S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Clear Sky
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series is renowned for being a glorious, bug-ridden tangle that combines the best and worst that PC gaming has to offer. I picked up Clear Sky just a week after its EU release with high hopes, but the fact that it was already on patch 1.504 (containing sixty-eight fixes) was something of an eyebrow raiser and did not bode well.
Right from the load-up it was looking ropey; the publisher’s cut-scene and the main menu were displaced and only half visible. Next to crop up were mismatched scripting and events, which then developed into unachievable take and hold missions that ultimately ground the game’s faction war to a halt. On the plus side, I did find a supply box that would refresh its supply of rare ammo upon reloading the game, so naturally I staggered back to base laden with shooty-bits. Still, these issues were tolerable; it’s an incredibly ambitious game without the AAA budget and because they’ve maybe achieved that ambition in places I might be cutting it some slack, who knows. Nit-picking at minor technical details is easy, but I feel that ultimately you’ll spoil your own fun if you don’t look at these things in perspective. However, the more general problem is that bugs and exploits weaken the illusion, suspension of disbelief becomes harder, and the player begins to disengage. Simply put: they remind you that it’s just a game.
