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

[Andz]

They removed A-Life from the feature list on Steam. It was there YESTERDAY when I looked. You can't make this shit up.

They renamed it. It was explained on discord....

 

[jebsmoker]

i've seen all of the languages that STALKER 2 officially supports for its *text* translations from a stream: there's english, german, ukrainian (duh), russian, serbian, turkish, french, spanish, italian, polish, czech, portuguese, arabic (or possibly persian? i can't really tell the difference between these two), mandarin, and japanese

 

[Dark Souls II]

Guys, what if it's not a bug but an anomaly?

So Stolkor 2: the Hohol of Chornobol literally just spawns NPCs next to you randomly.

Meanwhile, Anomaly simulates all NPCs even in the areas you're not currently in. This means an NPC can get killed in combat, eaten by a mutant, walk into an anomaly, die in a blowout etc. And you'll learn about that later when you hear about it on the radio or find the body.

Also Stalkers don't even react anymore when you point a gun at them

Lmao

 

[Turisas]

i've seen all of the languages that STALKER 2 officially supports for its *text* translations from a stream: there's english, german, ukrainian (duh), russian, serbian, turkish, french, spanish, italian, polish, czech, portuguese, arabic (or possibly persian? i can't really tell the difference between these two), mandarin, and japanese

English VA seems really bad, accents are all over the place and some random npc had a OY GUVNA accent that would make any britbong's lil willy hard.

 

[ArchAngel]

Guys, what if it's not a bug but an anomaly?

So Stolkor 2: the Hohol of Chornobol literally just spawns NPCs next to you randomly.

Meanwhile, Anomaly simulates all NPCs even in the areas you're not currently in. This means an NPC can get killed in combat, eaten by a mutant, walk into an anomaly, die in a blowout etc. And you'll learn about that later when you hear about it on the radio or find the body.

Also Stalkers don't even react anymore when you point a gun at them

Lmao

When Anomaly mod for Stalker 2 is released it will do the same.

 

[Inec0rn]

Honestly think that every studio using Unreal is a massive gaming decline, means every game is the fucking same slop *drag and drop AI/physics/anim/whatever to NPC*. All this because companies can't hire developers skilled enough to learn and master a new tool, and or develop lower level functionality for their games.

 

[ferratilis]

When Anomaly mod for Stalker 2 is released it will do the same.

Never gonna happen. UE would never allow for something like that.

 

[ArchAngel]

When Anomaly mod for Stalker 2 is released it will do the same.

Never gonna happen. UE would never allow for something like that.

Devs already said in interview that game will have good modding tools and you will be able to make small and big mods and even Xbox version will support modding.

 

[jebsmoker]

i've seen all of the languages that STALKER 2 officially supports for its *text* translations from a stream: there's english, german, ukrainian (duh), russian, serbian, turkish, french, spanish, italian, polish, czech, portuguese, arabic (or possibly persian? i can't really tell the difference between these two), mandarin, and japanese

English VA seems really bad, accents are all over the place and some random npc had a OY GUVNA accent that would make any britbong's lil willy hard.

yeah the English VA actually takes me out of the experience. once i bother to play this within a year or so on my new computer i'm just gonna use Ukrainian VA or whatever so that i'm actually *immersed*

 

[Drakortha]

They renamed it. It was explained on discord....

You discord maggots always crawl in here to hopelessly defend shit games right as they are coming out. Every single time.

 

[Rieser]

I've played through most of the game now. First off, this thing is much bigger than the previous titles. I'm over 50 hours in and not done, and I've skipped stuff too then or I'll never be done (devs estimate 100+ hours for a full playthrough).

It is, however, just as buggy as previous titles. There's all kinds of shenanigans going on and I've had to reload earlier saves at points when quests seemingly broke. Critical bugs like that are, thankfully, not all that common but other bugs are. It also runs poorly (albeit better right now than when review codes were first distributed) despite not being a very pretty game. It's a shame because I'll just go ahead and say I am overall enjoying this. It has a weak start but gradually gets more and more immersive and interesting and feels like a natural evolution of the old titles. Similar, but bigger and better at just about everything. The open world is very large but hand-made from top to toe, no procedural crap here. It's also challenging and doesn't hold your hand, especially on Veteran (the hardest of the three difficulties, which I'll admit was too bloody hard at times). Combat is lethal and when both mutants and stalkers/bandits/whatever gets involved it gets frantic and very, very fun.

This is despite the AI, which I didn't find to be nearly as smart as GSC claims it is. They make poor use of cover (they might use it, but often limbs or such will still be visible, or they'll hide behind material that you'll just shoot through etc), and usually simply stand in the open. They don't care about crossfire and they don't move in coordinated ways, often leaving you with just one flank to bother with if you position yourself correctly despite facing numerous hostiles. This is also because they don't stay on the move much, preferring to stick to one spot. Sometimes the AI is just fucking laughable. I'll give you a specific example. At one occasion I almost ran into a gang of bandits. They started blasting, and I thought it was at me at first. Then I realized it wasn't. I hid, and they kept shooting and shooting. I realized that they were the only party shooting, so they must be facing mutants. But I didn't hear any damn mutants. Eventually I stood up and looked and they're all shooting at something behind a nearby building. I get my gun out and kill them rather easily as I get the drop on them, then walk over behind the building. There, there's a fucking gated garden with mutated rats running around. The bandits had been standing fifty yards away throwing grenades and wasting hundreds of bullets shooting at rats that were STUCK INSIDE A FUCKING CAGE. Wanna know how many rats they had managed to kill? Exactly zero.

I feel like most of this is non-intended and will get worked on post-launch, but we'll see. On the plus side, enemies are all very aggressive and use grenades freely, forcing you to stay on the move which I like. Mutants are where the real challenge is at though. They hit hard and are tough and they provide a varied challenge just like in the original games with some being agile, stealthy cunts, others being tanks, some using the environments against you while others disarm you or maybe they pounce from fifty yards and on it goes. The narrative is decent. You get to make a fair amount of choices and I got the impression that more often than not, they matter. This is supposed to be true for the ending as well, but as I've said I've not gotten there yet. You never know which prick to trust and what people's real angle is. People will try to cheat you, lie to your face and rob you. Some will try to lure you into traps. It's refreshing to get this kind of writing after the horror that was Veilguard. Speaking of horror, I've also damn near shat myself a few times. All in all a fun but very rough game and if you don't like to get fucked over by bugs you may as well hold off purchase for now. If you've waited 14 years you can wait a while longer.

 

[Turisas]

What's your take on the game's economy and gear progression? Stuck with starter peestol for hours early on?

 

[Sweeper]

I ain't seeing nothing about Denuvo on this.
I will play your game Mykolas, but I won't be adding to your military funds.

 

[jebsmoker]

What's your take on the game's economy and gear progression? Stuck with starter peestol for hours early on?

you get an aks-74u at the very start or close to it; i saw a streamer get one in like the first 30 mins or so

 

[Turisas]

What's your take on the game's economy and gear progression? Stuck with starter peestol for hours early on?

you get an aks-74u at the very start or close to it; i saw a streamer get one in like the first 30 mins or so

Yeah but

Spoiler

you lose that a bit later.

 

[Rieser]

What's your take on the game's economy and gear progression? Stuck with starter peestol for hours early on?

No, you get basic guns quickly. The economy depends on the difficulty; harder difficulty will give you less loot while lower will give you more, and the difference is quite impactful. This includes consumables like food, anti-rad, med-kits and ammo. Gear progression depends on how you play, largely, as there is "secret" gear spread out all over the map that you can technically find at any given point since a lot of it can be explored in a non-linear fashion if you diverge from the main quest (which in itself won't even take you everywhere). I'd say it works well enough, but then I haven't been trying to break the economy either or even thought about it much. Might be the wrong person to ask.

 

[Konjad]

I've played through most of the game now. First off, this thing is much bigger than the previous titles. I'm over 50 hours in and not done, and I've skipped stuff too then or I'll never be done (devs estimate 100+ hours for a full playthrough).

It is, however, just as buggy as previous titles. There's all kinds of shenanigans going on and I've had to reload earlier saves at points when quests seemingly broke. Critical bugs like that are, thankfully, not all that common but other bugs are. It also runs poorly (albeit better right now than when review codes were first distributed) despite not being a very pretty game. It's a shame because I'll just go ahead and say I am overall enjoying this. It has a weak start but gradually gets more and more immersive and interesting and feels like a natural evolution of the old titles. Similar, but bigger and better at just about everything. The open world is very large but hand-made from top to toe, no procedural crap here. It's also challenging and doesn't hold your hand, especially on Veteran (the hardest of the three difficulties, which I'll admit was too bloody hard at times). Combat is lethal and when both mutants and stalkers/bandits/whatever gets involved it gets frenetic and very, very fun.

This is despite the AI, which I didn't find to be nearly as smart as GSC claims it is. They make poor use of cover (they might use it, but often limbs or such will still be visible, or they'll hide behind material that you'll just shoot through etc), and usually simply stand in the open. They don't care about crossfire and they don't move in coordinated ways, often leaving you with just one flank to bother with if you position yourself correctly despite facing numerous hostiles. This is also because they don't stay on the move much, preferring to stick to one spot. Sometimes the AI is just fucking laughable. I'll give you a specific example. At one occasion I almost ran into a gang of bandits. They started blasting, and I thought it was at me at first. Then I realized it wasn't. I hid, and they kept shooting and shooting. I realized that they were the only party shooting, so they must be facing mutants. But I didn't hear any damn mutants. Eventually I stood up and looked and they're all shooting at something behind a nearby building. I get my gun out and kill them rather easily as I get the drop on them, then walk over behind the building. There, there's a fucking gated garden with mutated rats running around. The bandits had been standing fifty yards away throwing grenades and wasting hundreds of bullets shooting at rats that were STUCK INSIDE A FUCKING CAGE. Wanna know how many rats they had managed to kill? Exactly zero.

I feel like most of this is non-intended and will get worked on post-launch, but we'll see. On the plus side, enemies are all very aggressive and use grenades freely, forcing you to stay on the move which I like. Mutants are where the real challenge is at though. They hit hard and are tough and they provide a varied challenge just like in the original games with some being agile, stealthy cunts, others being tanks, some using the environments against you while others disarm you or maybe they pounce from fifty yards and on it goes. The narrative is a decent aspect. You get do do a lot of choices and I got the impression that more often than not, they matter. This is supposed to be true for the ending as well, but as I've said I've not gotten there yet. You never know which prick to trust and what people's real angle is. People will try to cheat you, lie to your face and rob you. Some will try to lure you into traps. It's refreshing to get this kind of writing after the horror that was Veilguard. Speaking of horror, I've also damn near shat myself a few times. All in all a fun but very rough game and if you don't like to get fucked over by bugs you may as well hold off purchase for now. If you've waited 14 years you can wait a while longer.

Nice, so it's pretty much like I expected. I'll be waiting for patches and probably get it early next year.

 

[KeAShizuku]

Guys, what if it's not a bug but an anomaly?

So Stolkor 2: the Hohol of Chornobol literally just spawns NPCs next to you randomly.

Meanwhile, Anomaly simulates all NPCs even in the areas you're not currently in. This means an NPC can get killed in combat, eaten by a mutant, walk into an anomaly, die in a blowout etc. And you'll learn about that later when you hear about it on the radio or find the body.

Also Stalkers don't even react anymore when you point a gun at them

Lmao

There's a down clocked Ryzen 2 in the PS5 if memory serves.
Not at all an expert but maybe that's why the AI has regressed.

 

[cpmartins]

I ain't seeing nothing about Denuvo on this.
I will play your game Mykolas, but I won't be adding to your military funds.

Something fishy about this one. Usually a game without denuvo gets released almost immediately after their steam files drop.

 

[Vic]

I ain't seeing nothing about Denuvo on this.
I will play your game Mykolas, but I won't be adding to your military funds.

Something fishy about this one. Usually a game without denuvo gets released almost immediately after their steam files drop.

The person who pirates it must have access to the files...

edit: I just checked on cs.rin.ru and the clean files are already out.

 

[Turisas]

https://www.metacritic.com/game/stalker-2-heart-of-chornobyl/
https://opencritic.com/game/17685/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl

 

[Ol' Willy]

Meanwhile, Anomaly simulates all NPCs even in the areas you're not currently in. This means an NPC can get killed in combat, eaten by a mutant, walk into an anomaly, die in a blowout etc. And you'll learn about that later when you hear about it on the radio or find the body.

Still not on the level with Oblivion Lost simulation

 

[Gerrard]

The first screen is still a PDA, you can see the indicators in the top corners.

Right, but it doesn't appear like you are holding a PDA in front of your face. Which was the point of the original design. For a series that is known for atmosphere and immersion that's an important detail that's been lost.

That's true. Anomaly went farther and made the PDA an actual interactive item, STALKER 2 should've done the same thing. Especially when they copied other mod elements like animations for healing and eating.

Yes, and it was fucking awful, takes 3 seconds to open/close and the screen is blurry as fuck with barely readable fonts because it was never designed to be displayed as a texture in 3D space.

At one occasion I almost ran into a gang of bandits. They started blasting, and I thought it was at me at first. Then I realized it wasn't. I hid, and they kept shooting and shooting. I realized that they were the only party shooting, so they must be facing mutants. But I didn't hear any damn mutants. Eventually I stood up and looked and they're all shooting at something behind a nearby building. I get my gun out and kill them rather easily as I get the drop on them, then walk over behind the building. There, there's a fucking gated garden with mutated rats running around. The bandits had been standing fifty yards away throwing grenades and wasting hundreds of bullets shooting at rats that were STUCK INSIDE A FUCKING CAGE. Wanna know how many rats they had managed to kill? Exactly zero.

Wow, so it's exactly like the original games!

 

[PlayerEmers]

 

[randir14]

https://www.metacritic.com/game/stalker-2-heart-of-chornobyl/
https://opencritic.com/game/17685/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chornobyl

"Good game but it runs like shit and is full of bugs". A true sequel indeed.