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[GudOlRub]

Man, no wonder reviewers were harsh. Not even remotely close to day 0 patch and even that has bugs. Why would devs send review code like that, might as well just wait launch day and let them play it.

It's a doomed if you do, doomed if you don't scenario. They tried to compromise and embargo the reviews until the very last moment when the day 0 patch would already be released but it seems like they didn't really think it through regarding the experience the reviewers would have.
A friend of mine who's mostly playing the main story is telling me the game completely breaks apart in the last 1/3 of the story, bugs, bugs and more bugs.
It's a shame really, I'm enjoying it, I even started a new save with a couple mods to make the experience more to my liking but seeing so many people complaining about latter parts of the game being broken is really putting me off from continuing after Garbage...

They should have delayed it further imo, half a year more in the oven, with most of the bugs being fixed and A-life working properly and making the Zone feel alive and Xbox could have had one of the best reviewed games of the generation.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Boy, this game world is so empty... It just hit me as I was crossing Garbage that it's really lifeless compared to the original.

However, the spawn system has some merit. I shat massive bricks when two bloodsuckers spawned in the recently conquered depot while I was on the highest level. They killed everyone and came upstairs for me lmao

 

[Bry0]

From the original trilogy, what is the game with the best gunplay\a life implementation\smartest combat ai?

Shadow? Prypiat or blue sky?

And how are the ports on ps5? Still buggy or stable?

Ps5 versions are pretty good. Call of Pripyat is the most polished by far, and has the best designed open maps by far.

 

[Mister Wolf]

"So you're the one that's been robbing my stashes........."

 

[simpatico]

I decided to wait. I'm rocking a 1080 right now and between that and the A-Life questions, it's better for me just to do a Call of Pripyat playthrough. I've seen enough to know the game is worthy of the namesake, it's just like every STALKER launch. I've got no problem with this as an Easter European Jankware connoisseur. I'm just going to look forward to it as a launch title when I get off my ass to get a GPU and put it in. Once I see 4080s at that $400 mark I'm in, and that's totally realistic when the 5000s launch.

Doing Gunslinger, AtmosFear, Absolute Nature and Absolute Structures. It's a really nice combo that doesn't change the spirit of the game imo.

 

[adamsapple]

This game's map is way bigger than I expected. I'm currently on the Western edges doing story stuff after spending some hours in the eastern half and the scope and scale is fantastic, even if 'on paper' it's just a few kilometers from one end to the other.

I gotta imagine they took some creative liberties and adding in more things in the middle while merging the original game maps into this singular one, but yeah .. it's huge.

 

[Revolutionary]

The

Spoiler

SIRCAA

missions need some serious rebalancing in terms of ammo drops. Unless you're playing on Rookie, or carry an insane amount of ammo in you, you're bound to struggle with your inventory. The

Spoiler

Ward soldier gauntlet

is some next level fuckery.

lol I just turned into Forrest Gump and ran when possible

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I get that no one on GAF has phones but most people do, including the hardcore gamer devs who made STALKER 2

 

[Flabagast]

This game's map is way bigger than I expected. I'm currently on the Western edges doing story stuff after spending some hours in the eastern half and the scope and scale is fantastic, even if 'on paper' it's just a few kilometers from one end to the other.

I gotta imagine they took some creative liberties and adding in more things in the middle while merging the original game maps into this singular one, but yeah .. it's huge.

is it varied enough in terms of settings and unique things to see ?

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

Doesn't worth to be nice in this world.

Spoiler: 2 quests

I was nice enough to return the weapon to the dude near slag heap to only get.. nothing ffs, but the quest to fill vodka all around the zone and be super nice and not steal anything from the stash, only to find they did that so their "friend" will be addicted again and won't leave.. fuckers gave me nothing, should have robbed their asses.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Hit another quest bug, this time in a main story mission. Had to install a UE Tools mod to access the dev console to progress.

This was the bug and fix:

A minor incident quest bug :: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl General Discussions

So Richer told me about collar i ran to wild island and got one and now there is no dialog to give the collar to him so he tells me about the scientist location

steamcommunity.com

 

[adamsapple]

is it varied enough in terms of settings and unique things to see ?

Yes and no.

If you're someone who wants varied NPC's spread through the world and/or different biomes, it's not like that. The 'world' is basically the irradiated zone, there's no different variations in the world.

But if you're someone who likes exploring places to see what weird shit you can find, or what weird anomalies you run into across the play area, this is for you.

Late(r) in the game, now I'm at a point where I'm often having to do 5~6 minute treks from one story objective location to the other, for reference, with maybe a couple of enemy encounters in between or the chance to find artifacts in the world.

You may run into weird things in the world like a fire tornado (I posted a pic in an earlier page), or this weird hanging gravity ball over a lake.

 

[Balducci30]

This game is actually weirdly good, it’s got some old school magic to it. I bet in a year or so it will be very well thought of

 

[GymWolf]

Ps5 versions are pretty good. Call of Pripyat is the most polished by far, and has the best designed open maps by far.

What about a-life, i heard that clear sky has the best one andin prypiat is kinda of a secondary thing.

Do you still see npcs moving from a zone to another, factions fighting, stalker looting bodies or being mad if you loot people they killed etc?

Basically the experience i was promised with stalker 2, does prypiat has all of that?

 

[xrnzaaas]

Boy, this game world is so empty... It just hit me as I was crossing Garbage that it's really lifeless compared to the original.

However, the spawn system has some merit. I shat massive bricks when two bloodsuckers spawned in the recently conquered depot while I was on the highest level. They killed everyone and came upstairs for me lmao

I think it's related to the world being MUCH bigger now. I still wouldn't mind encountering minor mutants more often, especially during free exploration (from my perspective they seem to appear primarily in marked locations from the map).

 

[gtabro]

I was following this NPC the other day and oh god... Bro literally just walked in, stood there like a confused Biden, upon shot and me getting him out of my sight for a literal second he TELEPORTED a few meters away, then got used as a meat shield and did NOTHING, and reacted only when he was downed



I swear this game is one A-Life 2.0 working system away from being the undisputed GOTY 2024. I mean so much love has been poured into all other aspects

 

[Mayar]

I was following this NPC the other day and oh god... Bro literally just walked in, stood there like a confused Biden, upon shot and me getting him out of my sight for a literal second he TELEPORTED a few meters away, then got used as a meat shield and did NOTHING, and reacted only when he was downed



I swear this game is one A-Life 2.0 working system away from being the undisputed GOTY 2024. I mean so much love has been poured into all other aspects

At the moment, all the work of artificial intelligence and A-life can be conveyed by this video.
A-Life - at the moment in the game so that NPCs can go to the toilet to pee, often... apparently radiation affects urination...

 

[The Cockatrice]

I was following this NPC the other day and oh god... Bro literally just walked in, stood there like a confused Biden, upon shot and me getting him out of my sight for a literal second he TELEPORTED a few meters away, then got used as a meat shield and did NOTHING, and reacted only when he was downed



I swear this game is one A-Life 2.0 working system away from being the undisputed GOTY 2024. I mean so much love has been poured into all other aspects

Cyberpunk day one flashbacks though the difference here is I dunno if the devs will actually pull a massive turnaround like CDPR did.

 

[FireFly]

Cyberpunk day one flashbacks though the difference here is I dunno if the devs will actually pull a massive turnaround like CDPR did.

Well it took CDPR almost 3 years to release Cyberpunk 2.0.

 

[Dane]

Cyberpunk day one flashbacks though the difference here is I dunno if the devs will actually pull a massive turnaround like CDPR did.

Cyberpunk had major issues with its design than technical ones tbh, in Stalker case its 75% technical 25% with A-Life design issues and few balancing blemishes.

 

[Gonzito]

Where is the patch papitos? Where is it

 

[Kupfer]

I swear this game is one A-Life 2.0 working system away from being the undisputed GOTY 2024. I mean so much love has been poured into all other aspects

Waiting for this before getting into the game

Even though the animations look really good, it bothers me immensely that jammed casings are ejected as if the extractor were functioning as expected. Not with all weapons though; with the Mac10, the empty casing is 'shaken out' after the weapon is in open bolt fire mode. However, for other jammed casings, the extractor no longer engages, yet they are still forcefully ejected from the weapon.
I understand why it’s handled this way - because a) it looks cool and b) it doesn’t overwhelm the player with extra steps.
In reality, most jams would be cleared differently.

 

[Lootlord]

Yes and no.

If you're someone who wants varied NPC's spread through the world and/or different biomes, it's not like that. The 'world' is basically the irradiated zone, there's no different variations in the world.

But if you're someone who likes exploring places to see what weird shit you can find, or what weird anomalies you run into across the play area, this is for you.

Late(r) in the game, now I'm at a point where I'm often having to do 5~6 minute treks from one story objective location to the other, for reference, with maybe a couple of enemy encounters in between or the chance to find artifacts in the world.

You may run into weird things in the world like a fire tornado (I posted a pic in an earlier page), or this weird hanging gravity ball over a lake.

Am i the only one that would prefer standard SSR over these pixelated and low detail lumen reflections? I find these extremely distracting and immersion breaking.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Am i the only one that would prefer standard SSR over these pixelated and low detail lumen reflections? I find these extremely distracting and immersion breaking.

Planar and SSR are better than whatever the fuck UE5 offers. Just look at Hitman for an excellent use of reflections even without RT.

 

[SirKicksalot]

I mean so much love has been poured into all other aspects

I love the animation for swapping ammo type in automatic shotguns. I don't know what I expected but it made me laugh.
Weapon jams and the first village trader are suspiciously similar to Far Cry 2.

 

[Josemayuste]

Where is the patch papitos? Where is it

Estamos trabajando en ello

 

[The Cockatrice]

What about a-life, i heard that clear sky has the best one andin prypiat is kinda of a secondary thing.

 

[Bry0]

What about a-life, i heard that clear sky has the best one andin prypiat is kinda of a secondary thing.

Do you still see npcs moving from a zone to another, factions fighting, stalker looting bodies or being mad if you loot people they killed etc?

Basically the experience i was promised with stalker 2, does prypiat has all of that?

Yes, clear sky has a “faction war” system but I honestly it barely works and the game still has very bad bugs. Call of Pripyat is the best example of all those systems, and the best designed and polished of the three games hands down.

 

[rodrigolfp]

An A-life "fix" was just released on Nexusmods. Seems they nerfed it because of severe performance issues...

Roadside Panic - A-Life Fix And Spawn Overhaul

Restores most online A-Life functionality.This mod brings back the chaos of the alife in the old trilogy and also prevents spawns close to the player - consider it a stopgap measure until

www.nexusmods.com

Did anyone try this and noticed significant difference(s)?

Waiting for this before getting into the game

I don't think it will come as it's supposed to be already there but "nerfed", as the mod above enable it.

 

[GymWolf]

Tbf that is still not much more than what days gone does.

You can have a situation where muscly zombie, normal zombie, human, normal animal, infected animal, horde could interact with each other in a royal rumble at any given moment, same in far cry, you can have human enemies, animals and allies fighting each other and generate chaos.

In clear sky i heard they push this to a whole other level where groups of ncps roam the map making war with other factions, conquer interest points even without you being present.
Also (and this should not be exclusive to clear sky)

-highly competent ai that almost feel like playing against humans (i saw some clips on yt, st2 is nowhere near any of that, it's like slightly smarter than your average far cry (but with impossibly perfect aim at any light\distance condition) when it doesn't glitch, the occasional flanking or granade throw is not impressive anymore.
Npcs being highly reactive to what you do and doing thing that make them feel alive like looting bodies, being mad if you loot enemies that they killed etc, again, nowhere to be found in sp2 where they don't even react when you steel the beer they are drinking or loot their dead friends (unless it's a scripted mission).


And yet, i'm still playing the damn game, it does just enough right things to be enjoyable but i'm scared about the save loss and campaign being broken if i go too much forward.

 

[GymWolf]

Yes, clear sky has a “faction war” system but I honestly it barely works and the game still has very bad bugs. Call of Pripyat is the best example of all those systems, and the best designed and polished of the three games hands down.

I watched some footage of pripyat and it seems to have that fallout las vegas syndrome where the location looks boring as fuck even if it is the best game of the trilogy, everything looks brown or located in a desert\rocky location, is it just an impression??

 

[SJRB]

Patch pls

 

[Flabagast]

I watched some footage of pripyat and it seems to have that fallout las vegas syndrome where the location looks boring as fuck even if it is the best game of the trilogy, everything looks brown or located in a desert\rocky location, is it just an impression??

Yes it's just an impression. When you add up sound design, weather effects, these massive abandoned structures, etc.. its like nothing else. The atmosphere in these games is super pristine

 

[Auto_aim1]

I have been doing the main quests as there is no point doing the side quests with early gear. I think I have opened up half of the map. It's a good game but going from one place to another is a pain in the ass. Better to sell armor pieces than weapons to earn money.

 

[GymWolf]

I have been doing the main quests as there is no point doing the side quests with early gear. I think I have opened up half of the map. It's a good game but going from one place to another is a pain in the ass. Better to sell armor pieces than weapons to earn money.

I feel like it doesn't matter what you sell, if you upgrade your armour and weapons the repair cost is absurdly high.

At a certain point i had the scavenging run of my life, found like 3 armours, 2 helmets, lots of weapons, sold all of that, i had like 50.000 euros but then i repaired my "high level" upgraded armours and weapons and i was left with like 4000 euros.
The armour wasl like at 70% condition and i still had to pay like 17.000 euros to repair it, i don't even want to think how much money you would need if it was an higherlevel armour at like 30/40 after a long mission...

They need to patch this stuff asap because it is ridicolous right now, you better not upgrade anything unless you wanna spend ALL of your money on reparations.
Particularly frustrating when picking loot and returning to base to sell is particularly annoying in this game because of how the stamina works, you can walk at crawling pace for 15 min, sell 3/4 of your inventory just to have barely the money to repair your equipment.

 

[Bry0]

I watched some footage of pripyat and it seems to have that fallout las vegas syndrome where the location looks boring as fuck even if it is the best game of the trilogy, everything looks brown or located in a desert\rocky location, is it just an impression??

SOC and clear sky share a lot of maps, with clear sky throwing in a few new ones but they are pretty linear. CoP featured 3 all new maps that are designed as bigger open explorable zones, Zaton which is the dried up swamps where skadovsk is, Jupiter which has more open fields and industrial buildings, and the city of Pripyat. All areas featured in stalker 2 as well. No I would not characterize the maps as “boring as fuck”. They are much better designed than what is in the first 2 games, and a life shines in the bigger non-linear maps.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

I feel like it doesn't matter what you sell, if you upgrade your armour and weapons the repair cost is absurdly high.

At a certain point i had the scavenging run of my life, found like 3 armours, 2 helmets, lots of weapons, sold all of that, i had like 50.000 euros but then i repaired my "high level" upgraded armours and weapons and i was left with like 4000 euros.
The armour wasl like at 70% condition and i still had to pay like 17.000 euros to repair it, i don't even want to think how much money you would need if it was an higherlevel armour at like 30/40 after a long mission...

They need to patch this stuff asap because it is ridicolous right now, you better not upgrade anything unless you wanna spend ALL of your money on reparations.
Particularly frustrating when picking loot and returning to base to sell is particularly annoying in this game because of how the stamina works, you can walk at crawling pace for 15 min, sell 3/4 of your inventory just to have barely the money to repair your equipment.

Weapons and suits lose durability even if you don't use them, just being equipped is enough to lose durability. Honestly the game has so many issues like why every attack is causing you to bleed? it's like micro management every time you are in combat, having to use both bandages and medkits every second. Super low inventory, like every 20 minutes i can't move because my inventory is full, lot of things i would change to make it more fun.

 

[GymWolf]

SOC and clear sky share a lot of maps, with clear sky throwing in a few new ones but they are pretty linear. CoP featured 3 all new maps that are designed as bigger open explorable zones, Zaton which is the dried up swamps where skadovsk is, Jupiter which has more open fields and industrial buildings, and the city of Pripyat. All areas featured in stalker 2 as well. No I would not characterize the maps as “boring as fuck”. They are much better designed than what is in the first 2 games, and a life shines in the bigger non-linear maps.

Well that's it, i think i'm gonna pause st2 and just play pripyat on ps5.

How ironic that an old game with outdated graphic is gonna be the first game i play on my pro

 

[GymWolf]

Weapons and suits lose durability even if you don't use them, just being equipped is enough to lose durability. Honestly the game has so many issues like why every attack is causing you to bleed? it's like micro management every time you are in combat, having to use both bandages and medkits every second. Super low inventory, like every 20 minutes i can't move because my inventory is full, lot of things i would change to make it more fun.

I embrace the survival aspect of making choices about what to pick, the weight management, the bleeding etc. but the game is just unbalanced and unfair, not even hard per se, just annoying to deal with or just so undercooked that some stuff is not even a problem (you bleed, you also have 3835737473 bandages with you at any given time).


Little hint, bring with you a couple of artifacts that improve the weight, when you are into the yellow stamina zone where you can barely walk, use them and run to the base to sell the loot, walking like a paraplegic and running like a paraplegic make all the difference, you just have to chug vodka and antirad until you reach the base to keep the rads from the artifacts under control, don't even try to counter the rads with another artifacts unless you have an armour with like 4 slots, just put 2 for weight and "run".

 

[Ben87fr]

Well i'm stuck, i don't have a quest marker so i don't know where to go next, i'm talking about the main quest, after talking to Lodochka

 

[GymWolf]

Fucking lol (from reddit)

 

[SJRB]

Fucking lol (from reddit)

Yeah this shit is so busted, there’s no way this is working as intended.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

Well i'm stuck, i don't have a quest marker so i don't know where to go next, i'm talking about the main quest, after talking to Lodochka

Perhaps try and watch a walkthrough where to go, maybe you can trigger the quest even without the marker.

 

[Flabagast]

I embrace the survival aspect of making choices about what to pick, the weight management, the bleeding etc. but the game is just unbalanced and unfair, not even hard per se, just annoying to deal with or just so undercooked that some stuff is not even a problem (you bleed, you also have 3835737473 bandages with you at any given time).


Little hint, bring with you a couple of artifacts that improve the weight, when you are into the yellow stamina zone where you can barely walk, use them and run to the base to sell the loot, walking like a paraplegic and running like a paraplegic make all the difference, you just have to chug vodka and antirad until you reach the base to keep the rads from the artifacts under control, don't even try to counter the rads with another artifacts unless you have an armour with like 4 slots, just put 2 for weight and "run".

Hope they release a true survival mode down the line

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Alright, now I'm pretty pissed off.

As I posted before my game is basically broken, and quests either wont complete despite all conditions being met, or the quest after won't start. I've had to use the UE Tools to complete/start nearly every single mission in the last 25% or so of the game because of this. I GOT ALL THE WAY TO THE FINAL MISSION and NOTHING. The problem is the prompts to start the quest don't work for me right now. So after 52 hours in the game, I think I'm done and I'm just going to watch the ending on YouTube as I'm frustrated enough to not really care.

Could I have waited for a patch? Yes, but I was so close to the end of the game I was like I'm just gonna finish it.

Performance also took a massive shit in the last 25% of the game. All of the gains I got from upgrading my 3600 to a 5700x3d disappeared and I was running back at 60-70 versus 120-130 for the entire last 4/5 missions.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Alright, now I'm pretty pissed off.

As I posted before my game is basically broken, and quests either wont complete despite all conditions being met, or the quest after won't start. I've had to use the UE Tools to complete/start nearly every single mission in the last 25% or so of the game because of this. I GOT ALL THE WAY TO THE FINAL MISSION and NOTHING. The problem is the prompts to start the quest don't work for me right now. So after 52 hours in the game, I think I'm done and I'm just going to watch the ending on YouTube as I'm frustrated enough to not really care.

Could I have waited for a patch? Yes, but I was so close to the end of the game I was like I'm just gonna finish it.

Performance also took a massive shit in the last 25% of the game. All of the gains I got from upgrading my 3600 to a 5700x3d disappeared and I was running back at 60-70 versus 120-130 for the entire last 4/5 missions.

I'm in the same boat now. After "In Search of Glory", the next mission didn't appear. Had to kickstart the next mission with a console command.

"Luckily" these bugs are widespread enough that I've been able to find a solution to each bugged mission so far.

Such a good game, but it's absolutely broken. A 78 MetaCritic score feels about right. Once this game is patched up, it's an easy 90+, imo.

 

[Ocean Dweller]

Good mod

A-Life Extended

Turn the Zone into a living area. Custom A-Life logic, Increased AI spawn distance, view distance & more!

www.nexusmods.com

 

[DanielG165]

The devs absolutely did not have to include this much detail, but it’s awesome to see nonetheless.

 

[adamsapple]

The devs absolutely did not have to include this much detail, but it’s awesome to see nonetheless.

The reload animation for the RAM-2 Shotgun is probably one of my favorite weapon animations in games now.

RE4 vibes.

 

[Wolves hunt in packs]

Finally got some good gun, GP37, has built-in scope and doesn't wobble like most of the guns i had so far, hopefully not too expensive to repair.