Stalker Clear Sky is a very interesting game. Having played the original Stalker, Clear Sky is much improved in several ways, but most importantly the atmosphere of the game has improved. The game is slightly pushed more toward the survival aspect of the Zone. The original Stalker made you fend for yourself but it was almost too easy. Clear Sky makes life a little more difficult and fun; your survival instincts kick in more fully, as every mission and exploration could be your last. You still have to be tough as nails to survive through much of the combat, as a couple well placed shots will kill you just as easily as your own attacks kill others. The faction system is also a welcome improvement. You're no longer the only mover and shaker in the Zone, as each faction is constantly vying for control of parts of the Zone, and you're usually needed to tip the balance. Unfortunately the biggest downfall of Clear Sky is the buginess; it is not perfect, and keep at least 3 different save slots. Be sure to patch to the latest update before you start playing as your saves will NOT be playable from this version. Other than that, Clear Sky is a fun game with some good adrenaline moments.

Under the caveat that I'm writing this about a fully-patched version of the game, I can only recommend Clear Sky whole-heartedly, especially for fans of the original Stalker. Everything that made the original game great is here, but it's surprising just how new the game can feel at times. Even when moving through the original game's locales, the new emphasis on ground-based squad combat makes the game a very different take on the same general gameplay as the first. It's a much less lonely experience, and the horror aspect has been dialed down - while some consider these negatives, I don't. The first game still exists, after all. The tonal shift is a major reason why Clear Sky doesn't get boring. That said, the level of overall tension is much higher - mostly because this game is much more difficult. Death comes faster, the odds are constantly against you, making money is very challenging (and losing it is easy). This is a high-stakes game, and it's all the better for it.

Stalker CS is what the original Shadow of Chernobyl should have been. It fixes what was broken in the original and adds plenty enough to make it an actually fun game to play, the first game was just too much hassle to get running back when it was newer. For starters the technical side, I got Clear Sky to run faster than Shadow of Chernobyl. It also looks better and has anti-aliasing on, which makes the speed bonus so much better. next, widescreen support. This was sorely needed in the original, because all you can get nowadays for a PC is widescreens and games made around 2005-06 mostly didn't support that, giving you either a distorted fish-eye view or a window. Not in Clear Sky, it's supported and runs fine. Gameplay. Now you can modify guns a variety of ways to make them your own, and some mods don't work with each other so you have to pick carefully. You can change the SMG from 9x19mm (the 9mm we use) into the 9x18mm russian bullet, which is at least 4 times as common in Clear Sky so you can go full auto without watching your hard earned money fly into bushes when you miss. Also you can repair stuff. This was sorely missing in the original, because special guns in the first game would be thrown away after you fire a few hundred bullets from them. Now you can make your own gun without randomly finding it and repair it to keep it forever, something to make you unique. You can also modify armor with nightvision or gasmasks, kevlar plates to stop bullets and hard leather inserts to soften the impact through the kevalr, etc. To finish this there is also the faction system where you go to war against factions with the one you choose, and objectives are randomly made that you have to achieve on the fly. The more guys that die, the less you have on the field. Thees also equipment, the more resources you capture on a battlefield the better your guys are equipped, but the main difference I see is just them getting a notch up in the gun scale (double barrel shotguns to sub-machinegun) when the bar is really high, and in the middle of the resource bar your guys start chucking grenades more often. Nice touch in my opinion. If you like the original, you will guaranteed like Clear Sky better no matter what. If you didn't like the original, you may like this one as it's glitch free in the 5 hours I played it so far. If you didn't try the original, well if you like realistic gunfights where you can die in a couple of shots with decent armor then give this game a try sometime. My only complaint is the accent some of the voice actors have, English speaking Russian imitator who try to sound like communists were thought to in the cold war, a bit much fake accent but I can stand it because you can read the dialogue 90% of the time so it can be overlooked. 5/5 stars from me.