www.stalker-game.com/clearsky/index_en.html
Release date is 29 Aug 2008
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http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/st...yadded;title;1
Release date is 29 Aug 2008
http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3169840
Release date is 29 Aug 2008
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/st...g=tabs;summary
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Changes of the Zone map known to stalkers shake the fragile balance of forces in the Zone. Among the groupings, there flare up hostilities for the new territories, artifact fields and spheres of influence. There are no more old enemies or friends – now everyone is for himself. The Factions War has started between the groupings. The protagonist is a mercenary who appeared at the edge of the opposition between stalker factions, Strelok and even the Zone itself. The main character will have to play the key role in the events, which led to creation of the Zone up to the point from which the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game begins. Changes of the Zone map known to stalkers shake the fragile balance of forces in the Zone. Among the groupings, there flare up hostilities for the new territories, artifact fields and spheres of influence. There are no more old enemies or friends – now everyone is for himself. The Factions War has started between the groupings. The protagonist is a mercenary who appeared at the edge of the opposition between stalker factions, Strelok and even the Zone itself. The main character will have to play the key role in the events, which led to creation of the Zone up to the point from which the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game begins. What's waiting for stalkers in the opened depths of the Zone? Which new challenges bear in the new territories? Why blowouts continue shaking the Zone? Why did the Zone change? How to remove its instability? Which faction will take the upper hand in the clan opposition? Why did Strelok end up in the death truck? What happened to Strelok prior to that? Was there any other choice to make? These and many other questions will get answered in the official prequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. Experienced stalkers and newbies! Get ready for the new challenges in the exclusion zone in Q1 2008. Key game features:
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http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/st...yadded;title;1
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A lone stalker guides a team of scientists into the heart of the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Their goal is to discover the secrets behind the deadly anomalous energy explosions that continue to ravage the zone in the years following the second (and fictional) Chernobyl meltdown. These burnt plains of the Ukraine are littered with aggressive mutant animals, pockets of impassable radiation, and factions of humans willing to kill for valuable irradiated artifacts. Only a seasoned stalker, mercenary hunters of this forsaken landscape, can guide these scientists through unscathed. In the distance, a thundering rumble grows closer, shaking the earth. The stalker halts the scientists as the sky turns blood red. The area suddenly explodes with deadly energy. The scientists are obliterated. The stalker, somehow, survives.  Nothing cheers up a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland like a little kumbaya. Thus the stage is set for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, a prequel to the celebrated S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. This first-person shooter/role-playing hybrid is set a year before the events of Shadow of Chernobyl and puts you in control of Scar, a mercenary stalker that has somehow become immune to the anomalous energy waves that threaten all life in the exclusion zone. The exclusion zone is open for you to explore as you see fit, allying with factions and playing through the main storyline or simply collecting valuable artifacts to upgrade your abilities and fill your wallet. As always in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., how you play is entirely up to you. Gallivanting around the exclusion zone isn't going to be easy. There are other stalkers and clans out there, each with their own goals and agendas. Quite often, your goals will clash. For example, you'll seek to collect a powerful artifact while a rival stalker may simply want to kill you. You can see the conflict here. What's impressive is that the clans will operate independent of your actions and non-player characters will fight their own battles in this large, open world. GSC Game World gave us an updated look at Clear Sky in action, walking us through one of game's largest open areas: the marshland. We spoke quickly with a friendly clan leader who directed Scar to save a stranded comrade that was being hunted by wild, irradiated boars. Before leaving the friendly confines of the camp, Scar shared some friendly words with other clan members--almost every character in the game has something to say--and then purchased a new shotgun from a weapons dealer. The inventory system works much like that of Resident Evil 4--you have a limited number of slots to store guns, ammo, and artifacts. Choose wisely. As we left the base camp, a group of clan members came along to help out. Since we last saw Clear Sky, GSC Game World added some rudimentary squad commands. They are limited to "attack" and "take cover," but they were nonetheless effective as we ran into a group of bandits hunkered down in an abandoned house in the middle of the marshland. After ordering the squad to take cover, we moved into a good cover position and ordered it to open fire, gaining the element of surprise. We quickly dispatched the enemy, took out a few mutant wild boars, and rescued our friend. We only saw the shotgun in action, but there will be plenty of interesting weapons, such as one-handed machine guns and old Red Army firearms. Keep in mind that Clear Sky takes place in 2011, so you won't be wielding any giant radiation guns of the future here. Weapon will degrade over time, and you will have to maintain them to keep them from jamming--not something you want to have happen as a mutant boar bears down on you. In addition to Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Artifact Hunt from the original Shadow of Chernobyl, GSC Game World is adding a new game type to the 32-player multiplayer mode. The development team was scant on details but did say the new mode will be similar to a traditional Capture-the-Flag. We're hoping some of the role-playing-game elements of the single-player game make their way to multiplayer, including customizable clothing and weaponry, but we won't know more until the E3 Media & Business Summit where the game will be shown later this summer.  Many of the buildings are modeled after real-life structures in the exclusion zone. So far, Clear Sky is looking to expand upon the winning formula that made Shadow of Chernobyl a critical hit last year. While the post-apocalyptic, nuclear wasteland instantly draws parallels to the venerable Fallout franchise, Clear Sky's blend of tactical combat, role-playing elements, and dynamic storytelling looks to carve out a niche all its own. We'll have more on Clear Sky soon. |
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Reviews The changes in Clear Sky are contradictory at best: Some oversimplify to the point of absurdity, while others encourage exploration and risk-taking. > Reviewer's Blog > Review Crew Profile  S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky developer GSC Game World is conflicted, and it shows. The recent announcement that their previous first-person shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl sold 2 million copies worldwide promises a bright future for the brand, but it also raises difficult questions about how to move the series forward. With more developers reaping financial rewards from populist game design (see: Team Fortress 2, Spore, and, to a lesser extent, BioShock), it stands to reason that GSC may follow suit with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise -- and they have, to some degree. But the changes in Clear Sky are contradictory at best: Some oversimplify to the point of absurdity, while others encourage exploration and risk-taking. Take the new PDA owned by Scar (Clear Sky's mercenary protagonist) as a benchmark for dumbing down. The gadget displays not only mission objectives and points of interest, but also the location, disposition, and movement of all identified entities, be they man or mutant. It's an almost inexplicable alteration to a world that relies so heavily on exploration and discovery to achieve suspense, and it's especially perplexing alongside the new artifact-gathering system. Artifacts in Shadow of Chernobyl were immediately visible and littered, power-up-style, all over the ground. Here, they're transparent trinkets spawned in dangerous anomalies and revealed by upgradeable locator tools. Nabbing an artifact from the center of a radioactive pit and escaping by the skin of your teeth is extremely rewarding, but the two tools are strangely disparate: The PDA minimizes exploration and depletion of your health bar, while artifact gathering demands both -- and the latter doesn't balance out the former. The most discussed incident in the game is also one of the best examples of conflicting design paths: At one point during Clear Sky's storyline, a group of bandits stun and mug Scar, leaving him (and you) with little more than a pistol and some bandages to combat the Zone. In my case, the kit hit was negligible at best. Twenty minutes of scavenging and arms dealing, and my equipment was better off than before I fell for the bandit trap. But early European reviews panned the cut-scene, singling it out as an example of uncompromising difficulty -- and it was hastily patched into obscurity. In this case, broad appeal trumped perceived difficulty well before the game's Stateside release. Erratic design decisions like these, combined with the increased use of (admittedly corny) English voiceovers, have been decried by some as the undesirable end result of a rubber-stamping publisher. To me, it's all evidence of a highly talented development team flush with cash and confused as to what role their game should play in the PC-shooter scene. Should S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ape the Battlefield series? Clear Sky does, now and then. It also mimics Call of Duty in more ways than one -- and not always for the better, if you're not a fan of infinite enemy respawns. Should the target demographic be everyone, or the diehards? With Clear Sky, GSC tries to answer with "all of the above" and, in attempting to please everyone, may frustrate some. Consider my nitpicking as the result of deep admiration. Clear Sky is a great game and a worthy successor to Shadow of Chernobyl, despite the identity crisis. Clear Sky's concern is the human struggle to control, contain, and exploit the Zone -- which is itself presented as a conscious character to a far greater extent than in Shadow of Chernobyl. While various factions scrap over territory and philosophy, the Zone bellows ominously in the distance. As the battle inches towards the fiercely guarded Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the Zone fights back with deadly blowouts that bathe the world in red light and force the belligerents to seek cover. Far from wanting for eerie atmosphere, the Zone is more oppressive than ever. What Clear Sky doesn't deliver is the abject, adjust-your-gamma terror of its predecessor. Certainly, the tattletale PDA doesn't help, but the more important difference is that Clear Sky is prehistory: This dystopian-but-densely populated Zone is the "before" snapshot to Shadow of Chernobyl's hellish "after." Here, guns, ammo, and -- by extension -- rubles flow like water thanks to the constant (and vastly improved) combat. My inner coward couldn't be happier. |
