Reclamation Project mod to be playable - Broken faction wars - The Zone is overpopulated - Sometimes feels like a Call of Duty game - Bleeding requires multiple bandages - Bandits grenade spam - Enemies carrying crap weapons but have pinpoint accuracy - Food is not necessary anymore - Artifact hunting is a chore - No iron sights - Not getting your money back after being robbed - Very linear after Limansk - Cop out ending All in all, Clear Sky is the weakest game in the trilogy and only recommendable to the hardcore S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans. All others should just go straight from Shadow of Chernobyl to Call of Pripyat. I'm very surprised some people rate this as their favourite S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. My guess is they love frantic shooters like Call of Duty too, but that's not what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is supposed to be. 5.5/10