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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (PC DVD)
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RRP: £29.99
Amazon Price: £17.98
You Save: £12.01 (40%)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: Koch
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"Download the patch before you play this game!" - 7 September 2008
I thought I reviewed this already but I must have forgotten to click SAVE.
The first time I reviewed this I gave it 3 stars. This was because despite being an excellent progression from Stalker, it kept crashing.
I have since done a google and found a patch. This got rid of the problem. Be warned though, that your save gave won't work in the patched version, so download the patch before you start in anger.
What about the game itself?
Supurb. More frantic than Stalker, with a lot more going on. If you attempt to do every mission thrown at you you will be disappointed as it is impossible to do them all at once. Once you accept that and opt to do just what you can, it gets a lot more enjoyable.
And doesn't it look pretty? The Stalker feel is still there, but much prettier. If you find it jerking, just take the settings down a notch or two. The game autodetected me as HIGH settings, but I had a much better game if I lowered it one notch.
If you liked Stalker, or wanted to like it but were put off by the bugs, then this will be much more to your liking. But do a google first and get that patch, because otherwise you may well be kicking yourself.
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"Back in the zone" - 6 September 2008
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!
This is a return to form for GCC - and not always in a good way, e.g. the needed patch. 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, 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 has been turned from a chore into a total farce - each element you move from your backpack has to be indiviually dragged & dropped into the stash. 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 even in 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 a few 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.
Whether this is actually better than Stalker SOC (with the Oblivion Lost mod) I'm not sure yet but, if you liked the first game, get this one. Worth noting though - there don't seem to be any significant underground missions - which seems like a real mistake to me.
Using both old and new parts of the Zone strangely delights, as the old areas are familiar yet different, and there's plenty of 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.
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"An unpolished gem" - 9 September 2008
This prequel of the original Stalker stays true to the overall feel to the first game in the series; though there is some (somewhat justified) criticism that it is a rehash of Shadow of Chernobyl, my feeling is that by combining old familiar areas with new territories, mixed in with an entirely different power balance, it gives it a nice sense of continuity whilst being fresh and exciting all over again. Some of the annoyances in the original game have been addressed this time around: your favourite armour has been shredded? Your favourite gun is worn out? The magazine capacity is too small? No problem, take it to your friendly local armourer and for a fee he'll fix it up and even upgrade it for you, though he might send you packing until you can tell him how! Artefacts are a bit thin on the ground, but then again so are the annoyances of anomalies waiting to pounce, so a bit of a mixed blessing altogether.
But... this game is not ready for release. It is not even beta quality: the bugs come thick and fast. If it were just CTDs it wouldn't be so bad, though still annoying; but sadly it's much, much worse than that: many of the quests are fundamentally broken, including the main quest itself. Do not expect to finish this game, unless you're very lucky. Because of the exceptionally poor standard of the game's QA, I have no choice but to give it a low rating: the gameplay is great, but at the time of writing it is sadly completely overshadowed by the game's instability which render it all but unplayable beyond viewing it as a preview. I would recommend that potential buyers hold off ordering until such a time as GSC release a patch that fixes the game to an acceptable standard, which to date they have not: in its present form it is unacceptably broken and I cannot recommend it.
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"Excellent!" - 8 September 2008
If you liked the first Stalker game you'll love this - the Zone is a very different place and the game is more in-depth than it was before. Excellent. And it gets very dark on a night. I've only played a couple of missions and I like what I've seen so far. Just one thing though - download the patch as the install version from the DVD is a bit on the buggy side. All seems well after installing the patch.
If you've never played the first game then give this a go. It's a little different from other FPS as it is more open-ended and is definately not 'American'. By that I mean your character doesn't have the latest toys but instead uses quite basic kit like you would expect from the old USSR, and it's not trying to mimic a holywood type film. This game has tons of atmosphere and a style of it's own. The first 'level' isn't so great but once you are past this the game opens up a bit more and you start to run into the different factions, get more kit and find more interesting ways to get yourself killed. ;o)
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"Atmospheric Excellence" - 10 September 2008
Having seen the first review on here giving this game 1 star, I felt compelled to add a review of my own. I have just completed the game, including a lot of side quests and did not come across a single problem for the duration of it. No crashes, no problems with the PDA or quests or any other of the bugs others have mentioned.
In terms of actual gameplay and fun, Stalker Clear Sky excels. The graphics are gorgeous, with day and night cycles beautifully rendered. The first time you see the early morning sun streaming through the trees is a joy to behold. The sounds of the great outdoors only add to the realism and atmosphere. Money is harder to come by this time round, but makes it all the more sweet when you come across a big stash of goods or finally save up enough for that next suit. Also the ability to upgrade and repair weapons and armour is an excellent addition.
There is plenty more I could recommend but don't want to give too much away. I heartily recommend this game to any fan of the genre, it is a fantastic experience.
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"More like an expansion pack than a new game." - 8 September 2008
I had great hopes for Clear Sky having loved the flawed brilliance of the original game, however I'm left a little disappointed by this game for several reasons.
Clear Sky addresses a lot of the issues that people found lacking in the original, Darker nights, more weapons, lovely DX10 effects and more meaningful interaction with NPC's are all here BUT most of these things and more can also be had from the free to download Oblivion Lost mod for SoC and in fact, things like the blowouts, gas masks and other additions to that addon make it a superior choice.
The new zones are very nicely done but also suffer from the disjointed feeling of level transitions, your enemies are all Olympic grade shot putters who can hoy a grenade 50m with pinpoint accuracy (annoying) and for me at least the game is very unstable and liable to crashing. The storyline as before suffers a little in translation, you're still forced to trudge through heaps of not too engaging text to follow a story you're not likely to care a lot about anyway, which is a shame considering the potency of the game's atmosphere. Most of the zones that were included in the original are back and largely almost completely unchanged, again a bit of a missed opportunity. Oh, and the PDA is streamlined but still a bit rubbish.
On the up side the graphics look better than ever, the faction warfare could be handled better but is still a welcome addition and artifact hunting is a lot more satisfying this time around. The custom weapon modding is a nice touch too, again a bit rough around the edges though.
Good game, but barely worth buying over a patched and modded copy of the original. Seems to me to be a missed opportunity but at least this one didn't take six years to make.
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"Stalker Dark Skies" - 8 September 2008
A much anticipated game, with the potential to be a winner, unfortunately the game has more bugs that the reptile house at London Zoo, the list is so long I neither have the time or the patience to write them out, if you feel you have to buy this defective game before you play it PATCH it if you don't and patch it later you will lose all you saves 0 out of ten for this horrendous effort and the last time I will ever buy from the makers again
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"DONT BUY THIS GAME!" - 10 September 2008
dont buy! it as the same problems as the first stalker! you will have to wait 10 years for a 100 patches to come out!
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"Bugged" - 10 September 2008
The game play is much like the original, with just a few things updated. For one the shotgun now has enough range to be useful, secondly there are now technicians in camps and bases who can repair and upgrade equipment, and finding artifacts is much more challenging. If you liked stalker then you will probably enjoy clear sky.
Unfortunately there are serious problems with this game's stability causing many crashes, a patch has been released already but the developers need to do some serious work before this game is worth buying.
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