S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is a first-person shooter, survival horror video game with role-playing elements developed by Ukrainian developer GSC Game World and published by Deep Silver in 2008 as a prequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
(Redirected from Stalker: Clear Sky)
Gameplay[edit]
This game combines elements of first-person shooters ('twitch-based' aiming, with a first person perspective), survival horror (ammo scavenging, frightening atmosphere with powerful monsters), and role-playing games (inventory management, quests, character interaction, armors and defense stats).
The most significant gameplay addition since Shadow of Chernobyl is the faction wars system. Different factions will struggle for territory, attacking to gain territory and then defending to keep it, while others then try to retake it. The player will be able to join and help factions in their battles. The stronger a faction becomes, the better equipment the traders can provide and their soldiers can use. The player character is a mercenary, and may do missions for any faction or remain completely neutral without disrupting the necessary progression of the game. Each of the main factions provide services, most importantly access to a trader and an engineer.
While Scar is always aligned with Clear Sky, and his ultimate goal is to defeat Strelok, he can fight against or ally with the four other factions in the Zone (Stalkers, Duty, Freedom and Bandits). The Swamp-dwelling Renegades or the Military factions cannot be joined. Careful choice of faction alignment needs to be considered in some parts of the story, for it may be difficult to progress further if the Stalker the player is interacting with is hostile, has needed information or is essential to triggering the next stage.
Other gameplay advancements since the first game include a deepened weapon customization system with the ability to repair damaged gear and add modifications that improve weapons and suits. Anomalies are harder to notice and now contain the artifacts in the game, which require a detector to locate. Non-player characters are given the ability to use hand grenades, take cover dynamically and use 'blind-fire' techniques. Light machine guns have been introduced. There are guides in the zone that will provide fast-travel for a fee. Emissions, powerful waves that are sometimes visible or invisible determinant on the intensity, unleash lethal radiation, psi-emissions and other unknown particles and energy directly from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, directly affecting the Noosphere in The Exclusion Zone, making it deadly to all lifeforms except specific mutants. Emissions also occur on an infrequent basis, requiring the player to take cover in a building or underground area pointed out by the PDA. If not adequately concealed, the player's nervous system shuts down, resulting in the player's death.
Plot[edit]
While guiding a group of scientists through the Zone, Scar faints during a high energy emission. Scar, the only one to survive, is then rescued by Clear Sky, a secret independent Zone faction dedicated to researching and learning about the Zone in their attempt to better understand it and its related phenomena. It is not known how Scar has survived the emission, but it is noted he has suffered damage to his central nervous system and seems to exhibit other, subtle physiological changes.
The nature of these changes becomes clear shortly. Word arrives that a platoon of Stalkers has come under attack by mutants, and Lebedev, leader of the Clear Sky faction, asks Scar to seek them out and help them. During the rescue attempt another emission occurs with little warning, giving Scar and the Stalkers no time to seek cover. Once again Scar is the sole survivor, recovering shortly after the emission dies down. Lebedev is amazed that Scar is still alive; the Clear Sky lead researcher, Beanpolev, believes that Scar has acquired some 'unusual ability' that allows him to navigate and survive anomalies and parts of the Zone that would normally kill any ordinary man.
Lebedev begins to theorize that the Zone is being disrupted by a dramatic increase in energy emissions, emanating from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the center of the Zone. The emissions are a sort of 'immune response' to an outside force that the Zone perceives as a threat. Lebedev believes this outside force to be a group of Stalkers who are reportedly making an attempt to reach the center of the Zone, and have made it further than any other group of Stalkers before. Both Levedev and Chebekov fear that the Zone's reaction may cause untold destruction should the group succeed. Scar is asked to seek out this group and stop them at all costs.
Scar is sent to the Cordon, an area near the edge of the Zone, to get further information about the group of Stalkers. The trader Sidorovich is able to identify the four-member group of Stalkers as Fang, Ghost, Doc, and Strelok and gives Scar a lead on locating Fang. Scar follows this lead to another, and another, following a trail of leads to encounters with multiple factions of Stalkers across a large area of the Zone. Eventually Scar tracks the group's progress to Yantar, the site of a Brain Scorcher, where he learns from a scientist that Strelok has just recently obtained a prototype psionic shielding unit which should protect him from the mind-damaging effects of the Brain Scorcher surrounding the Chernobyl NPP.
Scar nearly catches Strelok in the Red Forest, only for him to escape into a tunnel leading towards Chernobyl, which is immediately collapsed behind him by an explosion. With the assistance of some recently rescued Mercenaries and the Clear Sky faction, Scar captures a nearby bridge to Limansk from bandits, which provides an alternate route to Chernobyl. Growing up in skyrim se walkthrough. Progress through Limansk is impeded by bandits, the military, and the radical and heavily armed Monolith faction, who seek to kill anybody approaching the center of the Zone.
After proceeding through Limansk and finding an alternate route through the partially underground ruins of a hospital, Scar arrives at Chernobyl along with Lebedev and other members of Clear Sky. Strelok has already arrived and is progressing towards the sarcophagus surrounding the number four reactor. While Clear Sky battles with Monolith forces on the ground, Lebedev gives Scar a prototype 'EM1 rifle', a long-range electromagnetic weapon, and instructs him to use the weapon to disable Strelok's psionic protection. Battling Monolith forces himself, Scar nonetheless is able to succeed. With the 'threat' eliminated Lebedev anticipates a sudden settling of the Zone, but instead Zone activity increases dramatically and the plant releases an emission which incapacitates everyone in the immediate area. Scar's fate is left unknown, but since at a later time, Strelok appears as an amnesiac for the beginning events of Shadow of Chernobyl, it is conceivable that Scar survived.
The ending shows Strelok waking up in a dimly lit hallway lined with other Stalkers sitting slouched against either wall, semi-comatose. Each Stalker is facing a stripped down display which shows a series of cryptic images, part of their brainwashing process to lose their memory. Strelok himself is also in the process of being brainwashed. The view then moves to focus on Strelok's exposed right arm, which has been tattooed with the acronym 'S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'
Development and release[edit]X-Ray 1.5 Engine[edit]
Crepuscular rays effect
Advancements made in 1.5 include volumetric light, dynamic volumetric smoke, full volumetric fire, soft water, dynamic wet surfaces (with water streaming down the sides of surfaces), depth-of-field blur, DirectX 10 support, SSAO (Screen Space Ambient Occlusion). A complete day and night system is included along with improved weather effects.
However, the game will maintain the same minimum system requirements as Shadow of Chernobyl, and is scalable enough to run on outdated DirectX 8 hardware. The engine's revamp has allowed for improved and increased performance on most systems. Version 1.5.03 of the game supports MSAA for DirectX 10, while version 1.5.06 added support for DirectX 10.1.
In August 2014 the game's X-Ray Engine 1.5.10 source codebecame available on GitHub under a non-open-source license.[1][2]
Copy protection[edit]
Stalker: Clear Sky uses the digital rights management (DRM) software Tagès as copy prevention. Some versions can only be installed on a limited number of machines (5).[3][4] It has been disabled via patches.
Special editions[edit]
Separate limited edition versions of the game were released in conjunction with the standard version.
The Russian limited edition is presented in a larger box and contains the game disc, a bonus disc, a neckerchief, an A2-sized map of the Zone, a patch with a logo of one of the game's factions, a dog tag, a custom lighter and a little white ball called 'The Clear Sky Artifact'.
The second limited edition, released in the rest of the world, is presented in a metal box and also contains a bonus disc filled with extras (such as bonus artwork, screen savers, making of videos, a five-part interview with Oleg Yavorsky the PR Director for GSC Game World and the soundtrack) and the A2-sized map of the Zone.
The Polish limited edition, presented in a medkit-like bag with the game's logo contains the game disc, soundtrack, patch with logo of one the game's factions, stickers with logos, small map of the Zone, T-shirt with game's logo on chest and inscription 'Сделано в Чернобыле' ('Made in Chernobyl') on the back.
Reception[edit]
The game received 'generally favourable reviews' according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[5]Edge opined the game 'turns the best and worst of PC gaming into something extraordinary.'[7]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Clear_Sky&oldid=897681046'
ControllerGeneral CharacteristicsTypeStatisticsHealthAttacksAbilitiesBody partsLocationsShadow of Chernobyl
Clear Sky
Call of Pripyat
A Controller is a type of mutant featured in all three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. They are slow, possess very high health, and can play with the minds of their enemies.
OverviewEdit
The secret service's genetic experiments on criminals generated a new type of mutant. A rare mutant seen near to the center of the Zone, it bears a superficial resemblance to a humanoid with a disproportionately large head. Despite their appearance, they are highly intelligent, possess good perception and the ability to control the behaviour of less developed creatures. Mature specimens are capable of taking control of a human's mind. This is a formidable enemy, even the most experienced stalkers are afraid of meeting it. According to some stalkers, Controllers can make it seem that you are surrounded by your friends, but actually you are surrounded by zombies; or it might seem that you are walking on a pathway, but actually you are about to fall off a cliff. Fortunately, this is never done by a Controller to the player.
AbilitiesEdit
The Controller's main ability is to launch a psychic bolt that deals high telepathy/psionic-based damage to the player from a great distance. In addition, Controllers seem to generate a small psy-field that affects the player's ability to aim and causes anyone close by to slowly lose their mind. There is a high-pitched audio cue before the psychic attack actually happens and avoiding visual contact with the Controller can prevent that from happening.
A player may die if struck by a sufficient number of bolts or if they stay around the Controller for too long. For some reason if the player gets too close to the Controller, it will cease to launch bolts and uselessly try to walk away from him, which is the greatest opportunity of attack. On the 'Master' difficulty level, the Controller is extremely dangerous as its bolts have a chance of killing the player in one shot. This is especially common in Shadow of Chernobyl where there is no way to reduce psionic damage through armour or use of artifacts.
In general, Controllers are extremely dangerous and should be eliminated as soon as possible due to their abilities that can cause instant death. The best way of doing this by taking them out at extreme range using sniper rifles, where they cannot retaliate, near cover where you can avoid their psychic bolts, or bluntly just using explosives, a controller will die from a nearby hit with an RPG-7u or 2-3 direct hits with a grenade launcher/hand grenades. As a last recourse, the player can also attempt to kill the Controller with a meele weapon such as the Knife - this is exceptionally effective in Shadow of Chernobyl, as the Controller will start waddling away without counter-attacking when at melee ranges.
In Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat, one can reduce the potency of the Controller's Psy attacks by using telepathy protection artifacts like the Moonlight and Stone Flower.
In Call of Pripyat, a Controller demonstrates the ability to communicate with the player through the mind. It also gains a powerful melee attack, and can turn certain NPCs against the player.
AppearancesEditShadow of ChernobylEdit
In Shadow of Chernobyl, Controllers did not damage the player's health with their abilities, but the player's mental strength, which functions similar to health. The level of the player's remaining mental strength can be viewed in the inventory screen, located between the health bar and rad counter, but a brain-shaped icon will appear on screen, once their mental strength is sufficiently lowered.
Unlike health, the player cannot quickly recover mental strength through drugs, they must stay away from a controller until their mental strength recovers again. And because telepathy-protection did not exist in Shadow of Chernobyl, there is no real way to defend against or dampen a controller's mental assault, save for ducking behind cover. Getting hit with a psychic bolt will deplete about 1/4 of the player's mental strength while simply being under the influence of it's psy field will slowly sap it. Additionally, a controller's psy field in SoC is noticibly noisier compared to later games, thus, along with the in-game mental degregation, the player may find himself slowly being mentally fatigued by the unending noisy static, the longer they remain under it's influence.
The controller will kill the player once their mental strength is depleted no matter how much health player has.
Clear SkyEdit
Call of PripyatEdit
Controllers remain much the same in Call of Pripyat as they did in Clear Sky, although they are more resilient and powerful in comparison. Its melee attack is now also more powerful in comparison to Clear Sky. And much like the mutants in CoP, the Controller received an upgrade in its AI. If the player hides behind cover to evade the controller's mind bolts, it will now slowly charge at the player to engage them in close combat rather than running away. This forces players to either gun down the controller quickly or keep falling back behind cover-to-cover to escape a controller.
StrategyEditShadow of ChernobylEdit
Call of PripyatEdit
ResourcesEditReferencesEdit
GalleryEdit
PDA image.
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A controller about to launch a psychic bolt.
Early version of the Controller: An initial concept of the Controller. They were supposed to climb to reach positions inaccessible to the player and use zombies controlled by them to attack stalkers. Or threw them off roofs to kill people.
1. Scout the area of Limansk #2
Received from: Lebiediew (Red Forest)
Words of radiance review. Starting point: 1 on the map
Goal area: 2 on the map
Don't worry if the concept of this quest seems a little vague. All you have to do is to travel through the entire sector in hopes of reaching of the northern exit. Depending on your choice of a difficulty level, it can take from 30-60 minutes to a few hours of your time. Like I've already said, this level has a linear structure, so you don't have to worry about getting lost. You'll be given a chance to participate in optional challenges along the way and I've included those in this section of the guide. Start off by leaving the tunnel which you've used to travel to this location. The first group of allied soldiers is standing to your left. Approach them (screen) and see what's happening here.
Two bandits are being held hostage here. You may help one of the bandits by giving him your medical kit or you can wait for them to be assassinated by Clear Sky troops. You won't have to talk to the first leader. Instead, move on to the next section of the map. I wouldn't recommend choosing the main road, because an ambush has been set up here. Instead, choose an alley to your right (screen). This will allow you to pass on to the next area safely, however you should avoid straying off the main paths later on. The main reason is that you may encounter anomalies.
Keep heading north-west. You should be able to reach a new area in just a few seconds. Notice that two fractions are fighting here. The bandits are hidden inside the left building and Monolith units are just around the corner. Let's start with the bandits. Choose a sniper rifle from your inventory and disable a machine gun post on the first floor (screen). Eliminate a few bandits from here as well. They should appear near the windows on the ground floor.
How To Beat Clear Sky 1-7 Division
Once you've taken care of the bandits, it's time to switch your attention to Monolith units. Thankfully, Clear Sky soldiers should advance to this area in the meantime and they'll take care of most of the hostiles. Get closer to a nearby crossroads and you'll receive a warning about a sniper threat. You can take him out yourself (screen) or you can wait for your colleagues to do this for you. Either way, you must head north.
How To Beat Sky Striker
Eventually you'll get closer to a large square. I've already mentioned that you must be very careful here, because there are additional snipers in some of the nearby buildings. Try eliminating at least a few of them before moving on. Once you're ready, head north quickly (screen) and eliminate only those soldiers who stand in your way of leaving this area.
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