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TL DR : It's a good game BUT it should only be played if you really like Shadow of Chernobyl.
Clear Sky is the prequel to SoC, if you haven't played that game yet, play it first and if you liked it then you may or may not like CS because this is a very messy game. There is a main story but it's really not that important because the freedom to explore is what makes Stalker such an amazing series. Both Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat should be viewed as expansions to SoC as they both take place in the Zone with the same but updated engine and you'll be visiting previously unavailable regions and see new stuff in familiar places which is really cool much like Episodes of Liberty City. So it's really three parts, one game.
I played and finished the vanilla unmodded experience and there are some improvements here over SoC which i really like but there are also some very bad new stuff that almost ruin the whole game. Before i get to the good and bad stuff be sure to get the necessary .DLL files to fix the screen tearing, there is a guide on how to do this in the community. Also playing CS on DX10 seems to run pretty hot and gives worse performance over DX9. The graphics are definitely better but it's not really worth it so i just stick with DX9.
+ The graphics are improved, textures look smoother and more detailed, the weapon models are nicely updated, the lighting also looks better and i love the new reload animations even though they are slower it gives the new protaganist sort of his own personality. NPC's and enemies all have new animations as well! Fast travel! You no longer have to backtrack 10 miles while over-encumbered to complete a silly sidequest you can now go to guides who will take you to most towns and bases for a price. It doesn't make sense that you have to pay for places you've already visited by yourself i get that Clear Sky base has secret routes at the Swamps but why do you have to pay anybody in Cordon? You should be able to travel by yourself but i guess it's better than nothing.
+ You can now visit mechanics to repair armor, weapons and even upgrade them! I actually love this, it balances the difficulty but also let's you experiment with the armors and weapons that you've aqcuired. For example, if you can't wear artifacts because your suit lacks a slot, you can just upgrade it and even add protection against anomalies! The PDA map system is better now with more detailed area names, quest givers, bases, mutants and factions are all visible on your map. It's overal more streamlined. Artifact hunting is also improved now with artifacts only appearing in between anomalies and you can find them with the artifact detector. It makes the artifacts more of a rarity unlike SoC where they are lying around pretty much everywhere so yeah i prefer it this way. I like how there is a risk vs reward stake in getting the artifacts that ultimately aren't much of a challenge if you quicksave your game. The combat music is a mix of rock and drum and bass and i like it. Some fans think the music ruins the mood but it's a different game, different experience so i'm okay with it even when the music bugs out and keeps on playing while the fight is long over.
- The shooting mechanics have been messed up, enemies have become literal bullet sponges unless you aim for the head at all times. Starting the game with low level weapons will make you empty dozens of clips on a single bandit that just won't die but that same bandit can almost instantly kill you with those same weapons from miles away. Unlike SoC, Clear Sky should not be played on master difficulty despite what the internet tells you cause you will get very frustrated. Play on stalker or veteran if you still want a decent challenge but even then the shooting still sucks. This alone is enough for anybody to give up playing especially if this is your first Stalker game. the enemies will get easier as soon as you get better weapons, artifacts and armor but it's a very bad experience starting out.
- The A.I. is horrible, it's even worse than SoC. Here, NPC's will randomly shoot at walls or the ground because the A.I. knows that enemies are nearby but they just don't know where to shoot at until the enemies are actually visible. Even worse, when you infiltrate the military base in Cordon they just stand still or run the entirely opposite direction of where you're standing or they just stand there facing the wrong way. I like that enemies actually throw grenades this time which they didn't in SoC, at least not in my numerous playthroughs, but it seems like whenever they throw a grenade their aim is so accurate it always lands somewhere near you which makes it kind of unrealistic and annoying but this is Stalker after all so the jank finds it's way. Also the first arrival at Cordon is the worst mandatory section ever. It's doable at first because the guy has to shout a few lines before shooting you but if you leave the area and ever come back (especially on master) you won't survive the attack and even if you kill all the soldiers in the base they all respawn as soon as you take just 10 steps away from the army base. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?
- So despite of all the patches and fixes the game is still very buggy. These bugs don't outright break the game but as a whole it ruins the experience and there is just too many of them. I get this bug on many playthroughs where i can't draw grenades and i don't know why, it just won't work but luckily grenades aren't that crucial and it ususally fixes itself. Another bug that only happened once in the Garbage Depot but when i killed most of the enemies in their base the game seems to think that my faction now owns the base and i couldn't draw my weapons anymore until i left the base or reload getting me killed in the process. The fences in the later regions seem all to be bugged out, basically there is no fence line just the metal around it but you still can't go through these invisible fences. Finally, i guess this is a not bug but it's still the worst of them all... Emissions are supposed to kill anybody that's outside but this only applies to the player. Because all the NPC's just sit outside their base and nothing happens to them, i know that this would literally break the game but way to ruin the immersion and in universe lore!
+- Sidequests are entirely optional so they aren't bad if you only play the main quest but there are some good and bad changes here as well... First the good; no more time limits! BUT... Quests that you have accepted from one random guy, you completed and then went back to the same guy to get your reward, no longer gives you a reward... Oh no, turns out you now have to travel all the way to the faction's base to get the damn reward. In a chaotic world like the Zone where any questgiver can get killed at any moment and you might never get your reward, like what happens in SoC in some cases, i understand why this change was made. But at the same time it just wastes so much time to go back to the base, if you're too far you'll just have to look for a guide and fast travel to the base to get your reward later.
Another aspect of sidequests are faction wars, this is the best idea executed terribly. The goal of the factions is to expand and gain more resources by taking over towns and bases. You don't have to join any faction but it might make the game easier by joining a faction that deals with your enemies especially the bandits. It makes the world feel more alive as these groups attack or defend a base and even zombies and mutant animals can attack and take over your base, which is weird and at the same time hilarious! All of this is just amazing and is what makes CS so unique and sometimes better than SoC... When it actually works...
So overal i like Clear Sky, had the developers spend some more time on it i would've loved it. It's not for everyone but it's still a must play for Stalker fans!