Capcom at least knows how to make a fun game, just wish this either had the same charm as the original or had it's own darker identity fitting in with the previous REmakes. For all the positive and substantive changes like the reasons for Ashley and Leon to be separated or the writing of their relationship to be one of proper teamwork like the original touched on only near the very end, the sanitized vibe of the entire experience lacks that strong and concrete identity of the 2005 game. All the game's interfaces and ui are just like the previous games and while on it's own they work, they pale to the personality of RE4's presentation. Boss fights and particular encounters lose the wacky and outlandish extra kick that the QTEs added. It's an incredibly small thing in the grand scheme but the removal of the overwhelming autumn brown colour palette of the early hours of the game in place of the admittedly visually impressive photorealism is a huge loss for me, just as an example of how stark the differences can get with the two games.

Stalker's most streamlined official release. Each mechanic and gameplay element has been refined to a very satisfying degree. Although due to it's military centered plot, the story is more an afterthought and feels far less fantastical and has far less world building. At the same time I appreciate that this takes the opportunity to show the Zone from the perspective of a group that has always been fully antagonistic in the previous games. Featuring only 3 maps instead of the 10-12 in SoC and CS is deceptive in making the game feel shrunken down. Luckily these 3 areas are all just as wonderfully detailed as the series standard, now are far more open in design so there's more than 2 or 3 directions to go or angles to approach a point of interest. The titular Pripyat map in particular never failing to give me chills with it's imagery and atmosphere. A series highlight for me being a half hour shootout with a handful of squads of an enemy faction in one of Pripyat's main areas during a nighttime thunderstorm, with the only lighting being the lighting flashes along with my nightvision goggles. Absolutely legendary atmosphere.

Bold move on GSC's part to make the second game in the series more broken than the first. But with mods and fixes applied the shooting is actually even better than SoC. With the addition of the faction wars system (while not being fully smoothed out to prevent repetition and annoyance) and a stronger emphasis on world building through tangible writing and conversations, Clear Sky is still a worthy entry in the series and provides some of the best and uniquely intense shootout sequences I've played in a game.