Posted on: December 30, 2024

tomppu

Games: 407 Reviews: 1

A horribly buggy mess

I have over 100 hours clocked in this game and I'd love to love it. But the sad reality is that it is currently so broken I cannot in good concience recommend anyone to buy it. I've played since 1.0 and so far the game was at it's best at 1.0.2 even though the A-life was missing and enemies spawned behind you. At least the game was stable and didn't crash as much as it does now with 1.1.3. Currently my game seems to become unplayable because it soft locks every few minutes forcing me to to either restart the computer or log out and back in. Besides the obvious bugs the most annoying thing about this game are its mutant enemies. They are bullet sponges that run and hide immediately when you're out of their physical reach and spring back to you the second you come down to their level. This happens with the lowliest rodents to biggest baddies. Human enemies can shoot you from unrealistic distances with broken shotguns without even seeing you, sometimes through whole tanks or other thick metal barriers. They also love to spam grenades with pinpoint accuracy. Some quests are currently bugged so that all the choice you as a player have is seemingly missing. Kill a character and the quest giver scalds you for siding with them for example. Quest items sometimes are left to your inventory after the quest is completed, I'm currenlty carrying over 3 kg of useless quest items I can't get rid of. Enemies can get stuck in walls and just stand there so you can kill them, I guess it balances out the bullet spongines and their instinct to hide from you. Sometimes this means that grenades fly right through them AND the wall they're stuck to. So you end up wasting grenades for bugs and ammo for bullet spongy enemies. It's really not as fun as it may sound. Graphically the game is nice, but not great. The vegetation still has a lot of popping issues and lumen implementation distorts lighting in distant objects making them flicker either in dark or light areas.

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Posted on: November 21, 2024

angelblue

Verified owner

Games: 2699 Reviews: 54

Good game that needs optimization

VOIR EN FRANCAIS PLUS BAS: EN: Having spent 10 hours playing now. I can say that if it continues on this path, I think it's safe to say that it'll be great. The graphics are pretty good. The atmosphere and sound are very good (like the original Stalker). You're quickly immersed in the game. The game's system of random events seems to work pretty well. Enemies can be attacked by mutants or other rival gangs. Some optimization problems that mar the game a bit, unfortunately. I hope the studio will work to optimize it. The AI is pretty good, despite a few bugs. Maybe some problems of visibility in the vegetation to find the enemies I find. They, on the other hand, don't miss you. Which also allows me to mention that the game isn't at all easy in normal mode. I can't imagine it being difficult. In a nutshell. A very good game for those who like difficulty and the old Stalkers. If the studio fixes the few AI and optimization problems. I'd raise the rating to 5 stars (when GOG allows us to modify reviews). FR: Les graphismes sont bons. L'ambiance et le son sont très bons (comme les Stalker originaux). On est immergé très vite dans le jeu. Les événements aléatoires semblent plutôt bien fonctionner. Des ennemis peuvent se faire attaquer par des mutants ou d'autres bandes rivales Quelques problèmes d'optimisation qui entachent un peu le jeu malheureusement. J'espère que le studio va travailler pour l'optimiser. L'IA est plutôt bonne malgré quelques bêtises. Peut-être parfois des problèmes de visibilité dans la végétation pour trouver les ennemis, je trouve. Eux, par contre, ne vous ratez pas. Ce qui me permet également de mentionner que le jeu n'est effectivement pas facile du tout en normal. Je n'ose pas imaginer en difficile. En résumé. Un très bon pour ceux qui aiment la difficulté et les anciens Stalker. Si le studio corrige les quelques problèmes d'IA et d'optimisation. Je ferai monter la note à 5 étoiles (si GOG nous permet de modifier les avis)

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Posted on: November 21, 2024

kocham_jeze

Verified owner

Games: 18 Reviews: 2

Unplayable at the moment

I have no choice but to give the game one star at the moment as it's not in a state that can be even played, let alone enjoyed. I was happy to get around 60fps in the initial area on Low preset with Perf. DLSS (4k display, rtx 3070, 5900x) which was along my expectations, and wouldn't have minded completing the game with lowest fidelity settings. The problem is terrible frame drops and crashes. After my first death and save load, the fps dropped to 3 with something like 1000ms latency, requiring restart. This happened multiple times at different points. Finally, upon entering water for the first time, the game just crashed. Essentially every time I tried to play, after a couple minutes I needed to restart because the game was breaking. After like 3 tries I run out of patience. I'm looking forward to playing the game when it's fixed, but for now - avoid.

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Posted on: February 8, 2025

Rhobart

Verified owner

Games: 972 Reviews: 33

Cheating AI and unoptimised

The game staters as hell and lowering setting does nothing to help it. AI is visibly cheating, nowing your position instantly, being 100% accurate no matter what weapons they have, infinite grenades, etc.

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Posted on: July 3, 2025

Sheey1che

Verified owner

Games: 7 Reviews: 2

what the f***?

First, a piece of advice: read recent reviews, not the ones from Nov 2024. GSC has done a lot of work and continues to patch the game. It is now "playable" but NOT "polished." To be fair, I think ppl had high expectations after long delays and they compare STALKER 2 to heavily modded versions of the original games, like LA/Anomaly/GAMMA. Remember how the old vanilla games were also buggy and relied on the Complete mods to be decently playable? This is what we should be comparing the new STALKER 2 to. And it came a long way. Performance in UE5 is demanding, as expected. On my 5070 Ti laptop, a stable 60 FPS is achievable, but it fluctuates wildly even with DLSS. More optimization is clearly needed. While I only had 2 crashes in ~60h, make no mistake: 8 months post-release, this game is still PLAGUED with bugs. Expect to install mods just to fix basic balance issues, like the ridiculously spongy mutants. My first complaint is the profound lack of novelty. This feels less like a sequel and more like a beautiful but predictable remaster of the originals. There are no new mutants and no compelling new Zone mysteries. The few new locations lack charisma. Past the nostalgic thrill you're left with a game for which you have 0 expectations. The narrative is decent, but the choice system is too unpredictable. Your ending can be determined by vague, obtuse dialogue choices in cutscenes. I had to abandon my save at the end game because of an obscure choice that locked me earlier with a faction I didn’t want to join. Worse, after reloading from an earlier save I discovered: there IS NO GOOD ENDING IN THIS GAME. The "true" ending feels like a middle finger to the original mindset of SoC. You're given the pretense of agency, only to be forced into a bad outcome no matter what. In its current state, STALKER 2 is merely "fine". In a few years, I am sure modders will shape it into the masterpiece we long for. Ignoring the ending, it's a familiar, but janky, trip back to the Zone.

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

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LEGENDARY MUTANTS WITH DIFFERENT BEHAVIOUR MODELS

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