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

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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.

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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!

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(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.

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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.

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(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)

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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.

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(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.

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(Hey man, no shoes on the bed!)

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