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

---despite the open world, the game discourages us from exploring -in places game doesnt want us yet to explore we will find immortal sniper that will kill as with one shot -even if we can get to locataion in 9 out of 10 cases place will be empty or NPCs there will have nothing interesting to tell us unless we are there because story told us to be there ---combat is bad: -NPCs will spam with grenades -the accuracy is insane, they can spot us super easily -each time we get shot no matter what armor we are wearing our character will shake his head -enemies are bullet sponges, in human emenemy case most of them die with one headshot (depending on armor) -bleeding, no matter what armor we are wearing, we will bleed almost every second shot we got shot ---skif and his motivation are simply bad: entire game he is whining about his destroyed apartment almost as if his entire family had died, to some people he is friendly to other aggressive with out reasons ---random fps drops in "towns", only way to fix it is to reset game ---plants cast strange "shadow" that disables reflections in water if we will look "through" them... I dont know how to describe that, wish I could attach screenshot +++graphics look good +++many weapons to choose from

I really enjoy the game (6.5hrs in), the atmosphere, the side and main quests. What I do not like is the open world ... or A-Life 2.0. The game just spawns enemies behind you and the wildlife/mutants in the early game are real bulletsponges. Once you dealt with them, have healed again, and reloaded all your weapons - some bandits spawn few meters away in the undergrowth just to open fire at you immediately not giving a damn whether you are behind trees, bushes or kneeling in some gras. Just WHY? And the walkways are quite long ... seeing the whole map, I hope they add a function to wandering, friendly stalkers to fast travel with them to already discovered locations or hubs. Otherwise this will be a running simulator. I had some sound bugs (suddenly stopping atmosphere tracks, radio sound switching to close by sound) and the shadows create sometimes funky visuals. But so far nothing gamebreaking. If the developers fix the issues I can see me changing it to 5/5. At the moment I would say if you are not a hardcore fan, wait a bit.

wait 2-3 years before buying

Finally finished the game, on normal, after 100+ hours of gameplay and honestly i want to start it again. It's a great, fun game, that took me about a month of casual gaming to finish and that felt very rewarding in the minute-to-minute gameplay category (combat, exploration, loot etc.). To start I experienced very few defects, only 2 crashes and only 2 defects that required a reload to progress (UI did not reappear after a cutscene). I got the game in March, so after a few massive patches filled with fixes, and ran it on a 3060 Ti with mostly everything on medium without issues; the game had a few stutters only in closed environments that were a bit too cluttered for my old rig. Other than that there are a few things that I was not crazy about: the stealth is pretty bad; enemies can easily spot you from (literally) miles away through bushes while you're sitting crouched in the dark with no flashlight on. I was a bit annoyed by the lack of english localization for signs or grafitti, which is sometimes needed for hints during exploration. Also the main protagonist's motivation is... I mean i guess we just need a reason for it, but it keeps popping up through cutscenes and makes me roll my eyes a little. But like i said the exploration is great and the game always offers a reasonable challenge on medium difficulty, throughout the entire experience (barring the boss fights which are kind of meh). You really take into account every encounter and wheter it is worth it or not, and not once did i just runaway from a fight thinking that it's either not worth it or that i won't make it. Solid 8/10 game. Anyone who enjoyed the old stalker games and has the rig to run this at least on medium will enjoy this.

I am not having the poor performance most others seem to be having, using a i5-10600k and a 4070 Ti Super. GOG does not let you edit reviews, so I will not even go into to bugs or console cancer (radial wheel PLEASE) that will be eventually fixed or stuff like the low encumbrance that can be tweaked. The things that cannot be tweaked without significant changes is the change from simulation ("A-life" as the old games called it) to AI "Director" (The Left 4 Dead model), and the new aesthetic. In theory the director should have been an okay change to make, but it functions largely the same as Left 4 Dead and you can cheese it in the exact same way you cheese L4D. You move fast and it just can't catch up to your moving. Then you get no events, no issues with ammo or difficulty, but the world is empty and dead except anomalies and stashes. Neat. You don't do this? Mobs spawns literally right on top of you and spots you right away without regard for how careful or sneaky you are and without giving you the discretion to engage or not, turning it into COD. In order to implement this system properly it should be in a MUCH greater area and done in such a way that it doesn't force a particular outcome. The new aesthetic though is just bad and not fixable. I'm only to the Great Swamp so I don't know if it gets better later, but part of what made the older games is that everyone LOOKED like they were dressed for a hostile environment. Hoods, gas masks and the like. Some of the generic NPCs still have this, but most people are now just in generic body armor if that. Sorry but for all the new weather effects added this takes away 10x as much. The english voice acting is also awful, worse than the old games somehow. I'm not going to let the flaws stop me from enjoying the game, but the old games or their mods are definitely better and its not even close right now.