S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Review @ Eurogamer

[Dhruin]

Balance and difficulty concerns hold back Kieron Gillen's opinion of STALKER: Clear Sky in the first review (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=228698) we've seen. The score is 7/10 and here's a sample:
The problem is simply a string of design and balancing issues. In practice, after I received my first artifact in the training sequence, I didn't get a second for at least ten hours of play. That's "get", not "find", by the way. In some cases I was in the right spot - or, at least as close as I was when I managed to get hold of one - but completely failed to make the thing appear. In most cases, however, the area I was lead to was toxic above what I could survive for long enough to locate the tricky blighter without burning medkits. So I mostly just ignored it and carried on.
More information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=10131)

[Prime Junta]

Urkle, sounds like a worthy successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. all right. Let's hope they manage to fix what's broke in a couple of patches.

Normally I'd hold off buying it until that happens, but I liked the original so much that I just might be willing to take the gamble that it won't. Happen, that is.

[Zakhary]

Yeah, this is an absolute must-buy for me.

There are more reviews here:
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/stalkerclearsky?q=stalker

Play.com is selling it for " EUR 25.49 Free Delivery "

[Ergolius]

Pretty bad review, only complains about one or two issues, but not really telling about new weapons, new areas or anything else, except he had hardtime to find anomalies....

[Name]

I'd say don't trust any reviews. Just look at the official forums. Ask people around or just try the demo if there is any, of course.

[r3dshift]

You may have noticed that Eurogamer reviews are a bunch of crap. Just ignore them completely. At least that's what I do.

[Unregistered Retard]

It's Kieron Gillenm. Not a bad game journalist at all. Hopefully, the balancing issues will be fixed in less than a year or so.

[Sergius64]

Well I'm looking at the official Russian forum and people there are complaining as well. Sounds like they've ruined that "STALKER Atmosphere" and the plot is really dumb.

[Prime Junta]

Ai yi yi. That's more or less what the review at CVG says too. And that review reads like it was written by someone who "gets" what the original was about, and really wanted to like Clear Sky.

Downgrading this from "Buy" to "Hold," and waiting for more reviews and player comments. And I was so looking forward to this, too!

[r3dshift]

Best wait for some nice community MODs as well. Regardless, I'm gonna give the vanilla game a try too.

[Prime Junta]

I'm looking forward to your take on it.

[Unregistered retard]

Read CVG review, too. I have already decided to give the game a year. How long have we waited for the original STALKER, after all? And I have many more things to do.

[woges]

Both RPS ed's.

This and the CVG review that is.

[r3dshift]

Read CVG review, too.
No offense, but when a reviewer whines about a game being too difficult and unrewarding (read: no piles of artifact by default) for his (console-warrior) tastes, it's utterly pitiful and laughable. Guys like these should stick to playing Solitaire.

[Starwars]

I wouldn't mind tough combat, but it seems that in this case it's in conjunction with a lot of encounters which could get tedious fast. I thought STALKER was pushing it in its encounter rate (especially towards the end), so when reviewers bring this up it's not exactly a good sign. I think what STALKER did brilliantly was to allow the atmosphere of the zone build up the tension with no action and *then* having some really nice firefights.

If Clear Sky really has encounters all over the place, then the game is really going to suffer for it I think. That would be going away from a lot of what made STALKER special if you ask me.

Hopefully modders can "subdue" the game a bit and set a pace more similar to the first game. If so, then I'll be interested in it.

[Prime Junta]

No offense, but when a reviewer whines about a game being too difficult and unrewarding (read: no piles of artifact by default) for his (console-warrior) tastes, it's utterly pitiful and laughable. Guys like these should stick to playing Solitaire.

That wasn't what bothered me about the CVG review -- although I, personally, LOATHE the save-and-reload rhumba. That's not "challenge," it's lazy game design masquerading as challenge. But generally there are workarounds -- like, turn down the difficulty.

What bothered me was his description of the "game-ization" of factional combat; the way the mystery was taken out of the Zone by having everything appear on the minimap, and his description of how an initially interesting dynamic degenerated into a series of generic brawls. Or the bits about out-of-place cheesy humor, the overly-cheery English dialog; that sort of thing. That sounded like something someone who actually "got" what Stalker is about, but was disappointed.

This, and the very similar chatter on the Russian boards, suddenly deflated my expectations of the game big-time. But, as stated, I'm looking forward to your impressions once you actually get to play it. I thought Stalker and Witcher were the two best games of last year, and I was *really* looking forward to Clear Sky. I hope these reviewers (and the chatter) have got it wrong. So once you get it, let's hear it.

[Dhruin]

No offense, but when a reviewer whines about a game being too difficult and unrewarding (read: no piles of artifact by default) for his (console-warrior) tastes, it's utterly pitiful and laughable. Guys like these should stick to playing Solitaire.

I find both Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignol respectable writers but don't let that stop you from assuming they're whining console retards. Oh, they also run a pretty decent PC-only website, by the way.

[Unregistered Retard]

It's not only their names. It is common in their reviews that, although Clear Sky improved in some parts, sum of these parts don't make the atmosphere of its predecessor. This is definitely shame but it is often the case with independent studios not to have the level of quality management control of the major studios with abundant resources. Considering a part of dismay till the release of Shadow of Chernobyl came from this typical handicap, I couldn't but expect the same issue coming again to Clear Sky. The condiition is different from CD projekt, which seems to have good resources even if it was not known to North America.

I'm not happy with this, either, but I cannot say that I couldn't tell it's coming.

[JonNik]

What bothered me was his description of the "game-ization" of factional combat; the way the mystery was taken out of the Zone by having everything appear on the minimap, and his description of how an initially interesting dynamic degenerated into a series of generic brawls. Or the bits about out-of-place cheesy humor, the overly-cheery English dialog; that sort of thing. That sounded like something someone who actually "got" what Stalker is about, but was disappointed.


Yep, those the bits that made me cancel my months old preorder too...
I loved the original but I think I'll assume a wait and see attitude with
this one for now...

[Guhndahb]

Darn. I loved STALKER and was very much looking forward to this. Well, I will likely buy this anyways to support the authors but I'll likely wait for a good deal.