Deep Silver Publishing S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky This August

The haunting Ukrainian first-person shooter with the World's Most Annoying Acronym-For-A-Name has a prequel, a release date, and (finally) a publisher. You remember S.T.A.L.K.E.R.? I wrote about the prequel back in July 2007, and the original all the way back when this blog launched in April last year.

In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (which stands somewhat ridiculously for "Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers") you played a guy scavenging around the Chernobyl Power Plant in the wake of the 1986 reactor meltdown, rubbing elbows (and guns) with mercenaries, other scavengers, a panoply of bizarre creatures, and a paranormal undercurrent that dovetails with a series of identity twists during the latter third of the game.

Clear Sky drops the scavenger angle and bring you in as a mercenary whose actions essentially create "The Zone" -- an area around Chernobyl where most of the spookiest stuff in the original went down. You're apparently after the protagonist from the original, but since you obviously can't kill him, the plot vectors more toward a freeform faction war. In the prior game, factionalism was just a superficial narrative gloss. In Clear Sky, you can join whoever you like in a war between nine (eight confirmed) S.T.A.L.K.E.R. factions, then battle across a 50-50 landscape -- 50% terrain regurgitated from the original, 50% completely new. We're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 square kilometers comprised of nearly two dozen quilted area maps.

What's got my curiosity piqued most? Probably the new AI stuff. Apparently the AI's supposed to dynamically dictate the terms of the entire faction war, can now throw grenades (I know, whoop-whoop), coordinates and works better in groups, runs day and night routines, and interacts more realistically with the physical world.

Coming to a Windows PC near you -- retail or digital download via Steam -- August 29, 2008.

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