S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky
Developer(s)	GSC Game World
Publisher(s)	GSC World Publishing Deep Silver (Koch Media)
Engine	X-ray Engine 1.5
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	August 29, 2008
Genre(s)	First-person shooter Role-playing Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, is the stand-alone prequel for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, a first-person shooter computer game by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World. During E3, it was reported that the game will consist of a 50/50 mix of old remade/altered levels and totally new areas to explore. It will be released August 29, 2008. Also the game engine is being updated to v1.5 and will include DirectX 10 support. The AI is to receive an overhaul to accommodate the new "faction wars" feature; which will give players the opportunity to lead one of the eight factions to become rich and dominant.

The current tagline appears to be, as of writing, "What awaits you, S.T.A.L.K.E.R, in the Zone that changed?"

On Thursday, March 27, 2008, GSC Game World announced the release date is currently set for August 29, 2008.

Premise

As a prequel, Clear Sky will include a storyline which explains a little more about Strelok’s past, and how he ended up in the back of that truck with a gaping hole in his memory. Set approximately one year before the events of the original game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky will see you assuming the role of mercenary (Scar) who has no great love for Strelok, the protagonist in Shadow of Chernobyl. Your mission is to kill Strelok but actually it won't be possible, you will be able to see Strelok at few crucial instances during Gameplay.

Its also presumed that you will be able to encounter Fang and Ghost.

Gameplay

Gameplay combines a mix of FPS (First Person Shooter) and RPG (Role Playing Game). The combat gives a realistic feel with accurate bullet ballistics, weapons handling, and healing system. The world is free roam and a player can choose to explore it finding many secrets. This time AI will be more intelligent, using objects dynamically to take cover and now throwing grenades. Over the shoulder fire has been added. Anomalies will be more common and can now move. Artifacts can no longer be seen with the naked eye; the player will have to use a detector to see them.

Clear Sky will have a more elaborate A-life simulation, there will be much great "freedom". There will be a faction war in the Zone, a struggle for territory. The player will be able to choose a faction he likes best and lead it to victory, weakening the other factions in the process. The stronger your faction becomes, the better ammunition the fighters will have. The war of factions will often change direction. Transition points and resources get captured, unexpected attacks are carried out. It all happens randomly, and your actions affect events in the Zone.

The player will meet characters he knows from Shadow of Chernobyl.

Factions

There are total nine factions: Bandit, Duty, Freedom, Clear Sky, Mercenaries, Military , Scientists, Lone Stalkers and Monolith

Other not confirmed ones are: Final Day and The Confederate

Mutants

Rodent, Crow, Blind Dog, Pseudodog, Flesh, Wild Boar, Poltergeist, Pseudogiant, Pyro monster, BloodSucker, Snork, Zombie Stalker and Controller.

Other not confirmed ones: Cat, Chimera, Burer, Tushkano and Phantom.

Weapons

Primary Weapons Beretta, Colt 1911, Fort, SIG220, SIG550,

Secondary Weapons Abakan, AK74, Ak74u, G36, FN2000, Groza, Gauss, L85, LR300, MP5, MAC10, RPG7, SPAS12 shotgun, SVU sniper, SVD sniper, TOZ34 double barreled shotgun, UPS, VAL, Vintorez sniper, Walther sniper, Winchester.

Features

Graphical Enhancements

Geared to run even on older DX8 machines, the game will have the same system requirements as the original STALKER. Still, players who have upgraded their system since then will be able to take full advantage of DX9 effects and DX10 effects . The new version 1.5 of S.T.A.L.K.E.R engine highlights a fairly good amount of changes. Some of the changes and additions are listed below:

• Every single light you see, including the sun, is a dynamic light source that functions exactly as you'd expect it to in real life
• Normal mapping and parallax mapping add tremendous depth to even the flattest of textures. Small rusted out pits in sheet metal, intricate bark patterns on tree limbs, and weave patterns on uniforms that all respond realistically to light sources are just some of the small touches that the new mapping system allows for.
• The game makes use of volumetric light effects to create shafts of light through clouds, window panes and even the dense and intricate foliage of trees. The effect is named as God rays.
• Volumetric lighting is another new feature and goes a long way to making the game look more modern.
• Day and night transitions happen more naturally with the sun rising in the East and setting in the West and all the character models have lots of new animations.
• Better depth-of-field effects are also in place and new weather effects make rainstorms look more realistic.
• Your view focuses on your weapon when reloading, the background becomes blurred.
• The game will have more realistic looking weapons and more detailed player models and water effects.
• Water bodies looks much more impressive and dynamic.
• Certain parts of the landscape will be destructible. There will be more dynamic objects.

Gameplay Enhancements

• A more believable battle system with realistic animations and reverse kinematics.
• Enemies can now take cover dynamically, they can throw grenades and will coordinate in a much better manner to pin you down.
• Enemies can blind-fire now and use cover in more ways than in Shadow of Chernobyl.
• Weapons and armor can be repaired.
• One of the biggest complaints about the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was how much time you spent walking from place to place. This is being addressed in the prequel via special guides. Fast travel is to be added to allow easier travel between areas. You can pay an experienced Stalker, like Guide from Shadow of Chernobyl to lead you through a short, but very dangerous path full of hazards from one area to another, in order to avoid having to run through the entire level.
• Weapons and armor will be repairable, and both will have a new upgrading system. There will be more new unique weapons. It will be possible to upgrade them very extensively in all categories by the player. Finding such weapons will be much more difficult. More ammo types (unconfirmed reports of 7.62x39mm hollow point and FMJ rounds being included). There are, of course, plans to add new weapons.
• Rather than having a linear plot (as with Shadow of Chernobyl) wars, territory capture, and fan-created missions will be included.
• It is now possible to tune many weapon parameters, for example: shot grouping, trajectory flatness, rate of fire, clip volume, so that you will be able to create your own unique weapon and invest money into its upgrades. This also helps the economic aspect of the game. No all barrels and suits will be tunable, but only the rare, unique, expensive ones. Some weapons and suits will allow up to 16 upgrades!
• You will not be able to simply stumble upon an expensive artifact, but will have to go into anomalous fields, search for safe paths with the detector, look for protection against harmful effects. This makes the Zone and the gameplay truly tense, anomalous, really stalker-like.
• There will be a person in almost every faction base, who will repair and upgrade weapons. For a price you will be able to keep your favourite weapons in good condition.
• You can shoot down birds in Clear Sky, as evident from the leaked demo and videos shown.

Community Q&A

• It has been under testing by a group of testers in developer's office for several months. This means that they get more precise error reports, can react to them faster and almost immediately see the results of our fixes. The testing team will be at work up until the very release to print, so they are confident that the game will work consistently and reliably.
• There is a point of no return at the end of the game so as to coincide the ending of the prequel with the beginning of the Shadow of Chernobyl.
• NPCs now recognize which covers are nearby and how they can be used. Though it won't be for the main player as its primarily a FPS, though its under consideration.
• The better the renderer(DX8, DX9, DX9.5 or DX10) you use, the more effects you will see in the game, the more beautiful will the fire and raindrops be. With the 9th and 10th renderers, all light sources, including bonfires, are dynamic, with dynamic shadows.
• You will be able to freely use game files and make mods no matter how you buy the game, in a store or through Steam.
• No, there will be no demo version of Clear Sky. Not all that much time is left before the release, and soon you will be able to experience the full world of STALKER.
• DirectX 10 will support such effects as volumetric smoke, fog, sunshaft, dynamic wet surfaces (rain), volumetric light, and soft shadows.
• The player can enter almost any faction and help them lead in the war, but, the player at the core a lone wolf and is used to rely only on himself.
• The file system and structure of the game have in general remained unchanged.
• A cooperative mode is impossible, since Life Simulation would be different at each computer. Synchronizing it would be practically not doable.

Leak

On May 27, 2008, the E3 game demo was leaked through torrent sites, and allowed users to play through the "Marsh" level, witness the basic concept of the improved AI and experience a few new graphical additions such as volumetric lighting and depth of field.

Known details

According to an article in PC Gamer UK and from a page on the GSC Game World Website:

• The player assumes the role of a mercenary called Scar whose goal is to kill the Stalker Strelok. It is confirmed that you can't kill Strelok. But the player will be able to see him in the game, and the storyline is directly tied to him.

• Rather than having a linear plot (as with Shadow of Chernobyl) wars, territory capture, and fan-created missions will be included.

• The player can join one of nine factions and lead them to victory. Confirmed factions that are joinable are the Bandits, Duty, Freedom, Clear Sky, Mercenaries, Internal Troops (Military), Scientists, and Lone Stalkers.
• The game is still set in the Zone, so around half of the game's locations will have already featured in Shadow of Chernobyl (The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the Agroprom Research Institute, and the Red Forest are confirmed locales). The entire gaming Zone will consist of 50% completely new areas, and 50% twisted, pre-Shadow of Chernobyl versions of old areas, as well as some removed ones. One of the new locations is the Swamp, which will be large.

• There will be more anomalous activity than in the previous game (with new and more varied anomalies). The anomalies, artifacts, and their detectors will be greatly varied. For example, the detector will be a device that is held in one hand, while the other holds a small firearm, like a handgun. Long-barreled weapons such as rifles cannot be held at the same time as the detector. New mutants have been added, and old ones have been enhanced. Blowouts possibly going to be included (unconfirmed).

• The AI will be able to throw grenades. When the NPCs throw grenades, a yellow icon appears on your HUD, warning you. The developers decided to do this after a lot of people had trouble avoiding grenades.

• Beside the use of grenades, NPCs have become much more intelligent; they coordinate and work very well in groups, interact in groups, and with the player. At the Igromir gameshow, no one (including the developers) was able to kill more than two of four bandits armed with AKS-74Us and Sawn-Off Shotguns before dying.

• The AI now have day and night routines. Since smart terrain for the AI has been expanded, now the world can be physically interacted with.

• The engine has had a mass of modifications, almost to the point of being completely overhauled. The lighting has been almost completely overhauled (e.g. the nights will be darker and there is completely dynamic lighting, all light sources can be altered, shot, or diverted), and volumetric light has been added. The engine will support DX8, DX9 and DX10, keeping system requirements similar to the original. This cannot be confirmed until the game is shipped, however. The variety of animations has been greatly expanded. Enemies can blind-fire now and use cover in more ways than in Shadow of Chernobyl. The game will have more realistic looking weapons and more detailed player models and water effects. Your view focuses on your weapon when reloading, the background becomes blurred. Certain parts of the landscape will be destructible. There will be more dynamic objects.

• The developers are considering adding vehicles into multiplayer.
• One new mutant has been confirmed, the "Marsh Bloodsucker", who will be invisible. This bloodsucker was seen in the swamplands level, and has the ability to grab NPCs and the protagonist and throw them high into the air, before taking them back into the swamps to eat.

• The game will be available for both retail and digital download, but the digital download will be exclusively from Steam.

• This game will require the same system requirements as the previous game (S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl)

External links

• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky official site
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky game details