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

1,5 years after release it's still nowhere near where it should be to deliver an experience like the old games did. Pros: - It's Stalker: Atmospheric unique setting in a mysterious and thrilling open world - sadly that's it Cons: - Performance is bad. It's unoptimized UE5 and eats hardware like it's nothing - Localization: English only (and in this case Ukranian) is a poor trend - AI/NPCs: Alife 2.0 promised at release is still, well, nowhere near where the old games were to make a friendly description - Enemies see you like they have X-Ray vision and hit like aimbot - even through walls - NPCs spawning right behind you - Bullet sponge enemies - Too many repetitive game mechanics (quests, stashes, ...) - Often feels like a hiking simulator - Shader compilation takes ages at every gamestart - Mods can help, but modding UE5 requires mods being updated for every tiny patch the game gets. In consequence mods tend to stop being available - Could go on with this list, but... I really would like to enjoy this, because I loved the OG Stalker games back in the days, but all that really is making it hard for me. I have some hopes for the upcoming engine upgrade regarding performance, and Cost of Hope (what a ironically perfect name) when it comes to bugs, glitches and so on, but I read that they plan on implementing better lighting, what probably results in worse performance, and I expect CoH to be mostly content related. Performance wise I really would like to have options that result in way more FPS, even if it looks like garbage afterwards. In current situation most settings don't change anything in FPS, no matter if set to "low" or "high", and the other ones only have minor impact. Maybe I'll give it another 1,5 years, or more..

Leaving aside technical issues that are sometimes annoying but not fatal: Stalker 2 has a wonderful, atmospheric world, flawed but interesting systems, combat that is uneven but can be very thrilling - and mission design that veers from repetitive to downright miserable, as well as storytelling that is convoluted and badly linked to the gameplay. I can imagine a version of Stalker 2 down the road, after more patches, that just about warrants a thumbs up, but right now I am so much more frustrated with everything it does badly, because the foundation itself has so much potential.

Played on Veteran, patch 1.9, over 100 hours exploring and doing random stuff. I'm not a STALKER megafan, but I do like the series and have finished the OG trilogy on Master difficulty. STALKER 2 runs well on mid to low range PC with DLSS set to Quality and everything to High. First UE5 game which doesn't periodically make my PC go into cooldown overdrive mode. Currently, it's the best performing UE5 game I've ever played. Signature UE5 looks actually works in its favor. Amazing weather effects. Loads saves very quickly which is paramount in this series considering how easy it is to get killed. There's plenty of nostalgia to go around, e.g. ambient sounds, all iconic locations from predecessors are lovingly recreated and even most of the old stashes are still there. All weapons look, sound, and feel great, particularly the Gauss Rifle. New anomalies are cool, but the flashbang one can suck my d*ck. Some new mutants are awesome, e.g. the ones that mimic human speech to trick you, though a bit too tanky. Plot wise it's more ambitious and grand with tons of quests full of voiced dialogues. Scar became a surprisingly important character, considering Clear Sky is often considered a "skippable" entry in the franchise. The endings are very definitive and the entire game seems like a conclusion to the series. They're probably going to choose a canon ending in the future and go from there. STALKER 2 is also janky, bugged and poorly balanced:[list] [*]General economy is tied to main story progression, i.e. you get more money for loot and side quests the further you are into the main story. At some point you MUST progress, since you'll be paying astronomical repair bills for that wicked armor or weapon you managed to find. [*]NPCs regularly bug out similarly to Bethesda games, e.g. corpses fall into hilarious positions, NPCs block corridors and do not move unless you save/load, NPC gesticulation during dialogues can visibly snap into positions. [*]Sneaking mechanics are better than in the OG trilogy, but still super basic. Knife stealth kills are too risky and it's much simpler to just use a silenced firearm instead. [*]Stashes often require you to complete very video game-y, sometimes surprisingly difficult, jumping challenges to reach, e.g. jumping on helicopter propeller blades. At the same time jumping takes a lot of stamina, and fall damage is unpredictable and deadly. It wasn't the case to this extent in previous games. What's worse, 90% of the time you'll be rewarded with 3 handgun bullets, a sausage, and vodka. Only stashes with fixed loot yield anything of worth. [*]Not enough Stamina which recharges extremely slowly considering how large the map is. Constantly chugging energy drinks gets boring incredibly quickly. You need one, or even two, legendary artifacts (Thunderberry) to have it at a good enough level. [*]Lesser Zone is extremely hostile for a starter area even counting the OG trilogy. Too many Bloodsuckers, too many deadly anomalies everywhere. [*]A few anomalies, most notably the Gravitational and Electrical ones, can instantly kill you unless you have very high resistances and, to add insult to injury, their AoE range is hard to predict even after many hours of dealing with them. [*]Bloodsuckers can now stunlock you to death if you're unlucky. [*]Poltergeists are much tankier and thrown objects ignore armor. [*]Burers. If there are any firearms for them to use, you're dead, period. Their attacks bypass all armor for some reason and absolutely destroy you. They're shooting EMPTY GUNS with no durability. Objects they throw phase through walls. They can pull your weapon away from you even if you're at full stamina. [*]Human AI is weird. Sometimes they run to cover, other times they LARP being a Terminator and slowly walk towards you while sniping you with a shotgun. [*]Second half of the game becomes a complete chore, especially near the end, as [spoiler]Monolith[/spoiler] squads appear everywhere, aimbotting you through walls, dealing huge damage even in the best armor, causing constant bleeding and, to top it all off, they're very tanky and require several headshots to down with the best weapons aside from sniper rifles or the Gauss Rifle. It's not impossible or even hard, not with the number of medkits and bandages the game showers you with, but it is a massive pain. It was never this annoying with [spoiler]Monolith[/spoiler] teams before. [*][spoiler]Scar's[/spoiler] boss fight is just awfully designed as he can one shot you through walls. Dunno if it's a bug or not. [*]So many cheap, insta-kill deaths either from fall damage, traps, or annoyingly placed anomalies. Sometimes I felt like I was being trolled. [/list] As much as I complain, most of the problems can be patched or modded, so it's not much of an issue for me. The game is really godd*mn good. STALKER 2 is the ultimate recreation of the Zone. It won't get much better than this.

I have really mixed feelings about this game. First of all, this is a game made by developers from my country. Because of that I gave it not one, not two, but FOUR chances. I tried it on Xbox Game Pass, on my gaming PC, on my ROG Xbox Ally X and finally bought it on PS5. Yeah… I literally bought this game multiple times because I kept believing they would eventually fix it. On Xbox the optimization was awful. On PC there were constant FPS drops that people jokingly call “anomalies”. I mean… calling bad optimization an “anomaly” is funny and all, but let’s be real. On one of the most powerful handheld PCs right now this game absolutely COOKS the hardware and barely keeps 30 FPS on the lowest settings. And that’s what pisses me off the most. There is NOTHING in this game that should be murdering modern hardware this hard. Games like Space Marine 2 or Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora were also terrible on handhelds at launch. But guess what? Developers optimized them. Today they run at 40-80 FPS on settings above Medium, even on devices that couldn’t run them before. Meanwhile STALKER 2 still struggles to keep 30 FPS on Low. On one of the fastest growing gaming platforms today — handheld PCs. A game like STALKER is literally PERFECT for long trips, trains, planes or just playing away from your desk. Instead it feels like the developers just said “good luck lol”. And that’s why I’m still mad at them. Because this project had insane potential. Maybe not GTA VI level… but definitely GTA V level in terms of long-term support. The world, the atmosphere, the mechanics… there is SO MUCH they could expand. New activities, new systems, story DLCs, fan content, cosmetic updates… this game could’ve been supported for years and become almost endless. Instead it feels like they just shipped it and said: “We made the game. Now you figure out how to actually run it.” Which is crazy considering almost every big studio today spends years optimizing games for weaker hardware because PC parts are expensive as hell now and more people are moving to handheld gaming. But then… I played the PS5 version. And honestly… what the actual hell? Rock solid 60 FPS. Great visuals. Almost no stuttering. Objects load properly. No constant pop-in while sprinting around. On a PS5 Slim. A console that is actually weaker than many modern gaming PCs, handhelds and even Xbox Series X in several areas. So yeah… Now I finally found the platform where I can actually enjoy the game. And here’s the funny part. The game itself is actually REALLY damn good. Yeah, sometimes it feels a little empty. But hearing your native language everywhere… reading signs, PDA logs, conversations… that atmosphere hits different. You simply don’t get that feeling anywhere else. And after giving this game four different chances… I finally understand why people love it. This is still STALKER. The new engine makes so many mechanics finally work the way they always should’ve. Exploration feels better, combat feels better, the world has way more life than the old games, and a lot of things fans wanted for years are finally here. That’s why my review is still positive. Not because I forgive the optimization. Not because I suddenly think the developers did a great job. But because underneath all that technical mess there is genuinely an amazing game. Optimization? 2/10. The actual game on PS5? 10/10. So my final score is 6/10. A good game held back by decisions that make absolutely no sense. I just hope one day the developers realize what they actually created. There is still so much potential left if they keep supporting it while people still care. Because let’s be honest… STALKER 2 got a massive amount of attention thanks to the war and because many people wanted to support Ukrainian developers. I honestly believe a huge number of copies were bought for exactly that reason. Any other game launching in this technical state would’ve been absolutely destroyed by the community. STALKER got a pass because people wanted it to succeed. Now it’s up to the developers to prove that trust wasn’t wasted. Otherwise this will just become another game that made a lot of money because of the situation around it… and slowly disappeared while wasting one of the biggest potentials I’ve seen in years. The marketing for STALKER 2 was incredible. But the way they’ve treated the technical side of the game and a lot of loyal fans… Honestly? Probably one of the worst I’ve ever seen.

I absolutely love this game but it'd be significantly better if they managed to lower the game file size, I cant count how many times I had to uninstall this game to play something else.

颠覆我对毛子游戏的刻板印象，非常好玩

即便过去了两年，但我对这个游戏的评价就没怎么变过 两年前我预购了标准版版，因为当时设备不咋地，发售初期的优化问题很严重，我就退掉了，转头去玩了学习版，并在通关之后攒钱特意买了份key补票，我不知道当年的我是怎么玩通这司马游戏的，可两年后我在设备升级的情况下打开了正版后，好像唤醒了我当年的吃屎记忆，本想说这游戏属于是“食之无味，弃之可惜”的那种 虽说弃之可惜是真，不然我也不会再捡起来重新玩一遍，但我并不觉得是“无味”的，相反，我尝到了一股浓厚的陈年老屎的味道。 [h1]如同一根搅屎棍，闻不得又舞不得[/h1] 先不提之前承诺的Alife2.0到现在还没做完这事，游戏内长期存在武器平衡机制崩坏，敌人数值过高，武器修理倾家荡产，手电筒激光可见度低这些两年前十分败坏好感的东西到现在还没有改，我不知道是不是GSC的所有人被拉到前线炮决了还是怎么的，到现在都不改等着社区做补丁给你擦屁股，但是我忍了。 所以为了提升游戏体验，我不得不上网查找各种mod整合，机制是优化了，但是Bug更多了，成就还不能拿，神奇的自动存盘机制加上加了mod后不定期的崩溃让你在这条吃屎的路上愈发兴奋，我还是忍了。 直到我做主线去给博士交图纸的时候，因Bug导致仓库大门在我眼前就这么关上再也打不开，直接坏档。为此我不服气，重新跑了三四遍从X5实验室到博士这的这段路，每次走到门前就突然关门，无论怎么按按钮也没有反应。于是我又去网上下载UE控制台想用穿墙解决，无奈这游戏更新导致控制台补丁早已失效，没有别的方法了，除非你回档到史前再来一遍。 这一次我彻底麻了，我感觉之前吃的屎好像被我消化出来后再一次吃了进去，形成了一种自循环，让我感到无尽的恶心，我再也没心气伺候这游戏，好端端拿来休息的周末时间就被我下mod卸mod回档读档渲染着色器给全浪费掉了，我已无言。 不管的主线剧情多么有意思，但体验是一坨屎，那这游戏就是一坨屎，问题最大的地方在前期，极为劝退，区域空荡且无趣，被特异点和半路冲出来的野狗干死是常有的事，可你别指望之后会好一点，在后期也是如此，因为这游戏的武器数值纯用屁眼填的，asval跟左轮在共用一个子弹的情况下，威力上的差距可是天壤之别，同时因为怪的血量极其厚导致你前期经常会遇到打不过跑路的情况，就算到后期你的武器上去了，但还是因为子弹少再加上那个司马的负重系统导致玩家强度被限制，反正死掉就从上一个存档点重来。 一个开放世界游戏，为了硬核不好好写武器数值反而砍快速传送，我觉得设计师的亲妈是真的欠杀。因为你不是在送死就是在去送死的路上，享受在半路上被机动性高的大狗围攻啃死，要么被一群枪枪爆头好运连连的僵尸打死，要么被高机动性隐身怪绕后干到屁眼流血，要么有时遇到雾天还会有意外惊喜，急头白脸耗死一群也怪后只给你点时尚小垃圾打发一下你，连子弹回本这块都做不到，你就享受去吧，一玩一个不吱声。 等到了中后期去了普里皮亚季，流程转线性开始变得无聊，前期受了这么多的苦没一点正反馈，但我相信你此前吃了这么多屎，想必能玩到后期也差不多该释怀了吧，之后游戏进入尾声，没有新游戏＋。 如果你还在犹豫至不至于花180来买这坨发售两年还仍是半成品的大便的话，我这个两年前预购的傻逼真心劝你再三考虑并去下个盗版上手玩一玩，不要在网上刷到几个打了冷霜滤镜的视频就被骗来也想体验一下，那不是一般的配置能负担得起的，爆显存是常有的事，更何况我这个配置也是如此。如果你建议要入那我只能祝你好运 [h2]致谢尔盖： 乌克兰的谢尔盖先生你听好，要是等我下一次肚子饿了找屎吃把这游戏下回来玩的时候，这逼游戏还是这个活全家样子，那我直接一个飞天大草把你亲妈的臭批顶飞，然后把你妈做成神器挂在衣服上，我劝你好好做[/h2] 最后，虽然这一代很烂，可我依旧觉得潜行者是个很有意思的好IP，2代也只在画质上比老潜行者好 但是，[h1]千万不要买增强版的老潜行者，千万别买！千万别买！千万别买！[/h1] 增强后带来的都是负优化，要折腾的地方也少不了，建议凝聚力购买。 你想当傻逼给谢尔盖跪下舔他的原味带垢包皮的话当我没说

terrible AI. repetitive gameplay. world that is impressive upon first glance but lifeless with closer inspection. so much potential unmet.

After 43 hours of painstaking gameplay, I wish I never purchased this game. Pros: Graphics - Truly a work of art. How GSC Game World is able to pull this while in an active warzone (Ukraine) is nothing short of a miracle. Survival mechanics - You have to be mindful of thirst, hunger, weight, and sleep but doesn't get deep into woods on that front. I like that. The Zone - I loved to explore and survive in the wasteland. Secrets in every compound. New mutants to hunt and kill. Very well realized and crafted. Weapon variety - All of the different firearms and ammo types were a fun balancing act. You had to be smart about what you brought with every expedition. Few Bugs - I was worried about this being Euro-Jank like STALKER 1, but I was impressed. Only had a few NPC stuck in place, but nothing a quick load wouldn't fix. When an enemy base was alerted, troops might run around in a weird pattern but they break out of it. Cons: Story - Perhaps military storylines are not for me, but I could not be bothered to care about a single person in this game. Every time this game pulled control away for a cutscene, I was left dumbfounded by what they considered so important to tell me. I did not enjoy it in the slightest. Distance - 43 hours of time in game and at least 12 hours of that was SPRINTING back and forth to locations. This game has zero respect for your time. It pads the gameplay experience. God forbid you ever get a quest objective on the other side of the map because that ain't getting done. Performance - This game chokes on its own performance. You are forced to use AMD FSR/Nvidia DLSS in order to get a decent framerate. You get these frame drops to 15-20 FPS that will not return to normal until you reboot. It makes the game unplayable. Of course this doesn't happen until after at least 2 hours of gameplay. I would have returned it immediately if I knew this was an issue. Balance - Enemy AI is super-human with their visibility and detection. Even with my headlight off, they can spot me through heavy brush 150 meters away AT NIGHT. Dying in 3-4 shots while fighting off status ailments, meanwhile your opponents take 6-8 shots to the face before they die is unforgivable. I feel like I'm playing a gritty survival realism FPS while the AI is playing Apex Legends. Rant about late-game content: [spoiler] The 2nd Faust boss fight is literally unbeatable. You kill 3 ads? He spawns 6 more. You focus on him? The clones rain fire upon you with 100% accuracy AND grenade spam. Run him down? He'll pump you full of lead and psi-radiation before you can see what gun he's firing. Need to go back to camp to get more ammo and supplies? You're locked in and there is a save point in the middle of the fight. Welcome to Thunderdome. I spent nearly 2 hours on that boss fight and ultimately quit the game because of it.[/spoiler]

Stalker 2 starts off feeling simple and even confusing, like a game that refuses to guide you. However as you push deeper, the Zone slowly reveals how it truly works. The mechanics click, the atmosphere tightens, and the world pulls you in piece by piece. What first seemed like a lost cause becomes completely absorbing. Before you realize it, you're not just playing Stalker 2 - you're hooked.