Resident Evil 4. Dead Space. Oblivion. We are still in the age of the remake and the remaster, when beloved, older games are thrown back into the present-day rotation with visual upgrades, tweaked mechanics, and modern conveniences. But it’s not always plain sailing. After releasing a significant overhaul to Stalker 2, GSC has also remastered and relaunched its original post-apocalyptic FPS trilogy, enhancing Shadow of Chornobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Prypiat. However, as the new Stalker remasters hit Steam, players have noted a variety of technical and other issues, dragging the game’s review scores into the gloomy ‘mostly negative’ bracket.
Originally released in 2007, Shadow of Chornobyl also launched the Stalker series, setting the bar for GSC’s hard-fought, philosophical, survival and FPS game hybrid. Clear Sky followed in 2008, Call of Prypiat in 2009. After 16 years, and the success of Stalker 2, a re-release of the pioneering Stalker trilogy, complete with improved visuals, full controller support, bug fixes, and new lighting effects, seems perfectly reasonable. But right now, it seems things aren’t going well.
The enhanced editions of all three original Stalker games arrived on Steam today, Tuesday May 20. As of this writing, after hundreds of user reviews, all three games have an aggregated ‘mostly negative’ rating. Only 35% of responses for the new version of Shadow of Chornobyl are positive. For Clear Sky, it’s 37%, and for Call of Prypiat, 33%. The majority of negative responses cite problems with textures and frame rate, as well as a new blur effect that impacts the game’s visuals generally.
“There is nothing ‘enhanced’ about this version,” one player writes. “The visuals are disgustingly blurry and even at max settings, it feels like 720p.” “I’m very happy to see the graphical improvements and the QOL fixes,” another player says. “Unfortunately, this seems to have come at the cost of image clarity. There are no discernable edges to any geometry. This is particularly noticeable around the edges of trees, which instead of having distinct lines, now have fuzziness and seem to blend into the background.”
The enhanced versions of the Stalker games are free for anybody who already owns the original editions. Otherwise, they are available for $19.99 / £16.75 each, or $40.17 / £33.66 for the entire trilogy.
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