MovieChat Forums > S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (2008) Discussion > What did you think?

What did you think?

posted 16 years ago by SupaChupacabra
2 replies | jump to latest

I've only played a few hours now, just the swamps and Corden areas... and have mixed feelings on it.

What I like:
-Instead of making a whole new universe, a lot of the terrain is familiar. The "if it's not broke don't fix it" approach.
-Swamp is huge, creepy, water is radioactive... very realistic.
-Guides. This is a big help since areas like the Swamp are massive, and getting around is a pain, it's a nice addition.
-Lighting. The weather, sky, and terrain lighting is really atmospheric... a really nice upgrade.
-Quicker to get decent weapons. Without much effort I had a Viper, and AK47 without having to save up cash.
-Ability to upgrade and repair weapons... no more need to carry 3 versions of your favorite gun in the event it will wear out and need to be disposible.
-AI improvement. Fighting is not easy, as your enemies are good aims, track you if you run, and take a lot more hits to kill.

What I don't like:
-horrible trade in values. I was pissed to see I had accrued enough RU to buy a NATO rifle with scope, and then see the price and the actual price differ. I had 5200 RU, enough to buy the 5000 RU rifle, but once in the trade slot the price jacked to 10000 RU! WTF? From what I can tell on average you get 10% on sales, and are charged about 200% to buy. I think as your relationship with the faction improves the prices get better but to start off the game getting gouged is a bit rough.
-AI is a bit too accurate. Okay, I have my light off, they have theirs on at night, and they hit me over 80% of the time to my 20% excluding ridiculous gun jams?
-This "prequel" terrain oddly doesn't have much difference to the later terrain... namely in the Corden, most of the building have the same missing roof panels as in SoC? WTF man it looks like they just barely modified the map.
-Despite guides, very annoying sequence of quests points... having to go to A to B, back to A, back to B, to C, back to A. For 500 RU. Why am I constantly having to return to the Clear Sky base to get rewards, miles away with other leaders and bases around me? Seems kinda dumb.
-Too many unnecessary "quick save" situations. The point where you are looking for Fang and have your stuff ripped off... I dumped all my stuff in a nearby corpse. Fine. Go out, corpse is gone. F me. Restart. Put stuff in a permanent corpse. Repeat. Go out, my anomaly detector is missing. The good one. F me. Restart. Have to lug crap across the map to a box. Save, done, finally after 4 tries I get my stuff back. Come on. Poorly thought out.

Overall seems like a nice immersible title but still can't tell if it's a refined Stalker or simply a barely upgraded one. Graphics are definitely a huge improvement but actual plot is still rigidly linear, weapons and ammo are too dedicated to zones not your skill level, and difficulty seems unnecessarily increased on certain things (like artifacts) to make it less fun.

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[–] jemieabernethy 16 years ago

it's not as good as the first, especially after playing the mod that brings it back towards stalker's original concept 'oblivion.'

i liked the new maps but hated the fact that they'd taken out old ones, especially the underground bunkers.

i liked modding weapons but there was a severe lack of weapons to mod, the H&K G36 was a big miss.

the main story was much shorter

i also don't think the faction wars was as well balanced as it could have been, i especially hated the small objectives which were cancelled when all you're guys get minced, usually when you get orders you're already in a firefight and about a mile away

lack of mutants to fight, and when they did come they all came at once i've had at least two occasions where i've defended the same camp from mutant attacks 3 or 4 times in sucession within about 15 seconds of completing the first defence

i liked the fact that you had to seek out artefacts with the detector, but there wasn't enough of them.

i'm not drunk; i just have a speech impedident... and a stomach virus...and an inner ear infection.

[–] SupaChupacabra 16 years ago

Yeah after experiencing a few bugs that forced me to patch and restart, I'm almost done. (at the point where you're sneaking into Chernobyl)

-The story is shorter.

-Faction wars wasn't very well done. I joined Freedom at one point, and Duty soldiers kept generating at an absurd pace. I'd kill off three sets of soldiers in three different waypoint locations... and check the PDA and there'd be new soldiers already on the way to each of those points. If I camped at one of them, I could kill the incoming soldiers, loot their bodies, and their replacements would already be in firing range. I did this for like 2 hours until I have about 10 loads of weapons to sell off. Nice to make money but just unrealistic.

-Mutant spawning was definitely messed up, and usually there were too many mutants per pack. Once while fighting off a wild dog pack (already tough to hit) a pack of boars spawned in the same spot, before I'd finished, and it was a *beep*

- I was expecting a lot more weapons as advertised, and never saw them. The crappy fixed MG thing that ways a ton and barely does damage? Good for $.

It was a glorified expansion pack, and a beta at that. If they'd released it next spring and polished it a bit more it would have been impressive but this was rushed, and the lack of effort shows.

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