I FORGOT THE AWESOME FIGHT MUSIC. Fight music was amazing, although it broke my immersion every single fight. Agree or disagree? let me know below ↓ Help The Channel Grow: www.youtube.com/@lonerjb?sub_confirmation=1
Bandit radio and the fact you could join the bandits is my favourite part of the game. The letdown was that winning faction wars for the bandits is impossible as you get attacked from all sides constantly by duty and loners
honestly for me the faction system is one of the greatest systems ever, it makes the zone feel alive and being able to befriend factions and conquer territory with them is super cool, although sometimes it retracts from the horror of the zone, with so many people running around shooting
Clear Sky was a HUGE evolution in the series, when compared to its predecessor, Shadow of Chernobyl, IMO. In terms of gameplay alone, the third game, Call of Pripyat, is the better of them all, but in terms of story and immersion feeling, Clear Sky wins. I also have the feeling that Clear Sky have better graphics even than the third game. I think GSC stepped down a bit in the graphics department, when developing the third game, to make it more accessible, cuz Clear Sky, by the time of its launch, had some stunning elements in its visual, but the price we had to pay for this was heavy, in some ways, it was like Crisis... hahaha... Maaaannn... talking about this is making me want to play the trilogy again... it has been a long time since I last played them... I love this series, its some of the best games of all time in my opinion.
The graphics I can agree with for sure. I was blown away with the graphics and the camera work when I first started clear sky. The immersion was really good as well. Something about the zones in SoC though just get me. I could sit in the dark of clear sky and just watch the rain for some weird zone asmr vibes i guess lol. I wish CoP was as atmospheric as SoC and Clear sky. You should give them another play through if you have time! Thanks for checking out the video and the comment!
Immersion was ruined in CS, despite the better graphics. Changing the focus from the Zone to its inhabitants was a bad move. Unlike the Zone itself, factions and stalkers are quite uninteresting, quite dull. No memorable character in the game besides Strelok. Factions' takes on the Zone are as uninspired as it gets. Also some design choices, like e.g. banging combat music, completely break immersion. If the first game was a Tarkovskyan journey, the second is more of a Michael Bay take on the Zone. With all the explosions... from the grenades thrown at your feet from kilometers away.
I liked the introduction of detectors for artifacts, and the search for info on upgrades was lots of fun. My only problem with CS is that the game is essentially over the second you cross the bridge into Limansk. No more artifacts to find, no further story or character development, it seems like a waste of 20% of the game.
Yea the cut off point did feel super early. A few more side quests, or really just more quests in the swamp would have made me happy. Story/Character dev felt really forgotten about besides the random lore dump. Thanks for checking out the video!
never understood the hate this game got,once i managed to actually get a decent weapon and get out of the swamps,it was a great game and even with all the eurojank,its still the best AI in gaming
it still baffles me that only Bandits can fully upgrade SEVA of all armors in the game... And that there's alternative passage to Cordon, in northeast corner of the Swamps, that doesn't show up until you come back to Swamp and accidentaly find it.
Nothing wrong with that man! I loved the game. If it had less bugs, rostok, and a slightly more interesting climax I would probably say the same. They did a lot of things I really liked. I wish I could have played these on release back in the day!
@@lonerjb I remember just purely enjoying patrolling around the zone and getting involved into turf wars, it was something new at the time, especially for stalker series, but was also the first glimpse of sustained gameplay potential, as would be later demonstrated through relentless modding and arrival of anomaly, and it's predecessors :)
I did not know about the hot keys for healing. I actually have that written down for CoP lol. I guess I will revise that section. I can see why its your favorite, I think with some QoL mods I would enjoy it more. Thanks for checking out the video and leaving a comment!
The hunting shotgun in Clear Sky had this thing where it fucking lazerbeamed everyone with a headshot at insane range even with buckshot. My first playthrough, i went through 90% of the game using ONLY the hunting shotgun because, as i maxed it out, i honestly couldn't find a better weapon that was more fun to play with. The only weapon that had better accuracy and damage simultaneously was SVD, and SVD not only has scarce and expensive ammo but also can't rock mutants. I believe that until Limansk the TOZ Hunting Shotgun is easily the best pick for anything. It's a god damn scopeless sniper rifle that's a shotgun that not only rocks mutants hard but also disposes of everyone with headshots from any range.
Clear Sky is an extremely underrated game and I honestly prefer it over CoP. It is buggy and some parts are really hard/annoying, but even those parts are fun to me. I love how pathetic you are in the swamps, in fact I think the swamps is my favorite part of the game. It also added Clear Sky, my favorite faction, to the lore which I like a lot. The game was very experimental, introducing a lot of stuff poorly that was done better in CoP but I respect it for what it was trying to do, the only parts I genuinely hate is the CNPP and lack of iron sights on pistols. Overall, its an underrated, buggy, fun experience that more people should play.
Thanks for checking out the video and the comment! I really like the swamps as well. It is one of the most immersive sections in the whole trilogy imo. I feel like Clear Sky gets shafted in the end of this game after having one of the better ideologies and purposes in the zone, but maybe that's the point. The whole trilogy seems like a learning experience where they got better from SoC to clear Sky and then peaked in CoP. There are little things from each game I like more than the others, I love how Clear sky kept the same atmosphere and turned it up to 11 with clear sky and the graphics upgrade makes it AWESOME, until I here the combat music come into play. Im excited to play with mods to quell my complaints and looking forward to stalker 2 news this summer!
Fun game, despite the bugs. Drifter still owes me that upgrade flashdrive though, only bug that kept me from 100% the game's tasks. Just recently finished playing the trilogy completely vanilla after years and I have no regrets, such a massive wave of nostalgia.
I liked the way the pistol ADS was cause it felt like a bit of a realistic body-cam style FPS gameplay, then not a single other gun variant shared the same ADS mechanics which left it feeling a bit awkward.
Clear Sky was the game that gave me the boost to become a stalker and i enjoyed it and didnt notice the bugs that much but if you suffer just get SRP 1.1.3 if fixes everything and gives you alot of good attachments like sleeping bags
Clear Sky was one of those games where I played and finished that I never want to play again, like MGS2… The bandage system! Oh! The constant bleeding and in the bridge section I got stuck and had to play through the game from the start because I got stuck there with bad equipment for the later sequences. Also hated the fact that the game takes all your money in one mission, and you don't even get a chance to get that back. All that time I was trying to save for a better armor, and it was all taken from me. I hate that. As much as I hate Clear Sky, I still like its story and that we play as Mercenary Scar (Mercenaries are my favorite faction) and you kinda are neutral (at least in my play through). Though even now I only have good memories about COP rather than Clear Sky :D. Maybe nostalgia feeling or the game being far more forgiving in terms of gameplay. I also found certain quests very good in COP where it would leave me like ''what? I didn't expect that!'' in Clear Sky I had to rush through the story because I hated the game. :D But I do love that it's a prequel :)
The most fun you'll ever have once. Clear Sky I had the hardest time getting motivated to keep playing, it was a struggle. CoP's side missions were top notch probably my favorite thing about the game! Thanks for checking out the video!
It's my favorite game of the three that's for sure. Such a big leap forward compared to SOC in terms of tech and inventory etc, the swamps are awesome (I like it). The faction wars and conquering of the maps little by little. Many playthroughs available to choose from. Upgrades not in SOC. Man I just loved clear sky
You know, aside from the decision to shoot strelok with a non-lethal rifle just to disable his psy-block, I actually really enjoyed clear sky’s story (not as much as soc’s, of course). It’s a whole new take and direction on stalker and its canon, and scar was interesting, mysterious, not a simple loner (although I love loners), and very different from strelok’s character. I really enjoyed hunting down the protagonist from the first game and trying to stop him. This not only complicated scar’s character, but it complicates strelok so much more. We had a very one sided perspective in the first game (which was a good thing), but in clear sky, to play as someone who’s goals contradicts strelok’s and as someone who has some very valid criticisms of strelok, we got a much deeper and more complex view of the characters, the zone, and the lore of the series as a whole. This was a great video-thank you! Liked, subbed, etc 👍🏼
Yes it's bad: 1) NPC is brutal... they are not hard - they are BRUTAL 2) Always bleeding problem 3) Low traders count - who will return to 90% of a game to sell/buy staff when there is so many anomalies that kill you one shot 4) Anomalies are BRUTAL 5) Always broke armor/low ammo 6) Long night. I was in Limansk at night and had shooting with army at country yard. Worst part of a game i ever saw. 7) Jamming weapons... i understand that my weapon was broken but not more than 60% and right after reload it was jammed 2 times in a row. 8) Poor location design/main story even comparing with SoC And etc.
clear sky isn't bad, it's just not as good as the others. if it was a bit more fleshed out and less janky then it could easily be the best in the series.
Not that bad, imo. Except 1. Grinding, somehow playing Anomaly mod reminds me of CS days 2. Pistol ads 3. Need flashdisks for upgrades 4. Bleeding 5. Bleeding 6. Bleeding 7. Bugs, especially bandit mission 8. Too much people, it feels like there's a party in the Zone 9. Limansk bridge 10. Helicopter
Frankly, I don't think that it was a very bad game. It definitely had some "quirks", such as the infamous grenade spam, but I really did enjoy it, even more so than Shadow of Chernobyl. In Clear Sky I couldn't wait to get out of the Swamps, but in GAMMA I find myself spending most of my time there. The Faction War system, although buggy at times (Loners vs. Bandits in Garbage - not being able to take the depot for example) was one of the best implementations, and I do hope they bring it back in STALKER 2.
Thanks for checking out the vid and leaving a comment! I do hope the faction system comes back. So many options, so many different play throughs potentially.
i played the stalker games in release order. Mods aren't necessary to enjoy any of them. In my first playthrough of CS i only encountered two game breaking bugs, which were easily fixed with loading a save right before the bugged events happened.
Yea I made it through them without mods. Clear Sky was a bit harder for me to get motivated to play, but overall I loved what it added. It was buggier than SoC, but you're right, with enough saves you can get through the game. Thanks for checking out the video!
100000% Agree on not playing vanilla. Play with SRP if you want a vanilla like experience but much less bugs. And if you value your sanity don't attempt the very end at the CNPP on master. I must have died almost 100 times and needed to quick save after every kill on master. Some people say the Limansk parts are aawful, but I actually enjoyed that part. It was a great game all the way untul that stupid part with Strelok at the very end. Also the grenade spam is absolutely unbearable on higher difficulty.
Honestly, out of the 3 entries to the main trilogy, CS was my favorite, and to me, was the best of the bunch. Now, thats not to say the bugs & AI werent annoying, but with a community patch, most of that is fixed. Hell, even the annoying ADS for pistols was fixed, it was just a hidden option in the game files. However, with the majority of bugs & grenade-spam fixed, all youre left with is to enjoy the game, and the game? Its amazing. Shadow of Chernobyl did a great job of nailing that open world, lore-building feeling. Clear Sky had a slightly-less open world, but expanded on the world a lot more. It has its story moments & its open-world moments, and i think for the time it released... the pace of the game its self was too strange to the majority of audiences. One moment youre in grenade hell, the next youre peaceful strolling through the map watching someone fist-fight a boar, constantly. The other games do that too, but slower. and i think thats one thing that upset people. it was too 'action packed' but they missed the entire game in the process of focusing on the heavy action sequences. Except SoC is just about as ridiculous towards the end. As for Call of Pripyat, it has the best characters and stories for those characters. I love it, i forgot there was a main story for quite some time just talking to everyone. Two of the best examples of this is Vano & Uncle Yar.
Thank you for taking the time to write that out and watch the video! I love SoC. It left the biggest impact on me. It to me has the best open world atmosphere/vibe. Clear Sky takes it a step further, especially in the swamp zone. Holy cow its awesome. The nut to butt action in cs had me gripped and immersed for several hours at a time, but then i would die to a nade headshot, or through a wall (this happened to me in SoC a few times as well.) and be set back to the last time I entered the zone. Those hurt. After playing through all 3 of them. They really shine in their own areas. SoC's atmosphere and story were awesome. I could just sit at a bus stop or even in cordon by a fire and listen to other stalkers talk/play guitar. Almost like its asmr or something. It really sucked me in for some reason. Clear Sky nailed the pacing of the game fantastically till the very last mission. However showing how strelok ended up on the truck was kinda cool. Clear Sky was also an awesome faction with sick uniforms. I hope to see them reinvented in Stalker 2. CoP was clean and idk if I really had a bug besides a random crash or 2, but it shined like you said talking to people and digging into the lore of the stalker world.. ( I may or may not have murdered Jack for that sexy shotgun.) The missing stalkers quest had me enthralled as well. I plan on going back through and playing all 3 again with some QoL/graphics mods once I play through anomaly/gamma/etc... just to reexperience it. Hopefully right before Stalker 2 comes out. (Hopefully I am much better at making youtube videos by then as well to do the games justice.)
I played this game once. It was enough for me. Right now I am playing SoC (again :D). My favourites are SoC and CoP. I have replayed them multiple times, and I think I will 'till my day of death :'D My biggest problem were the Bandage problem and the ending of it. It is actually copy paste from the SoC I think (of course just almost).
Agreed. SoC is SO DAMN GOOD. Idk, i want to go back through with mods, but I may just do something with anomaly and call it a day. I struggled finishing clear sky, but anyway thanks for checking out the video and leaving a comment!
i loved it when i played it... back... then... lol i dont remember alot of the last like half of my life so i get to re-experience all this media! woot!
Haha, hopefully its even better the second time! There are some really awesome mods out for it these days that can make it awesome. Though if you can put up with a few bugs vanilla is great!
alot of people say that the ending of CS is bad, but if you caught up with SoC and the lore in general its really the best ending out of the whole franchise. CS is an amazing filler for SoC and connects the dots well for the history of The Zone and Strelok's origin. its an good game overall, just not a great stalker game.. but that's kind of why i like it so much. its not afraid to have its own personality and it switches things up, while still sticking true to the stalker formula to an certain extent. with a little more polish around its rough edges, this game would have been a gem for everyone to cherish aside SoC and CoP, no doubt about it.
I actually agree with you a good bit. While working on my next video I did a lot of reading into the stalker lore, and I think they did a pretty good job (story wise) leading into SoC.
Imo clear sky was funner then soc because there are good gun mods, that allow the game to be enjoyable while sticking to the story especially clear sky ABR
I'm playing CoP rn and I'm just gonna say, being an under cover agent is boring as hell. I miss the days where I waited 25 minutes for my freedom brothers to drag their asses to the barrier, because duty took control over it for the 75th time already. Honorable mention: The radios in CS were masterpieces, you cannot deny that
Every time I restart Clear Sky, the quest where you have to find & kill the hostage commander’s military soldiers in cordon bugs out. Does anybody know how to fix it?
@@lonerjbEven for me with English as 3rd languange, "Misery" sounds like a fun mod. 🗿 I hope my PC strong enough to facing a hilarious horde of mutant spawns in Jupiter. 🗿
played through it a few years ago without any mods. it was rough. the accuracy is awful, even fully modded, you need a bunch of ammo in order to do anything, but you cant, because you will be too heavy. Now i revisited it, because of a GPU issue, and the current one can only play this game on low. I immediately went for a 5000 kg limit, and keep all my previous suits in order to have backup. i also carry multiple variants of the guns (like 1 AK with the AK ammo, and 1 AK with the NATO ammo), and basically all ammo i can find. This way it is a much better experience. But still, the accuracy is really bad, but now i have enough ammo. However, due to this, opening the inventory takes 1-2 seconds. Overall, it is not a bad game
@@ChromieZone yes, you can change some lines in a specific file, and it allows you to set any carry mass limit. if i am correct you can also override character speed, armor resistance, and other stas as well
It isn't bad at all, but for me it was the worst in the trilogy. That doesn't mean i didn't had some fun, and don't see what they tried to do. The faction system was a little mess, but the idea behind it was fantastic. The fact you could join and feel like the member of some faction and pushing some territories was good, but i didn't like that this turned out to be a constant warfare, without any room to breathe. I liked the protagonist, Scar is bad ass, and the whole plot of hunting the guy we played in previous game was great. I like that type of story trope... dynamic music was also nice, but i remember some people were criticising that it ruins the atmosphere. Introduction of emissions, i mean they were in SHOC but it was scripted. Graphics was huge step up, i remember it was barely working smooth back then on my PC. My favorite of the three is probably Call of Pripyat, since i always wanted for STALKER to be more open world and less linear, and that's what the third game do, but the wet dream only comes when i install some overhauls, with my utmost respect for the vanilla games, but the mods like CoC/Misery/Anomaly etc. is where the real fun starts. Im kinda worried, that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 might not be that susceptible for modding since it's on UE5, XRay was very easy to handle even for beginners.
My biggest gripe with CS is that feels like Call of Duty and it is a lot of wasted potential. Zone is overcrowded, you see everyone position on PDA, the feeling of constant dread is gone, also the grenade spam.... Also Swamp is basically a boring tutorial, how the hell there is no snorks or bloodsuckers in such place? Limansk is one big shootout, probably the Red Forest was the best thing about CS.
I played CS the first time a couple years ago, I thought it was fun if a bit broken with the faction wars, what ruined it for me was the very off kilter portrayal of Strelok and the last couple levels which felt distinctly not stalker. And omg that "boss" fight is the lowest point in the series for me.
How the hell does one find an artifact with the Geiger counter? U can sure find radiation with it but artifacts? U must've meant artifact detector or smnth else?
Yea I think when I go back through the trilogy with mods I will enjoy it more, Idk if it will be SoC though. It just made such an impact. The whole reason I started the channel.
Interesting. I’m playing through all the games + anomaly and I had the most fun for me (with the addition on arsenal overhaul) but still don’t know why CS is seen as the worst
hmm, I think the bugs and the ending really get people riled up. I am looking forward to going back through all 3 with mods after Anomaly. Thanks for checking out the video and leaving a comment!
i think clear sky was one of the most frustrating stalker games ive played. the pistols and shotguns only worked close range and the rifles did not shoot where your crosshair was, meanwhile the AI 1 shot me. i never finished that game lol. but i like the story, the gameplay however i dont like
The one thing that CS ruined about the stalker experience for me is the shooting. Aiming in this game seemed futile especially with a handgun. The game was also buggy as hell but I’ve experienced worse from other games.
Clear sky is somehow both the best and worst STALKER game. The technical and pacing issues kill it but the story is awesome and the ending is basically perfect
Never played crisis, but Halo 3, cod4, plenty of other games out that absorbed my time. That is why I am just now finding the series. I love Crytek for Hunt Showdown though. Jesus the sound design in that game is INCREDIBLE.
Lmao, to compare the works of this company to that company is kind of cheap considering the difference in developer team size and the fact ones a triple A company.....
@@lonerjb I see people do that very often with SoC and CS tho I have to admit the hotkeys are weirdly configured and the game doesn't really tell you about it
Glad I am not the only one lol. Dumb gamer brain needs to be hand held sometimes. I'll make sure to use more hotkeys since I learned about them in CoP. For my immersion and people checking out the videos. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
This game is not as good as the first one. Faction could have been a good addition but the fact that there are so many people roaming around the zone just turns the map into a warzone instead of a wasteland ruled by monsters where stalkers try to survive. In my run I probably have killed hundreds of people and just 10 mutants. This game lost much of the atmosphere SoC had.
I had about 5 days progress in game, 40000 rubles, upgraded armor, serious firepower (upgraded spas12 and another shotgun, akm 74/2 just recently acquired the best pistol, stacks of medkits, bandages, halfway through the game about to finally start the Yantar quests and ive crashed every load in after that mark. Very disappointed in the Xbox port. Deleted immediately.
Oh yeah, and I had made allies with , freedom, duty ,and clear sky. Literally about to take down all bandits and renegades, with less than 100 in each of those factions.. I Literally put down my controller and have not picked up my box since.. super disheartening.
I haven't played through the metro games yet. Do you recommend? Clear Sky is good in its own way kinda like all 3 of the games are. if it wasn't so buggy it would be PHENOMINAL. same for SoC. Thanks for checking out the vid and leaving a comment!
That's fair. I like how they handled it with achievements in CoP. Not necessarily faction wars, but you get benefits for hitting thresholds with certain factions.
I didn't have a problem opening it. Now I have started adding mods to some of the stalker games.... and that is a huge headache. Is it giving you an error? or just not opening?
@@lonerjb not opening even without the mod,is it because i used windows 11? I have searched all help from GOG,Reddit,Steam Community,ect and still cant solve it.
@@dhaniam152 Hmm, I am also on Windows 11. Did you try verifying and reinstalling? I'm not the most technical savy person, but the stalker discord might be able to help! discord.gg/stalker
All that I can remember is an npc about to throw a grenade by going "Hellomyfriend,IhavesavedthispineappesurprisejustforyouandIamgoingtothrowitanytimesoonIreallycanpromiseyputhatmyfriendalsohowisyourfamilydoing?" before throwing it, then I tried aiming with a pistol. Yeah I don't miss this game..
@@spontanapa Swamp was one of the best maps in Stalker, pity it is so wasted in CS, just a boring tutorial with some bandits ordered from Wish. How in hell there is no snorks or bloodsuckers in such a place?
I FORGOT THE AWESOME FIGHT MUSIC. Fight music was amazing, although it broke my immersion every single fight. Agree or disagree? let me know below ↓ Help The Channel Grow: www.youtube.com/@lonerjb?sub_confirmation=1
u can change it lmao
?
Same, it slaps, but when it plays for a shootout with a 1 bandit or 5 minutes after any battle it broke the immersion, yeah.
@@lonerjb In the game options, there is an option to turn off option "Dynamic Music"
@@uklejamini Damn, I didn't know.
Bandit radio and the fact you could join the bandits is my favourite part of the game. The letdown was that winning faction wars for the bandits is impossible as you get attacked from all sides constantly by duty and loners
oof, yea that seems like the ultimate hardcore run.
Also the reward is kinda doo doo if you defeat loners its an rpk that you can't upgrade cause thats dutys thing.
@@BlargTheEnderman Karma for fighting the Loners :) jk lol that is pretty lame.
honestly for me the faction system is one of the greatest systems ever, it makes the zone feel alive and being able to befriend factions and conquer territory with them is super cool, although sometimes it retracts from the horror of the zone, with so many people running around shooting
Yea, it can really turn the exclusion zone into a war zone. Very ahead of its time though! Thanks for checking out the video!
To me it adds to the horror. A world-ending threat and still the factions can't see beyond their own petty bickering
Clear Sky was a HUGE evolution in the series, when compared to its predecessor, Shadow of Chernobyl, IMO. In terms of gameplay alone, the third game, Call of Pripyat, is the better of them all, but in terms of story and immersion feeling, Clear Sky wins. I also have the feeling that Clear Sky have better graphics even than the third game. I think GSC stepped down a bit in the graphics department, when developing the third game, to make it more accessible, cuz Clear Sky, by the time of its launch, had some stunning elements in its visual, but the price we had to pay for this was heavy, in some ways, it was like Crisis... hahaha...
Maaaannn... talking about this is making me want to play the trilogy again... it has been a long time since I last played them... I love this series, its some of the best games of all time in my opinion.
The graphics I can agree with for sure. I was blown away with the graphics and the camera work when I first started clear sky. The immersion was really good as well. Something about the zones in SoC though just get me. I could sit in the dark of clear sky and just watch the rain for some weird zone asmr vibes i guess lol. I wish CoP was as atmospheric as SoC and Clear sky. You should give them another play through if you have time! Thanks for checking out the video and the comment!
They actually stepped down with graphics, mostly with sun rays, bcs PCs just couldnt handle that, without big drops and bugs.
Immersion was ruined in CS, despite the better graphics. Changing the focus from the Zone to its inhabitants was a bad move. Unlike the Zone itself, factions and stalkers are quite uninteresting, quite dull. No memorable character in the game besides Strelok. Factions' takes on the Zone are as uninspired as it gets. Also some design choices, like e.g. banging combat music, completely break immersion. If the first game was a Tarkovskyan journey, the second is more of a Michael Bay take on the Zone. With all the explosions... from the grenades thrown at your feet from kilometers away.
@@BH-vh3iu I like that comparison, Michael Bay take on the zone, seems pretty accurate with all the explosions and fight music.
@@lonerjb Which is fine, but not what I want in a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. Nice videos btw ;)
I liked the introduction of detectors for artifacts, and the search for info on upgrades was lots of fun. My only problem with CS is that the game is essentially over the second you cross the bridge into Limansk. No more artifacts to find, no further story or character development, it seems like a waste of 20% of the game.
Yea the cut off point did feel super early. A few more side quests, or really just more quests in the swamp would have made me happy. Story/Character dev felt really forgotten about besides the random lore dump. Thanks for checking out the video!
I remember when it came out how the lighting and shadow was spectacular
never understood the hate this game got,once i managed to actually get a decent weapon and get out of the swamps,it was a great game and even with all the eurojank,its still the best AI in gaming
Other than the grenades, I could see that. Thanks for checking out the vid!
Out of all he issues people talk about with this game, the only one I remember actually being a problem for me was the ridiculous bleeding.
i still remember to this day when i stood ontop the railway bridge in cordon at night and a heavy thunder storm was going on, it was breathtaking.
YES! The storms at night. OMFG dude the vibes were cranked way past 11. Stalker Ambience remains top tier. Even 15 years later.
it still baffles me that only Bandits can fully upgrade SEVA of all armors in the game...
And that there's alternative passage to Cordon, in northeast corner of the Swamps, that doesn't show up until you come back to Swamp and accidentaly find it.
Good call on the alt passage will have to remember that! I didn't realize only bandits could, that is weird lol. Thank you for checking out the video!
I don't know man, I enjoyed CS a lot when it released. In fact of all three titles, it was my favorite for some reason.
Nothing wrong with that man! I loved the game. If it had less bugs, rostok, and a slightly more interesting climax I would probably say the same. They did a lot of things I really liked. I wish I could have played these on release back in the day!
@@lonerjb I remember just purely enjoying patrolling around the zone and getting involved into turf wars, it was something new at the time, especially for stalker series, but was also the first glimpse of sustained gameplay potential, as would be later demonstrated through relentless modding and arrival of anomaly, and it's predecessors :)
probably because of that amazingly bleak ending
Great video man, for some reason, this game is my favourite one of all 😅. Btw, u can use hot keys for healings and stuff like that.
I did not know about the hot keys for healing. I actually have that written down for CoP lol. I guess I will revise that section. I can see why its your favorite, I think with some QoL mods I would enjoy it more. Thanks for checking out the video and leaving a comment!
The hunting shotgun in Clear Sky had this thing where it fucking lazerbeamed everyone with a headshot at insane range even with buckshot.
My first playthrough, i went through 90% of the game using ONLY the hunting shotgun because, as i maxed it out, i honestly couldn't find a better weapon that was more fun to play with. The only weapon that had better accuracy and damage simultaneously was SVD, and SVD not only has scarce and expensive ammo but also can't rock mutants.
I believe that until Limansk the TOZ Hunting Shotgun is easily the best pick for anything. It's a god damn scopeless sniper rifle that's a shotgun that not only rocks mutants hard but also disposes of everyone with headshots from any range.
Clear Sky is an extremely underrated game and I honestly prefer it over CoP. It is buggy and some parts are really hard/annoying, but even those parts are fun to me. I love how pathetic you are in the swamps, in fact I think the swamps is my favorite part of the game. It also added Clear Sky, my favorite faction, to the lore which I like a lot.
The game was very experimental, introducing a lot of stuff poorly that was done better in CoP but I respect it for what it was trying to do, the only parts I genuinely hate is the CNPP and lack of iron sights on pistols. Overall, its an underrated, buggy, fun experience that more people should play.
Thanks for checking out the video and the comment! I really like the swamps as well. It is one of the most immersive sections in the whole trilogy imo. I feel like Clear Sky gets shafted in the end of this game after having one of the better ideologies and purposes in the zone, but maybe that's the point. The whole trilogy seems like a learning experience where they got better from SoC to clear Sky and then peaked in CoP. There are little things from each game I like more than the others,
I love how Clear sky kept the same atmosphere and turned it up to 11 with clear sky and the graphics upgrade makes it AWESOME, until I here the combat music come into play. Im excited to play with mods to quell my complaints and looking forward to stalker 2 news this summer!
i fell like gsc never thought about making a prequel game before soc tbh
Yea, I feel like the ending for Clear Sky really proves that point.
Fun game, despite the bugs. Drifter still owes me that upgrade flashdrive though, only bug that kept me from 100% the game's tasks. Just recently finished playing the trilogy completely vanilla after years and I have no regrets, such a massive wave of nostalgia.
I liked the way the pistol ADS was cause it felt like a bit of a realistic body-cam style FPS gameplay, then not a single other gun variant shared the same ADS mechanics which left it feeling a bit awkward.
Clear Sky was the game that gave me the boost to become a stalker and i enjoyed it and didnt notice the bugs that much but if you suffer just get SRP 1.1.3 if fixes everything and gives you alot of good attachments like sleeping bags
Nice video.
Thanks man! and thanks for checking it out!
Stalker clear sky is number 1 stalker game change my mind
Technically it was the second one made ;).
CoP and SoC exist. But can’t change the mind of a crazy person
@@lonerjb it’s clearly better
Its not cannon but gamma is SO GOOD. Its great if you have an addiction like I do.
Now get out of here stalker
Clear Sky was one of those games where I played and finished that I never want to play again, like MGS2…
The bandage system! Oh! The constant bleeding and in the bridge section I got stuck and had to play through the game from the start because I got stuck there with bad equipment for the later sequences.
Also hated the fact that the game takes all your money in one mission, and you don't even get a chance to get that back. All that time I was trying to save for a better armor, and it was all taken from me. I hate that.
As much as I hate Clear Sky, I still like its story and that we play as Mercenary Scar (Mercenaries are my favorite faction) and you kinda are neutral (at least in my play through).
Though even now I only have good memories about COP rather than Clear Sky :D. Maybe nostalgia feeling or the game being far more forgiving in terms of gameplay. I also found certain quests very good in COP where it would leave me like ''what? I didn't expect that!'' in Clear Sky I had to rush through the story because I hated the game. :D
But I do love that it's a prequel :)
The most fun you'll ever have once. Clear Sky I had the hardest time getting motivated to keep playing, it was a struggle. CoP's side missions were top notch probably my favorite thing about the game! Thanks for checking out the video!
@@lonerjb that's very true. I dropped and went back like 3-4 times between months. :D
Keep up the good work man 👍
Thanks you!
It's my favorite game of the three that's for sure. Such a big leap forward compared to SOC in terms of tech and inventory etc, the swamps are awesome (I like it). The faction wars and conquering of the maps little by little. Many playthroughs available to choose from. Upgrades not in SOC. Man I just loved clear sky
The faction business is too broken to enjoy but other than that it's a great game. Love it.
I enjoyed Clear Sky but never finished it. It just would not stop crashing moments after I entered Limansk.
The one thing I have learned since publishing this video is that tech issues really killed it for a lot of people.
After beating SoC on Veteran... I think the shooting in CS is absolutely terrible... and oh man, you're so right about the pistols' ADS, pure garbage.
You know, aside from the decision to shoot strelok with a non-lethal rifle just to disable his psy-block, I actually really enjoyed clear sky’s story (not as much as soc’s, of course). It’s a whole new take and direction on stalker and its canon, and scar was interesting, mysterious, not a simple loner (although I love loners), and very different from strelok’s character.
I really enjoyed hunting down the protagonist from the first game and trying to stop him. This not only complicated scar’s character, but it complicates strelok so much more. We had a very one sided perspective in the first game (which was a good thing), but in clear sky, to play as someone who’s goals contradicts strelok’s and as someone who has some very valid criticisms of strelok, we got a much deeper and more complex view of the characters, the zone, and the lore of the series as a whole.
This was a great video-thank you! Liked, subbed, etc 👍🏼
You can actually join the bandits which I always thought was awesome. Just wish faction wars wasn't broken.
I really hope Faction Wars in Stalker 2 works as intended!
Dont worry bro feel free to talk about Stalker with us fellow Stalker lovers as well
Yes it's bad:
1) NPC is brutal... they are not hard - they are BRUTAL
2) Always bleeding problem
3) Low traders count - who will return to 90% of a game to sell/buy staff when there is so many anomalies that kill you one shot
4) Anomalies are BRUTAL
5) Always broke armor/low ammo
6) Long night. I was in Limansk at night and had shooting with army at country yard. Worst part of a game i ever saw.
7) Jamming weapons... i understand that my weapon was broken but not more than 60% and right after reload it was jammed 2 times in a row.
8) Poor location design/main story even comparing with SoC
And etc.
clear sky isn't bad, it's just not as good as the others. if it was a bit more fleshed out and less janky then it could easily be the best in the series.
I can agree with this for the most part. Eventually gonna go back through with mods to fix my complaints and it probably will be the best.
Haven’t played any STALKER game. Might jump into it after I finish Metro
Not that bad, imo. Except
1. Grinding, somehow playing Anomaly mod reminds me of CS days
2. Pistol ads
3. Need flashdisks for upgrades
4. Bleeding
5. Bleeding
6. Bleeding
7. Bugs, especially bandit mission
8. Too much people, it feels like there's a party in the Zone
9. Limansk bridge
10. Helicopter
I will only ever play STALKER SOC vanilla but for Clear Sky I did the ABR mod and for COP I do Gunslinger.
Prolly for the best SoC is so good vanilla, but clear sky needs some help and Gunslinger is fire.
Frankly, I don't think that it was a very bad game. It definitely had some "quirks", such as the infamous grenade spam, but I really did enjoy it, even more so than Shadow of Chernobyl. In Clear Sky I couldn't wait to get out of the Swamps, but in GAMMA I find myself spending most of my time there. The Faction War system, although buggy at times (Loners vs. Bandits in Garbage - not being able to take the depot for example) was one of the best implementations, and I do hope they bring it back in STALKER 2.
Thanks for checking out the vid and leaving a comment! I do hope the faction system comes back. So many options, so many different play throughs potentially.
i played the stalker games in release order. Mods aren't necessary to enjoy any of them. In my first playthrough of CS i only encountered two game breaking bugs, which were easily fixed with loading a save right before the bugged events happened.
Yea I made it through them without mods. Clear Sky was a bit harder for me to get motivated to play, but overall I loved what it added. It was buggier than SoC, but you're right, with enough saves you can get through the game. Thanks for checking out the video!
100000% Agree on not playing vanilla. Play with SRP if you want a vanilla like experience but much less bugs. And if you value your sanity don't attempt the very end at the CNPP on master. I must have died almost 100 times and needed to quick save after every kill on master. Some people say the Limansk parts are aawful, but I actually enjoyed that part. It was a great game all the way untul that stupid part with Strelok at the very end. Also the grenade spam is absolutely unbearable on higher difficulty.
Honestly, out of the 3 entries to the main trilogy, CS was my favorite, and to me, was the best of the bunch. Now, thats not to say the bugs & AI werent annoying, but with a community patch, most of that is fixed. Hell, even the annoying ADS for pistols was fixed, it was just a hidden option in the game files. However, with the majority of bugs & grenade-spam fixed, all youre left with is to enjoy the game, and the game? Its amazing. Shadow of Chernobyl did a great job of nailing that open world, lore-building feeling. Clear Sky had a slightly-less open world, but expanded on the world a lot more. It has its story moments & its open-world moments, and i think for the time it released... the pace of the game its self was too strange to the majority of audiences. One moment youre in grenade hell, the next youre peaceful strolling through the map watching someone fist-fight a boar, constantly. The other games do that too, but slower. and i think thats one thing that upset people. it was too 'action packed' but they missed the entire game in the process of focusing on the heavy action sequences. Except SoC is just about as ridiculous towards the end.
As for Call of Pripyat, it has the best characters and stories for those characters. I love it, i forgot there was a main story for quite some time just talking to everyone. Two of the best examples of this is Vano & Uncle Yar.
Thank you for taking the time to write that out and watch the video! I love SoC. It left the biggest impact on me. It to me has the best open world atmosphere/vibe. Clear Sky takes it a step further, especially in the swamp zone. Holy cow its awesome. The nut to butt action in cs had me gripped and immersed for several hours at a time, but then i would die to a nade headshot, or through a wall (this happened to me in SoC a few times as well.) and be set back to the last time I entered the zone. Those hurt.
After playing through all 3 of them. They really shine in their own areas. SoC's atmosphere and story were awesome. I could just sit at a bus stop or even in cordon by a fire and listen to other stalkers talk/play guitar. Almost like its asmr or something. It really sucked me in for some reason.
Clear Sky nailed the pacing of the game fantastically till the very last mission. However showing how strelok ended up on the truck was kinda cool. Clear Sky was also an awesome faction with sick uniforms. I hope to see them reinvented in Stalker 2.
CoP was clean and idk if I really had a bug besides a random crash or 2, but it shined like you said talking to people and digging into the lore of the stalker world.. ( I may or may not have murdered Jack for that sexy shotgun.) The missing stalkers quest had me enthralled as well. I plan on going back through and playing all 3 again with some QoL/graphics mods once I play through anomaly/gamma/etc... just to reexperience it. Hopefully right before Stalker 2 comes out. (Hopefully I am much better at making youtube videos by then as well to do the games justice.)
I played this game once. It was enough for me. Right now I am playing SoC (again :D). My favourites are SoC and CoP. I have replayed them multiple times, and I think I will 'till my day of death :'D
My biggest problem were the Bandage problem and the ending of it. It is actually copy paste from the SoC I think (of course just almost).
Agreed. SoC is SO DAMN GOOD. Idk, i want to go back through with mods, but I may just do something with anomaly and call it a day. I struggled finishing clear sky, but anyway thanks for checking out the video and leaving a comment!
@@lonerjb Anomaly is a good idea. One of the best unforgiving and free survival horror game which combines all 3 stalker's and adds more things to do.
i loved it when i played it... back... then... lol i dont remember alot of the last like half of my life so i get to re-experience all this media! woot!
Haha, hopefully its even better the second time! There are some really awesome mods out for it these days that can make it awesome. Though if you can put up with a few bugs vanilla is great!
2:49 epic endgame build
Pistol and a dream baby
Great vid, I subbed. ❤
Bro every stalker game is legendary and they each have their own values, but as first game Soc is my fav
alot of people say that the ending of CS is bad, but if you caught up with SoC and the lore in general its really the best ending out of the whole franchise. CS is an amazing filler for SoC and connects the dots well for the history of The Zone and Strelok's origin. its an good game overall, just not a great stalker game.. but that's kind of why i like it so much. its not afraid to have its own personality and it switches things up, while still sticking true to the stalker formula to an certain extent. with a little more polish around its rough edges, this game would have been a gem for everyone to cherish aside SoC and CoP, no doubt about it.
I actually agree with you a good bit. While working on my next video I did a lot of reading into the stalker lore, and I think they did a pretty good job (story wise) leading into SoC.
other than anomaly it is the best stalker game ever produced for me
Imo clear sky was funner then soc because there are good gun mods, that allow the game to be enjoyable while sticking to the story especially clear sky ABR
I'm playing CoP rn and I'm just gonna say, being an under cover agent is boring as hell. I miss the days where I waited 25 minutes for my freedom brothers to drag their asses to the barrier, because duty took control over it for the 75th time already.
Honorable mention: The radios in CS were masterpieces, you cannot deny that
did you play modded or vanilla?
CS was good, the journey was better than the end.
I agree. They journey was kick ass for sure.
sounds like all STALKER games - endgame part sucked badly and it wasn't that fun
What is the song used in the video? I swear i heard it somewhere
Every time I restart Clear Sky, the quest where you have to find & kill the hostage commander’s military soldiers in cordon bugs out. Does anybody know how to fix it?
After your cop play through I would love to see you try Misery
I am working on the CoP video now! Are you talking about the Misery mod? I'll check it out! Anything with a name like that has to be fun right?
@@lonerjbEven for me with English as 3rd languange, "Misery" sounds like a fun mod. 🗿
I hope my PC strong enough to facing a hilarious horde of mutant spawns in Jupiter. 🗿
played through it a few years ago without any mods. it was rough. the accuracy is awful, even fully modded, you need a bunch of ammo in order to do anything, but you cant, because you will be too heavy.
Now i revisited it, because of a GPU issue, and the current one can only play this game on low.
I immediately went for a 5000 kg limit, and keep all my previous suits in order to have backup. i also carry multiple variants of the guns (like 1 AK with the AK ammo, and 1 AK with the NATO ammo), and basically all ammo i can find.
This way it is a much better experience. But still, the accuracy is really bad, but now i have enough ammo.
However, due to this, opening the inventory takes 1-2 seconds.
Overall, it is not a bad game
Nice breakdown, the accuracy and the nades sent me over the edge. I think it was a good progression, and love the Clear Sky faction.
5000?!?!?
@@ChromieZone yes, you can change some lines in a specific file, and it allows you to set any carry mass limit.
if i am correct you can also override character speed, armor resistance, and other stas as well
It isn't bad at all, but for me it was the worst in the trilogy. That doesn't mean i didn't had some fun, and don't see what they tried to do.
The faction system was a little mess, but the idea behind it was fantastic. The fact you could join and feel like the member of some faction and pushing some territories was good, but i didn't like that this turned out to be a constant warfare, without any room to breathe.
I liked the protagonist, Scar is bad ass, and the whole plot of hunting the guy we played in previous game was great. I like that type of story trope... dynamic music was also nice, but i remember some people were criticising that it ruins the atmosphere.
Introduction of emissions, i mean they were in SHOC but it was scripted.
Graphics was huge step up, i remember it was barely working smooth back then on my PC.
My favorite of the three is probably Call of Pripyat, since i always wanted for STALKER to be more open world and less linear, and that's what the third game do, but the wet dream only comes when i install some overhauls, with my utmost respect for the vanilla games, but the mods like CoC/Misery/Anomaly etc. is where the real fun starts.
Im kinda worried, that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 might not be that susceptible for modding since it's on UE5, XRay was very easy to handle even for beginners.
My biggest gripe with CS is that feels like Call of Duty and it is a lot of wasted potential. Zone is overcrowded, you see everyone position on PDA, the feeling of constant dread is gone, also the grenade spam.... Also Swamp is basically a boring tutorial, how the hell there is no snorks or bloodsuckers in such place? Limansk is one big shootout, probably the Red Forest was the best thing about CS.
Loner faction 💪💪
Freedom, always nice to listen to the loudspeaker
ASHOT, YAR, SHUT THE HELL UP! YOUR YAPPING IS WORSE THAN MY MOTHER'S! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!
I played CS the first time a couple years ago, I thought it was fun if a bit broken with the faction wars, what ruined it for me was the very off kilter portrayal of Strelok and the last couple levels which felt distinctly not stalker. And omg that "boss" fight is the lowest point in the series for me.
I completely agree. I enjoy the big set pieces in CoP to the boss fight in CS. Thanks for checking out the video!
How the hell does one find an artifact with the Geiger counter? U can sure find radiation with it but artifacts? U must've meant artifact detector or smnth else?
Your right, I meant detector. Good catch!
I hope yo stream or get into it!
I am certainly open to it when I have more free time, or learn to write and edit a little faster XD. Thanks for checking out the video man!
I feel like CS might bemy favorite out of the trilogy with the right mods.
Yea I think when I go back through the trilogy with mods I will enjoy it more, Idk if it will be SoC though. It just made such an impact. The whole reason I started the channel.
when i was playing the bridge mission i ran out of ammo and i had to shoot with pistol
I bet that was rough. I couldn't imagine trying to pick those guys off with a point fire pistol. Thanks for checking out the video!
@@lonerjb it was a makarov btw haha
Lol I had a simillar thing but in SoC mission, where you had to help this one guy defend garbage from waves of incoming bandits. Couldn't stop dying.
The only thing I hated about this game was the grenade spamming.
Yea it was rough. The grenade marker lived on my screen in some of the fights. Thanks for checking out the video!
Interesting. I’m playing through all the games + anomaly and I had the most fun for me (with the addition on arsenal overhaul) but still don’t know why CS is seen as the worst
hmm, I think the bugs and the ending really get people riled up. I am looking forward to going back through all 3 with mods after Anomaly. Thanks for checking out the video and leaving a comment!
@@lonerjb Hey no problem now, get out of here stalker!
i think clear sky was one of the most frustrating stalker games ive played. the pistols and shotguns only worked close range and the rifles did not shoot where your crosshair was, meanwhile the AI 1 shot me. i never finished that game lol. but i like the story, the gameplay however i dont like
The thing is, the gameplay in CS is realistic and too hard for you.
@@sidhu139 realistic? LOL
The one thing that CS ruined about the stalker experience for me is the shooting. Aiming in this game seemed futile especially with a handgun. The game was also buggy as hell but I’ve experienced worse from other games.
The pistol was awful. The grenades murdered me and everything I believed in.
The gun play in Stalker is great you just got to aim an if you spray an pray you hit pretty much nothing you aim at just like real life
Well they did aim for realism!
Clear sky is somehow both the best and worst STALKER game. The technical and pacing issues kill it but the story is awesome and the ending is basically perfect
for a 2008 game, i was expecting more though, crysis 1 was out in 2007 and this game feel like 2x older than crysis XD
Never played crisis, but Halo 3, cod4, plenty of other games out that absorbed my time. That is why I am just now finding the series. I love Crytek for Hunt Showdown though. Jesus the sound design in that game is INCREDIBLE.
Lmao, to compare the works of this company to that company is kind of cheap considering the difference in developer team size and the fact ones a triple A company.....
Why do you open your inventory every time you want to use a bandage
Believe it or not, that is the only way I knew how to do it until i played CoP lol
@@lonerjb I see people do that very often with SoC and CS tho I have to admit the hotkeys are weirdly configured and the game doesn't really tell you about it
Glad I am not the only one lol. Dumb gamer brain needs to be hand held sometimes. I'll make sure to use more hotkeys since I learned about them in CoP. For my immersion and people checking out the videos. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!
@@tonyskabic4465 bruh stupid just look into the settings in game ._.
Just upgrade your weapon and everything's fine.
No, it isn’t.
This game is not as good as the first one. Faction could have been a good addition but the fact that there are so many people roaming around the zone just turns the map into a warzone instead of a wasteland ruled by monsters where stalkers try to survive. In my run I probably have killed hundreds of people and just 10 mutants. This game lost much of the atmosphere SoC had.
its a bung game i ignore the faction thing, and just have fun
Best way to approach most games.
I had about 5 days progress in game, 40000 rubles, upgraded armor, serious firepower (upgraded spas12 and another shotgun, akm 74/2 just recently acquired the best pistol, stacks of medkits, bandages, halfway through the game about to finally start the Yantar quests and ive crashed every load in after that mark. Very disappointed in the Xbox port. Deleted immediately.
Oh yeah, and I had made allies with , freedom, duty ,and clear sky. Literally about to take down all bandits and renegades, with less than 100 in each of those factions.. I Literally put down my controller and have not picked up my box since.. super disheartening.
Short answer: Yes it is :(
No it isn't. In fact I liked Stalker Clear Sky more than Metro 2033. It is just that it isn't on the level of SOC and COP.
I haven't played through the metro games yet. Do you recommend? Clear Sky is good in its own way kinda like all 3 of the games are. if it wasn't so buggy it would be PHENOMINAL. same for SoC. Thanks for checking out the vid and leaving a comment!
Other rhan the fact that faction wars dont really work/go anywhere CS is not a bad game at all imo
That's fair. I like how they handled it with achievements in CoP. Not necessarily faction wars, but you get benefits for hitting thresholds with certain factions.
How can you even play this game? I cant even open the game itself...?
I didn't have a problem opening it. Now I have started adding mods to some of the stalker games.... and that is a huge headache. Is it giving you an error? or just not opening?
@@lonerjb not opening even without the mod,is it because i used windows 11? I have searched all help from GOG,Reddit,Steam Community,ect and still cant solve it.
@@dhaniam152 Hmm, I am also on Windows 11. Did you try verifying and reinstalling? I'm not the most technical savy person, but the stalker discord might be able to help! discord.gg/stalker
@@lonerjb I did.
I will try,thank you.
Maybe if they developed it more than a year and half this game would've been better
yeah it would have been perfect
No it isnt. Just the story iffy
yes and no misons and wars yes the rest is ok.
literally nothing objectively bad about whats shown in the opening of the vid
thanks?
no.
ok.
All that I can remember is an npc about to throw a grenade by going "Hellomyfriend,IhavesavedthispineappesurprisejustforyouandIamgoingtothrowitanytimesoonIreallycanpromiseyputhatmyfriendalsohowisyourfamilydoing?" before throwing it, then I tried aiming with a pistol. Yeah I don't miss this game..
CS was basically Call of Duty of Stalker trilogy, and not just because of grenade spam.
@@Endru85xYeah, I often miss stalker and also mods but never CS, If I miss the swamp then I simply play Anomaly or something
@@spontanapa Swamp was one of the best maps in Stalker, pity it is so wasted in CS, just a boring tutorial with some bandits ordered from Wish. How in hell there is no snorks or bloodsuckers in such a place?
@@Endru85x Have you played Anomaly? Same swamp but with more than just boars