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

a-life 2.0 was a lie. there isnt even a-life 0.1. but just let the community fix this mess with mods, right?

Disappointed in the initial release as it was rushed, it should've cooked in the over for another year, half year as bare minimum. My main quest hasn't been fixed since I got to it in the early December, it's already end of May of 2025, still the quest is broken and the NPC that shouldn't be dead, is dead, and outside of the shack he was supposed to be in, and behind locked doors, yet when I got the Colonel, the optional quest of the main quest auto fails. I got tired of playing after 165h of just exploring the map because I have no progression besides getting money, gear, and weapons, to an extent. Limited in upgrading gear because I require to reach certain main quest progression. Basically I have explored 70-80% of the map, played 165h, and stuck at the main quest at the Garbage depot, which is like 3rd big quets and its underquests. Console commands do not help because for some reason there is no file or info that shows all NPC ID's to reset them. I wasted lots of time playing with console commands, reseting quests, manipulating, etc. I wish that I knew that my quest bug wouldn't be fixed for this long (still isn't), I would've refunded, but thanks to hope and trust I kept on waiting. I stopped submitting the same bug in February's update. Also, talking about updates, once a month having update is unacceptable for a broken release game. I will raise my star when my quest is fixed. It wont get 4-5 stars because it should serve developers to be more cautions and conservative.

This game should be marked "Under Development" since i'ts clearly not finished, just lost my 17h run to MQ softlock bug which apparantly is very common and been known since release but still not fixed (started this run with the currently as of this review latest version of the game).

Even with all it's flaws and lackluster and miniscule """"A-life""" (05.02.2024) the game held the jank and the vibe we all love and crave. After the first serious "boss battle" it just devolves into a one main fetch quest (all the exploration is and stashes feel pointless, i have enough of everything end extra *sausage* doesn't cut it). Engaging in any gunfights in the 2nd half of the game is just str8 pointless - the main fetchquest is just "designed" to melt your ammunition supply no matter what you do. Deleted the game when i encountered an unkillable AI in an egzoskeleton, no clue what happened there but there was no way to progress and enough is enough. The amount of times the half-hostile (mixed factions) patrols just melted my top-of-the-line eqipment and artifacts (they spawned 0.5m behind me or in front of me) is bonkers etc etc. Such a shame, first part of the game was actually delicious, even with all the flaws (played since day one). Second part feels so pointless that i started to crave the instanced maps from the original trilogy - they didn't waste my time at least :( Note - i'll update the review if stuff get's better

This is game is unfinished and bugged as hell. Unplayable in this stage. Shaders rebuild in every start!