S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

[mediocrepoet]

The game wasn't ready, and the fact they pushed it out the door knowing that full well was slimy. As much as I despise early access, if they felt the need to do so, that's probably the route they should have taken. I'm someone who played the first STALKER day one, and seeing all the people saying "oh, I see you're new to STALKER. You didn't expect it to be broken? Ha! Let me tell you about the good old days!" is incredibly annoying, not only because they probably didn't play the first game day one and broken as fuck like I did, but also because defending a game that's been in development this long with "lol, it's stalker" is incredibly foolish. I wouldn't care if it was simply buggy, but having core features that aren't functional is unacceptable for a full priced game.

I have a preorder D1P SoC box on my shelf. I treated it like I treated this and many other games: I booted it to see how it runs, then when I felt it needed time, I shelved it until I felt it was where I wanted it. It's not great, but it is what it is. I don't do it with all games anymore like I used to (digital sales make that crazy talk), only when I want to support a dev or project.

The only time it grinds my gears is when it gets abandoned or just forever remains dog shit. My backlog probably exceeds my natural lifespan at this point, so whatever.

 

[Jinn]

The only time it grinds my gears is when it gets abandoned or just forever remains dog shit. My backlog probably exceeds my natural lifespan at this point, so whatever.

Being passionate and caring about your hobby and releases you're excited about is a sign of good health. Yeah, we all have an endless backlog at this point, but it's more about looking forward to something new, and justifiably expecting it to function as it was advertised.

That being said, I don't regret my purchase (I got it on a pretty nice sale), as I know the game is at least a good foundation as a mod platform. I do have faith the issues that I have with the game will be resolved, particularly with the amount of criticism they're receiving for those specific things. It's absurd they released it in its current state, but they are showing a clear investment in the community regardless. I'm annoyed, but I'll check back in a few months and probably have a great time.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

I have a preorder D1P SoC box on my shelf. I treated it like I treated this and many other games: I booted it to see how it runs, then when I felt it needed time, I shelved it until I felt it was where I wanted it. It's not great, but it is what it is. I don't do it with all games anymore like I used to (digital sales make that crazy talk), only when I want to support a dev or project.

i have a super mega maxi deluxe metal box of wonders edition which has pretty much everything related to the game they could fit inside, barring an ak-47, bought by the time clear sky had been out for a while. i own a full game, working, feature full, paid on my terms, for a price i deemed right relative to its quality.
i still apply this behaviour and it hasn't failed me ever. only problem: last time i bought anything like that, witcher 3.

 

[Gerrard]

The game wasn't ready, and the fact they pushed it out the door knowing that full well was slimy. As much as I despise early access, if they felt the need to do so, that's probably the route they should have taken.

They couldn't release it in early access and also on Xbox pass at the same time.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The game wasn't ready, and the fact they pushed it out the door knowing that full well was slimy. As much as I despise early access, if they felt the need to do so, that's probably the route they should have taken.

They couldn't release it in early access and also on Xbox pass at the same time.

Are you sure about that? I'm no expert on Game pass, but the times I've had a freebie trial code there were games I'm pretty sure that were EA elsewhere and were noted as previews or something on there. (Could've been demos though, like I say, not 100% sure either way.)

 

[Brickfrog]

I would bet that there were contractual obligations that prevented them from doing EA. If Microsoft paid to keep Stalker 2 off of ps4 then they damn sure wouldn't want steam to get an early release.

The more I play stalker 2 the more frustrated I get with it. The current version of the spawning system really does kind of ruin the simulation. Gonna put it down until the patches/mods get into full swing. I think I'll give EFP a try.

I'm looking forward to coming back to it though. There's a good game in here somewhere. Devs have promised modding tools and STALKER has an insane mod community so I still have confidence.

 

[Gerrard]

The spawns really get on the nerves after a while, there also seem to be some areas where the spawns are way more frequent. I had 3 groups of bandits and one Ward appear within 10 minutes of trying to get a stash in one PoI.

The game wasn't ready, and the fact they pushed it out the door knowing that full well was slimy. As much as I despise early access, if they felt the need to do so, that's probably the route they should have taken.

They couldn't release it in early access and also on Xbox pass at the same time.

Are you sure about that? I'm no expert on Game pass, but the times I've had a freebie trial code there were games I'm pretty sure that were EA elsewhere and were noted as previews or something on there. (Could've been demos though, like I say, not 100% sure either way.)

I'm not, I just assumed that MS doesn't release unfinished games as full products on the Xbox.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I would bet that there were contractual obligations that prevented them from doing EA. If Microsoft paid to keep Stalker 2 off of ps4 then they damn sure wouldn't want steam to get an early release.

The more I play stalker 2 the more frustrated I get with it. The current version of the spawning system really does kind of ruin the simulation. Gonna put it down until the patches/mods get into full swing. I think I'll give EFP a try.

I'm looking forward to coming back to it though. There's a good game in here somewhere. Devs have promised modding tools and STALKER has an insane mod community so I still have confidence.

The spawn thing is a big deal. The similar bug got patched out pretty quickly in Star Wars Outlaws. I think it took a bit longer in CP2077, but it was also a more severe version of the bug - much more similar in appearance to the S2 bug. SWO's version didn't impact me much and disappeared right away, but the CP77 one actually made me take a break for a bit until they sorted it out.

Similarly, I'm waiting for them to deal with it in S2 too. That's a game ruining experience, assuming it doesn't just happen in CoD "cinematic" areas with endlessly spawning reinforcements which is a shitty thing to put in this sort of game imo. They shouldn't have designed it that way in the first place.

 

[Brickfrog]

The spawns really get on the nerves after a while, there also seem to be some areas where the spawns are way more frequent. I had 3 groups of bandits and one Ward appear within 10 minutes of trying to get a stash in one PoI.

I found a building in "Central Checkpoint" that will cause enemies to endlessly spawn immediately outside when you enter it. I thought this was super annoying but I was willing to put up with it. I'll grab the loot and leave. Lame, but whatever. The straw that broke the camels back for me was having npcs spawn 20 feet away from me at sphere as I was looting. Having shit spawn on top of you on some sort of timer is maybe the most annoying mechanic I've ever seen in a shooter/rpg/simulation/whateverthefuckthisis.

I think you're right about it happening in certain flagged areas. It doesn't seem to happen when I explore the zone.

 

[Iucounu]

One reviewer says that stashes teleport around the map with you, is that correct? (I assume he meant your personal stash.)

 

[deuxhero]

Apparently 7.62x39 is in game for a whole single firearm, and that firearm shouldn't even use 7.62x39, while an unusuable RPD taunts the player behind a shop counter.

 

[SharkClub]

The game is pretty fun and while it does feel like stalker in many ways the lack of A-Life and the horrible performance really puts a damper on the whole experience. I'm guessing that if it is true that A-Life exists but was disabled it was done for the express purpose of scraping some frames per second back from the brink of unplayability because man does this game run like ass even on the minimum settings with all of the slop upscaling methods enabled. I mean, I get that my PC is poorfag-bad and outdated at this point but I was getting a mostly consistent 50-60fps on Cyberpunk 2077 on a mix of low/medium without any framegen and that game looks better than this does on low with framegen where the frame rate is anywhere between 30 (15) and 70 (35) at any given moment. Them enabling A-Life with all of the persistent AI features of the previous games would probably destroy the frame rate even further, they really have to focus on further optimization patches if A-Life is real and ever going to come back to the game.

My biggest issue with it aside from the performance and lack of A-Life is the economy balance. Repairing things is ridiculously and prohibitively expensive, like I'm playing Misery mod and not actual Stalker. How are you meant to ever upgrade anything if the repair cost of your armor is 1000 koupons every time a bullet or anomaly scratches your ass cheek? It's like they added an extra 0 to repair costs or something. I'm playing on Veteran btw.

 

[Drakortha]

I would bet that there were contractual obligations that prevented them from doing EA. If Microsoft paid to keep Stalker 2 off of ps4 then they damn sure wouldn't want steam to get an early release.

The more I play stalker 2 the more frustrated I get with it. The current version of the spawning system really does kind of ruin the simulation. Gonna put it down until the patches/mods get into full swing. I think I'll give EFP a try.

I'm looking forward to coming back to it though. There's a good game in here somewhere. Devs have promised modding tools and STALKER has an insane mod community so I still have confidence.

The spawn thing is a big deal. The similar bug got patched out pretty quickly in Star Wars Outlaws. I think it took a bit longer in CP2077, but it was also a more severe version of the bug - much more similar in appearance to the S2 bug. SWO's version didn't impact me much and disappeared right away, but the CP77 one actually made me take a break for a bit until they sorted it out.

Similarly, I'm waiting for them to deal with it in S2 too. That's a game ruining experience, assuming it doesn't just happen in CoD "cinematic" areas with endlessly spawning reinforcements which is a shitty thing to put in this sort of game imo. They shouldn't have designed it that way in the first place.

A few days before the game was even released I called STALKER 2 out as being Xbox gamepass SLOP aimed at call of duty kids. Here's what the Codex had to say.

How's it feel to be wrong again, faggots?

 

[ArchAngel]

Similarly, I'm waiting for them to deal with it in S2 too. That's a game ruining experience, assuming it doesn't just happen in CoD "cinematic" areas with endlessly spawning reinforcements which is a shitty thing to put in this sort of game imo. They shouldn't have designed it that way in the first place.

A few days before the game was even released I called STALKER 2 out as being Xbox gamepass SLOP aimed at call of duty kids. Here's what the Codex had to say.

How's it feel to be wrong again, faggots?

It still a fun game and way better than Starfield, CoD and other such shooters.

And unlike Starfield it has a strong base and I can see it being awesome one day.

 

[Drakortha]

Why are we comparing it to Starfield? Are we that desperate to make this pile of shit look good?

STALKER 2 and Starfield shouldn't even need to be in the same sentence together.

It's all shit.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Stolkerbros...

 

[jebsmoker]

I would bet that there were contractual obligations that prevented them from doing EA. If Microsoft paid to keep Stalker 2 off of ps4 then they damn sure wouldn't want steam to get an early release.

The more I play stalker 2 the more frustrated I get with it. The current version of the spawning system really does kind of ruin the simulation. Gonna put it down until the patches/mods get into full swing. I think I'll give EFP a try.

I'm looking forward to coming back to it though. There's a good game in here somewhere. Devs have promised modding tools and STALKER has an insane mod community so I still have confidence.

The spawn thing is a big deal. The similar bug got patched out pretty quickly in Star Wars Outlaws. I think it took a bit longer in CP2077, but it was also a more severe version of the bug - much more similar in appearance to the S2 bug. SWO's version didn't impact me much and disappeared right away, but the CP77 one actually made me take a break for a bit until they sorted it out.

Similarly, I'm waiting for them to deal with it in S2 too. That's a game ruining experience, assuming it doesn't just happen in CoD "cinematic" areas with endlessly spawning reinforcements which is a shitty thing to put in this sort of game imo. They shouldn't have designed it that way in the first place.

A few days before the game was even released I called STALKER 2 out as being Xbox gamepass SLOP aimed at call of duty kids. Here's what the Codex had to say.

How's it feel to be wrong again, faggots?

stalker 2 has a bevy of problems, such as its art design language actually going *backwards*, the dogshit optimization, and the fucked up AI simulation - but nothing about it really screams out "lol call o dooty" besides the fact that whoever did the first person animation assets was obviously inspired by the animation work for modern warfare 2019

call o dooty's design generally means being able to take down vast scores of bad guys like its nothing and regen health - stalker 2 technically has some of this but you have to earn that through the equipment loot near the end of the game and specific artifact loadouts you optimize your stats with

this kind of "earn your terminator-tier powertrip" design is also present in the original games (duh) and makes you earn high-end gear and artifacts through effort

 

[Zewp]

Someone from GSC says A-Life 2.0 is supposed to work how it did in the old games, rather than just spawning things around the player.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1643320/discussions/0/4626981087516564744/

It's not clear that Mol1t is a dev, and I doubt that if A-Life is just a random enemy spawner, that they would admit it in release week. You don't just remove mention of a system like A-Life from store pages if you're not trying to hide something. On Saturday Mol1t was answering questions on the Discord and I tried very hard to get him to give a clear answer on whether an A-Life system like the one we had in the original games exists and did at one point work in one of the builds. He completely ignored my questions while responding to other people.

I'm convinced that at some point they're going to admit that it was only ever a random event spawner and then they're going to gaslight us by claiming we must have misunderstood Mol1t or something about language barriers and translation errors. And the tourists for whom this is their first Stalker game will support and applaud them anyway.

 

[Drakortha]

It's not clear that Mol1t is a dev, and I doubt that if A-Life is just a random enemy spawner, that they would admit it in release week. You don't just remove mention of a system like A-Life from store pages if you're not trying to hide something. On Saturday Mol1t was answering questions on the Discord and I tried very hard to get him to give a clear answer on whether an A-Life system like the one we had in the original games exists and did at one point work in one of the builds. He completely ignored my questions while responding to other people.

I'm convinced that at some point they're going to admit that it was only ever a random event spawner and then they're going to gaslight us by claiming we must have misunderstood Mol1t or something about language barriers and translation errors. And the tourists for whom this is their first Stalker game will support and applaud them anyway.

The discord community that surrounds them will continue kissing the dev's feet and excusing everything regardless of the direction things go. They're unable to cope with the reality that STALKER 2 was never really made to be a STALKER game for real STALKER fans. The game was developed as a love letter to Ukraine and Phil Spencer. Oh, and furries.

 

[Odoryuk]

 

[Zewp]

The discord community that surrounds them will continue kissing the dev's feet and excusing everything regardless of the direction things go. They're unable to cope with the reality that STALKER 2 was never really made to be a STALKER game for real STALKER fans. The game was developed as a love letter to Ukraine and Phil Spencer. Oh, and furries.

Yeah, the Discord community is an absolute dumpsterfire. You've got people harassing anyone who criticises the game into silence, and then they unironically admit that Stalker 2 is their first Stalker game. The irony is that most of those whiteknights will move on to the next new, shiny thing in a week or two.

If there's one positive thing here, it's that UE5 is (to my knowledge) pretty moddable and we should have a much better game than vanilla in a few years. Provided the devs don't gut the SDK.

 

[Beastro]

Fuck that voice is horrible.

You don't play Stalker to hear Brits speak.

 

[Drakortha]

If there's one positive thing here, it's that UE5 is (to my knowledge) pretty moddable and we should have a much better game than vanilla in a few years. Provided the devs don't gut the SDK.

If you need to wait several years for mods to make a game deliver on it's initial promises, it's a negative not a positive.

 

[Zewp]

If you need to wait several years for mods to make a game deliver on it's initial promises, it's a negative not a positive.

Of course. It doesn't excuse how hard the devs fucked up. But the silver lining is that modders might be able to salvage something.

 

[cvv]

I called STALKER 2 out as being Xbox gamepass SLOP

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.