S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (PC DVD)

No point in fussing around - if you liked the first outing, Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl (SOC), then you will like this, and it's worth getting. BUT, patch it straight away*

If on the other hand you prefer Call of Duty, or Doom, or those sort of very linear shooters, then avoid this like the plague - you will hate it!

* Patch it to 1.5.04 - only two patches - which gets rid of the stash management issue + seems more stable. For those who, understandibly, gave up at 1.5.01 - now might be a good time to give it another go!

This is a return to form for GCC - and not always in a good way, e.g. the essential patches, both invalidating the previous version's saved games! But on the BIG plus side, GSC care enough to turn out patches, and support a very active modding community.

More on the plus side - the graphics have evolved well and look lovely, and the weather, fog, evening mists, rain (of course), sun etc all work very well - going through the Red Forest at night in a thunderstorm, after fighting off a pack of dogs, was all amazingly intense. The sound-scape is excellent too and really works well. It's all very immersive - just what you'd expect and want.

Naturally there are issues/irritants - the stash management was a total farce - until patch 1.5.04 arrived - and it's now OK. The inventory is now 100% opaque, so you can't really use it on the move let alone in the middle of a fight, and it's tricky to easily compare the health of backpack items.

More... the NPC are still immovable, and displace you like bulldozers as they move. When you die (and you will!) the 'quick load' key doesn't work, forcing you through the main-menu 'load game' rigmarole.

And... the radiation detector is almost silent, which means... well you can work that one out, right!? And... you can't sleep, to hit the day/night cycle you want; you can't jump/run in even the shallowest water; some of the story event don't trigger if you don't follow the 'correct' path - so you have to loop back and find the invisible line to cross; you can't (seemingly) sell NPC's guns or ammo; one of my save games crashed the game every time I tried to load it - causing me to go back to a previous save (top tip - keep several saves!)

So I'm having a right old whinge, yet still gave it 4 stars?

Well it achieves the immersive trick of putting you a 'real space', leaving you to amble around the zone 'just having a nose' and bumping in to things - which is a hoot. And Entering the Forester's camp at night with lightning flashing all around was worth the money alone.

Worth noting though - there don't seem to be any significant underground missions - which seems like a real mistake to me, and I'm not convinced this is actually a better game than Stalker SOC - but if you liked the first game, get this one. Similarly, if you like this one, get SoC, patch it and apply the 'Oblivion Lost' mod - it's free and really v good - and similarly 'Priboi Story'!

Using both old and new parts of the Zone strangely delights, as the old areas are familiar yet different, and there's enough ammo lying around - you just have to rummage a bit.

So if you like games that you can take your own time with and that, despite all attempts to frustrate, do reward the time it takes to 'get into it' then buy it - once again GSC have produced very distinctive and genuinely immersive game.

Now I haven't experienced any of the gamebreaking bugs or flaws (beyond a few broken scripts, like a forever sleeping shop owner meaning I can't complete a quest) but I do know they're out there. By the same token I was fortunate enough to avoid most of the major issues with the previous game.

All that aside now for the review.

Graphically the game remains raw. This means it looks as roughly hewn as a post apocalyptic game should. To its credit this gives a feeling of imperfection. On the down side we've seen Fallout, Call Of Duty etc produce cityscapes of a far higher quality. However it doesn't detract from the game so it is just a-ok. I would advise going to tweak-guides (google it) and learning how to adjust the in game settings in the cfg files as that can really boost performance (and visual quality).

Sound is identical.

Maps are identical. A few new ones, some reinvented/respawned.

Shops are improved, equipment is improved (the ability to modify guns into specialist weapons is much appreciated), but you still end up having to find an easy balance between carrying an arsenal of weapons that would put the Marine Corp to shame, or stowing it away (I bankrupted many of the merchants through my collecting/selling ways). The balance always ends up a little out of whack in games like these.

I did/do very much enjoy this game. There's plenty to do, explore etc although the fetch and carry missions are (once again) too regular. More exploration (uncharted territory etc) would be nice.

Combat remains the same, with a higher incidence of support from your allies (which usually helps, and also increases the odds of goodies being dropped). A lot of the time it boils down to long range shooting later in the game as it really isn't worth the risk of getting in close combat in a game that puts such a premium on the equipment you carry.

If you can get the game to work, then there's another superb adventure lurking within.

BUG RIDDEN AT THE START PATCH IMMEDIATLEY

first thing beautiful graphics and sounds amazing, i dont have the greatest pc in the world but i play it on middle settings and they are still amazing.

compared to the first shadow of chernobyl there is bit more in the faction wars is a nice touch but realy needs a bit of brushing up (would have been nice to have more conrol over faction squad movements etc... there is a mod for this however)

story line is not as good as the original however but maybe because i played the original and my expectations were too high.

upgradable weapons and gear is great but only bother upgrading decent weapons and if you get the L85 change its ammo to the ak ammo i found its reliability and accuracy improved massivley

mutants are still there though not as many of them around now same ones but none roaming free evrywere.

the starting area is great all youve got are basic weapons sawn off, crappy pistol and if yer lucky maybe the short ak and mp5 this seems to be the best zone to do faction war but it ends way too quickly:(

could say alot more but my fingers would start to bleed
buy this game its fun it looks great hopefully they bring a new one out with yet more in it:)

some cool mods for it too