S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky (Game Review)

STALKER
Clear Sky is the second game in the STALKER game series, though it’s
story apparently takes place before the first game. Like the previous,
it is a mostly open-world survival horror game inspired by the Chernobyl
disaster. In this one’s story, you start out playing as a Stalker (a
“backronym” for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers,
Explorers and Robbers) who was escorting some scientists through the
swamps when an emmision (deadly shock-waves of energy and spacetime
distortion that occur in the game’s “Zone”) hit and kill everyone but
you. You are rescued by a secret science team called “Clear Sky”, who
eventually escort you back out into the swamps, where your adventures
can begin.

It
had been a couple years since I played the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game
but I was greeted by many of the same things I loved about the first.
The visuals are beautiful and eerie, and the sound design and music are
wonderful, and exploring the world is both very fun and very tense, as
hidden goodies can be found in many places, as well as deadly hazards
and monsters. I greatly enjoyed exploring each area, seeing what folks I
could help out and make friends with, and satisfying my desire to hoard
tons of goodies as I do in every survival game I play, hehe. Friendly
and neutral camps throughout the game will allow to do things such as
repair, upgrade, buy and sell different gear. You can store your
equipment in little metal boxes throughout the world, each of which have
their own unique inventory. They don’t have a shared inventory like the
chests from Resident Evil 2, but I enjoy the game’s atmosphere so much
that I didn’t most of the backtracking I had to do.
I
honestly had a bit of trouble following parts of the story-line, but
this could be partly due to the fact that I’d been in a bit of funk
these last few months and had covid this week, but the game has a lot of
likeable characters to meet along your journey, such as Ganja, a cool
stoner dude in the game’s “Freedom” faction, or a nice old man named
Forester that you meet on the outskirts of a big creepy forest.
Surprisingly, there’s even a bandit outpost in the game that you trade
and upgrade at, though unsurprisingly, they’re eager to rip you off and
some of their friends on the outskirts of the base will try to mug you
if you get too close!

(At night time, things get REAL dark and the music gets even spookier than usual. I love it. :D )
This
is definitely a game that will keep you on your toes. Even on the
easiest difficulty, it’s important to save often and carry a lot of
healing items. Radiated areas don’t always have a visual indicator so
you have to be ready to back up at any moment when exploring unfamiliar
areas or you’ll die pretty quick. Many injuries in the game inflict
bleeding, which means you’ll need to carry both bandages and healing
items for emergencies. Also, when looting bodies for loot, time doesn’t
stop like in Fallout 3 - so scavenging bodes of fallen enemies during a
big fight is always really risky and you have to be very fast. While
playing through the game, I kept wondering where the “artifacts” from
the first game were, having never found any. Sadly, it wasn’t until
today, writing this review, that I found out I was supposed to use a
machine I had to locate them in anomaly zones. I don’t recall this ever
being explained to me in the game, and I wish it had been more clear, as
my lack of artifacts (anomalous objects that can grant the player both
buffs and de-buffs) may be part of why it was really hard for me at
times.

Another part of the game I wish I had been able to prepare better for was “Limansk”. If you hadn’t played the game yet, I want to give you a warning without spoiling plot details - make sure you have everything you want to keep, and probably a lot of healing items, once the game tells you are about to enter this area, because it is a one way route for the rest of the game, and I couldn’t find anyone to trade weapons with or repair my equipment for the last several levels of the game. This made the game’s last few levels a brutal slog, where I was constantly low on healing items, my armor eventually broke, and I even eventually started to suffer a shortage of ammo for my good weapons, too! It definitely felt satisfying to still eventually make it through such hard levels, but I would have appreciated a better warning from the game.

(Ending Spoiler warning begins)
The final level of the game is a confusing mess that took me a while to figure out. Your job is to stop a man named Strelok by using a weapon to stop his “psy-blocker” device. At first I tried to move forward on the bridge this level starts on, but I just ended up in fights with overpowered enemies who would spawn out of thin air and make quick work of my broken armor and extremely limited ammo supply. I tried leaving the bridge and exploring the huge environment this final scene takes place in, but couldn’t find ammo or supplies anywhere - it all seemed to just be there for set dressing. i even realized that enemy characters down on the ground were invincible for some reason, making it impossible to kill them and get supplies that way. I finally realized that you can actually see Strelok right from the start of the level, and your best bet just have to quickly use your weapon to disable his device before he can escape from your line of sight. After that, I was finally able to complete the game.
(Ending spoilers stop here)

Outside the awkward final level, another bug I encountered in the game was that I was sometimes not able to select my grenades as a weapon, and the only way to get them accessible again was to drop all my grenades and then pick them back up. Other than that, the game ran quite well for me.

(This strange mass reminded me of the “Elephant’s Foot” thing I’ve heard about. Wouldn’t want to be in a room with that!”)
Overall,
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky was a really fun experience. The final level
was confusing and I wish the game had explained a couple of things
better, but there are many different areas in the game that are a lot of
fun to explore, and a great spooky atmosphere to immerse yourself in.
There’s lots of variety in weapons and many different factions to meet
that you can join (I chose to be a neutral loner on my play-through, but
I am interested in trying to join them in future on any future
palythroughs). It can get really tough at times but with practice,
frequent saving, and lots of goodie stockpiling, you should be able to
see it through to the end and enjoy some good spooks along the way.
Thankfully, being an older game, physical copies are available as well
as digital DRM-Free copies on some online store fronts.







Comments
Post a Comment