And the clouds roll in.
We've been looking forward to the STALKER Clear Sky for some time now, first because we desperately wanted to return to the unique world, and second because we hoped a sequel would give the developers a chance to present a more stable and consistent experience than we got the first time around. And while the basic approach and concept of the game is still as original and interesting as ever, the rough edges make it at best unpleasant, and at worst nearly unplayable.
If you missed the first game, shame on you. The wide-open world offered a kind of freedom not seen in most first-person shooters. Loads of moody details and atmosphere gave the world a sense of depth and realism, while the unpredictable anomalies and mutants and mercenaries made it a dangerous and often terrifying place. In short, it was a strange mix of elements that managed to captivate a number of gamers in spite of its abundant bugs. Clear Sky offers more of the same, adding several entirely new elements and lots of new content but some of the changes shift the emphasis of the game into directions that may not be entirely welcomed by some fans of the original game.
The writing isn't terribly good, but it's at least enough to provide a context for your adventures in the Zone. The voice acting doesn't really help to sell the realism, mostly because of the broad delivery, but also because so much of the ambient dialogue is still in Russian. To be fair, the characters are themselves a bit flat, so it's not entirely the fault of the voice actors.
But though the inhabitants lack a lot of personality, there is a lot of personality in the environment. The visual appeal of this game world is simply amazing. From little campfires out in the wild to massive multi-level industrial complexes, the game looks and feels like a real environment and not simply a massive game level. Of course, there are still some illusion-shattering elements, like the very gentle slopes that you just can't climb, or the barbed wire fences that you simply won't cross.
To help navigate this world, the PDA has more information for you this time around. You can simply check the mini-map for the location of your next main objective and your selected secondary objective, and you'll also see the location of item stashes as well as the other inhabitants of the zone, be they friendly, hostile or dead. If you open the PDA proper, you'll have a chance to scan the entire world for any of these elements and plan your explorations with an eye towards the big picture. You'll see concentrations of friendly and enemy forces and find your own opportunities to take advantage of the overall situation.
Clear Sky introduces several competing factions that you can help or hinder as you make your way through the world. You may simply deliver ammo to a group of guards out in the wild, or you may hunt down dogs that are harassing patrols out in the wild, or you might take part in full assaults against another faction's strongholds. The faction wars are an interesting supplement to the main story, and it's easy enough to get so wrapped up in helping your faction that you lose sight of the main quest for a while. The rewards are definitely compelling. First, if your faction rules a zone, things are a lot safer for you as you travel around. You'll also have more access to secondary missions, neat delivery rewards and NPCs with whom you can trade. And because some of the factions aren't in direct competition with each other, it's possible to be friends with more than one group at a time.
Getting involved in a big firefight between two competing groups gives you a real sense of participation in the world and adds a lot to the interest of the game. Of course, just as there are players who will love all the walking you have to do here, there are bound to be some who don't like that STALKER slants a little more towards Ghost Recon with these new faction fights, but, for us, they definitely add a bit more focus and excitement to the world.
We got a call on our PDA to help defend that monstrous ruin in Garbage and when we got there, the fight was already underway. We had to shoot our way through the attackers to get to the structure where the other defenders were. As each wave of attackers came in, we'd pick them off and then make a mad dash to loot ammo and health packs from the fallen enemies. The problem was that the waves kept getting stronger and closer together and we soon realized as we were fighting them off from the highest level of the building that all our allies were already dead. Seeing no hope, we actually ran from the building and abandoned the objective to the enemies. We came back to the scene a while later and, being better armed and having something to prove, staged a one-man assault and killed every single defender. Coming back throughout the game, we knew that the guys who had set up shop in that area had us to thank for it. That type of open-ended gameplay really gave us a sense of personal accomplishment that's as precious as it is rare.
But on the other hand, the combat itself is exceptionally challenging, both in terms of the abilities of your opponents and the bases created by the level designers. Your enemies can throw grenades now, which sounds fun, but in practice winds up being more a source of frustration. They have uncanny accuracy and can drop a grenade literally right between your feet, even when you're standing thirty yards away...in some bushes...at night...behind a rock. Outside of the grenade problem, the AI fights reasonably well, using cover where appropriate and advancing on you without running straight into your fire.
To tilt the advantage in your favor, the game offers a wealth of options to customize your weapons. You'll spend cash to increase the size of the magazine, or minimize recoil, or extend the muzzle velocity or accuracy. There are so many options here that you really can start to create very specialized weapons that help you play the game the way you want to play it. We took a pretty standard rifle and outfitted it with all manner of upgrades until it really managed to surpass every other weapon we found. The only real pain here is that you'll soon start to run short of cash, even without taking into account the frustrating loss of your items during the course of the game.
And as before, the game has more bugs than an ant colony. We were actually halted in the campaign by a number of bugs, one of which we never found a way around. No one on the forums seems to be complaining about this particular bug, but there are a few other complaints of a similar nature. We also found that entire regions would be stripped of NPCs at random, requiring us to save and reload the game in order to make them reappear again. In some cases we weren't entirely sure if an irregularity meant the game was broken or was just part of the story. This is, after all, a game about anomalies. But there are far too many inconsistencies that just ruin the illusion, and sometimes even ruin your progress.
To be sure, many of these issues are likely to be addressed in patches but it's simply too much to bear in the meantime, particularly since the original game was criticized for the same sort of instability. There are fans that will be willing to endure these problems for the sake of the things that the game gets right, trusting that GSC will resolve the biggest issues in the very near future. It's just a shame that the experience isn't more reliable right out of the box.
At least let us quick load from the death screen without having to go back to the main menu.
On the plus side, we don't seem to have run into any of the performance problems that some people have had. And that's a great thing because this game has an amazing visual presentation. Yes, enemies can shoot through trees and, yes, sometimes soldiers will stand in a campfire, but for the most part the world is rendered with a tremendous attention to detail. Small flowers dot the hillsides, rust is taking hold of the steps of a nearby watchtower, and the sideview mirrors on an abandoned jeep are cracked and grimy. Everywhere you look in this world, there's something to see and it's easy to get a sense that this is a world that someone use to live in and where the rooms in the buildings had a specific purpose.
The character models are wonderfully detailed, with loads of pockets and patches and clips and all the usual suspects of military fashion. The few characters who aren't staring at you through masks have wonderfully animated faces, full of personality and life. Even the mutants and dogs seem to have a real credibility here, though it's hard to appreciate when you're being clawed to death. It's especially hard to appreciate the spectacle of a death by anomaly but in those few seconds before your brain implodes, you can take note of the grainy filter, the reddening skies and the huge gouts of flame. Then you can appreciate the quick save function.
Of course, the effect is spoiled somewhat by the terrible dynamic music that kicks in when a fight starts. Though the overall score is generally very good, the combat music is distracting both in terms of its tone and its quality. Thankfully, there's an option to disable it.
Closing Comments
Though all games have their fans, unique games like STALKER seem to generate particularly enthusiastic followers, and deservedly so. The first game presented a very unique experience and, by and large, Clear Sky sticks close to that model. So if you liked the first game because it was big and dense and scary, then you'll like Clear Sky for the same reasons. And if you like the original but wish that it offered more GRAW-style action, then Clear Sky is even better.
Not everything works, of course. The faction fights seem too easy, which is balanced out, we suppose, by the ridiculously accurate grenade throws. The story doesn't offer much of a foundation for the action, either. The real shame of it all is that the game was let out the door with so many bugs, some that merely slowed our progress and dampened our enjoyment, and one that actually stopped us cold. Many of these issues are bound to be addressed in upcoming patches but we'd wait until the game has at least a few under its belt before trying to tackle it again.
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