Valentine Yeltyshev of GSC Game World, the developers of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, were asked some very deep questions by Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
Have you been making other improvements based on feedback from the first game?August 29th is the date that Clear Sky is set to be released. Look for it in retail stores and on Steam on that day!
VY: We’ve made a lot of improvements as a result of that. You’ll now be able to hold things in both hands - so a gun and your anomaly detector, for example. You’ll be able to repair and upgrade all of your weapons. And it’s not really a gameplay change as such but there’s a huge difference in the graphics - volumetric smoke, wet surfaces - and we took some more trips to Chernobyl to get new pictures for new areas, but all of the old areas that we’ve kept in the game have been improved and redesigned too. There are about five completely new areas.
And fighting is a lot more realistic. You can see that when you fight enemies they’ll take cover behind rocks or shoot from windows.
The main thing is always to improve the atmosphere of the first game. Players who liked the first game will be pleasantly surprised by the changes we’ve made, and players who never have played it will not feel that they’ve missed something, because Stalker: Clear Sky is everything Stalker was and more.