S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - coming November 20th

[HumanTotemPole]

Anomaly is just a base game you can mod and configure however you like. GAMMA is just a modpack, you could have the exact same experience by installing each mod individually long before GAMMA became a thing, same with escape from pripyat. Don't like the freeplay, want new quests? There's mods for that, too. Everyone who's shitting on Anomaly here is just outing himself as a retard who couldn't figure out the config menu. Or a retard who repeats common criticisms without realizing they were originally aimed at Misery and Anomaly never had most of those issues in the first place.

One thing I didn't highlight when posting about a vanilla SHOC run a while back is how liberating I found the absence of overbearing crafting and survival mechanics. Minimal tedious inventory management getting in the way of the set piece fights. MISERY's influence is a millstone around the modding scene's collective neck.

Looking back at MISERY's glitzy promotional material I wonder whether its success was as much a PR coup as anything else. I remember a lot of hype especially around version 2.0. There were even write ups in the gaming press.

 

[deuxhero]

https://www.esrb.org/ratings/40025/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl/

This is a first-person shooter in which players assume the role of a stalker investigating a mystery in a post-apocalyptic world. Players explore an open-world environment to complete objectives, interact with characters, and engage enemies (e.g., soldiers, mutated creatures) in frenetic firefights. Players use machine guns, rifles, and explosives to kill enemies that emit splatters of blood when shot. Some environments depict bloodstains on walls and large pools of blood underneath corpses. Anomalies in the environment can cause bodies and creatures to explode, resulting in chunks of flesh littering the ground; one sequence depicts decapitated heads on spikes. Players have the ability to kill civilians, though this can result in immediate retaliation from nearby characters; a cutscene depicts a bound man executed at close range. During the course of the game, players' character can consume alcohol, resulting in screen-blurring effects and the character swaying; one cutscene depicts players' character smoking a cigarette from a first-person perspective. The word “f**k” is heard in the game.

 

[Baron Dupek]

 

[randir14]

Tomorrow they're going to be releasing a 30-minute gameplay deep dive video.

 

[ADL]

If they don't show A-Life simulation, rename this thread to Metro 4.

 

[ADL]

Not beating the Metro 4 allegations.
I'm sure I'll enjoy it as a one and done game but I have serious doubts it'll have the longevity of the original.

 

[Harthwain]

Not beating the Metro 4 allegations.
I'm sure I'll enjoy it as a one and done game but I have serious doubts it'll have the longevity of the original.

I'd say it depends on how well they will do the exploratory and sandbox aspects of it.

 

[Ivan]

Looks awesome. Won't spoil myself too much.

 

[PlayerEmers]

yellow paint strikes again

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

yellow paint strikes again

Here's hoping there's an option to remove it like in the PC port of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter.

 

[deuxhero]

7.62x39 pick ups and +1ing seem present at least.

 

[kites]

Button-hold to pickup/do an action is a cancer. Hopefully these are separate keys on PC or at least will be modded in quickly

 

[NecroLord]

Not beating the Metro 4 allegations.
I'm sure I'll enjoy it as a one and done game but I have serious doubts it'll have the longevity of the original.

That's the problem.
It looks way too similar to Metro.
It does look pretty good though, but I have my doubts it will beat the janky perfection of the original STALKER.

 

[Iucounu]

No pandering to Liberals and SJWs in this trailer is good news.

Gameplay doesn't look too bad actually, but still no mentioning of NPC/mutant migration. Now, if the following was caused by random gameplay events (like shooting a faction leader) it would be awesome, but most likely it's just the result of predetermined plot progression or at best dialog choices:

19:14​

Mariia: In S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 factions can sometimes change their leader. Sometimes they can break up. Sometimes they can do something that will seem to the player... Well, it doesn’t match their ideology at all. Like in real life, where people seem very close to each other ideologically. Then it turns out there are some things that completely divide them into some new groups.​

This on the other hand does sound like at least some effort was put into NPC behaviors:

19:45​

Dzmitry: In the original trilogy, the routine of people in the Zone was not much presented, so we have done that in the second part of the game. And now each faction has a certain feature in the arrangement of their permanent shelter. For example, Loners, even in their permanent camps, prefer to remain alone or in small groups. The Duty members are also committed to pre-military discipline and order.​

Replay value while ignoring the story sounds good (if true):

20:46​

I believe we managed to convey this. This game will be interesting to those enjoying the story, and also to those… who prefer replaying the game multiple times, ignoring the story, just exploring the world.​

Thankfully no "RPG" leveling:

25:31​

So in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 there is no leveling system, like level 1, 10, 15, 80 and so on. Your progress is reflected in better knowledge of the environment, in faster reactions. To my mind, this is exactly what the players would expect from S.T.A.L.K.E.R.​

Cutscenes are still the most negative part to me:

29:07​

I can definitely say that we've developed nearly three hours of cutscenes for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. More than forty-three units. It’s almost like a big movie in a big game.​

--3 hours divided by 43 means 4 minutes per cutscene on average, "almost like a movie".

 

[cretin]

welp, its definitely a modern game

 

[Alienman]

Damn, shown with a controller. Looks kinda lame, tbh. Very little sim, and too much action.

 

[randir14]

Looks good, I hope the yellow paint can be disabled. But I guess someone will mod it out if not.

 

[Fargus]

Simple texture replacement can fix that tbh

 

[Drakortha]

Mods will fix it. No big deal.

 

[cretin]

Simple texture replacement can fix that tbh

It's a sign of the underlying design philosophy, which mods can't fix.

 

[Outlander]

Holy fucking shit the hitbox at 19:54 is all over the place.

 

[Fargus]

Simple texture replacement can fix that tbh

It's a sign of the underlying design philosophy, which mods can't fix.

Yes you obviously can't mod out every modern retardation they will shove into this bitch. But ever since they crawled outta the grave and made their announcement i knew the sequel is likely going to be Far Cry: Chernobyl with female stalkers. Every new video is yet another confirmation. Don't know what people expect around here.

 

[destinae vomitus]

That gameplay footage reminds me of the newer Far Cry games, clearly made by and for a console audience, and visually speaking confirms that all the prior trailers and screenshots from YEARS AGO were 100% bullshots.

Are people seriously expecting anything out of this other than mediocrity or an outright trainwreck? It's no Star Citizen but it's all been one big grift since the start. Reminder that this was supposed to release over two years ago, despite having zero gameplay footage shown off back then (probably because there was no playable game to even show off). Meanwhile the scam artists behind this were eager to attempt to hop onto the NFT "trend" and attempt to squeeze extra eurodollars from people, while having laughable pre-order bonuses to boot. The whole Ukraine fiasco also served as a convenient excuse to constantly "delay" the game (i.e. actually develop a game) and keep draining money from Micro$oft since some suits there were foolish enough to back this. The leaks for Shadow of Chernobyl had more going on than this thing's leaked dev build, nuff said.

 

[Dark Souls II]

I've met ukrainian escorts that sucked less dick than Stalker 2.

 

[Losus4]

--3 hours divided by 43 means 4 minutes per cutscene on average, "almost like a movie".

Meh... part of why Anomaly is so good is that it doesn't contain a single moment in which control is snatched from the player.