I've recently (Today, in fact) picked up STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl after a very, very long time looking at it. Along with it, I picked up Clear Sky in good faith.
Now, I'm a story nut. If something tiny irks me about the writing of a game, it may set me off of it completely. Along with that, I prefer to experience the story in order rather than going 3-2-1-4, like I mistakenly did with the Half-Life series.
So, I want to hear from someone who's played both STALKER and the prequel Clear Sky and given consideration to the storyline. Should I play the games in canonical order (Clear Sky -> Shadows of Chernobyl) or is there something in the first game that would give me better insight to the storyline in Clear Sky? Or does one of the games have such significantly better gameplay than the other that I should play that first and save the frustration for later?
Or is the writing balls and should I be paying more attention to killing things?
Remember, no spoilers. Spoil it for me and I will hunt you down and bury you alive.
Well, I really have no info. Clear Sky is the prequel to SoC, but I don't think that there is a lot of relation to SoC. Especially as Clear Sky came 2nd in release order.
I think the story makes the games really interesting (no, I haven't played them *sad face*; I read the plot synopsis on wikipedia). Without the unusual and unique setting of Pripyat, Ukraine (Pripyat is a town VERY near to Chernobyl; in fact, it was founded as a place for the Chernobyl reactor plant's workers to live at), and the interesting concepts behind the story are what makes the game even possible to enjoy (at least for me. run&gun FPS action has its place, but it does not captivate me very much anymore).
No first hand info here, but my best friend raves about the games. They run terribly.
His advice for me to play them was Shadow > Clear Sky.
Also he advices to play it on easy because any other mode is stupid hard and near impossible and you lose focus on anything else but not dying. He also mentioned that the writing was fantastic and its the best RPG he's ever played.
But that's just him, and all I've got.
I have SoC and love it. Haven't finished it yet, but find the story so far to be good. The real winner for me in this game is the atmosphere and combat model. You can feel the sense of desolation in the zone, an almost survival horror feeling at times. It can be a little hard to get a handle on if your used to running and gunning, because that will get you killed quickly. In combat you need to check your approach. Stay down, use cover, fire in short controlled bursts. The ballistic model is pretty good with things like bullet drop at distance and such. One of those games you also like to just go exploring at times finding hidden stashes and artifacts.
I plan on getting CS sooner or later(whenever I get through with SoC), but I've heard SoC is the superior of the two. I'd also recommend getting one of the excellent mods like Stalker Complete 2009. It doesn't change the fundamentals of the game, but improves the graphics even more and tightens up a few quirks with the base game.
The price I see it at now is just insane. I bought it a while back for $20(took abit to get around to playing it), but would of felt it worth it at full price. Shoot, just talking about it now I need to start it up and play some
I have both and played both. You can play eitehr one first but I woudl recomend SoC first since Clear Sky migth reveal you soem of the plot for SoC while SoC will not reveal the plot for CS.
I have never played Clear Sky, but one piece of advice I can definitely give for SoC.
Install this uber-mod: http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009/news/stalker-complete-2009-release
It is so much better than vanilla, it's not even funny. The only problem is that playing Clear Sky afterwards might feel like a downgrade.
I love that most people here haven't play both games but are still giving advice.
The storyline isn't that great. It's novel at best and is entirely predictable. CS reveals some very small aspects of the SoC plot, but nothing important. SoC sets up a mildly entertaining story, and CS explains a loose and fluid origin to that story, if you will. What is amazing about these games is the atmosphere. Stalker is one of my favorite FPS games, and is my favorite if I take off my nostalgia glasses. With some of the great mods available, SoC is 10x better than Clear Sky.
Personally, I recommend playing SoC to the very end. Try to get the true ending, but if you get one of the several other endings then still enjoy it. Then play CS and have some fun with it. I didn't like CS as much, but it as many neat features that are improvements. After beating CS, install the mods for SoC and play it again. It's like playing a totally different game, and will blow your CS experience out of the water. IMO, if you played them in any other order, you'd be disappointed with one version after having played the other. If and when CS gets some of the amazing mods it may be able to compete with SoC, but currently there is no comparison. And with Call of Pripyat as is, those mods will likely be abandoned in the hopes of improving CoP.
Although you may have already made up your mind I figured since I'm such a big SHOC and SCS fan that I would give my input.
First of all I would recommend playing SoC first opposed to going straight for CS even though CS takes place before SoC. If you pay attention in SoC then you learn "certain" things that make the storyline worth while in CS. I also noticed that in CS the introduction they present you treats you like you have already played the first game. Another thing I liked is that during the prequel you find that artifacts and all other items cost more than in SoC, but during gameplay in SoC at a certain point you are given info that the Zone just isn't the glorious place that it once was when artifacts were valuable and that life was rough. I find that this subtle information given in SoC is shown in CS which you wouldn't pick up on otherwise. This small circumstance is just a taste of information in the deep storyline that the games provide and I don't want to spoil anything for you as you told me not to.
You are also shown in CS how certain factions came to be in the areas that they are in SoC. This doesn't demand you play SoC and then CS but it is cool to know and understand after having played through SoC and learning tid bits of information in the story.
Play SoC first, and I think you will understand what I am talking about, but that depends on if your a storyline buff or not, I'm sure once you get into the Zone you will be hooked.
gentlesnake
Xfire = snaker9er
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