07-22-2009, 08:07 AM
Okay, many of you have read my thread about S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl and as this is the prequal to SoC, i feel like i should tell you the ups and downs of this game before you consider buying. Again, this is the same hybrid of RPG and FPS that the original stalker game was, only this time there is much much more added into it.
Plot
First off lets have a look at the plot: The Zone has changed and warped rapidly due to the unknown outbreak of emissions (The Blowout as Oblivion Lost fans will know them as), which has opened up and cut off land all over the zone; new anomalies and landscapes have been formed and the tale of Mercenary Scar is about to unfold.
After being hit by an emission and miraculously surviving it, you wake up in the base of one of the two new factions: Clear Sky. They are scientists who seek to study the zone and find out more about it. They believe a group of Stalkers are attempting to reach the ceer of the the zone, which is the cause of such regular and powerful blowouts; it's in your interest to help stop these individuals as your nervous system was badly effected by the emission; only a few more and you're dead basically. Unfortunately the other new faction (Renegade Bandits) like to raid the faction's stronghold in the swamps and Clear Sky don't have much in way of military strength. You help them out (for a price of course) and you can eventually push them back to a certain amount of land; this then clears your way to the cordon where you'll be pleased to hear that a machine gun is waiting to either almost kill you or line you with lead as soon as you step foot out of the tunnel.
From then on you chase down Fang and Strelok with information from many of the characters you know and love (Freedom, Duty, Sidirovich ect), as the Strelok group are attempting to reach the centre of the Zone. If they reach their goal, who knows what dangers would arrive with the shortcoming of the biggest emission in the history of the zone? The ending of this game starts off SoC, which sound a bit weird but bear with it ;P
Gameplay
Now for those of you who are wondering, yes there are a whole load of new systems for Clear Sky; New PDA, Detector, Upgrading and transportation systems have been enabled as well as brand new anomalies, artifacts and oppertunities such as Faction Wars. Instead of simply picking up artifacts from the side of the road like in SoC, you use one of the 3 types of detector to find your prize in the vicinity of anomalies, Instead of just finding stash locations on dead bodies, you can also purchase stash information from NPCs and even recieve them as rewards; your PDA also has a primary and secondary goal system, where storyline based missions are main and reward missions are secondary. The option of swapping the secondary missions as marked on your minimap is also a very useful option.
There is also a mechanic in each faction's base that will offer you the chance to upgrade certain items at their store i.e bigger magazine for weapons, dual layer kevlar for body armor ect, along with a trader and squad commanders but we'll get into those later. In the old days of S.T.A.L.K.E.R you had to run EVERYWHERE (hence the vehicle mod in OL) so CS has a similar system where guides will take you to locations such as camps or bases for a small fee.
In terms of missions, you no longer have to do deary "fetch this artifact/animal bit" missions anymore and they're more focused on two things: "Item hunting", "Killing" and "Capturing". Capture missions are mainly from squad commanders and tend to real in a nice trickle of cash, as do the killing missions due to their high risk factors. Item Gathering is okay but still just as tedious; you also get rewards for defending camps from attack. All of the rewards available for these missions are obtainable from the Trader of the related faction's base.
Atmosphere
I'm afraid to say, Clear Sky lost it here; it's just not scary. Ocassionally you have to go for a change of underwear when the bloodsuckers attack you, but thats about it apart from Agroprom. Even the emissions weren't as scary as the modders could manage for Oblivion Lost.
Bugs
Sadly, Clear Sky (Like her older sister) is not without it's problems; Many bugs and coding failures have been found in it's system, for which many patches have been made. I ran the recent patch on my first attempt and found Stalkers got trapped by doorways, stuck on scenary like the "fire and spit roasting pig" and generally pissed me off by getting in the way during an emission. Why aren't there more then one locations you can go to? Why so specific GSC? Happily though, after restarting i found that past experience taught me well. Get the recent patch from their website and it should all be okay hopefully.
Notes of importance
* Your PDA is essential when it comes to emissions; theres only ONE place you can go safely during an emission and it's mostly a pain in the arse to get there. you have plenty of time, but sometimes it's impossible to get there; i once was trapped by NPC stalkers trying to get into a base away from the blowout and constantly died. Also when you're in the Garbage and you're in an emission, often the only safe place to go is bandit base which sucks ass if you've murdered and made enemies with them.
* Also make sure you know that joining a faction can make life hell in further gameplay. If you join duty or stalkers ect, Bandits are enemies. That means that during your merry trip through the Agroprom Underground (Or Operation Mindfuck as i like to call it) you'll have more then just mutants to fight.
* Hazards like Fire, poisoning and psy-emissions are more reinforced, with psy-zones hidden in anomaly areas and random areas, Fire damage being taken from proximity to extreme temperatures and poisoning from swamp gas anomalies.
* Last time, when i reviewed SoC, i mentioned the Zone Survival Guide; unfortunately they don't have a database system for Clear Sky, so the only real survival advice i can give you is from personal experience:
1. DON'T join any factions if you want to complete the storyline with a bit of leeway. Joining any of the main factions makes others like Bandits hostile (the only exception to this is the Renegades, who you have to kill alot in the swamps anyway so heh). Keep them all happy with ya, do a couple of missions and stuff for them but DON'T ever join until you're sure you have made apropriate measures to go back like a save game where all factions are neutral.
2. USE your detector! You can find some really nifty and valuable artifacts and i've heard they regenerate, meaning more for us :P
3. Buy as much PDA data as you can, alot of upgrade flash drives are in them and can reel in tonnes of money (especially for the bandits).
4. If you're ever in Agroprom, visit the Hermit in Stalker base; he's down a hole in the middle of 4 metal cylinders and can offer you an RPG7 after you've completed his mission (expensive but sooooooo worth it <3) and also the Flashdrive on the machine gun mod for duty mechanic.
5. There is an error with one piece of PDA data that i've found (electronic balancing for shotguns or something in stalker base). This is bugged and i think theres some mods that fix it.
6. Don't get too frustrated with this game; it can be a bitch on the rare occasion, but you'll warm to it.
* There is a point of no return in this game and it's the Tunnel To Limansk in Red Forest. This means that if you go there, it is impossible to go back. I recommend saving a game copy right up to the point where you have to go to Limansk for when you want to goof around with Faction Wars, and then continuing on with your current saved game for completing the storyline
My Verdict:
All in all, Clear Sky is okay...it's not as fluid as SoC was in terms of playing and it's alot harder to play on even the easiest levels, but the introduction of the new features are very tempting. If you also wanted to know the storyline BEHIND SoC, this tells it very well and it really is well thought out. Gameplay wise, just remember how to survive emissions and rely on your S.T.A.L.K.E.R Instinct (as well as the Internet :P) to guide you. I personally like it and i'm adamant that the new one coming fall 09 (S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Priptyat) will be excellent and if you don't really care for the prologue to SoC and are just looking for another gamespell in the zone, CoP may be right up your street [Obviously i can't support that with any evidence as of yet, but i will be getting it and shall make another review for you guys].
Thanks for reading, i hope this has helped your decision in purchasing this game, and if you're looking into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games for a first time, please see my old thread regarding Shadow Of Chernobyl or forward any questions to me via PM.
~ GMSG
Plot
First off lets have a look at the plot: The Zone has changed and warped rapidly due to the unknown outbreak of emissions (The Blowout as Oblivion Lost fans will know them as), which has opened up and cut off land all over the zone; new anomalies and landscapes have been formed and the tale of Mercenary Scar is about to unfold.
After being hit by an emission and miraculously surviving it, you wake up in the base of one of the two new factions: Clear Sky. They are scientists who seek to study the zone and find out more about it. They believe a group of Stalkers are attempting to reach the ceer of the the zone, which is the cause of such regular and powerful blowouts; it's in your interest to help stop these individuals as your nervous system was badly effected by the emission; only a few more and you're dead basically. Unfortunately the other new faction (Renegade Bandits) like to raid the faction's stronghold in the swamps and Clear Sky don't have much in way of military strength. You help them out (for a price of course) and you can eventually push them back to a certain amount of land; this then clears your way to the cordon where you'll be pleased to hear that a machine gun is waiting to either almost kill you or line you with lead as soon as you step foot out of the tunnel.
From then on you chase down Fang and Strelok with information from many of the characters you know and love (Freedom, Duty, Sidirovich ect), as the Strelok group are attempting to reach the centre of the Zone. If they reach their goal, who knows what dangers would arrive with the shortcoming of the biggest emission in the history of the zone? The ending of this game starts off SoC, which sound a bit weird but bear with it ;P
Gameplay
Now for those of you who are wondering, yes there are a whole load of new systems for Clear Sky; New PDA, Detector, Upgrading and transportation systems have been enabled as well as brand new anomalies, artifacts and oppertunities such as Faction Wars. Instead of simply picking up artifacts from the side of the road like in SoC, you use one of the 3 types of detector to find your prize in the vicinity of anomalies, Instead of just finding stash locations on dead bodies, you can also purchase stash information from NPCs and even recieve them as rewards; your PDA also has a primary and secondary goal system, where storyline based missions are main and reward missions are secondary. The option of swapping the secondary missions as marked on your minimap is also a very useful option.
There is also a mechanic in each faction's base that will offer you the chance to upgrade certain items at their store i.e bigger magazine for weapons, dual layer kevlar for body armor ect, along with a trader and squad commanders but we'll get into those later. In the old days of S.T.A.L.K.E.R you had to run EVERYWHERE (hence the vehicle mod in OL) so CS has a similar system where guides will take you to locations such as camps or bases for a small fee.
In terms of missions, you no longer have to do deary "fetch this artifact/animal bit" missions anymore and they're more focused on two things: "Item hunting", "Killing" and "Capturing". Capture missions are mainly from squad commanders and tend to real in a nice trickle of cash, as do the killing missions due to their high risk factors. Item Gathering is okay but still just as tedious; you also get rewards for defending camps from attack. All of the rewards available for these missions are obtainable from the Trader of the related faction's base.
Atmosphere
I'm afraid to say, Clear Sky lost it here; it's just not scary. Ocassionally you have to go for a change of underwear when the bloodsuckers attack you, but thats about it apart from Agroprom. Even the emissions weren't as scary as the modders could manage for Oblivion Lost.
Bugs
Sadly, Clear Sky (Like her older sister) is not without it's problems; Many bugs and coding failures have been found in it's system, for which many patches have been made. I ran the recent patch on my first attempt and found Stalkers got trapped by doorways, stuck on scenary like the "fire and spit roasting pig" and generally pissed me off by getting in the way during an emission. Why aren't there more then one locations you can go to? Why so specific GSC? Happily though, after restarting i found that past experience taught me well. Get the recent patch from their website and it should all be okay hopefully.
Notes of importance
* Your PDA is essential when it comes to emissions; theres only ONE place you can go safely during an emission and it's mostly a pain in the arse to get there. you have plenty of time, but sometimes it's impossible to get there; i once was trapped by NPC stalkers trying to get into a base away from the blowout and constantly died. Also when you're in the Garbage and you're in an emission, often the only safe place to go is bandit base which sucks ass if you've murdered and made enemies with them.
* Also make sure you know that joining a faction can make life hell in further gameplay. If you join duty or stalkers ect, Bandits are enemies. That means that during your merry trip through the Agroprom Underground (Or Operation Mindfuck as i like to call it) you'll have more then just mutants to fight.
* Hazards like Fire, poisoning and psy-emissions are more reinforced, with psy-zones hidden in anomaly areas and random areas, Fire damage being taken from proximity to extreme temperatures and poisoning from swamp gas anomalies.
* Last time, when i reviewed SoC, i mentioned the Zone Survival Guide; unfortunately they don't have a database system for Clear Sky, so the only real survival advice i can give you is from personal experience:
1. DON'T join any factions if you want to complete the storyline with a bit of leeway. Joining any of the main factions makes others like Bandits hostile (the only exception to this is the Renegades, who you have to kill alot in the swamps anyway so heh). Keep them all happy with ya, do a couple of missions and stuff for them but DON'T ever join until you're sure you have made apropriate measures to go back like a save game where all factions are neutral.
2. USE your detector! You can find some really nifty and valuable artifacts and i've heard they regenerate, meaning more for us :P
3. Buy as much PDA data as you can, alot of upgrade flash drives are in them and can reel in tonnes of money (especially for the bandits).
4. If you're ever in Agroprom, visit the Hermit in Stalker base; he's down a hole in the middle of 4 metal cylinders and can offer you an RPG7 after you've completed his mission (expensive but sooooooo worth it <3) and also the Flashdrive on the machine gun mod for duty mechanic.
5. There is an error with one piece of PDA data that i've found (electronic balancing for shotguns or something in stalker base). This is bugged and i think theres some mods that fix it.
6. Don't get too frustrated with this game; it can be a bitch on the rare occasion, but you'll warm to it.
* There is a point of no return in this game and it's the Tunnel To Limansk in Red Forest. This means that if you go there, it is impossible to go back. I recommend saving a game copy right up to the point where you have to go to Limansk for when you want to goof around with Faction Wars, and then continuing on with your current saved game for completing the storyline
My Verdict:
All in all, Clear Sky is okay...it's not as fluid as SoC was in terms of playing and it's alot harder to play on even the easiest levels, but the introduction of the new features are very tempting. If you also wanted to know the storyline BEHIND SoC, this tells it very well and it really is well thought out. Gameplay wise, just remember how to survive emissions and rely on your S.T.A.L.K.E.R Instinct (as well as the Internet :P) to guide you. I personally like it and i'm adamant that the new one coming fall 09 (S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Priptyat) will be excellent and if you don't really care for the prologue to SoC and are just looking for another gamespell in the zone, CoP may be right up your street [Obviously i can't support that with any evidence as of yet, but i will be getting it and shall make another review for you guys].
Thanks for reading, i hope this has helped your decision in purchasing this game, and if you're looking into the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games for a first time, please see my old thread regarding Shadow Of Chernobyl or forward any questions to me via PM.
~ GMSG
UnknownH Wrote:We do have soap and smarter doctors nowYay!
