When STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl came out last year is was seen as an ambitious project, with a very long development time (somewhere around 7 years), that delivered a deep and interesting world but lacked several of the features the team had talked about prior to release.

GSC, the studio behind the game, always maintained that they needed to get the game out for fear they would be shutdown by then money-provider THQ. So, they launched the game knowing that certain elements were not exactly what they wanted. After the initial success of STALKER, GSC now has the time and the cash to create the game STALKER should have been. The name is Clear Sky and it packs quite a lot of surprises.

Factions will be the main idea behind the prequel. While the first game had certain factions, you really took your own patch through the game, without the possibility to align yourself completely with one or the other. In Clear Sky, each of the 7 factions will be fully fleshed out, with a central hub, a host of NPCs and, most importantly, clearly defined objectives. Each faction will have a designated enemy faction and fights for control of land, abnormalities or artifacts will take place in real time, while the protagonist explores the land around Chernobyl and completes his own missions. The player can choose to lead one faction to victory over its arch-rival, if it so desires, but can also play a smaller role in the epic faction-on-faction fights.

The environment is getting a massive overhaul, too. The game is less linear and there are constant changes in the makeup of the Zone because of the Blowout, a radiation and anomaly storm that regularly threatens Stalkers. Old zones may become locked down, while new areas will be cleared for exploration because of this mechanic.

GSC isn't saying much about the plot lines in the new game, although it is fairly sure that they'll provide background on the main character and his memory loss. Also up in the air is the question of vehicles, which are present but not activated in the original STALKER code.

The Ukrainian-based company will not confirm any clear release date yet. There are still many things they want to get exactly right for STALKER: Clear Sky, but they are aiming for a late Spring release.