Arsenal Overhaul - Clear Sky is a full weapons conversion for S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky using SRP 1.0.4 as a base. It features 80 weapons with 28 new ammunition types including replacement of all stock weapon models with high quality versions. All new weapons sounds, 4 new suits, more variation in stalkers, new uniform patterns for Duty, Freedom and the Mercenaries and an improved economy. I take no credit for any of the models, animations or textures used in the mod.
9/10 -
The mod is great. I love the more realistic feel of the weapons, the power and weight behind each round you fire. No longer is coming up against a military patrol something to be utterly feared, because by the time you leave the swamps you'll have plenty of medical supplies and a large pool of ammo for an SKS, which can drop them in a few rounds. I love the new care you have to spend in going into engagements, even with mutants, which are much more deadly now. The early part of the swamps is rather heart-pounding if the trader doesn't spawn with a Mosin-Nagant, and if you decide to head into the swamps without stocking up on some ammo in the hopes of finding one, you're going to have a VERY bad time. The mod manages to capture the difficulty of playing STALKER, making weapons more accurate but also increasing damage considerably, so it pays to be careful. However, there are some issues that, while not making the mod worse, do degrade some of the difficulty it tries to build. It's a little too easy to get the 7.62x39mm ammo. Each main bandit camp that Clear Sky takes during the tutorial to faction warfare has a cache of ammo that has about 210 7.62x39mm rounds, and it's pretty easy to acquire an SKS from either giving a live Clear Sky stalker a shotgun and some ammo, or looting one from the inevitable dead. I left the swamps with an SKS, over 800 rounds of 7.62mm ammo, a semi-auto AK, and a PP-19 Bizon. Note that I didn't put in any of the optional "up-gearing" for the renegades, this is just through looking Clear Sky dead and the ammo dumps found in renegade bases. And, by looting the dead renegades of everything on their bodies, I had over 20,000 RU and was able to buy the top-end Clear Sky suit. By the time I finished the first mission for Sidorovich, I had a fully upgraded AKS-74U, and could've probably fully upgraded either an AK-74 or an AK-74M, or any other weapon I found. Medical supplies are pretty easy to find, and I currently have about 40 bandages and 30 standard medkits, none of which I've purchased. However, these issues aren't too glaring, and if looked at in a positive way, can at least make you appreciate the weapons more, which is really what the mod is about. Also, carrying around 800 rounds for one gun tends to leave you a little over-encumbered. The guns are amazing, they recoil realistically and the bullets go where you want them to. And they look amazing, with the updated textures and ejector ports on the right side of the gun. The level of detail gone into, with new reload animations and even drawing/holstering animations for some weapons, easily makes up for any flaws. And even coming out of a fight with a large sum of cash makes sense. If you go sell five good-quality AK-74s to a trader, you should be getting a solid paycheck. Taken as a whole, the mod is easily one of the better mods out there, much better than the STALKER Complete mods, with the exception of the blood clotting in Complete. If that was added in so that you didn't have to use a bandage every time you got grazed, Complete would have nothing on it. Unless you're a cheater who wants to use the Wish Granter. But you're not welcome, so get out of here stalker.