Right when you thought all the action is at E3, GSC Game World announced a prequel to this March’s well-acclaimed first-person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. The prequel is titled S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and will be invading stores in the first quarter of 2008.
The game starts off a year before the events in the first game, in the year 2011. The synopsis is, as penned by GSC Game World:
A group of stalkers has for the first time reached the very heart of the Zone – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and brings about a cataclysm on the brink of a catastrophe. An immense blowout of anomalous energy changes the Zone. There are no more reliable and relatively safe roads. The entire levels vanish in the outbursts of anomalies. Stalkers and even expeditions die or end up sealed on the lost territories. New areas, which remained unknown since the time of the Zone emergence, appear on the Zone map. The Zone continues to shake with blowouts. The Zone is unstable. The anomalous activity is at its maximum.
Changes of the Zone map known to stalkers shake the fragile balance of forces in the Zone. Among the groupings, there flare up hostilities for the new territories, artifact fields and spheres of influence. There are no more old enemies or friends – now everyone is for himself. The Factions War has started between the groupings.
Our fancy protagonist is a mercenary who appeared “at the edge of the opposition between stalker factions” and is named Strelok. Your character will be responsible for creation of the Zone and laying the foundation for the original game which is too friggin’ long to type.
Clear Sky’s list of features is rather intimidating and will feature DirectX 10 rendering, a new animation engine, inverse kinematics, a very improved DirectX 9 renderer and several other additions and changes. Visit the game’s official site to get the full feature list.
No! The first game was crap enough.