S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky - Review @ 1UP

1Up reviews GSC Gameworld's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. prequel, Clear Sky, and gives it a grade of "B" :

Clear Sky is a great game and a worthy successor to Shadow of Chernobyl, despite the identity crisis. Clear Sky's concern is the human struggle to control, contain, and exploit the Zone -- which is itself presented as a conscious character to a far greater extent than in Shadow of Chernobyl...

What Clear Sky doesn't deliver is the abject, adjust-your-gamma terror of its predecessor. Certainly, the tattletale PDA doesn't help, but the more important difference is that Clear Sky is prehistory: This dystopian-but-densely populated Zone is the "before" snapshot to Shadow of Chernobyl's hellish "after." Here, guns, ammo, and -- by extension -- rubles flow like water thanks to the constant (and vastly improved) combat. My inner coward couldn't be happier.