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The Ukrainian developer behind Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl has announced a prequel set one year before the original game's story unfolds.

Just months after the release of its first major title, Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, Ukrainian developer GSC Game World announced that the game will get a prequel in the near future. Stalker: Clear Sky will be set one year prior to the events of the first game, explaining some of unfilled holes in its storyline.

Clear Sky brings players back to when a group of Stalkers – essentially mercenary adventurers – first discover Chernobyl, the heart of the contaminated area known as the Zone. Chernobyl’s discovery trips an imbalance in the Zone, causing strange anomalies and blowouts of energy. It also comes in the midst of fierce factionalism among the Stalkers, which sets the scene for players to choose from among eight factions in their fight for survival and lead them to dominance. Many of the old locations from the game will return, along with new areas such as the Red Forest, Limansk, Pripyat Undergrounds and more

Besides the new storyline, Clear Sky will introduce version 1.5 of the game’s X-Ray Engine, which will include DirectX 10 support. For those who don’t have the hardware to support DirectX 10 quite yet, the DirectX 9 renderer is also set to be improved with parallax bump mapping, soft particles, depth of field, motion blur, and an eye adaptation effect.

Stalker: Clear Sky is set for release in the first quarter of 2008.