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

[Melcar]

The original Stalkers were good looking games, just not the best of the era. What really used to impress me back then were the weather effects, sound and the dynamic world.

 

[NecroLord]

The original Stalkers were good looking games, just not the best of the era. What really used to impress me back then were the weather effects, sound and the dynamic world.

And the lighting and shadows.
Especially when it rained during the night.

 

[Konjad]

 

[Melcar]

The original Stalkers were good looking games, just not the best of the era. What really used to impress me back then were the weather effects, sound and the dynamic world.

And the lighting and shadows.
Especially when it rained during the night.

Yeah. I don't think I remember any game at the time that looked like that. Traveling the wilderness during a sudden storm was really something. I remember one time it stared raining and I took refuge in a random cave. Oh boy, big mistake. Shame that the games kept crashing on my ATI card.

 

[Dark Souls II]

It's the touch of the individual artist's hand that makes any kind of art any good, and Stalker 2 feels like it has very little of that.

Behold, good art, made with the touch of the artist's hand!

Some of you have mythologized the OG series to the extent that you've left reality.

Dial back the revisionism here lads. SHOC was absolutely considered a good-looking game in 2007 and was used to benchmark graphics cards.

I would also point out that, regardless of any technical quality compared to today's graphics, those faces are all distinct and immediately evocative of each character regardless of how minor they are in the overall story. I immediately think of the Agroprom fight on seeing Mole - hallmark of effective visual design.

If graphics-whoring is gaining traction on here we're fucked.

Vanilla SoC (with ZRP) is still a game that is:

a) good-looking
b) has a great gameplay (it has things like A-LIFE and BALLISTICS)
c) is bug-free

Real chads still play the original games. Only faggots and niggers play Stolkor 2. Facts.

 

[deuxhero]

But all that ‘pretty foliage’ now is usually just pictures, signboards without collision or physicality. You lose the whole worldly function and satisfaction of foliage.

The pictured game does actually have (relatively limited but present) foliage deformation and give that brush importance in stealth (it kinda has to since it's a hunting simulator)

 

[Konjad]

I tried Stalker 2 and while environment is beautiful the game itself is just boring. Every minute - after maybe first 2 hours - spent in it is just thinking "why play this, why not replay SoC or CoP"

 

[HumanTotemPole]

The original Stalkers were good looking games, just not the best of the era. What really used to impress me back then were the weather effects, sound and the dynamic world.

Tough ask to be the best when Crysis came out the same year. Which hilariously still looks better than its remaster aside from improved LODs and some individual VFX.

 

[PanteraNera]

To all stalkers who continue to explore the Zone in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2: Heart of Chornobyl — Patch 1.0.2 on PC (Steam, Epic Store, GOG) is now available for download. It will also be available for download on Xbox and Microsoft Store soon.

So, what is in patch 1.0.2?

• Fixed an issue when the second wave of Monolith soldiers would not spawn during the “On the Edge” mission, blocking further progression.
• Fixed the issue when Richter could be found dead during the “A Minor Incident” mission, blocking further progression.
• The fixed issue was a player could get stuck after installing the fuse in the Wild Island area if they got the Emitter from Faust's Cell first during the “Just Like the Good Old Days” mission, blocking further progression.
• The fixed issue was when a player could not successfully complete the “All That is Left” mission while exploring the Chemical Plant region.
• Fixed issue when quest enemies could spawn in unreachable areas for a player during the “Down Below” mission, blocking further progression.
• Fixed an issue when Scar could be missing during the “Visions of Truth” mission.
• A few more EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors are fixed.

 

[NecroLord]

To all stalkers who continue to explore the Zone in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2: Heart of Chornobyl — Patch 1.0.2 on PC (Steam, Epic Store, GOG) is now available for download. It will also be available for download on Xbox and Microsoft Store soon.

So, what is in patch 1.0.2?

• Fixed an issue when the second wave of Monolith soldiers would not spawn during the “On the Edge” mission, blocking further progression.
• Fixed the issue when Richter could be found dead during the “A Minor Incident” mission, blocking further progression.
• The fixed issue was a player could get stuck after installing the fuse in the Wild Island area if they got the Emitter from Faust's Cell first during the “Just Like the Good Old Days” mission, blocking further progression.
• The fixed issue was when a player could not successfully complete the “All That is Left” mission while exploring the Chemical Plant region.
• Fixed issue when quest enemies could spawn in unreachable areas for a player during the “Down Below” mission, blocking further progression.
• Fixed an issue when Scar could be missing during the “Visions of Truth” mission.
• A few more EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors are fixed.

How many GB?
Another hundred something monstrosity?

 

[Gerrard]

I tried Stalker 2 and while environment is beautiful the game itself is just boring. Every minute - after maybe first 2 hours - spent in it is just thinking "why play this, why not replay SoC or CoP"

"Old good, new bad"

 

[PanteraNera]

How many GB?

I do not know, I will probably wait for a couple of months before I start playing this game again.

 

[ArchAngel]

To all stalkers who continue to explore the Zone in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2: Heart of Chornobyl — Patch 1.0.2 on PC (Steam, Epic Store, GOG) is now available for download. It will also be available for download on Xbox and Microsoft Store soon.

So, what is in patch 1.0.2?

• Fixed an issue when the second wave of Monolith soldiers would not spawn during the “On the Edge” mission, blocking further progression.
• Fixed the issue when Richter could be found dead during the “A Minor Incident” mission, blocking further progression.
• The fixed issue was a player could get stuck after installing the fuse in the Wild Island area if they got the Emitter from Faust's Cell first during the “Just Like the Good Old Days” mission, blocking further progression.
• The fixed issue was when a player could not successfully complete the “All That is Left” mission while exploring the Chemical Plant region.
• Fixed issue when quest enemies could spawn in unreachable areas for a player during the “Down Below” mission, blocking further progression.
• Fixed an issue when Scar could be missing during the “Visions of Truth” mission.
• A few more EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors are fixed.

How many GB?
Another hundred something monstrosity?

Around 8 gb

 

[Agame]

Gonna try this after today's patch. It's a stopgap measure but it'd be enough to make my playthrough enjoyable enough until we see what their offline simulation looks like. From everything I've seen from Anomaly/GAMMA devs talking about it, it's possible to port over A-Life scripting assuming we get the tools but the timeline is a year plus at least.
https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/210?tab=description
https://www.nexusmods.com/stalker2heartofchornobyl/mods/113

The fact this game released with no A-life is a crime against humanity, as that was one of the most noteworthy features of the OG trilogy. And yea it will probably take them 12 months or more to get anything close to it, if they ever do as the reason it was probably scrapped was due to the engine collapsing when you have to many actors in the vicinity, which happens whenever you go to 'town' locations with many NPCs.

Would be nice if mods can do something but we are never gonna get like the original where you can actually track individual NPCs across the zone. At least they can stop enemies spawning right on your ass, which is currently obnoxious when you are standing in an open field, turn around and 2 seconds later a group of cheeki breeki bandits have appeared out of the ground or a bloodsucker is sticking its tentacles into your butthole.

So basically we traded A-Life for 'open world' and 'kewl UE5 graphics'. I knew they would make it open world, even though ridiculously enough most of the individual zones still have narrow 'entrances' with cliffs or rivers blocking access.

 

[None]

Dial back the revisionism here lads. SHOC was absolutely considered a good-looking game in 2007 and was used to benchmark graphics cards.

I would also point out that, regardless of any technical quality compared to today's graphics, those faces are all distinct and immediately evocative of each character regardless of how minor they are in the overall story. I immediately think of the Agroprom fight on seeing Mole - hallmark of effective visual design.

If graphics-whoring is gaining traction on here we're fucked.

Crysis released the same year. By comparison, Stalker was incredibly janky looking. Most of the heavy lifting was done by the lighting and texture work, Sidrovich looking ambiguously human was not some sort of intentional secret sauce that Stalker 2 is now missing, it was just shitty model work. But just like the numerous bugs and other jank didn't bother me, neither did the models. The game could have looked like Deus Ex and I'd still have loved it because of the gameplay.

 

[Ryzer]

Dial back the revisionism here lads. SHOC was absolutely considered a good-looking game in 2007 and was used to benchmark graphics cards.

I would also point out that, regardless of any technical quality compared to today's graphics, those faces are all distinct and immediately evocative of each character regardless of how minor they are in the overall story. I immediately think of the Agroprom fight on seeing Mole - hallmark of effective visual design.

If graphics-whoring is gaining traction on here we're fucked.

The game could have looked like Deus Ex and I'd still have loved it because of the gameplay.

The gameplay was clearly outdated even at the time.

 

[None]

The gameplay was clearly outdated even at the time.

Adjusting for the Ryzer Scale, such a mild sounding criticism is glowing praise coming from you. Your incisive commentary continues to illuminate us all. I await your final and ultimate revelation, probably something along the lines of "life is actually kind of bad".

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

stalker's graphics were bad, but the game looked good because of its atmosphere and good use of effects. my favourite was in the end the simplest of copperlists, just colors cycling, which gave the impression of strong wind gusts drawing waves on tall grass (something i didn't notice in anomaly, but this is another story). the trick was to stay away from any animated model. those were terrible.

 

[ArchAngel]

So far out of all the enemies I met Controllers are most irritating to fight.
Fought two, first was part of the mission so I had to kill him but 2nd was in a cave with a stash so I picked up the stash and ran away but his psi effect followed me even when I was far away including illusion enemies spawning.
Burer was also irritating until you learn how to "fight" it which is use your starting pistol as he cannot make you drop that as it is considered a quest item.

 

[Drakortha]

So far out of all the enemies I met Controllers are most irritating to fight.
Fought two, first was part of the mission so I had to kill him but 2nd was in a cave with a stash so I picked up the stash and ran away but his psi effect followed me even when I was far away including illusion enemies spawning.
Burer was also irritating until you learn how to "fight" it which is use your starting pistol as he cannot make you drop that as it is considered a quest item.

Like how Oblivion graced us with essential NPC's, Stalker 2 graces us with essential weapons. Thank you GSC!

 

[ADL]

The fact this game released with no A-life is a crime against humanity, as that was one of the most noteworthy features of the OG trilogy. And yea it will probably take them 12 months or more to get anything close to it, if they ever do as the reason it was probably scrapped was due to the engine collapsing when you have to many actors in the vicinity, which happens whenever you go to 'town' locations with many NPCs.

Would be nice if mods can do something but we are never gonna get like the original where you can actually track individual NPCs across the zone. At least they can stop enemies spawning right on your ass, which is currently obnoxious when you are standing in an open field, turn around and 2 seconds later a group of cheeki breeki bandits have appeared out of the ground or a bloodsucker is sticking its tentacles into your butthole.

So basically we traded A-Life for 'open world' and 'kewl UE5 graphics'. I knew they would make it open world, even though ridiculously enough most of the individual zones still have narrow 'entrances' with cliffs or rivers blocking access.

Wasn't large scale AI simulation one of the leading reasons why Warhorse chose CryEngine for Kingdom Come Deliverance? This is going a while back but Unreal 3 was starting to go open back when KCD went into production so that seemed like a conscious choice to stay away from UE. I'm starting to wish we got the 2012 CryEngine/X-Ray 2.0 version of STALKER 2 instead.

Instead Vostok Games pissed on the remnants of X-Ray 2.0 by making a pay2win PvP game while endlessly teasing a online multiplayer freeplay experience and ended up with this.

 

[Gerrard]

Dial back the revisionism here lads. SHOC was absolutely considered a good-looking game in 2007 and was used to benchmark graphics cards.

I would also point out that, regardless of any technical quality compared to today's graphics, those faces are all distinct and immediately evocative of each character regardless of how minor they are in the overall story. I immediately think of the Agroprom fight on seeing Mole - hallmark of effective visual design.

If graphics-whoring is gaining traction on here we're fucked.

Crysis released the same year. By comparison, Stalker was incredibly janky looking. Most of the heavy lifting was done by the lighting and texture work, Sidrovich looking ambiguously human was not some sort of intentional secret sauce that Stalker 2 is now missing, it was just shitty model work. But just like the numerous bugs and other jank didn't bother me, neither did the models. The game could have looked like Deus Ex and I'd still have loved it because of the gameplay.

Crysis was a tech demo, that doesn't count. And SoC was basically a 2004 game with DX9 slapped on top of it.

 

[TheDarkUrge]

Finished the game. I rate it 7.5/10

No random events/squads basically at all makes running between POIs very boring. The characters in this game felt way more interesting than the originals. The consoles removed a lot of features the old games had, but at the same time the bigger budget allowed to do a really thorough job with the map and tons of nice scripted events. I think I would recommend waiting a year to see if mods and patches from the devs can make this game an 8.5/10. There's a solid base but it feels just unfinished.

 

[Jinn]

Finished the game. I rate it 7.5/10

No random events/squads basically at all makes running between POIs very boring. The characters in this game felt way more interesting than the originals. The consoles removed a lot of features the old games had, but at the same time the bigger budget allowed to do a really thorough job with the map and tons of nice scripted events. I think I would recommend waiting a year to see if mods and patches from the devs can make this game an 8.5/10. There's a solid base but it feels just unfinished.

This is a reasonable assessment. My guess is that it'll be up to an 8.5ish area in half a year, whether through mods, or patches, or both combined. Will probably be closer to what everyone remembers SoC being great for sooner than SoC actually was.

 

[jebsmoker]

I had to wait for mods to do a complete graphic overhaul before it became playable for me, and I'm not a graphics whore at all.

Shows how different tastes are, because I was like WTF?! when I read that quote.

I have a highend system (4090 RTX, 7800x3d, 64GB RAM) for a reason. Still I was fucking surprised how good SoC looked vanilla. I tried some graphic mods but to me they looked worse than the originals. Especially as some added shit like some female Stalkers that looked out of place.

Also keep in mind, I am not a Stalker fan, in fact I have never finished one before but I gladly play SoC instead of Stalker 2 as it has to offer more (gameplay).

And while I do like good graphics, hence why I bought that expensive ass rig, I think it is quite amusing that I have more fun playing old games or unoptimized indie games, as most of the AA-AAA games are utter shit.

I don't like most big budget games either.

Almost all of the games that I play are indie titles. Some, like STALKER, become cult favorites years down the road.

For instance, I beat Diablo IV about a year ago and it was extremely mediocre (big fan of Diablo II though)... It was over-polished to the extreme, as is clearly evident by the insanely long credits roll.

Again, not listening to all the dumbasses that hate on Complete, but playing Complete compared to vanilla STALKER was like night and day to me.

Oh... And FYI--Complete is the most downloaded and one of the highest rated SOC mod on moddb.com, so I'm not alone in my positive opinion of it.

people don't like Complete because it rebalances the difficulty in a way that makes the game trivially easy