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

As background, I have about 10h in this game and about 40h in Shadow of Chernobyl. I have not played Call of Pripyat, yet. Overall, I do think this is worth playing for fans of S.T.A.L.K.E.R series, but I would definetely NOT recommend it as a fist S.T.A.L.K.E.R game for someone just starting out. The AI: One of the high points of SoC in my opinion - seems dumbed down. NPC behavior is vanilla: they are overly agressive, do not take cover or flank as often as in the first game and have the annoying superpower of immediately knowing where you are. In the first installmente NPCs behaved as if they had some idea of where you last were instead of having this 6th sense of always doing the straight path towards your current location. NPC weapons also seem to have a significant lower spread compared to the ones the player use. This is a cheap cheat mechanic to make the AI harder... Bleeding: This was changed for the worse. Instead of the red/yellow/geen indicators which made it obvious to you how bad the situation was and how many bandaged you would have to use, now the only indication you have is the intensity of your heartbeat sound - which during combat is nearly impossible to pay attention to. On top of that you seem to bleed a lot more which leads to spamming the bandage button all the time. Ironsights: pistols no longer have ironsight I have no idea why this was done as I see absolutelly no benefit. Thankfully there are mods that restore ironsights to pistols. Damage: They managed to make gunplay a bit more satisfying with the increased damage. Now you can realistically headshot enemies even with pistols... Atmosphere: Nights are now actually dark, which is great. But overall, the game seems to not really have the same bleek atmosphere the first one did. Maybe improves later on, who knows... Faction wars: seems like a cool idea, but in practice it ended up being a dull mechanic. Doesn't really add a lot to the experience from what I've seen.

+ Introduced weapon repairs, etc. to the series. + Also introduced some of the features, albeit poorly, that would make it into Call of Pripyat in a more polished way. + Some of the "gang wars" are interesting as you can defend territory. - Defending territories constantly is annoying. - Glitchiest of all of the STALKER games. - Plot is forgettable. Still worth getting, but I would play the first game and then Call of Pripyat, and then go back to Clear Sky if the series interests you; you're not missing a lot by NOT playing it.

Well, I’m not reviewing the game just by rating it with stars, because I recently played Stalker 2 via GamePass and honestly, I’m really enjoying the game. If I had some extra money, I would definitely purchase it on GOG to support the developers who are currently going through tough times in their country. As a way to help, I’m buying the original trilogy, and in the future, I plan to buy Stalker 2, which is an excellent game.

The STALKER games are in general not very polished and a bit "janky", but if you like this style of gameplay, they are very unique and the best available. Very atmospheric, great gunplay, engrossing, not afraid to let you fail and work things out for yourself.

I have attempted to play through STALKER: Clear Sky three times. I was finally successful on this one. I have always grown tired of it in the past and put it down, forgetting about it until later. I thought it was high time to give it a go now that STALKER 2 is out. I actually finished it this time. The game starts out strong. The story is interesting, at least in the beginning. You quickly find yourself back in the Zone that you remember, at least once you clear the swamps. The gunplay and enemy variety is almost identical to the first, only this time there are factions you can join and/or piss off. And once you anger them, there's no going back. Gun play was good, lots of fun fights. I enjoyed that aspect of it, but it's really just more STALKER. I felt it was -mostly- well balanced? Outside of the last half of the game, it was pretty fun and enjoyable. I think that's the problem. The first half of the game is really really good. I couldn't stop playing it! I just wanted to wander the zone, do quests for the various factions, wipe out some bandit scum, and I genuinely had a good time. At a certain point, though, everything starts to drag. The story just kinda peters off and becomes very meh about halfway through. Not terrible, but not great. The factions are CONSTANTLY whining at you to help them for every little thing. If a blind dog so much as sneezes, they plead for you to help, they're going to die without you! That gets kinda old after a while. The atmosphere isn't as memorable. You don't go into any cool labs. The mutants are sort of a side dish to the humans that you fight, moreso than the first game. Oh, but it does continue the proud tradition of an absolutely excruciating final chapter. It's not quite as painful as the first game's, but that really isn't saying much. Still, if you love STALKER, there's something to enjoy here. Make sure you install the Clear Sky Reclamation Project (SRP). The mod fixes tons of issues.