S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky

Verdict: [+] Mutant
Fanastic environment; DX10 effects don't massacre the framerate; scary mutants that rip your face off at night[-] Buggy
Difficult; still needs more patches; patches kill savegames

There have been many great characters in gaming history. From Niko Bellic and Max Payne to Mario and Ryu, there have always been characters who stand out from the games they call their homes. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (the first and last time we'll use all those dots) cements the place in gaming history of another great character, fast making a case for itself as one of the greatest of the last few years: The Zone. It’s back, it’s hungry, and in Clear Sky you’re right back in the heart of it. It might seem strange to describe the actual setting for a game as being its main character, its hero and villain, but with Shadow of Chernobyl and now, even more so in Clear Sky, the STALKER games have accomplished this. LET ME TELL YOU A STORY
STALKER: Clear Sky is set a year before the events of the first game. This is told to you in awkward slabs of dialogue by the first couple of characters that you meet. You’re a mercenary, known to the folks you meet as ‘Merc’, much as in the first game you were known as ‘Stalker’. You quickly find out that you are, in some way, attuned to the Zone after being caught in an 'emission.' A blast of radiation the Zone sends barrelling towards the creatures who have come too close to its heart. Lebedev, the leader of a group called Clear Sky explains it clearly - if verbosely: the emissions are killing you because of your symbiosis with the Zone and you need to stop them happening. The reason they're happening is a certain cheeky Stalker is getting too close to the heart of the Zone. When the talking is finally over, you're sent off into the swamps armed with a sawed off shotgun to tame the Zone, make your fortune and if you fancy it, complete the main missions. STOP TALKING, START STALKING
Like its predecessor Clear Sky isn't a linear game. There are main missions and these must be completed in order to advance the plot but most players will find they serve more as chapter markers to sections of the game rather than a rigid path through the story itself. There are often more ways to achieve a goal than the obvious ones, too, further increasing this sense of open play. For instance, once in the Cordon (an area familiar to players of the original game) you have to help the trader recover an object which has been stashed by a military commander who's been captured by some local independent Stalkers. The trader suggests you go and talk to the leader of this group and see what you can do to help. If you look around on the way to their base you can find a soldier who'll offer you an alternative approach: kill the Stalkers and free the officer. Or you can just knife him and carry on. He’s not armed and so it’s really his own fault. IN THE ZONE
As with Shadow of Chernobyl, the Zone itself is the star. In Clear Sky the graphics have had an overhaul and the areas and effects now look absolutely spectacular. One thing we observed, which is something of a first, is that not only are the DX10 effects visible and impressive, they also don’t take a machete to the frame rate. In Vista, with a DX10 compatible graphics card, the game gives the impression during rainstorms that the ground is actually wet and you also have other treats to look forward to such as volumetric smoke. While the environments lack destructible objects and physics-powered immersion you get in Crysis they're definitely in that league for visual appeal. In terms of artistic design the Zone is still one of the most absorbing environments you’ll find in any game. The downside to the graphics is that the character animations are still wooden, and the characters and objects themselves don’t look much better than the first game - and they were no great shakes there. The weapons are also a disappointment. The reloading animations are fine, but the gun you carry looks horribly blurry and the sounds are poor too. It's a shame the guns are a let down because the sounds of the Zone - a potent witches' brew of spooky effects, and hooting, snarling and roaring beasties - are spot on. Only the brave will fancy venturing far from a group at night when the mutants are on the prowl. Clear Sky feels better to plays than Shadow of Chernobyl for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there's been a significant increase in the amount of activities open to you as a player. In the first game you made your money, picked up the good gear, bought the best armour and then patrolled the Zone ticking off objectives. Clear Sky adds the ability to upgrade your weapons and equipment, and for them to degrade over time, thus requiring repair. Cash and ammo are harder to find than in the first game, so resource management becomes something of a priority. This sounds dry, but it gives combat in the game a more desperate, even bitter edge which wholly fits the decaying, dangerous nature of the environment you're in. You can sometimes find yourself in the middle of a gun battle crawling from cover to loot either a dead enemy or ally, to pick up ammo or medical supplies which will tide you over until the shooting stops. The second improvement is to the factions inhabiting the Zone. It's rough around the edges, but the different factions are now warring for control of territory. You can remain independent, or throw your lot in with one of the groups. Mutant and bandit attacks kick off regardless of what you're up to, again increasing the sense of the Zone being a dangerous place to inhabit. It can of course be frustrating, when you find yourself turning up to a fight seconds too late, or finding yourself having to settle in for the night at an often contested point in order to hold it against mutant attacks because the locals are more aptly equipped to rob a post office than fight off mutant dogs. Some changes aren't for the best: the artifacts which give you vital power-ups and extra abilities are far harder to find. They're now hidden inside anomalies and must be uncovered using a clunky detector. Considering the anomalies are often all but invisible and lethal, standing around waving a detector trying to uncover your prize is not a sensible move, and often leads to death. You can upgrade your detector, but finding artifacts is still a painful process. Unfortunately, abandoning looking for artifacts makes the rest of the game more difficult. Not that it needs to be made hard either - combat is tough, and it doesn't take much to kill you.   
Multiplayer is again included and the setting and equipment options provide an interesting twist on time honoured game types such as capture the flag or shoot all the other team. Still, there's a major fly in the ointment with Clear Sky though, and these are the bugs. Credit where it’s due, though: in the weeks since launch it’s already seen several patches and is much improved for it. However, as with the first game, the patches tend to be savegame killers and even though it's on version 1.54 it's still a couple of patches away from being completely fixed. CONCLUSIONSTALKER: Clear Sky is a great follow up to Shadows of Chernobyl: many of the flaws have been smoothed out, new elements have been added, and the graphics improved. The downsides are the overly long and clunky pieces of plot exposition and too many bugs. Some players will also be put off by the difficulty of the game, although others will be attracted by its refusal to adhere to modern FPS norms such as regenerative health and enemies ill-equipped when it comes to killing the player. It's an unapologetically tough game. With so many other great games coming out such as Crysis: Warhead it might be worth saving this one for later in the year when the devs have had longer to swat the bugs, although at under £20 from most online retailers, it's well worth a look.