Deep Silver picks up S.T.A.L.K.E.R. prequel

By Robert Purchese Published 31 January, 2008

Make your own jokes.

Deep Silver has picked up the publishing rights to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. prequel Clear Sky.

It ends citywide speculation over who would put the title in shops, as Valve had already pointed to Steam as the digital place to get it.

So buses can once more chug past the clock tower and bakers can bellow out orders for fresh bread and chimney sweeps can scuttle along the cobbled paths and plunge into dark and clogged shoots.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky takes place one year before the acclaimed original. Some stalkers have reached the heart of the Zone - you know, the one with Chernobyl in it - and you then have to shoot people in a free-form manner to, er, just because. I stole that from Tom.

It's due out "later this year" on Steam, although Deep Silver has kept its mouth closed about retail dates.

If the atmospheric and "really bloody actually terrifying underground bits" Dan goes on about from the first game are anything go by, then this should be a sumptuous follow up to a rather unsung hero. As Dan puts it, "Broken, but brilliant".

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was our 10th and was your 14th favourite game of 2007, beating the likes of World of Warcraft and Crysis along the way.

Pop over to our S.T.A.L.K.E.R. review to find out why, or head to our Clear Sky first impressions for an idea of what to expect.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • skillian #1 4 years ago

    Does this mean Deep Silver will set the pricing on Steam too? During the CoD4 more-expensive-and-released-later-than-boxed-retail-copies Steam fiasco, Valve said distributors set the Steam price.

  • mull #2 4 years ago

    Just finished the first one last night, and I look forward muchly to this prequel. Stalker fits into a long line of brilliant but flawed pc games, evoking memories fo deus ex particualrly strongly for me.

    I would normally be sceptical of a sequel so soon, but this one doesn't have to reinvent the game, and can reuse a lot of the same graphics, maps and assets perfectly justifiably. If they make the new storyline tighter and functional, and get rid of more bugs (the original has improved muchos since release), I'll happily pay for more of the same.

    If they really want to improve the experience, though, several things should be done - alter the weight restrictions, improve shopping and weapon/armour progression, let vendors repair stuff. These ahave already been dealt with by mods, but should be integrated into the prequel.

    One harder to fix bugbear- you should be able to see your own body in game. The player's model should change depending of the armour you're wearing, and the HUD should alter depending on hemet type, etc. They really missed an opportunity to immerse the player in the game world there. You shouldn't be able to instantly switch suits in the middle of a massive patch of radiation with fuck all effect, either!

  • monkie_king #3 4 years ago

    Why is it written S.T.A.L.K.E.R., anyway? Is it really an acronym?

  • sanctusmortis #4 4 years ago

    P.E.E.P.I.N.G. T.O.M.? F.L.A.S.H.E.R.? P.A.E.D.O.? /Runs

  • UncleLou #5 4 years ago

    Yeah, it is, kind of. It wasn't in the Russian film of the same name the game is partly based on, but it's meant to mean "Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer and Robber" here.

  • monkie_king #6 4 years ago

    mmm, I do love me some contrived backronyms. That's almost as good as the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act.

  • darc #7 4 years ago

    I hope they take their time with this one. I really wanted to enjoy the original, but you've gotta be something of an apologist to endure it at times.

  • kingmob #8 4 years ago

    I appreciate I may get flamed for this but is there any further news on a 360 port / version of STALKER at all?

  • UncleLou #9 4 years ago

    I hope they take their time with this one. I really wanted to enjoy the original, but you've gotta be something of an apologist to endure it at times.


    Not at all. I don't think there was something fundamentally wrong with Stalker. It had a few niggles, but that's pretty much it. I understand if people didn't get along with it very well, but it wasn't broken. An entirely broken, but nonetheless enjoyable game was Oblivion, for example, with its entirely screwed up levelling and mob-levelling mechanics. Stalker just lacked a little polish. I never, ever had to "endure" anything, or force myself to continue playing despite any flaws - something I had to do quite often in Oblivion as well as, to name another example of an in my opinion really flawed, but enjoyable game, Bioshock. Both were more accesible and more polished than Stalker, but strained my nerves and tolerance level a lot more with their all in all much bigger problems. All in my humble opinion, naturally. :)
    Edited by 2 at 31/01/08 @ 17:08

  • tapper #10 4 years ago

    Too bad many gave up to fast on this game. It picks up so much steam once you get a better weapon (with scope). Easily one of my favorite games of 2007.

  • Katsumoto #11 4 years ago

    I'm with Lou in that I never felt like "oh god, i'll press on and hope it sorts itself out". I did have several bugs though, most notably enemies randomly disappearing en masse only to reappear a few minutes later. But hey, didn't stop me placing it as my favourite game of 2007. I fucking love it. Probably put it in my 10 favourite games ever, even. Up there with Deus Ex and Vampire: The Masquerade (to name relatively similar games only).

  • Pablo2k5 #12 4 years ago

    I love Stalker and CANT.WAIT.FOR.THIS!!! :)

  • tapper #13 4 years ago

    @JSPOOLE,

    No it wouldn't.

    I'm glad there's still some PC exclusives left. I don't want S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Invisible War.

  • tapper #14 4 years ago

    Did I sound upset? Where did my post imply than I don't understand why most devs focus on consoles?

  • UncleLou #15 4 years ago

    Christ.

  • Tomo #16 4 years ago

    I CANNOT FUCKING WAIT FOR THIS GAME.

    Hi-five Lou. Keep preaching the good stuff.

  • tapper #17 4 years ago

    The reason I want to keep it PC exclusive is that it would be a different (read "streamlined";) game if it were to go multiplatform - nothing else.

    For the record: I've played games on all platforms imaginable since the 80s. Stop assuming stuff.

  • tapper #18 4 years ago

    Well, I guess the biggest fear is that they'll remove/streamline the interface/inventory system.

    STALKER takes me back to a period when games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2 were made. I'm seeing this game series as the end of the line of this kind of game design (and it's way behind those two, but there are parallells).

    If it were to go console I'm pretty sure that the console version would be to the PC version what Bioshock is to System Shock 2. Meaning, it wouldn't objectively be a worse game - it just wouldn't fit my preferences as well.

    And there's already an abundance of "regular" shooter on the consoles, so that's why I'd like this to stay a PC exclusive.

  • mkreku #19 4 years ago

    I hope this doesn't become as delayed as the original game was.. I think I had to wait an extra three years for that one!

    Worth the wait though :p

  • Katsumoto #20 4 years ago

    "Christ"

    +1

  • ezsteel #21 4 years ago

    @skillian:

    I would guess GSC have a direct contract with Valve for Steam distribution, so Steam price should probably be unaffected by publisher.

  • Subject_706 #22 4 years ago

    Um, JSPOOLE, PC gamers haven't really "let" Crysis flop. It's sold more than a million copies world wide in two and a half months. The 87000 number is US retail in its first week, excluding online purchases and digital downloads. The whole "Crysis should be on consoles cos it flopped on PC" is really bullshit.