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

[baba is you]

Stalker series was basically the G37 as the best rifle. Stalker 2 is also decent. If you aim for the head, humanoid enemies die quickly. Shotgun is the best against mutants, but the mutant balance is currently broken.

And not only are the side quests boring, main quests also start to get boring after 5 hours. Most of them are structured in a similar way, and when I get asked to accept quests here and there, it feels like a Ubgame.

 

[NecroLord]

Stalker series was basically the G37 as the best rifle. Stalker 2 is also decent. If you aim for the head, humanoid enemies die quickly. Shotgun is the best against mutants, but the mutant balance is currently broken.

And not only are the side quests boring, main quests also start to get boring after 5 hours. Most of them are structured in a similar way, and when I get asked to accept quests here and there, it feels like a Ubgame.

I always liked this one:

 

[baba is you]

I haven't had any games to play recently, so I'm re-downloading over 100GB and continuing. I looked up information and found that there's a bug that corrupts the save file, so I'm backing up the save file periodically. And l also got two more artifacts that perform very well. They're not that hard to get, as long as I have a Bear detector.

I've played for about 20 hours, and it's still not that bad. However, if I talk more about the quest issue mentioned above, most quests are conscious of choices and consequences.

The main quest is a flag that leads to another story, but the sub quests... well... I don't think they have much meaning. NPCs that you saved in the side quests reappear, but they don't play a big role.

That's why I mentioned that the game is a bit like a UB game. The side quest processing structure is a bit similar. But it's not that big of a problem. Stalker is fundamentally a game related to exploration and shooting, and the game doesn't interfere with that much.

I don't know when GSC will fix this. If the bugs, AI, and A-life are resolved to some extent, it's very unlikely to receive a bad evaluation compared to Kingdom Came or TWitcher 3.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

doesn't seem comparable, this is actual contemporary NATO propaganda

.... is what people were saying about Company of Heroes 2 when the commissar shoots retreating soldiers.

Which is true (in terms of producing a particular stereotype of the Red Army, same as with other negative tropes), but one's pop history and another's blatant propaganda pertaining to contemporary events.

 

[Gerrard]

What are the best weapons?

For muties and close combat you'll want a shotgun, the M860 is the first one that isn't a piece of shit. For humans you'll just want something with steady/low recoil single shots and a big magazine since headshots are always instant kills whereas you can blast half a mag into a bum bandit's chest before they finally keel over. Even an SMG is enough for that; you'd think the lack of higher magnitude scopes would be a hindrance but in practice more distance just works against you - NPCs still have laser aim and perfect grenade throws so you might as well close the gap as soon as possible.

The M860 is kinda shit though, takes years to reload before you find the box mag upgrade. You genuinely might be better off using the TOZ.

 

[whydoibother]

doesn't seem comparable, this is actual contemporary NATO propaganda

.... is what people were saying about Company of Heroes 2 when the commissar shoots retreating soldiers.

Which is true (in terms of producing a particular stereotype of the Red Army, same as with other negative tropes), but one's pop history and another's blatant propaganda pertaining to contemporary events.

The Red Army being wasteful of manpower isn't "NATO propaganda", its a pop culture phenomena that exists in the east too, independent of western narratives. It was romanticized by poets, talking about wave after wave, so determined and so many are we!
Rather, modern russians are americanized and instead of seeing the human waves as a display of courage and determination, they see it as wasteful, because american military doctrine sees it as wasteful. We're all living in Amerika, after all.

 

[Brickfrog]

Penetration is a poorly explained mechanic but it makes a huge difference against most mutants. A good deal of the beefy mutants effective HP comes from armor so it's recommended to get a high pen weapon if you expect bloodsuckers or w.e

 

[ArchAngel]

Penetration is a poorly explained mechanic but it makes a huge difference against most mutants. A good deal of the beefy mutants effective HP comes from armor so it's recommended to get a high pen weapon if you expect bloodsuckers or w.e

I use AP ammo in all my weapons while roaming around and with snipers. With my SMG that I mostly use vs humans at close range I use normal ammo because I aim at heads anyways.