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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl ⚠️|☢︎T|⚠️ Don't Be a Menace to Bloodsucker While Trying to Catch an Olive in The Zone

After a couple dozen hours of playtime the game just told me I’m drowsy for the very first time on XSX. I had to sleep to make it go away. Maybe it got patched?

I liked it better when I didn’t have to sleep 😩

Same here, didn't get the sleep note about 20 maybe more hours, but when you sleep you don't get it again for many hours, not quite as annoy as eating (you hungry before wanting to sleep, yeah tough luck.. first eat before sleep, and second after sleeping you hungry again lol).
 
The Zalissya mini quest was one of the most wild bugged quest i had, eventually got the achievement related to that:

after certain main quest, i got the radio message to come save Zalissya, went there, some dead, a lot of gunshots but no one there, only in the main base some good guys and monolitians or whatever they called, but the door is locked, had to roam the area, while reloading and trying to activate the quest, eventually did managed to spawn the enemies and the door opened, Gaffer won't talk to me about the quest so does Warlock, somehow the quest pop up to kill Lyonya, did that, returned.. kill more enemies and quest finally done, got the achievement was happy, went on my way.. after 200 meters i got a message on radio from Gaffer that Zalissya is gone, after 2 secs.. another message thanking me for saving Zalissya, and a second later saying why did i shoot one of his men and i am cast out lol, all the lines possible at once, thought that Zalissya is gone, went there later on, most dead but Gaffer and Warlock lives, my god what a buggy quest.
 
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xrnzaaas

Member
Has anyone played the original STALKER? I've been playing it alongside this. I modded it with the STALKER 1.5 complete mod which I've heard makes the game easier and had QOL improvements along with graphics updates and my god I've never died so much in a game in my life. I'm no rookie in FPS games either. I had to turn it down to novice difficulty which makes the game manageable.
I would say the original Stalker is more forgiving in the first few hours, you just have to avoid tougher confrontations (like the one from the checkpoint near where you start the game) until you get better weapons. It's not a traditional FPS where you're looking to gun down everything in sight.

You definitely didn't have to worry about encountering strong mutants early in the game in Stalker 1 and that's the case with the
bloodsuckers
in Stalker 2. On the other hand you get some decent rifles early in the sequel and the medkits are EVERYWHERE.
 
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FoxMcChief

Gold Member
I can't even think of any quest that didn't revolve around "go get this item from here" or "go talk to him over there" in some capacity. It's almost MMO-like in structure. Pretty poorly designed and gets boring super fast.

I enjoyed the first day or two playing this but now that I haven't played for a week or so I have basically zero interest of returning, with the performance issues and lame spawn system and all.
I get that. Bug that most games. At least most open world games. The difference to me, is the Stalker map is worth exploring and taking in the story, especially the side missions. I find them to be quite engaging. But I’m also a sucker for open world games like this.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
Same here, didn't get the sleep note about 20 maybe more hours, but when you sleep you don't get it again for many hours, not quite as annoy as eating (you hungry before wanting to sleep, yeah tough luck.. first eat before sleep, and second after sleeping you hungry again lol).
Sounds like my life.
 

SimTourist

Member
I can't even think of any quest that didn't revolve around "go get this item from here" or "go talk to him over there" in some capacity. It's almost MMO-like in structure. Pretty poorly designed and gets boring super fast.

I enjoyed the first day or two playing this but now that I haven't played for a week or so I have basically zero interest of returning, with the performance issues and lame spawn system and all.
Yeah, after 25 hours I'm done with the game, I was interested in the story but I'll watch the rest on youtube. The game just devolves into a tedious walking simulator with occasional annoying shootouts. Every objective being 1-2 kms away got old real quick. The map is nice and detailed, maybe modders will be able to populate it with interesting stuff to do.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Yeah. Am worried I’m going to hit that wall however I came into this game without any expectations having never played the original, then if it does just become (to me) a boring walking sim with occasional shoot outs then so be it.
 

kindaGoth

Neo Member
I haven’t been this addicted to a game all year. It must be the atmosphere that’s reeling me in.

The game is built to deliver tension but there is some wonky ai that takes away from it’s intended design. Occasionally, the enemies do show great signs of intelligence that can make them a blast to fight, but that’s also hampered by some pretty intense enemy awareness and line of sight that can make stealth feel unfair.

I’m not too informed on the “A-life” system they’re implementing or have begun to implement but it sounds like something that could improve the open areas of the game dramatically.

The best moments of the game are when you’re forced to hunker down and defend yourself from a random pack of bandits hunting you through the brush of the night. That or discovering a strange anomaly you’ve never seen and just basking in the world building.
 
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Personally love the map and for what it's trying to portrait find it balanced. In a game like this you need to feel alone but aware of danger. It isn't a cyberpunk city with hundreds of people. More than 20 hours in and taking my time.
 

Gonzito

Gold Member
I respect some of these last negative messages but I couldn't disagree more. The game keeps such a high level of quality throughout the whole adventure that even after more than 50 hours I still want to go back and keep playing. Its definitely my GOTY and the reason is because the game has soul, you can feel the care and passion of the developers in every single corner and that is something that I cannot say of most modern games lately
 

Josemayuste

Member
I respect some of these last negative messages but I couldn't disagree more. The game keeps such a high level of quality throughout the whole adventure that even after more than 50 hours I still want to go back and keep playing. Its definitely my GOTY and the reason is because the game has soul, you can feel the care and passion of the developers in every single corner and that is something that I cannot say of most modern games lately

Verdad.
 

SimTourist

Member
I respect some of these last negative messages but I couldn't disagree more. The game keeps such a high level of quality throughout the whole adventure that even after more than 50 hours I still want to go back and keep playing. Its definitely my GOTY and the reason is because the game has soul, you can feel the care and passion of the developers in every single corner and that is something that I cannot say of most modern games lately
It's refreshing in a sense that it's just a solid action/science fiction story with no modern bullshit whatsoever and has some nice references to past games and events, and the map designers have done a great job overall recreating old locations and introducing new ones, but there are issues with the overall pacing and gameplay. A life would've been nice but even random encounters like in RDR2 would've been nice without needing a complex simulation. A better fast travel option would've been nice as well.
 
This fucking game, got to this boss:

Faust, didn't realised you need to shot is lantern, dragged the fight like 20 minutes before getting it, then a choice either hold his hand or not, said what the hell lets be nice.. got his hand to see him dropping me to my death, reload.. before the fight! lol what a douchebags devs.
 

SolidQ

Member
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kurisu_1974

Member
This fucking game, got to this boss:

Yeah that was a horrible experience especially since all my stuff was broken (suit and guns showed red icons). I didn't fall for his cut-scene shenanigans but when I got dropped back into the game after the scene, there were like 5 guys surrounding me and they killed me in like 1 second. And THEN I had to do the boss fight again :D

I'm not even sure why I am still playing. There's phantom quest markers on my map, the electronic collar quest is bugged as it didn't register me picking up one of the collars, and every time I load a game there's a "door shutting down" sound effect. I just want to see it through to the end but I'll be glad when it is over.
 
What's weird is that a creature part vendor stall already exists in the game, but there's no vendor to actually utilize it.

It's pretty clear to me after 25+ hours that the game is essentially an Early Access release. There's a foundation here for an amazing game but in its current state, it falls short.

Edit:
Yikes
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I bought this and also had to buy RAM for my gaming PC. I am preloading shaders. Had to take a break from that. 😆
 
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Agent_4Seven

Tears of Nintendo
Stopped playin' for at least a year. This game needs some serious rework of some systems, UE5.4 upgrade and dozens of patches to be ready for the actual 1.0 release and be out of EA. Can't see how they'll manage to do it until the end of next year at least if not mid 2026.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
What's weird is that a creature part vendor stall already exists in the game, but there's no vendor to actually utilize it.

It's pretty clear to me after 25+ hours that the game is essentially an Early Access release. There's a foundation here for an amazing game but in its current state, it falls short.

Edit:
Yikes

For SP focused games, gamers should just wait it out. You might get lucky and there's a really good day one patch that solves all the major stuff. But then again, a patch might not come for a week or month.

It makes a lot of sense when you hear people say just wait for the dirt cheap deluxe or greatest hits edition where it' not only cheap, but the game would be all tidied up by then. And they also probably add in DLC for free.

But I can understand gamers feeling ripped off for MP games where a shit game burns gamers as people try to jump in day one and compete asap.
 

Gonzito

Gold Member
In what shape is the game right now on gamepass?

Is this the right time to jump in or should i wait some more?
Wait one or two weeks. The latest patch will introduce fixes for A-life which will supposedly make the zone more alive because right now the zone is almost empty.

Wait a bit for patch 1.04
 
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Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
I could do with a bit of sage advice!

Yesterday or Friday, don't know what I was doing but I seem to have released these devil dogs ? When I shoot them they go into a puff of smoke and then re-appear a few seconds later.

Another bug or something intentional in the game?
 
I could do with a bit of sage advice!

Yesterday or Friday, don't know what I was doing but I seem to have released these devil dogs ? When I shoot them they go into a puff of smoke and then re-appear a few seconds later.

Another bug or something intentional in the game?

If i'm not mistaken it a psi-dog that control them, killing him will stop them from respawn. Usually i ran away from this fuckers as it's hard to identify the main doggy, had one side mission you have to deal with them and took several tries.
 
And done, a bit over 100 hours, was a nice game, won't play it again at least a few years. Best things about it were the world and atmosphere, also liked the characters and overall story is interesting.
Didn't enjoy the combat so much and several game mechanics like having to constantly repair my gear, never gear durability added to the fun factor to me.
Had a few bugs, had to restart the game at least 7-8 times, but thankfully no game breaking issues.
Overall i will rate it umm 8? something like that, i honestly expected more, or something different.. more like Metro games.. this is feel more like Fallout games.

I wonder what ending will consider canon..
there are 2 key moments in the game that force you to get a decision you can't undo later on, kind of sucks, and i can't say who's the good guys/outcome even after seeing all the endings, i think i got the most "evil" one but when i had to make a choice it seemed the right one at the moment.
 

Osthyvel

Member
Nah, after 10h i have to say i will drop this game for now, maybe come back to it later, but there is better games to play atm : )
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
If i'm not mistaken it a psi-dog that control them, killing him will stop them from respawn. Usually i ran away from this fuckers as it's hard to identify the main doggy, had one side mission you have to deal with them and took several tries.
Thanks for that - they were even spawning inside a camp like I’d be trying to sleep in a bed and they’d be running around - at least they can’t attack you inside but as soon as you step back out again it goes bat shit crazy.

Can’t seem to fix it. There’s about 8 or 9 of them, I’ll see if there is a ‘top dog’ so to speak. Very frustrating right now mind.
 
Thanks for that - they were even spawning inside a camp like I’d be trying to sleep in a bed and they’d be running around - at least they can’t attack you inside but as soon as you step back out again it goes bat shit crazy.

Can’t seem to fix it. There’s about 8 or 9 of them, I’ll see if there is a ‘top dog’ so to speak. Very frustrating right now mind.

Then perhaps you did encounter a bug, i didn't had them entering a camp.. usually i could outrun them, are we talking about the regular dogs? no, right? there's the regular annoying dogs, and there's more fluffy dogs which are the psi-dog projecting and when they die they disappear and reappear after a few seconds, here's an example of them:

 
So, how close to "fixed" is the game at this point in time?

On Xbox no major game breaking bugs from my 100 hours played, however i did had times i had my game locked so i had to restart the game, other then that? it's ok, i don't see major improvement in the next weeks but i may be wrong.. it is what it is, fun world with some issues, would suggest to try the Game Pass version if you're not sure about it.
 
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Sentenza

Member
I'm planning to play on PC so I'm not really concerned about XBOX performances... And I'm not really referring to isolated bugs, as much as I am to the complaints I read about the boasted "dynamic AI system" being fundamentally dysfunctional, or the game relying on cheap and sudden "on-the-spot respawn" for enemies waves, etc.
 
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