I loved Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Prypjat, but i had never played Clear Sky. Seeing how brilliant the former two games are, i thought that even though the latter is often called the worst Stalker game it would still be miles above other shooters. Right? Well, i tried liking it. I suffered through the first level, the swamp. A level where you cannot see anything, there is almost no cover and you get shot at from bushes from enemies you cannot even make out. I suffered through Garbage, where i got a first taste of the incredible granade spam that the AI loves so much. They rain grenades with absolute pinpoint precision behind your cover, and they explode so quickly that evading them is often impossible, oneshotting you. I suffered through the Blood Suckers in the Army Warehouse, that are for some reason invincible when in their cloaked state. And the game throws three at you after you climbed some tower. So that when you climb down the ladder you get greeted by them instantly without a chance to pick them off from above. The thing that made me quit though is a basement in the Red Forest. It has two Poltergeists in it that throw all kinds of random garbage at you, taking most of my hp with one hit, or even oneshotting me with full health, while taking around 600 bullets each themselves. The door that lets you leave that place only opens after you killed these two, by the way. At this point i said to myself: Why am i doing this to myself? I deinstalled the game, and im going back to the Call of Chernobyl mod. Oh, and SPOILER! In Garbage you get your gear taken away in a story line quest, there is no way around it if you want to progress. And even though you can get your equipment back rather easily, all your money is gone forever. I only noticed a while later that i lost my money, and i had already overwritten my save. I havent touched the faction wars much, so i cannot comment on it. I just expect absurd AI greanade spam though. So no loss.
