i hope i can enjoy the gamplay but its to heavy for my good old gamingpc ........ or maybe the game isnt optimized :/.
even in most lowest setting dlss can't help me this time.
and it feels like 10 fps mostly.
the review based on gameplay experience on 23/11/2024
clearly unoptimized at the moment but now they have the time to polish the game, update there A-life program to have one the best survival game + with the community of modders who are going to push the bound of the game this going to be great
I've played the previous STALKER games. Don't remember much of them due to how long ago they were. BUT i do know i enjoyed them.
Been looking forward to this game for over a decade. Now that it's here I love it.
the atmosphere is phenomel
the graphics are REALLY good
Optimization definitely needed. first time ever i needed to turn on DLSS.
I have an 12900k, 64gb ram, and 4070. At epic settings 40-60fps. with dlss i get 80fps.
the shiny stuff needing dlss to remove the static needs to be fixed
that said its still early on and optimization takes time with the amount of types of hardware so i understand.
The story is pretty good. the interactions with NPCs make me feel like im playing FO games but you can only do so much with story interactions so I don't disqualify the game for that.
I get goosebumps in the game on a regular basis which goes into the immersion. its top tier.
ive been using my A50s with Dolby Atmos EQ enabled and the sound quality is so good.
NOW, the CONs
the animations are incredibly long
the time it takes to bandage after pressing and holding a button is way way to long
in a fight with a bloodsucker, unless you're perfect with aim and very powerful you WILL die very fast and they hit faster than you can heal as the animatioins start over every time it attacks
yes this can be considered a skill issue. but even on the easiest difficulty its impossible to heal while in the middle of a bloodsucker interaction. SO i have decied to avoid them as much as possible and save scum.
which i don't like cause i rather experiance those fights but i honesly belive if the animations were much faster it would be more possible and or if the animations didn't reset after getting hit.
Other than that i love this game and highly recommend it.
I have played all the STALKER games and love the franchise. STALKER 2 is amazing and I want to give it 5 stars but since the 1.1 major update it keeps freezing while compiling shaders and often crashes. Sometimes if I delete the shader cache via the Disk Cleanup tool it will then work, sometimes I have to do that and then restart GOG and it will work, and sometimes I have to restart my PC, sometimes nothing gets it to work. Right now nothing gets it to work so I am leaving this 2 star review, that I wish was a 5 star review.
I have had to uninstall and reinstall STALKER 2 twice since the 1.1 update and now it looks like I will be doing it for a 3rd time.
I had a great time with this game. I was very skeptical that the devs could get a new stalker game "right", but they definitely did. I can tell you this cause I have hundreds of hours across all previous games and their mods. There are certainly things to complain about without considering the afore mentioned techincal difficulties, but lets just say you wont be disatisfied with the game itself as it keept me hooked throughout the 100 hours it took to beat.
The problems that stand out the most are indeed the techincal ones. The specs are really high, graphics settings dont seem to matter to much both in visuals or performance and it feels like optimization has been thown out the window in favor of just having DLSS and FSR. But I would argue the biggest problem is the input lag, which so far seems impossible to fix. This makes it really hard to aim, which is obviously important in a tactical first person shooter. While during the majority of the game its manageble, during some sections it makes the game incredibly frustrating and borderline uplayable. The difficulty during these sections then come entirely not from the gameplay itself, but from the bad performance.
Will this or even can this be fixed by the developers? I don't know, but I do know that I still like this game for what it is right now, and if you are eager to try it I don't think you will be dissapointed!