Clear Sky was my third S.T.A.L.K.E.R game, and it should arguably be your second. It is a prequel to the first game and explains how things got into the state they are there. However, I will also say it is probably the weakest of the three currently released S.T.A.L.K.E.R games. It is still good, but most of the game is spent fighting human enemies in open areas away from the anomalies of the Zone. That basically means you are avoiding most of what makes S.T.A.L.K.E.R… well S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments that really shine (the Agroprom underground and Red Forest), but it’s got two very good games that share it’s spotlight (SoC and CoP).

For the most part CS is similar to it’s older brother SoC and is basically a metroidvania shooter. You bounce between sub maps and complete quests between them. This was basically the “open world” format for games before actual open worlds got big. As for the minute to minute gameplay, CS is mostly shooting at human baddies. You still scavenge loot from your enemies and anomalies, but there is a lot less of the latter and they aren’t as important as in other games (I beat the whole game without using artifacts). Overall, if you’ve never played a S.T.A.L.K.E.R game then start with Shadow of Chernobyl. If you can only afford two S.T.A.L.K.E.R games then buy SoC and Call of Pripyat. If you can afford all three then buy em all and play this one second. Just don’t worry too much if you get kind of tired while playing this and want to skip to CoP.


------- Helpful technical tips for people who are sold on the game beyond this point -------

I also feel obligated to address the claims that you have to play on Master for the game to be playable. It seems that a rumor has been spread that both your and enemies’ damage scales based off of difficulty, as far as community testing is concerned this is false. Play at whatever difficulty feels good to you, and be ready to turn it down for the final boss as higher difficulty just makes the fight boring.

Before I get too much farther, I should note that I played with the SRP (Sky Reclamation Project) mod installed. This is essentially the community bugfix mod and is perfectly fine to install while still maintaining a vanilla experience. It can be found here and a short guide on how to install it can be found here. Aside from just installing the SRP mod, I’d also recommend reducing the head bobbing. For some reason the S.T.A.L.K.E.R devs absolutely LOVE crazy amounts of screen shake and it’s honestly nauseating. Here is a quick video on how to do that.

------- Bonus end game gameplay tip [barely a spoiler?] -------

For the love of god, gear up before going through the tunnel to Limansk (after lowering the bridge). The game acts like this is just going to another zone, but you are about to enter a marathon run to the end of the game and it only gets more taxing as you move further in. Since I didn’t know this I did the whole thing with broken armor, a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ PKM that I couldn’t ADS with, and I ran out of bandages about halfway through (so I was hemorrhaging blood out my ass for the last hour). LEARN FROM ME!

Clear Sky was my third S.T.A.L.K.E.R game, and it should arguably be your second. It is a prequel to the first game and explains how things got into the state they are there. However, I will also say it is probably the weakest of the three currently released S.T.A.L.K.E.R games. It is still good, but most of the game is spent fighting human enemies in open areas away from the anomalies of the Zone. That basically means you are avoiding most of what makes S.T.A.L.K.E.R… well S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments that really shine (the Agroprom underground and Red Forest), but it’s got two very good games that share it’s spotlight (SoC and CoP). For the most part CS is similar to it’s older brother SoC and is basically a metroidvania shooter. You bounce between sub maps and complete quests between them. This was basically the “open world” format for games before actual open worlds got big. As for the minute to minute gameplay, CS is mostly shooting at human baddies. You still scavenge loot from your enemies and anomalies, but there is a lot less of the latter and they aren’t as important as in other games (I beat the whole game without using artifacts). Overall, if you’ve never played a S.T.A.L.K.E.R game then start with Shadow of Chernobyl. If you can only afford two S.T.A.L.K.E.R games then buy SoC and Call of Pripyat. If you can afford all three then buy em all and play this one second. Just don’t worry too much if you get kind of tired while playing this and want to skip to CoP. ------- Helpful technical tips for people who are sold on the game beyond this point ------- I also feel obligated to address the claims that you have to play on Master for the game to be playable. It seems that a rumor has been spread that both your and enemies’ damage scales based off of difficulty, as far as community testing is concerned [url=https://old.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/7fxvt5/what_do_difficulties_actually_change_in_stalker/]this is false[/url]. Play at whatever difficulty feels good to you, and be ready to turn it down for the final boss as higher difficulty just makes the fight boring. Before I get too much farther, I should note that I played with the SRP (Sky Reclamation Project) mod installed. This is essentially the community bugfix mod and is perfectly fine to install while still maintaining a vanilla experience. It can be found [url=https://www.moddb.com/mods/srp/downloads/srp-v112]here[/url] and a short guide on how to install it can be found [url=https://old.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/4vecci/how_do_you_install_the_sky_reclamation_project/d5xs9g4/]here[/url]. Aside from just installing the SRP mod, I’d also recommend reducing the head bobbing. For some reason the S.T.A.L.K.E.R devs absolutely LOVE crazy amounts of screen shake and it’s honestly nauseating. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYNi1pmxr0o&feature=youtu.be]Here[/url] is a quick video on how to do that. ------- Bonus end game gameplay tip [barely a spoiler?] ------- For the love of god, gear up before going through the tunnel to Limansk (after lowering the bridge). The game acts like this is just going to another zone, but you are about to enter a marathon run to the end of the game and it only gets more taxing as you move further in. Since I didn’t know this I did the whole thing with broken armor, a fucking PKM that I couldn’t ADS with, and I ran out of bandages about halfway through (so I was hemorrhaging blood out my ass for the last hour). LEARN FROM ME!