STALKER Clear Sky Ending

[Stg-Flame]

I guess I just beat the game, but I am at a loss for words. Upon entering the very end of the game, it felt like GSC worked very hard with the level design, enemy placement, and so fourth... and then you get to the end. To me, it seemed that there was a party at GSC, they all got drunk and overslept the deadline, woke up, and just threw something together really fast.

First of all, nothing is explained how or why you are given two new weapons at the end. Clear Sky briefly explains the Gauss Rifle, but I had a new assault rifle in my inventory for some reason. This hampered me in the way that I tried to run for cover from the Monolith Soldiers below me, but I was over-weight from the new weapons. Taking time to drop something so I could run usually meant that Monolith would turn me unto a spaghetti strainer before I could decide what to drop.

Secondly, Strelok just stood there and let me shoot him repeatedly until I "won". What the hell is this about? When GSC pulled the helicopter stunt earlier in the game, it geared me up for the possibility of a boss battle at the end. Seeing a health bar at the top of the screen only affirmed my assumption, yet to find that the boss never moved from cover was extremely disappointing. Plus, seeing the new anomalies scattered about the rather large area mixed with various people fighting, I assumed I would be using all of those bandages and health kits I had been stockpiling. However, by the time I found suitable cover, Monolith acted as if someone rolled a shiny ball in front of them because they forgot all about me repeatedly shooting Strelok in the face.

Third. maybe this is my fault, but I finished the game using a modified AC96/2 Assault Rifle I found AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME. I briefly read through the patch notes and saw the name of my favorite weapon from Stalker SoC - GP37. So I got excited about finding that weapon and actually upgrading it to make it an even better weapon. By the time I started finding the 5.56x45 rounds, I figured I would be finding one in the near future, so I began hoarding the 5.56x45AP rounds. At the end of the game, I was carrying almost 1300 5.56x45AP rounds coupled with the 2200 5.55x45AP rounds for my AC96/2. The only problem being, I never found anything better than the AC96/2. Hell, the only other assault rifles I found were the TRs 301 and SA Avalanche.

Fourth. This one stacks onto the third one. I finished the game with the upgraded Sunrise suit you receive for helping the Stalkers kill zombies in Agroprom. Trying to buy any armor seemed nigh impossible considering how expensive they are coupled with the fact that you lose all of your money half-way through the game. By the time I entered Limansk, I had well over 30k saved up for which I was planning on using every rouble on the next trader/mechanic - little did I know that there would be no more past Limansk.

However, despite everything that has been said, this was an extremely fun game, just as the first one was. I plan on playing through again, but these four things just bugged the hell out of me too much for me not to mention them. It's a possibility I will add onto this list in the future, so by all means, post any of your complaints, rants, or general comments about this game.

 

[imported_Imp]

Agree that the ending does suck. It's tedious, and just like they threw a bunch of shit at you.

Strelok standing there is a bug. He's suppose to run on a predetermined path, and you must "kill" him with the gauss gun before he makes it. My first play through, he fell off the catwalk and let me shoot him in place. The second time, it worked ok.

The guns I don't know. I guess it comes down to what you like to use. The AC96 is the cream of the crop, but you can just as well use an Obekan (sp?) and have an even easier time. I just stuck to these 2 guns and an auto shotty I found on the ground in the Garbage for the entire game. The machine gun is gimicky.

Armour could be better. The best suit is the upgraded biosuit (Sunrise?). You have to be a packrat to buy the exoskeleton when/if it spawns.

 

[Nik]

Right when you spawn and they give you the gauss rifle, zoom in and take shots at Strelok. He drops down from a ladder and makes his way across the platform. If you get consecutive headshots as he runs and hides along the catwalk, you can take him down right then and there, end of game.

 

[skace]

You were using the AC 96/2 at the end of the game? Hah. I only used that for a very short period of time early on.

Also, Strelok ran his pre-determined path the 3 times I did it, worked fine. However, I do agree with the 2 guns that put you overweight, they should have anticipated that.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I'm just ran through the game again, and I was still unable to find anything better than the AC 96/2. It appears that the better assault rifles do not exist in my game, or I am missing them somewhere.

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: Chaoticpenguin666
I'm just ran through the game again, and I was still unable to find anything better than the AC 96/2. It appears that the better assault rifles do not exist in my game, or I am missing them somewhere.

Spoilers

The only weapons I found before I got to Chernobyl, which were worth a damn, were the L-86, M4 rip-off, AK74 and Obokan (sp?), Dragunov, silenced sniper rifle and the TAR/duty gun. I found the AKs, silenced sniper rifle, auto-shotty and TAR to be the best. The RPK is ok, but no scope, too inaccurate and heavy.

 

[skace]

Most of my guns came out of the area that the hippy faction is stationed in. I grouped with them however I also had several large battles in that region where lots of good weapons dropped. It's been awhile and several of the best weapons simply didn't drop in Clear Sky, however I'm positive there were plenty better than the AC96/2 which IIRC is the military gun which is a decent weapon but has poor upgradeability (if any?). CS had weapon upgrades, you saw those right? The actual merchant that can upgrade a weapon?

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Should've stuck with the AK74 until the top tier weapons become available. It's actually better then the Abakan for as a primary weapon - both suffer severe condition accuracy penalties, but the AK74 degrades half as fast as the Abakan. The TR301 degrades far too quickly to be of any use, and the Enfield is far too jam prone to be a standby weapon.

Of the better assault rifles, there are several available. The Sig can be bought from duty after joining, is gifted to you on joining duty, can be taken off dead dutiers if you join freedom, can be found in a stash in the military bases, and I believe is a quest reward from the mercs in the military bases.

The FN-2000 would've been given to you if you had gone back to Clear Sky after the bridge fight, before heading into Limansk, and claimed your reward for that quest. It's better then the Abakan, Clear Sky tech can fully upgrade it, and they give you a boatload of cash to make sure you can afford it. The Sig is more damaging and the GP-37 is more accurate, but it's right between the two and has an integrated grenade launcher to boot.

Also, don't ignore the Vintorez sniper rifle - they're are plenty around, they're quite accurate once upgraded with full flatness, fire fast and have a 10 round clip. For dealing with people, it's a first class weapon.


Muties....well, always, always keep a shotgun loaded with buckshot handy.

The GP-37 is actually quite hard to obtain - it's either the final quest reward for the Bandits in faction wars, or the reward for the last fetch quest in the Military Base. Since fetch quests can get stuck real easily, this can often amount to having to do them all.

 

[dust]

The russian weapons are way overpowered in Clear Sky compared to the ShOC. You can even tell by watching firefights between Freedom and Duty, as 85% of the time Duty wins and all they use is Akm/Ac 96 line of weapons. The Akm may be degrading slower than the 96 version but the accuracy and the short burst option for the latter are really important for me at least.The Ac 96 is indeed a good choice for almost any of the areas in Clear Sky, but it could create problems after Limansk. Also the Dragunov is much more reliable now especially after upgrading it and the Vintar BC is somewhat less accurate than in the previous game.

 

[katank]

Nah, the fact that Duty almost invariably wins is more due to their armor rather than anything else. TRS and AC96 are fairly comparable overall. It's the fact that Duty has vastly better armor.

The GP37 is just fantastic maxed out. Never particularly found a use for upgrading anything down ROF tree. Accuracy all the way seems very necessary.

BTW, anyone mess w/ the RPG? Horribly impractical but kinda funny @ the bridge to Limansk. You can blow up an entire squad of bandits w/ a single shot.

 

[dust]

Originally posted by: katank
Nah, the fact that Duty almost invariably wins is more due to their armor rather than anything else. TRS and AC96 are fairly comparable overall. It's the fact that Duty has vastly better armor.

The GP37 is just fantastic maxed out. Never particularly found a use for upgrading anything down ROF tree. Accuracy all the way seems very necessary.

BTW, anyone mess w/ the RPG? Horribly impractical but kinda funny @ the bridge to Limansk. You can blow up an entire squad of bandits w/ a single shot.

How abt freedom squads of five having at least one Freedom exo guy, often two guys and they seem to be made out of paper.Duty squads almost never have exo suits. I am running sometimes to see the battles up close and the Freedom guys usually die before I reach the place. It usually takes five to ten seconds for the battle to end and that's just ridiculous since an exo suit is providing some protection.

It's the weapon not the armor. I even found that using an Ac 96 in Red Forest saves a lot of ammo.

I installed a mod recently and then removed it because the game was getting ridiculously easy, but not before getting an FTM from a trader. I was surprised to see how less effective it was against mutants. Maybe I'm a poor shot but it's different with the Ac 96. I wish I knew how to check the weapons stats in the game files but I'm pretty sure they are "worked" out differently than in Shoc. In the previous game there was a clear difference between the Nato rifles and the Warsaw Pact ones and the best weapon for for the 5,45 ammo was the modified Groza not the AKM/AC 96. During the last levels you couldn't use an AKM unless you were suicidal, especially on master difficulty.

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: Drivenbyvoltage

Originally posted by: katank
Nah, the fact that Duty almost invariably wins is more due to their armor rather than anything else. TRS and AC96 are fairly comparable overall. It's the fact that Duty has vastly better armor.

The GP37 is just fantastic maxed out. Never particularly found a use for upgrading anything down ROF tree. Accuracy all the way seems very necessary.

BTW, anyone mess w/ the RPG? Horribly impractical but kinda funny @ the bridge to Limansk. You can blow up an entire squad of bandits w/ a single shot.

How abt freedom squads of five having at least one Freedom exo guy, often two guys and they seem to be made out of paper. Duty squads almost never have exo suits in squads. I am running sometimes to see the battles up close and the Freedom guys usually die before I reach the place. It usually takes five to ten seconds for the battle to end and that's just ridiculous since an exo suit is providing some protection.

It's the weapon not the armor. I even found that using an Ac 96 in Red Forest saves a lot of ammo.

I think it's the weapons that make Duty better too. Some exosuit guys have the RPK and others the TAR. Unfortuantely, the last time I played, faction wars were still busted. The side which you joined would always have gimped respawns while the enemy would keep respawning non-stop. Even though Duty squads won most battles outright, they would lose maybe 1 or 2 guys due to frags per engagement, and get wiped out eventually.