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

I could probably copy and paste much of my review of the first game in the series: what was good is even better this time around; but the bad things are also there. The good: atmosphere is fantastic! Though it is a bit less scary than the first one, the universe is even more lively, with factions fighting for dominance, asking for help, coordinating attacks... The AI is really remarkable at times! The bad: bugs, crashes.... sometimes the "friendly" AI was frustrating, pushing you out of cover, blocking a door... There were times where the developers put you into artificially hard spots for no good reason, as if they were screaming "in your face!" (for example, the first Cordon approach is ridiculous). And encumbrance is still very much NOT fun (and you do need lots of money to buy upgrades). An extra example: the last level added two heavy weapons to my inventory with no prompts, which made me over-encumbered and unable to walk, right before dropping me in the middle of a firefight... What the...? Solution: reload a previous save, get rid of some of your items **prior** to entering the last level. How odd. But all in all, I had fun with this. I just hope they polished more the next game in the series! Score: 79/100. Note: played with the ZRP patch, and reduced emissions.