Baffling why they drastically changed atmosphere.... What used to be an irradiated, gloomy world with a few makeshift safe havens has become a happy partyland with some turf wars. It's as if the producers said let's trash our award winning atmosphere and slap a shitty story onto it and we'll call it a prequel, apparently their old company was right in restricting these guys.

SoC with mods is still better, but this game has great potential once the modders sand out the shortcomings of the vanilla version. There are plenty of bugs, but the community patch for 1.504 fixes most of them. Graphics are nice but you need a great rig to run them.

I'm not sure how, but other than graphics and weapon mods almost eveything is worse than SoC. all the shinning qualites it has don't mean a thing the second you come face to face with an enemy and realise that the developers dropped the Intelligence part of AI. prepare to be shot in the dark from a mile out - or stand next to an enemy, shoot him with a shotgun and all he does is turn to walk the other way. or how about this, they all start firing at you, you take cover behind a wall, and next time you look around the corner they've forgotten they were after you. huh? hands down worst AI i've ever encountered, EVER! wait for fallout 3 and farcry 2. this game is pitiful, SoC was the real deal.… Expand

Very poorly designed game. The idea is very good, but executed in a terrible manner. The game combat seems to feel the same throughout the game. Nothing really original about this game; Originality is what is making the great modern games amazing. After playing games like FEAR 2 and Fallout 3, a few hours of this game seemed like a joke. Its kinda sad, especially since I was really looking forward to this game.… Expand

Dont waste your time with clear sky version 1.5.10, it is close to unplayable:

Installed Game, patched it to 1.5.10, installed clear sky complete 2009 mod. Game refused to start. Googled for that problem. Known bug. Googled for hotfix. Downloaded and installed it. Game started finally. Played 3 hours. Game crashed. Savegames corrupted and completely destroyed by the crash. Started game once again from the start. Experienced frequent game crashes at least once per hour. Played like 20 hours. Reached yantar region. Main storyline quest bugged. Googled for that problem. Known bug, can not be fixxed. 2 current savegames again useless. Noticed that older backup savegame is 2 days old. Stopped playing game. Go to metacritic and write 03/10 review.

Seriously just wait for some more patches or modifications that take care of above mentioned problems. Current clear sky version is not enjoyable.… Expand

Really awesome game, one of the best rpg shooters ever. Awesome graphics (demanding a really strong machine tho), great sound, good user interfrace. But most importantly this game is *IDIOT PROOF*. Great world, great story, great atmosphere, great fun. Beats pretty much any modern fps or role playing shooter, hands down. The entire series is a proof, that there's yet hope for modern fps games!

I bought this game on Steam, thinking, SoC had a massive fanbase, so surely I can use this as a stepping stone into the Stalker universe, I've played it three times, each time no longer than 30 minutes. This is either due to the game crashing, or having an anneurism as a result of being exposed to such crap, and accidentally knocking alt F4 on my way to the floor. Maybe I'm just not giving the game a chance? Probably not, but I doubt I'll ever open it again, save your money.… Expand

Hmmm, lets see, I think I've seen most of this game before. Oh YEAH! Stalker: SOC. As a matter of fact, they RECYCLED better than 75% of SOC for Clear Sky. Don't expect to see anything new here. Same old guns, same old areas, same old monsters, same old NPC's. Little to no atmosphere. Just a series of go and kill quests and a vague storyline that never quite came together for me. Pass this one up and reload Stalker SoC.… Expand

Where as STALKER SoC is around a 9/10, especially overhauled (modded graphics, fixes, tweaks). This is simply because everything STALKER was praised for was dropped for a different style. Where as SoC was a lonewolf survival/horror game, Clear Sky makes a poor attempt as some kind of squad based all out shooter. There's far too many human beings to consider the zone desolate in this one, far too little mutants and and jumpy encounters to consider it survival/horror and both of these combined just rips the atmosphere away from STALKER. While this different game isn't too bad and worth a play through or too it is definitely a step backwards from the original.… Expand

The only things it improves on the original is that it has an increased weight limit, upgrades, and repair. Nearly everything else is inferior to the first, and it makes this game feel like a generic FPS with the RPG necessity to grind for resources. Unless you're a graphics whore, literally no reason to get this over the original.

I absolutely loved SoC, but other than the graphics this game is garbage. The guns sound muffled and weak, eniemies take LOADS of damage, grenades are very ineffective, thats just a start. The lack of atmosphere is also a huge letdown. This game is just bad.

All the user review which gave this game more than 5 have to be by the developers of this game I'm sure. There is no way a sane person would rate this game higher than 3. I give it a 0, because I abandoned this game after spending less than 2 hours with it - angry and wanting your money back. Don't waste your money on this excuse for a game! It is a horrible unplayable mess which breaks some the cardinal rules of games: 1) Long, borgin, unskipable cut scenes. 2) Patches break your save games . 3) Friendly NPCs have infinite mass and push you inside walls when you are trying to take cover, and the only way to get them to stop doing that is to kill them. This game is a terrible masochistic experience which will leave you angry and disappointed.… Expand

A bad game. Its fun to stray around for a few hours, but it becomes boring quickly. Then I tried the faction system, well thats a huge ripoff, it sucks horribly. After around 4h of gaming it got so boring that i decided there had to be something more there, something thats fun to play. Well 15h played and its even more boring.

Game is great till half way through if you avoid the bugs of which there are loads. After the half way mark the story dies and I was left thinking why the hell am I playing this game. Huge fan of SoC but found this to be a poor cash in of the back of the original. Please wait a few months while the rest of the public work as the lab rats finding all the bugs and flaws in this poorly tested game before even thinking of buying it and with any luck you may have a better experience of the game than I had.… Expand

There's a lot of promising stuff at the beginning - new Clear Sky faction with cool NPC models, a bit of new, atmospheric terrain, some interesting gameplay changes like a new way of finding artifacts or faction wars (with new combat AI). Unfortunately good ideas are brought down by a shoddy execution and bad design - once we leave inital areas of the game turns out about a half of game's areas are lazy rehashes of SOC maps, story feels flat, game's still buggy as hell, faction wars are barely working, nights in game were reworked to be darker yet still there's no option to sleep through them etc. Gameplay feels badly balanced as well, last part of the game is basically one long corridor with tedious and unnecesarily hard battles (enemies are tossing grenades in large numbers with perfect accuracy, INCREDIBLY annoying). All of this makes the game feel rushed and/or half-assed. Shame, because it's often beautiful and atmospheric like the first one. Well, at least Call of Pripyat is better :>… Expand

After playing the first even though it had no story, I was excited to see what new dangers lurk in this mysterious radioactive land. Needless to say, biggest disappointment of my gaming days! Iron-sights are a joke A.I. has decreased severly and damage control is impossible. You get a head-shot and nothing happens, you get hit once and suffer 30% - 73% health loss and bleed for 1% health ever half a second. Yes the world looks younger and more cleaner, but the only thing that's changed is the quality of the game. Please just play or re-play the first and confuse yourself trying to understand it, or play this and be disgusted with it after about and hour. 2 for new world.… Expand

Clear sky is a huge disappointment compared to SoC. It's has even more bugs, including BSoDs, it optimization for dx10 is terrible, and the atmosphere just wasn't as good as the first game. GSC gameworld should have kept THQ as their publisher. After playing CS, it feels like THQ was the only thing keeping up GSC's almost non-existent quality control and testing standards. Now that they're doing it on their own with deepsilver its obvious that the game was rushed and badly programed.… Expand

That game is amazing and I will give it a 10 but that is only for a idea. gameplay deserves 2 or even less!!! I love too play it. Upgrading your gear, looking for artifacts, joining factions... all that is awesome! but damage system IS TERRIBLE. even accuracy fix didnt help (even made it wors because now enemies never miss). WHAT THE HELL?! I have to hit a guy TEN TIMES using a most powerfull shotgun in the game to kill him?!!/1/1!??!?!/?!ONE!!?/?! Not that I am using shotguns all the times and I cant use any other gun, that was just an example When you hit for example a bandit so he starts to bend or crouch or grab his arm, he is invincible for the time of animation. moreover you have to empty whole clip into his body to kill him. In SoC you had to hit Monolith in Exo-skeleton JUST two times with colt to kill him. here I have to waste 5 clips to make him bleed... I didnt experience any bugs with or without any patches... the game is short... too short, even with all side quests and all that stuff. Story is kinda boring though. For me both those games were made in completly wrong way... it should be a game that has something more to its title that jus a Zone, artifacts nd stlakers. It should be less FPS and more RPG. like sit by the fire and talk to friends... tell them what happened to you today. clean your weapon (all assult rifles and sniper rifles should be removed leaving only shotguns (for hunting) and pistols (for killing yourself or someone else) it should be focused more on artifact finding and LIVING IN/WITH THE ZONE (that is very important) that is what book was about.... that is what game should be about...… Expand

As a huge fan of SHOC, I really don't want to rate this game bad. CS just doesn't capture the jarring feel of the first game, and the faction systems make the zone feel less like a detailed eastern bloc wasteland and more like a russian version of counterstrike. Indeed the wasteland is more detailed than ever, but the sheer amount of random NPCs, and the lack of numerous mutants make the game seem way too hospitable. Hopefully the faction system and the stupid artifact hunting will be removed from the 3rd game. This game would have been better if the bugs were completely ironed out, and it was made much more faithful to its superior predecessor.… Expand

I agree with what most people said: This game had a great idea behind it, but the game itself was designed very poorly. Let me list a couple of things off the top of my head. 1. Awkward controls. With sudden speed changes when changing directions and jerky crouch, you feel you are controlling robot. 2. UI and HUD are very ugly and confusing. Didn't even know what I was looking at. 3. Random and frequent crashing. No warning, no error messages. Randomly crashes straight to desktop. 4. NPCs are just plain annoying. Combined with their heavily accented voices and constant nagging when you're near them, it makes for a very frustrating environment. Plus they talk too much. 5. There is no way to skip time. If you hate exploring at night, deal with it. 6. Overall, everything feels cheap and everything is complicated and tedious. This game is similar to Fallout 3 but nowhere near as good.… Collapse

As much as I try to love this game, I simply can't. The developers completely ignored the first game and its issues and seemed to have thought that allowing a stupid AI, clunky and unresponsive controls would result in a more realistic approach...wrong! You literally shoot enemies 3-5 times in the head and they are still alive, it's absolutely disgraceful. The game has such a great story behind it, but the actual control, feel and design of the game is so bad that you will shut it off immediately. Even after several hours of trying to enjoy it, I simply can't get over the fact that it's so repetitive, dull and badly designed that you spend 80% of the time in the game dying and running, even on the lowest difficulty. Avoid buying this game before the developers learn how to script and not sell garbage.… Expand

If you loved STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, liked the pacing and the free-roaming and the eerie atmosphere, this is not the game for you. If you hated S:SoC because the goals weren't timed and didn't change randomly, you didn't have to sprint between goals ignoring everything in between to make it in time, there wasn't enough talk talk talk talk, and gameplay wasn't run & gun, then this is the game for you.

Massive disappointment.… Expand

An inefficient, clunky interface, inaccurate weapons, shoddy performance, an AI written so poorly that it makes Doom 1 monsters look intelligent in comparison and a lot of been-there-done-that buggy material from S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl packaged into a frustrating, broken mess that even EA would be ashamed of. If you are new to the genre, skip this one and play either S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl or Call of Pripyat. I tried very hard to like this game but I simply can't. The game proceeds at a very rapid pace and does this with or without you. And even when you are present, there's a good chance that you will not be able to turn the tide simply because of ineffective guns and allies that constantly push you away or otherwise manage to get shot. Losing all your allies results in a failure of your current missions and most of the time you'll be throwing yourself in front of enemies to prevent the deaths of your allies, even going as far as to intercept enemy raiding parties on your own so you don't have to babysit. The game pretty much plays like you're not really present. And when you do let your presence be known, it will pester you until you give up and quit so that the AI can go on playing with itself. Even on lower difficulties, you will die a lot of frustrating deaths that could have partially be prevented had A) your guns would be able to hit anything B) the enemy would stop burst firing for a moment C) the interface would have been elevated above the Windows 3.1 standards GSC has set for themselves in this game. Fortunately, GSC does agree with all of the above but they didn't make that clear until they released Call of Pripyat.… Expand

Beautiful graphics, good story plot, but terrible design.

After playing the game for about an hour, I decided to give up. I got tired of dying every few minutes. How is a game supposed to be enjoyable, when anomalies appear out of nowhere and kill your character every few minutes?

I guess the developers liked the loading screen more then playing the game. Because I spent a lot of time loading after I was killed from anomalies.

Clear Sky is just no fun to play.… Expand

(I will talk about the latest vanilla version, from steam)
I had the game in '08, a cracked version. I played for about an hour. I couldn't play more because of the bugs in the main quest. It's OK for a game to have bugs, but in main quest? Was CS not tested at all? After the discount in steam (new year sale), i bought the game, hoping to be able to play it this time. And having played the game for 21 hours, it was OK. There were crashes at least two times than SoC, but it was bearable. Being a member of a faction is very fun too, I really wanted that in SoC. Although faction quests and other side quests are very repetitive, I fought for factions for more than 5-6 hours. There is a point in faction wars in which you cannot do anything anymore, but before reaching there, it's very fun. So far so good, right? Let's talk about game mechanics. I'm not a very good FPS player but I have a habit that whenever I play an FPS game, I select the hardest difficulty level. But guess what? CS is hard. Really hard. Of four difficulty levels, I selected 4, after playing for 20 minutes at most, I had to change to 3, then 2. But it's not because I was acting stupid, I always play RPG-like FPS games slowly, have more equipment, better weapons and armor, then go. After the enemies started throwing grenades, I realized that was not my fault. That was the AI. They hit you. Hard. And when they throw a grenade, it lands at most 50 centimeters from your feet. Then boom, quick load. The loading times are much longer than Max Payne 3. I think they should change the loading strategy if you're loading the same map. Steam tells me I played 21 hours and i think about 1 hour of it is loading. And about storyline. I read some comments about how bad the story is, but I liked it. I don't want to give spoilers but come on people, the last part was really good (and hard).
Overall, it's a good game, not as good as SoC but good enough for it's price (currently $2.5). The AI could have been better, game logic could have been better, side quests could have been more interesting. But still, it's a S.T.A.L.K.E.R., the essence is still there.… Expand

I hesitate to rate it so High just yet, but I cannot stand it, I am extremely impressed by this game. I was an avid fan of the first, and I never beat the story (got close, but bugs stopped me). My favorite thing about stalker is that there was a world that almost seemed alive, thanks to their A-Life system. If you liked surviving in the original stalker, clearing out mutant populations, "befriending" random stalkers at small outposts, then I believe you will also be impressed, like I am. I actually like the concept of faction wars, and enjoy the stalkers traveling in squads to take positions. Also, some things were made more believable, like the weapons, they have a more (dare I say) COD4 feeling to them. There are too many things I want to write because I'm so exited by this game, but I dare not speak on them yet when I haven't played for more then 5 hrs. Get the game, it's worth it even for the first hour of the game.… Expand

I give it a 8 beacouse the enemies have to much hp it seems and some minor glitches and flaws but hey no game is perfect. but i abselotely love everything else the amazing effects and shadows the scary underground missions with the invisible things ripping you apart a game reccomended for everyone that likes FPS and RPG almost like fallout 3 only better :)

Hey J.S. Set your grapichs lower... it worked for me... :P And like PC Format and IGN UK said it need patches and mods. Its a great game and Big Jim has not gotten far if he didn't find new guns. Old guns will be there, if they didn't pass a 100 years or something... And, Yea.. stalker is made of mods :P I will buy Far Cry 2, but it will not be the same.

Beautiful game. Gameplay is a little awkward at times but makes up for it with its level design.

I played it in the office of GSC Game World as a journalist. It still had bugs, but they are already making the second patch. This problem is the biggest one of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. And, of course, the final, where you will meet with some badly put scripts and a bit dull gameplay - I speak about last 45 minutes of the game. But besides, the game is stunning and cool. As you all get two patches before release, you will see it even more complicated not to play this GAME. Of course, there will be some guys to tell you it's awful - but they always exist, really. At the end, I can just advice you to buy it. It's great.… Expand

This game is a complete success. Everything from the atmosphere, to the combat is done flawlessly.

I'm wondering if the people rating this so highly have played through more than the swamp and cordon areas? This game is RIDDLED with bugs (many of them game-stopping) and each patch requires you to RESTART the game. When it works - it's a blast. But this is a beta - not a finished game - at least not by an self-respecting company. Stick with Stalker and the Oblivion Lost mod and you will have a far better experience than this game. 5 because it has possibilities - but WAIT until under $20. VERY frustrating number of bugs/broken mechanics. Some people seem to be "lucking" into clean plays - but they are the minority (don't take my word for it - visit the forums). Avoid rewarding these developers/producers with your hard earned cash for such a bug-fest.… Expand

Vanilla-wise (Unmodded), this game sucks, imagine a game with the good points of a somewhat open world and a pretty cool setting, with just everything else so bad its seems like they did it purposely. Every gun is about as accurate if not less accurate than a musket from the 1700s, shooting through a scope is like playing a game of paintball, projectiles travel like 90 mph, literally. The AI is as bad as everyone says, u can see the AI script in game, u can see how everytime an enemy comes to a possible cover spot he'll jump right over it no matter what, even if it proves to be more of a disadvantage. You can see how in the pitch black, 100 yds away, through 3 bushes, an enemy will put pinpoint accurate shots into you, with weapons that couldn't hit hit the broadside of a barn. Sure when our saviors like the Oblivion Lost team come by, we'll have a pretty sweet game, but that's tehir work not GSC's or Deepsilvers.… Expand

A very good game that juggles atmosphere and intense fighting to create a fun and at times terrifying game.

-Incomplete Graphics and bad physics engine. -Cost is too high for game. -Storyline is so weak it can even hold a job. -Blue Screens if the player wants advanced features.

After playing this game, I can say this, the game was awesome. The overall quaity, textures, graphics were terrific. The gameplay/mini quests makes you wanting for more. The storyline briefly connects to SoC well, making STALKER story more interesting. The weapons were the same, making it quite boring, however the animtions has improved. the game suffered some glitches, such as AI pushing you, weapons glitches etc. Overall, this game has some flaws, but the gameplay and the storyline make this game a perfect march for adveturers out there.… Expand

I don't understand why people talk about this game like it is biggest s*it they ever seen/play. How much as I can see, no one of them ever pass that great game. Because, if they did, things would be diffrent. My personal opinion is that, those bugs in game(and there are not so much of them) doesn't matter, if the story and the gameplay are great!!! There are many details in the game. And they are all awesome, especialy weapons...The same thing is about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC... Both games are "open world" and u can actually pass it on many, many, diffrent ways. All of ya who still think that game doesn't worth playing ... try passing more than 1 hour of gameplay.… Expand

I love this game its immense as the first one and everything is soo good about it.The firefights are just awesome and the AI use tactical advantages as flanking and supressing .i havent had a single bug thats really effected me during the game but one s'all is a quest to just collect a pda.But apart from that one bug everything is fine,This is a must get!

This game, along with it's predecessor, is easily one of the best, most immersive games I have ever played. Granted, upon release both had some glaring bugs and glitches, but for me, it was more than worth the wait. Though not perfect (hence the 9 rating), Clear Sky (and the STALKER series in general) easily ranks in my top 3 game series of all time. If you are a fan of epic story-telling and can look past the relatively minor bugs and mistranslations, then I guarantee that you will fall in love with this game.… Expand

Easily one of the best games I have ever played--up to a point. This game suffers from the classic problem of becoming less and less stable with each additional hour of gameplay. Eventually I found myself avoiding areas entirely due to recurring crashes that persist even with the most recent patch. Still, I was able to enjoy this game significantly before things went horribly, horribly wrong, and GSC is still patching it, so I give it an 8 until they iron out some of these bugs. (And if you haven't experienced the CTDs, play for a few more hours, they will show themselves sooner or later).… Expand

Before installing the 4th patch the game is horrible. Just look at this: you play for about 1-3 hours, earn enogh money and then it doesn' t switch to next map! 4th patch makes it a lot better but: -Shooting the body still is not effective you use all the ammunition and there is no result. -Use of artifacts is unknownthere isn't any description except +6 radiation) -Dylan is an IDIOT: This game is awesome. The only problem i have with this game is the bugs. -he bugs making me very, very angry. I stoped (any games) playing for about 2 days because of them. -AI is not smart. It just see you in darkness at a mile -I don't like being pushed when i talk or buy thms -The CS is probably the biggest mistake to buy. Only if you buy it with your friends Only 2 of 10 for game. why? 0 for programming, AI, fraction wars, damage system, 10 for graphics on 10th DX. the 9th is almost as in SoC with total score 2.… Expand

I wish I could give this game a better score as the original was a fantastic game and Clear Sky does do a lot of things right but the negative aspects are just too big to ignore. The worst aspect of clear sky are the bugs, it took 2 patches before it was even playable and even then constant saving was a must, several quests got broken and I was unable to complete them even though I fulfilled the necessary requirements, luckily none of the main quests broke and I was able to make it through the game on my 3rd attempt, I also excperienced a high number of desktop crashes. I Think the fact that I attempted to play the game through 3 times is testament to some of the game's better features, it still has the same great atmosphere of the first game and the new areas of the zone are pretty cool, I especially liked the swamps level. The faction war system when it's working makes for a more dynamic game environment. I like the fact that it's more difficult to make money as it makes some of the smaller quests more relevant, I also like the fact that artifacts are more difficult to find. All in all I did enjoy this game but it should never have been released in such an unfinnished state, it still manages to knock spots off Far Cry 2 though.… Expand

Overall good but it's too similar with the original Shadow of Chernobyl. Many levels are the same but it doesn't really matter. It's infact nice to see some of the old places. First half of this game is good. Second feels rushed. The missions are quite pointless and the story is shallow but it's nice to wander around the zone anyway. One flaw is that you can't get back from one of the latter levels. Most disappointing is the ending. They could have put more thought on this and make better levels. This feels a bit like a rerun. Still, I enjoyed it.… Expand

I TOTALLY loved SoC. But this is installment is extremely frustrating. I understand why they did what they did to some extent, to show how it was before the SoC, the zone less messy, more separate factions, less artifacts, etc. But the gameplay here is both the same as SoC, as well as grueling and painful sometimes. It is dreadfully slow, the weapons are simply awful, and it is much much more linear. As others have pointed out, you can empty an entire clip into an enemy's head, and he just stands there, while a grenade can come at you from 1/4 mile away and kill you. Makes ZERO sense. I want to love this game, I loved SoC and played it dozens of times through. But I'm struggling with this one big time.… Expand

Game was a great revision to graphics and some gameplay. I am not real crazy about the new energy level and bleeding for the player. Its way to easy to die or run out of energy. It puts a premium on bandages and medkits like never before. But like I said the graphics have come a long way, but the storyline has mediocre. Pros- Much better graphics Ability to upgrade weapons Better gun models New weapons Cons- Mediocre storyline Player energy level and bleeding may make the game harder and less fun than it should be.… Expand

Again, like SoC, could have been a great game but poor pathfinding, bugs a-plenty and unbalanced difficulty make it merely a good game.

I suppose it delivers what it promises: essentially a re-make of Stalker: SOC with better graphics, a few new areas, and a new storyline. The weapons are all the same save for the new upgrade system, the gameplay is mostly the same except the AI's a bit better in my experience. The only problem is that I haven't gotten to play through the whole game due to the issues I've had with it: Securom protection once AGAIN stops a game from playing right after i get done installing it off the cd/dvd. I HATE having to get a no-cd crack for a game that I purchased. My computer exceeds the minimum requirements by a great deal, but I wind up having to nuke the graphics settings and I still get terrible FPS- so it looks basically like SOC with choppy framerates. When I finish the painstaking "swamp level" at the start of the game (without doing any side quests i might add because it was boring as hell) I found a guide who promised to take me to Cordon- then nothing. No teleport, no message. And due to the game's new system of requiring a guide to get anywhere, I'm stranded in the swamps. If you can get past the technical issues, gamers should still buy this game instead of stalker: SOC, seeing as it improves most aspects. It's just a matter of time until they get the bugs patched and the mods start getting made. Also multiplayer's terrible- surprise.… Expand

Very enjoyable experience. Combat is difficult for a change. Play it like CoD4... and you'll die quickly and often.

Deep and immersive atmosphere abounds. The Zone will suck you in and make you forget all about time.

After playing the Steam version half way through - I can categorically state that my copy of the game is nearly bug-free, incredibly hard, and incredibly fun to play. If you liked Shadow of Chernobyl for the tactical gunplay as well as the atmosphere you will love Clear Sky. It's a game where using grenades is NOT an option, and often sneaking around back an enemy base while your faction attacks from the front is the only way to punch through a hardened defense. The tension and unease from SOC returns in spades as well here - but it's definitely not the main emphasis. You simply can't play this game like Crysis or COD4 and if you go in with that mentality you are going to be reaching for the quickload button often. Weapon modification and repair is a stroke of genius, and it makes the grind of collecting money and artifacts worthwhile. Ripping through army personal with an upgraded slug-throwing pump action shotgun is just a joy to behold. Overall Clear Sky is less of a work of art than Shadow of Chernobyl and puts more emphasis on survival than horror but for those that enjoy a challenge it might be the better game.… Expand

From the moment I loaded this game, I was amazed. The great storyline, the atmosphere and immersion... I don't know why people rated this in the mid 70's score, it's clearly an amazing game. Yes the dialogue is spoken with a broken Russian accent, but surprise, the game is set in Russia, so it adds to the realism. The action is much faster than the first STALKER, the interface is better, the UI is more responsive, and the music is fantastic (tip- enable "Dynamic Music" in the sound options and you'll love the battle music). In a way, "Clear Sky" is what "Shadow of Chernobyl" should have been. It's a night and day improvement in all aspects of the game, and Clear Sky has beat all my expectations.… Expand

Started out promising (although the graphics aren't as marvelous as they might be, it's certainly no Crysis) but then gets just as frustrating as the original, with the radiation and clunky inventory system getting annoying within the first hour of play.

Yes...this game may a bit buggy, but unfortunately enough, games aren't perfect. I can't help but love this series for the fantastic gameplay, atmosphere, and overall great graphics. Maybe some gamers are too jaded to see through all the bugs to see a fantastic gem. I hope the people that give this game at least an hour or so have as much fun as I did. Must buy along with S:SoC.

My computer won't allow the many graphical improvements they've probably made to be displayed, so what's left for me to see is a game with a lot of flaws.The poor AI, lack of a decent tutorial, the steep learning curve and the developers fascination with graphics, at the expense of polished gameplay and mechanics, leaves me thinking this is a bastion of the outmoded 90';s hardcore FPS pc gamer. With Far Cry 2 stepping into STALKERS territory, it is under threat of becoming outflanked and obsolete.… Expand

Outstanding prequel/sequel to the original. Greatly enjoyed tromping through the old and some new areas. Everything great about the original was kept, plus a host of new features like tricking out weapons, suits, etc.. Met and exceeded my expectations!

Game crashed often on install. Patch corrupted my save games and I had to start all over... the problem is IT STILL CRASHES.

Its important to note that first and foremost, stalker is a survival horror game. Yes the shooting mechanics have ultimately been refined but they don't really match other games. But that doesn't matter because the survival necessary to live in the zone, and the sheer horror of doing so, raises this above any other game in terms of atmosphere and difficulty. Thats difficult in a good way.… Expand

Got this from Wal-Mart four days prior to the release. No CD-KEY included, as there is a major print debacle (Google is your friend), but was no problem to play single player. Graphics are quite good, though the performance hit on my machine (relatively high-end gaming rig) is too great for the offering. Tweaking everything just right will yield a somewhat balanced eye-pleasing and playable experience (right now, with v-sync, i'm averaging 30 FPS and dropping to 20 FPS under dire situations). Gameplay is near identical to the first one, as far as combat goes, but the RPG elements have been improved as well as the upgradability aspects. Having not played more than a few hours, I will leave the rest for everyone else to decide! If you loved or even just liked the first one, be sure to at least give this a chance. Remember that critics are becoming tougher and tougher as the overall quality of all games is growing.… Expand

This game is truly an amazing achievement. The graphics are really good, and so is the gameplay. Plus im Ted Nugent so thats like plus a million.

The graphics are beautiful, gameplay is fun, but it's still quite buggy, even after patching.

Well, I played through the original Stalker 3 times and quite enjoyed it, bugs and all. I've been playing "Clear Sky" for about 12 hours now........ Wow, the graphics are great, story seems to be quite good... I've spent most of my time exploring the 1st map area - Swamps?.. finding goodies, shooting bad guys and ramping up my gear. The main difference I have found is that it is easier to go from place to place via guides, upgrading weapons, armour is also easier as there is a clear distinction between traders and weapons techs that makes the whole issue of upgrades a lot easier to do than in the original. So far looks very promising The only minor issue that can be frustrating is trying to figure out why you are doing things i.e. receiving a message about a camp being attacked not long after the beginning when you have no idea where it is, as your guide has dumped you in the middle of the swamp. You only get to figure it out once you realize you need to use the map interface on the PDA to figure out directions. I suspect this is the only confusing aspect until you make the mental leap on how to work it all works, still I didn't need the agro. This game appears to be nice and gritty like the original. Bad guy AI appears to be quite a step up from the original. If you like strategy, sneaking, having to make choices before you get into a situation, you will like this game. The hours just seem to fly by.… Expand

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky is a great game. Be sure to install the patches first but after that.......whoa. You can make it as long or as short as you want. Tons of side quests and the faction wars make it interesting as well. The end is underwhelming compared to Shadow of Chernobyl but it serves the purpose of filling in the blanks just fine.

Alright, Now I'm gonna talk about what I think about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky. 1. The atmosphere is better. Things feel much more alive and going, unlike SHOC. 2. The new "artifact finding". While in the first game, artifacts were tossed out in the open, sometimes not even near anomalies, now you must get out a detector to see where they are. Because of the danger of trekking through the anomaly fields, the artifacts are now much more valuable, some reaching 30,000 ru. I think the least amount is 4000, compared to the 1000 of the original game. This is definitely more fun, and It's exciting to see what new artifact you have found. 3. It's more buggy. Buggy as hell, sometimes. Crashes, inescapable blowouts, etc. You will need to patch this game! 4. Point of no return. Stupid as ever. Even further from the end of the game, there's still about 2-3 hours of fighting after it if you take your time, and, also- there's tons of gear after it, so you can't get them and make moolah. 5. Grenades are still basically worthless 6. Money is much harder to get, whereas in SHOC at the end I had about 300,000 ru, I've only gotten to about 30,000 in CS. 7. Much harder. While SHOC wasn't that hard even on master, CS on master is extremely challenging, you going down in about 2 shots from the always-accurate shots of your foes 8. Factions- you can now join with more factions 9. You can now upgrade and repair your weapons, allowing you to keep your good gun with you for eternity (with enough moneyto fix it, of course) 10. Graphics look better in most cases 11. Time changes more noticeably now. No way to skip time, though, meaning you'll be stuck in the dead of night 12. Creepier. I got pretty freaked when running through the red forest in the dead of night 13. Guns are mostly the same, with some new ones (Martha (92fs) is more common now) along with a couple changes to weapon names, reloading sequences, and new sounds, not much has changed in the weapon's section. Note- you can now affix a silencer to many more of your guns, only a couple pistols and other weapons will not accept them (possibly because of upgrading?). HUD changes. You no longer see yourself with the suit on, and have to hover the cursor over items to see the descritpion- you can't click them. I've heard that there was no stamina bar, and you'd have to go to your inventory to see it. (numerous patches fix this, i think-because it didn't happen to me) Also, there's no ranking system, encyclopedia, or monster body parts when you check someone's inventory out. New monsters/changes/faction - CS makes use of new monsters and changes, along with some new factions, including the new swamp thing ( weird bloodsucker thingy), The Clear Sky faction, and the fact that poltergeists are almost impossible to kill. Well, that's it. In my opinion, CS was a worthy follow up to SHOC. In some ways it was better, in some ways worse. It's worth the time to get it, though :D… Expand

Somethings wrong with this game. I don't know if it's because it's a download version or not. I do know i've had problems with them before. I find myself going to a new location and a pulse or what ever you call it is comming and i have 15 seconds to find a non existing hiding place. I've been killed by people you only see after you are dead. I have gotten to a location where all my weapons dissapear and only come back after you run up to an enemy and get your butt shot off. If you are lucky enough to kill him the weapon dissapears untill you get someone else to shoot at you. I am up to date on patch's and i have a top of the line pc, so i'll elimate those. So i think i'll look for the game on eBay for cheap, delete the Steam one and start over. Would also be nice if you could get help when near freindly forces. Seems they just want to stand around and let you do all the fighting.… Expand

This game is awesome. I recommend it if you like the freeplay and do whatever the hell you want styles of gameplay. The AI is very smart, the gameplay is awesome, and the details to the models is amazing. The only problem i have with this game is the bugs.

Better than the last one. Not entirely, but once you start the game up you instantaneously notice the improvements in detail, and how the atmospheric quality of the last one has been decreased, but it isn't too distracting. In fact, it fit quite well.

I'm not sure which is better, this or the original Stalker - there are many improvements particularly the ability to repair and upgrade weapons and armour as well as the weapons fire being a lot more satisfying and dangerous, however the game is slightly harder to enjoy because of the increased complexity of the entire gameworld and artifact system. Having cleared out the final bandit base for the 10th time and have them instantly recapture it as soon as I leave the area becomes pretty irritating after a while not to mention the ridiculous amount of bugs and random crashes. The entire atmosphere of the game has shifted to a more action oriented gunplay type, and while the mutants are now more satisfyingly deadly there are never enough of them and the fact that almost every game entity appears on your pda map really ruin the classic you really stepped-in-it-this-time moments. While in a sense this game is more immersive than the first, the extremely limited faction system and the common bugs spoil much of the fun you can have. Basically this game will fully deserve this 9 only if it ever gets patched to cut out the bugs, and hopefully add some more unique loot to upgrade.… Expand

Wow, this is seriously the best post-apocalyptic game ever, except maybe Fallout 3 when it comes out. if you do not like the setting of the Zone, may be fested upon by a bull cockatoo on meth. 11/10 for everything, especially the new customization system, except the graphics, although that can be overlooked.

(Reviewing the patched version of this game) This game feels like an advanced yet prototype version of Call of Pripyat. While it does feel like a more varied free-roam game, the enviroment is a lot less interesting compared to CoP. The amount of other stalkers also brings the atmosphere down since you can see them in just about everywhere. The story isin't interesting and it feels like an excuse of saying hello to every faction in the game. It would have been a lot better to just focus on few groups in the story missions or something else instead of what it's now. The combat lacks in good weapons. From the few weapons I used, everyone of them were as accurate as a hippo trying to shoot a gun for the very first time. It's just bad design choice to purposefully let weapons be as inaccurate as in this game.

If you want to visit Chernobyl, I recommend a lot more of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat. The atmosphere is a lot better, the story doesn't feel like an excuse and the combat is a lot better. This game is still enjoyable but it's more like prototype version of CoP.… Expand

Is "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky" a step backwards to the series? The answer is yes an no. Clear Sky brings quite a few new things to the series. Atmospherically and geographically is better, but there are far more bugs in this game than in the previous game. Also, the battle system can be quite unbalanced and unfair. Of course, with a few patches the game would be at around 8.5/10. Final verdict: "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky" surpasses the previous game in some aspects, but it feels that the game wasn't completely finished. Still, when it comes to having fun and exploring, Clear Sky can never get boring.… Expand

Great game but. This is a great game story line is good game play is a little broken graphics are pretty good but there are a lot of bugs. One bug that happened to me a lot is the mission scripts wouldn't load and I had to restart the whole game a few times (make backup saves you wont regret it) atmosphere is pretty good if would have gotten a 10 if there were no bugs but I am knocking off 2 points because of the bugs.… Expand

An epic bugfest at the time of realease, CS got a fair amount of official patches and community mods since, bringing the game to playable quality, but still, it's by far the least good one in the series. If you're a die-hard fan of SoC, you can have some fun with this game too, but if you're not as forgiving, then you can pass on it with clear conscience.

This game was the absolute bomb, up until I got around the first 2 maps and the storms of bugs continued. This game was abosolutely fantastic and had a great potential but an abundance of crashes and errors plagued me. First entering the Garbage made me crash, then after walking around Dark Valley some the game would crash with a consistency of once every minute. Tryed download Complete mod and it made the game not start. Figured out that problem and eventually it started crashing again at Limansk. The upgrade trees for assualt rifles was pretty easy to choose(100%accuracy is much better compared to 100%rate of fire, wasting away your precious bullets). I disliked how Bloodsuckers were made. Invincible while invisible which basically meant you had to wait for it to hit you before you could kill it. But after getting Complete and without crashes for maybe 75% of the single player, made this game fun to the max. Faction system, artifacts weren't a common thing to find, upgrading your weapons, and a more controled quest system, made this game wonderous and I would have given it a perfect score if it was coded and fixed better then it was.… Expand

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. world and the Zone are one of my favorites of all time. This game as shipped leaves a lot to be desired. I give it a 9 if you are using mods, maybe even a 10. On its own I'd give it about a 7 or 8. With what is out there now, especially the Stalker Complete mods, the game is absolutely amazing. All the bugs are fixed, the graphics, sound, lighting, and just about everything else are beautiful. I love the soundtrack for this game as well (except the beginning Clear Sky base song). I never had any of the bugs or quest/script errors others are mentioning. If you own a high end PC, cranking this up with the full dynamic lighting can be one of the most immersive experiences of all time. Weather mods add beautiful mornings and sunsets, amazing cloud formations and colors, and terrifying thunder storms. If you play this game at all, I highly recommend modding it first. The Complete mod by ArtistPavel is easy to install (.exe file) and is comprehensive and doesn't change any of the core gameplay.… Expand

This game provides many things good - shooting is competent, open world is charm and full of secret. Unfortunately, everythings is ruined by technical issues and bad optimalization. I can survive this in game like GTA IV (where's fantastic story) but here it's salt in the wound.

This game is a surprise. For me it started out a little confusing but once I got the hang of it the game was addictive. You will want more. I just finished the sequel and am looking forward to the newest arrival. Great atmosphere.

Adding better systems to SoC this game pushes the post apocalyptic fps-rpg genre forward in a very positive way. Beautiful designs, amazing sound, and a general feel that only the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series could create. The ending may be a let down, but my tip is not to get there, this is a game that i sunk over 150 hours into just exploring and living within the atmospheric zone. If you are a gun fanatic you will drool over the weapon upgrade system! have 5 of the same gun model that all have a very distinctive and different feels that are used for drastically different situations! The shooter mechanics are brilliant and gunplay is challenging, buy this game if you want to truly experience a post-apocalyptic world, just turn the lights off, the sound up and lose yourself to the zone!… Expand

What a pathetic game. I struggled to bring myself to complete this one. So many bugs, flaws, and poor design. Forget about running the game with dynamic lighting, you'll get only about 5-10 FPS with that enabled even with a modern PC. The turf war is introduced in the beginning but that is the last you will hear about it as the main storyline is strictly linear with no player choices. Twice during my playthough i came to an unavoidable part where i would lose all of my money. This in effect caused me to be unable to purchase any higher end armor so when i reached the later stage of the game i had poor armor that was basically ineffective. Aimbotting enemies that can see through bushs and brush, and that can land a grenade directly at your feet from 50+ yards ruins the game even further. The map is expansive, but unfortunately it is almost a complete carbon copy from the first game with the exception of 2-3 areas. Weapons degrade faster than a condom and you will often find your gun jamming at the most inopportune times, unable to buy a better weapon or repair your current one because the game decided to rob you of all your cash a few missions earlier. "Friendlies" will randomly become hostile to you for no reason, even ones that are supposed to give you some dialogue, this forces you to reload a previous save again and again until the game decides to act like it is meant to. The atmosphere is even worse than the first one, there are no scares or exploration, it's basically just a straight up shooter. Overall it is just a complete disaster of a game that you should avoid at all costs.… Expand

Lots of people say this game is different from SoC/CoP, but that's just the best part. It's not some blotchy atmosphericless sequel that has barely any connection to the other games, it just lets you see the Zone from a different point of view - clan wars. As uninteresting and faraway from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that may sound, they actually implemented this feature very well, cutting off some parts and adding others to increase its quality. I think it's a nice little improvement. After all, they mixed SoC and CS gameplay in CoP (groups forming out of similar clan members and on-the-spot clan wars) and it looked, and still does, great.… Expand

WHAT MAKES THIS GAME SO DAMN GOOD, i mean this game is amazing ( the others where better ) but i mean this is so different so unique not turned into crap ( me 3, crysis 2, hf2 episode1 and 2, new vegas ) ok some of those are good but not as good as there prequels, this game is good get it for $30 or less the ai are smart, the rpg elements are very well integrated, WARNING THIS GAME IS SCARY AND CREEPY, no doubt it is scary as hell scarier then dead space 1, and fear combined. just amazing get it if you want a new game too add to your favorites list… Expand

To start with the positive: The part about Clear Sky, mainly the first part of the game, including the swamps, the fraction itself, the ambiance, the first Clear Sky missions, etc, was very well done. I even felt surprised at how GSC Game World managed to add something so different from their previous title to the same world, without messing it up. That, along with fixing a big part of that buggy game-play from SoC, was what amazed me at first, when I played through the swamps. I guess what I felt about the game at that point was: "This is going to be really good!" However, it turned out not to be so. That feeling quickly turned into "Whoa, that was fast, leaving this place, I wonder when I'll get back here", ever since I left the swamps. Too bad for me though, cause I never did! It seems that you barely ever have any time to explore the world, since you're always headed for the next mission, often because someone is calling out for help; they taught you not to ignore those calls way in the beginning, and that along with my experience from playing SoC, where every choice you make matters, I haven't ignored a single one. This resulted in me being paced to the next part of the main quest, rather than exploring the world. I can't even tell you whether it's even worth exploring!

What else is, the storytelling; it's REALLY bad. The whole story was basically neglected. There are holes in the story between SoC and this game the size that you could drive a truck right through them! It doesn't even seem to be an attempt to be mystical; it really just seems to have been forgotten. I don't want to spoil it for any of you who might actually play it, but the ending isn't any better. So, all that, along with a ton of other relatively small issues (they would be big in other games), my conclusion comes to this: The game most of all seems like a spin-off from Shadow of Chernobyl, an attempt to get some easy money out from the players who like the first title. The story is not worth much, and neither is much of the rest of the game, if you play it after having tried the original, in which case all I would say is good about it, is the fact that it feels a lot like the original game in some ways, however, the lack of an even decent story overshadows it. GSC Game World really had a big shot at filling out a bunch of [u]very[u/] interesting holes in the original story, but they failed miserably in doing so. If you miss SoC so much, that you just need to go back, this won't be much to find, unless you can live with the disappointing story. In that case, the slightly improved graphics and features (PDA, Upgrade-system, Faction-wars) might make up for some of it. Thank you for reading through this. It was done in a very short time, but I don't feel like I owe it to this game, sadly, what a big chance wasted...… Expand

Patched and running with the 'Reloaded' mod my first experience playing CS this game almost gripped me as much as the first SOC, plus it looks way better.

Clear Sky is a complete disaster. It was so bad that I'm just now writing a review about for the first time since I played it 4 months ago. My reason for writing this review so long after I played is because I don't want other people to know the horror of playing this game, please, save yourself from doing so. What breaks Clear Sky is the amount of bugs it has. The shooting mechanics are also terrible, you can hit a bandit (the weakest human opponents in the game) with 5 shotgun shells from 20 feet away and they will be fine, the recoil is ridiculous and the damage is pathetic, even with he upgrade system for weapons it's still terrible. Yet another problem that really bugged me was the fact that all the NPC's in the game are voice acted by no more than 2 different voice actors, sometimes you'll come across a group of friendly stalkers that are all speaking in the same voice and saying the exact same thing over and over again. Other people who give this game negative reviews say that the graphics are the only good thing about it, well that is true but the game is so poorly optimized that you could have a top-notch gaming PC and still get under 25 fps on max settings. Overall, Clear Sky is nothing compared to it's perfect predecessor Shadow of Chernobyl. I strongly recommend that you do not even consider playing this game until you have played SoC or at least Call of Pripyat first.… Expand

I knew from the start Clear sky wouldn't live up to its predecessor. To rate this game I'm going to start at 5 and add or remove 1 or 2 points depending on how well that aspect is done. First off the gameworld of the Chernobyl is very important to the game. But it wasn't as well executed as in it's predecessor: they added some new zones and modified most of them. Some of the new zones like the swamps look like mush, just really bland textures, but a new zone like the red forest is awesome and eerie. So in all the game world is pretty much the same, new zones, some are good and some are bad. So for the gameworld I will give +0 for being pretty much the same. Next well talk about the atmosphere: atmosphere really set SOC apart, and honestly this game is a let down. The only thing this game improves on in atmosphere is a day-night cycle. It still has eerie zones and places but i was only frightened in one part of the game. So this game just doesn't have the same spooky haunting atmosphere. So fro atmosphere i will give -2 because it is such a let down. Next well talk about another important aspect the weapons and combat. So in my opinion this game improves on the combat by adding new weapons and armoured suits. They have a new repair and mod system which is a godsend Some of my complaints with the weapons is that I think enemies sometimes take too many rounds to kill and also the weapon sounds are poor. So for combat and weapons I will give a +1. Next well talk about storyline, the storyline is done well it takes place before the previous games events and has you (Scar) following a group trying to penetrate to the power plant. The storyline is on-par with the first game without giving too much away i'll give it +1 because its pretty good. Backtracking a little the graphics have never been he strong suit of the S.T.A.l.K.E.R but this game has bland and boring textures and poor graphics, though it is a wasteland so you have to expect a bit bland graphics. So for graphics I will give it -1. Next well talk about a new faction war feature that i think is awesome. Being able to chose your faction and receiving their free gear for conquering their enemies is kickass. It is so awesome to wait at night time with a SVD with a night optic and knock off enemy squads, I think its a really cool and unique gameplay experience. Ill give it +2 for being a really awesome new feature. And last but not least we have the game from a technical standpoint, unfortunetly this game is littered with bugs. None of them game breaking but just frustrating so I'll give it -1 from a technical standpoint. Finally a quick side note, I greatly reccomend the complete mod, it fixes all of the game problems, but this isn't a mod review. So in conclusion I give the game a 5 out of ten. Sadly it's a little mediocre and doesn't live up to its predecessor but still a fun but flawed so if your a fan of the series its a-must play, but if your not I would just leave this one alone.… Expand

Wrost optimalizing game, in Stalker games. But its my favourite. Contains a lot of bug, but i don't care. I liked the fractions in the game. The game have a lots of gametime.

Worst in the series. Only noteworthy part is the faction wars mechanic, where you can aid the various in game factions in battles against each other for territory. This is pretty cool because you can really change how the game is played with who is friendly/hostile to you and who inhabits what areas. However the mutants are toned down a lot and the majority of the game is a replay of the original with all humans.… Expand

Easily the weakest game in the series. Countless annoying quirks and bugs will test your patience, and soil what would otherwise be a solid addition to the Stalker series.

This game not that bad at all, but the quality of the game and amount of bugs is overwhelming. The plot is weak, much worse than previous game. Whole idea about faction wars could be intresting, but The Most Stupid AI ever ruins everything.

This game had so much potential. I played it to the end but almost wish I hadn't wasted my time. I had it fully patched up-to-date, with several popular mods, and it still felt broken and incomplete. The atmosphere is great, but the actual game is very poor. AI is truly dire. The last level really shows that the game was rushed. And the ending... possibly the worst ending of any videogame I've ever played in 25 years. Shadow of Chernobyl was a much better game. Probably more frustrating than fun. I'll delete this from Steam and never reinstall it.… Expand

He came, he saw, and he reviewed! Muhahaha

Not a bad game, but the weapon upgrade system was not good, and the game was overall buggy.

The graphics was nice, but the level design was simply terrific.