Stalker: Clear Sky - post review

[bad_brain]

some of you know that I am a huge fan of "Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl", for me it's still one of the (maybe THE) best games in the last years.
so I of course had to play the successor "Stalker: Clear Sky" too, I am through with it for some days now and so I will write a little review.

the story of "Clear Sky" is playing in the time before "Shadow of Chernobyl", and the map is about 70% the same, so when you have played SoC you have a little advance.

what I like
- the new PDA (it displays your missions and locations) is much better than the old one, but it took a while to get familiar with it
- some new weapons like a machine gun and the option to use a silencer on rifles
- weapons and armor can be repaired and upgraded, some cool features there, if you run out of ammo for a weapon you could upgrade it to use different ammo for example

what I don't like
- the level of difficulty...it hard, I mean REAL hard, even on beginner level, and there are some spots that are simply unfair. for example: when moving to a new map you spawn near to a military outpost, they have automatic rifles, nightvision, heavy armor, everything.....you have: a jacket, a gun and a sawed-off, they already hit you before you even spot them.
- merchants are too rare. to make money for upgrades, repairs and new equipment you have to sell all stuff you can find, this means you often have to walk a lot because there is no merchant near you. warning:spoiler to make it worse there is a point of no return, once you entered Limansk you can't go back anymore. from Limansk until the end of the game there is NO merchant anymore, if you got there without a decent equipment you're pretty fucked.spoiler-end
- the end, it is DAAAAMN hard!


conclusion
Clear Sky is a good game, but because of the really hard and sometimes even unfair difficulty it can be pretty frustrating, especially until you have a decent weapon with upgrades. "Shadow of Chernobyl" is a clear 10/10 for me, for "Clear Sky" I would give a 7/10. one thing that I was missing was the dark, scary and sometimes even depressing atmosphere of SoC, anyone that ever have been in the highly radiated "Brain Scorcher" area knows what I mean....it was that intense, you could almost feel the radiation. but ok, that's maybe a matter of taste, some like it dark and scary and some like it more "Fary Cry-ish".


a good hint
warning:spoiler
when you have located "Fang" at the fleamarket put all your equipment into a box there BEFORE entering the cellar beyond the door! because once you got down there you are knocked out and all your stuff is stolen....you are left with just a poopy gun. ok, you can get your stuff back, but it's definitely no fun to fight with a gun against a automatic assault rifle.

[rhysh]

haha dude

i just got this game for christmas after i bought the previous one ages ago and finished it

the game is great

but the new one i havent played much because ive had lots of fun on the phone to my isp,which if they havent fixed this problem i will cancel my plan and all let you in on why you shouldnt fall for the ispp im with

anyways yeah the last one was great,this one ive only played the start of it

anyways anywone who want my sav files from stalker chadow of chenobyl just ask