GSC’s latest game has more bugs than Joe’s Apartment. From bizarre NPC behaviour, such as one enemy who decided he needed to lose some of those polygons he’d been packing on by sprinting back and forth between two walls rather than take aim and fire upon us, to plain and simple dropouts, as if we were playing the game via mobile phone and had wandered into a signal busting tunnel.
At one point a game breaking bug would kick us out every time a fellow Stalker, who was supposed to be leading us through a forest, would come across a band of crazed mutants. His surprised scream would not only alert them to our presence but also leave us confused and staring at our desktop with Clear Sky's bug reporting popup, the game disappearing in front of our eyes. After doing everything we could think of, including uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, running the game with no sound, changing visual quality and making sure we had the most recent patch for the game, the only solution we could find was to shoot our friendly guide in the face before he had the chance to lead us into the depths of the game crashing forest - so much for friends.
Thankfully, alongside its bugs, The Zone still holds some of its oppressive charm.
The worst bug we encountered was an issue with our save files near the end of the game whereby, on loading some of them, we’d be inexplicably kicked out after 10 seconds. All this is quite unfortunate, as the game, when everything’s going well, is well worth your time, whether you’re a newcomer to the world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., or have put in many an hour into the anomaly infested Zone.
Clear Sky takes place a before the events of the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Shadow of Chernobyl. Set in the wastelands around Chernobyl, The Zone, as the current crop of Stalkers know it, is changing. New anomalies are appearing and old ones disappearing, blocking some areas off and opening up others. The Zone is angrily sending out energy pulses from its radioactive core. Someone has entered its centre and apparently Zone’s don’t like it when you do that – and hey, who could blame them? You’re a lone Stalker who for some reason isn’t as affected by these radioactive blasts as others and on discovering that The Zone centre trespasser’s actions could lead to catastrophic events you set out to put an end to their intruding ways.
Shadow of Chernobyl presented a lonely, desolate Zone - a place to explore in which the physical space was the main antagonist rather than the Stalkers within. Clear Sky shifts its focus from The Zone itself to the denizens. Now the world’s characters and factions take a lead role in establishing the game’s mood rather than the world itself. For many a game this might be an improvement, but the oppressive nature of the first game’s environment was what made it stand out from the pack. This isn’t to say that that the shift in focus makes for a terrible experience, it just feels as if GSC have tailored this game towards a more Western audience causing it to lose a little of its Eastern European charm.
Exploring many old areas - and some new - especially with different parts opened up and new sections newly covered by radiation is incredibly fun. And battling alongside different factions within these can also be incredibly engaging as they seem to all interact relatively realistically. The new offerings come close to making up for the lack of focus on exploration of the Zone itself.
Hunting for artifacts is now far more rewarding.
The updated engine, despite its bugs, manages to look fantastic. New effects such as volumetric lighting, smoke and fire and depth of field effects all work together well. And time’s passage is painted beautifully, as bright days become red dawns, which in turn get covered by an inky night. The good thing about the graphics engine is that it’s extremely scalable, so older hardware can run the game well with only a few of the visual trimmings cut back.
The trusty PDA from Shadow of Chernobyl is back – because what Stalker worth his salt would risk missing his 12:00 appointment with the head of the nuclear anomalies department? And just like the game’s engine it has gone through some significant upgrades. With the stronger focus on factions, a new section covering the strength of your relations with each and their standing overall is present. Unfortunately, whilst it’s clearer compared the guessing game in the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R., it’s a little inorganic and detracts slightly from the atmosphere. The quest tracking aspect of the PDA is vastly improved though, allowing you to clearly keep track of what it is you're heading for.
Artifacts, the radioactive items with special stat improving qualities which most Stalkers are in The Zone to find, were a dime a dozen in Shadow of Chernobyl. Thankfully in Clear Sky this no longer the case and these ‘rare’ items are actually treated as such by the game. Artifacts can now only be seen when armed with a detector, and are usually surrounded by deadly anomalies, only fully detectable by throwing metallic bolts ahead of you and watching the sparks fly. These radioactive pockets must be avoided at all costs as getting caught in the centre will undoubtedly tear you limb from limb. As a result of the danger involved and the scarcity of them, obtaining these valuable objects now feels like a significant achievement and can score you some serious Stalker coin when sold.
The Zone is still full of musos.
Although The Zone may have lost some of its oppressiveness, Clear Sky’s weapons and damage systems maintain their ruthless nature. Its weapons recreate realistic aiming difficulty and enemy fire can quickly lead to death, moreso than in many other games. Now there are gunsmiths in each faction headquarters who can upgrade your weapon, making it more accurate or able to hold more ammo etc. which makes things a little easier on that front. Bleeding that must be stopped by bandages is still ever present with each bullet that comes your way, meaning the smallest nick can result in death should you be foolish enough to travel without bandages. So despite being a little more user friendly the zone is still a reasonably inhospitable place.
As a game reviewer you’re often stuck somewhere between critiquing the interactive world that a title offers up and providing a buyer’s guide, ticking a list of boxes on the way to an eventual score representing whether or not you should swap a wad of cash for those bits and bytes on the disc. Looking at its virtual environment, gameplay and the combined experience that these provide, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky sits in a reasonably good position, a little less compelling than the previous title, but still definitely up there with some of the better FPS’s around. Had this been the sole pointer towards our final score a 7.5 – 8.0 would have been on the cards. However, as a pure product, Clear Sky sits around a 3, like a car that is a reasonably smooth drive, but breaks down every 50 or so kilometres. So until a series of patches fix its myriad issues we’re meeting it half way at 5.5.
) it should be all patched up and relatively good to go... unless they do what EA did with the patch for spore and make it far more buggy 
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