Honestly one of those times I could excuse the unfinished state. Having one of the lead devs die in a war, the actual war happening, covid and the numerous attacks from russian hackers are quite a series of events to go through
@@aneeshazmaton3358 Yep, it is. russians are mad becouse that's ukrainian made game, and GSC specificly took off russian and if I'm not wrong they blocked the possibility to buy Stalker 2 on russian steam market
that’s not an excuse for a shit game what smoke are you on? you sound like you get bent over by men, it’s a business end of the day it should of been delayed
Vodka does not protect, nor purge radiation, although during the Chernobyl accident the liquidators were all given vodka shots regularly after shifts as it was believed it helps
My brother in law was stationed at the Nuke Plant after it melted down. He told us some Weird, Strange Stories. He died in 1993 of Massive Leukemia from his time stationed there. Looks like a great game and I am going to buy it in Memory of him. Kraseva,
He said roads near the plant had signs posted on the roads- Roll your windows up, Drive fast and DO NOT stop for any reason. They are probably still up. Convicts were brought in , unprotected to dig and try and cover the exposed Nuclear Pile. All higher-ups in the Army and politicians, " Phoned in ", all their orders to the troops, none of them would be on the ground or anywhere near the exposed reactor. He said Signs were put up on all the roads near the plant that said- Roll your windows up, Drive Fast and DO NOT STOP for any reason. He died in the early nineties, of Leukemia after they amputated his leg. He died of Radiation Poisoning. He was just in the Army, in the Wrong Place at the Wrong time. What I can tell you, is anyone who worked or provided security at the plant when it melted down, are no longer with us. I had no idea a popular video game would pop up, 40 years after it happened. I think of him while I am playing the game. Thanks for asking, .
@@DIOSpeedDemon the drive fast is probably to get out of the radiation area as soon as possible. The video game is based on a 1979 Soviet Sci-Fi film with the same title by Andrei Tarkovsky. You may enjoy the film a lot. For some reason, his world building and concepts have really picked up. Another game you should check out is Into The Radius, which is the same concept but in VR.
TIP! At the end of the prologue, when you have to place the scanner for the 3rd time, before you do, drop ALL your equipment. The next cutscene removes all your equipment, but if you drop all your gear you can return and pick it all back up.
I have never played the original, but the way you describe this game - the immersion, the need to really pay attention to your surroundings in a gun fight, the lack of ammo, and feeling the effects of every little improvement, the survival aspects, no hud indicators, etc... this to me sounds like everything I am looking for in FPS shooter. This is going straight to #1 on my wish list! Thank you for this amazing, HONEST review. btw seeing that wall tapestry 8:21 was so surreal, I grew up seeing those all over the place in my childhood.. I don't think I've ever seen those anywhere else in a videogame.
Idk what game he played but mine ran and played excellently....super fun, exactly everything you described above. And more. It's a mini horror game mixed with fallout exploring. The more you look around the better. Hope in soon as you can is my suggestion
From what you described I'd recommend going for the metro series next. Ex-devs of the same game inspired by it so they turned it into a linear, russian game(no crafting except the 3rd installment, but doubles the immersion and horror). Highly suggested
Back in 2006 in Poland, my best friends older brother was installing this game on his pc one day and we spent like a whole week just watching him play. Then I got a little order and played it on my own. I'm pretty sure I got PTSD from encountering the bloodsucker in one of the underground structures because I jumped up and screamed when I saw the first bloodsucker in stalker 2 the same way I did when I played stalker SoC back in the late 2000s. They absolutely nailed the atmosphere in this game and I'm happy they didn't compromise on anything, so far this feels like a true successor. Clunkiness and buggies of it all is part of the franchise :)
"I'm happy they didn't compromise on anything" bro why lie about playing the originals if you're going say something as dumb as that straight afterwards. There is no A-life system.
Naw, it's the first time you run into a Controller that causes PTSD. Looks like I'm safe, but... what's that high-pitched tone? Is the audio glitching or- AAAAAHHHH!
The bloodsucker you meet for the first time after you get the documents in Agroprom and need to go underground, the first time I played that the roar made me shit my pants and close the game HAHAHA.
@orestesbastos YESSSS!!! THATS THE ONE. Somehow I skipped an hopped around the area when hearing the noises and then right as I turn into one of the doorways bro covered up my whole screen and I literally jumped out of my seat and fell backwards screaming like a baby
The "stuck leaning" bug you're experiencing is a feature not a bug. So in the controls for leaning the default selection is "Toggle and Hold." If you tap the lean key while aiming Scif will continue to lean until you ADS and tap or hold lean again even while not ADS. I find it very helpful since I'm using a controller to play.
Thanks for the review! I played the first STALKER when it came out. I remember it being janky, buggy and unstable. It ran horrendously on my PC at the time, giving 20-30 FPS at a resolution of 1024x768. I also remember playing through the entire game like that and loving it to bits. This is what I expect - a quintessential slav-jank experience with unique feeling of exploration, adventure and survival I won't find anywhere else. Bugs can be fixed, and as long as the soul of the game is there (that seems to be the case) - I will buy it and play it. I am one of those people for whom STALKER scratches a particular itch, something no other game really does.
> I remember it being janky, buggy and unstable BUT WAIT, some of the developers of x-ray engine told in interview he was burned out. How is it not an excuse then? Dude was in a clusterfk
This is a good point. Bugs and performance issues are regularly fixed over time. But fundamentally unfun gameplay or overall... soullessness are problems that are rarely solved. So yeah, ideally, the technical issues and jank would have been ironed out BEFORE selling it, but at least the game sounds like it's only suffering from the fixable sort of problems that are just a matter of time. As a patient person with a huge backlog anyway, waiting for bugfixes and tweaks is hardly a problem at all.
As a veteran player I will say this is one of the toughest starts to a stalker game. I definitely died a LOT in the first 3 hours from situations that were just completely out of my capabilities, or some interesting AI bugs at the beginning of the game that made npc's only aggro me at moments when they usually would in-fight. Frustrating. But baby we are so back.
I felt exactly the same way. Its the hardest start for a stalker game. Especially when you get encounters with (you know the mutant) very early in the game. Its nuts. Im surprised devs didnt hold back. Definitely a work worthy successor. Newcomers are going to be shitting their pants
@@Jake-777-7 What's the problem? Probably he's had long experience in the field of playing video games? This fits the dictionary meaning of "veteran." So a veteran player.
I’m new to the stalker series, but so far everything I’ve experienced in this game bugs included have only added to the awesome time I’m having. As a married father of two in his 30s I’ve been really disappointed with games lately and haven’t been able to find anything worth what little time I have until this.
I feel this. I've been so excited for this game to release. I'm glad with how little it holds your hand. I'm a 28 year old father. Yes there's issues, but I'm having a blast overall.
Day one patch seems like it's improved a lot of the issues I'm seeing reported in reviews. 5 hours in, running it at 1440p on a 3080ti and i7 12700 with most setting on epic and DLSS on balanced and it's been a very solid 60+ fps, with no overly egregious bugs. Gameplay though, it's STALKER through and through, and as a massive fan of the original trilogy this is exactly what I wanted from a STALKER 2
you are so full of crap. this reviewer has played the patch. tell us again how you didn't watch the video and you are here as a corporate cuckold to defend the product of a company that doesn't even know you exist. ya wanker. it's ok if people don't like what you like. it's not a personal attack. if you weren't so insecure, you'd already know that. dumb, dumb.
@shoulderoforion115 i think overall it has to with hardware compatibility. They seem fairly competent, and are pushing patches so soon to make the game better. If they continue to improve it I would expect better frames within a month. For reference I get between 30-75 dlss quality w 3080, 32gb ram, 5950x. Do you have it downloaded on a ssd?
@@shoulderoforion115 "my pc is better than yours" What you present is interesting, I have an EVGA 3060ti and an AMD 5600GT, barely overclocked, graphics at high and some mediums, I'm at 75fps (some fps drops), vertical on, I'm at 1080p, what resolution are you at? what are you calling lowest resolution? I've seen a lot of people complain that they can't play while trying to force a 4k resolution on a system so poorly optimized that it barely runs Tetris, or without updating the drivers.
@DDcasanova 1080p. I actually just got an update for the game and it fixed the game running so terribly! No longer have a problem it just needed a patch! Can comfortably play at high settings with 120fps without the fsr fram generator!
i've played about an hour, the only bug I had was I had to restart the game because the first artifact wasn't spawning in so I couldn't progress. other than that its honestly feels exactly how I wanted it too. I'm not too bothered by bugs, I mean I loved cyberpunk when It first came out and we all know what that was like. if you love the franchise and don't mind putting up with some bugs (and can run the damn thing) then its definitely worth considering now or at least keeping informed on updates.
I am a huge fan of Stalker series, played all of them. I had read original Strugatsky brothers book, later I read fan fiction books as well. And the most cool thing I experienced was real life RP games with airsoft guns. Guys made bar, bases, played real characters, made monster costumes and RP monsters. I remember when I first time stepped in the bar and heard the music from the game I felt sooo in.
@@soluciones11s.a.s81 yeah. In my first game I was a free stalker obviously :) I just tried to survive, no money no experience only pistol and 10 rounds. But you can by a weapon in the bar( your own rifle you gave to barman before the game start). I was looking for artifacts and was hiding from monsters and bandits. But the next game I joined bandits and did old good “gopstop” :) but still ran away from duty and military guys )))
@MegaWizarrd Game is in a much more playable state than Cyberpunk was at launch at least on PC could personally care less though just wanted to support UA devs
2:54 "...recommend wait a little bit." Good advice. I wait a few months for the bugs and fixes to settle out -- which is exactly what you're saying some people may do. Good video. I hope to buy it in early January.
I gotta say that house clearing at 8:04 was smooth. You hit the headlamp for better visibility going inside, checked every corner moving in, and even when you were distracted by the yawning chasm in the floor you still checked the last room before you investigated further.
That's how I always play Fallout games. I disable all the HUD except when hovering over items and my health. I also dislike overhead maps and ESPECIALLY radars that tell you where people are. I also disabled the "listen mode" in Last of Us games. It is more challenging but also WAY more immersive - the number 1 reason I love post-apoc worlds.
Maybe I'm just lucky, but I haven't experienced any critical or even noticeable glitches. Optimization could be better for my RTX 3070, but the game is still playable. The plot is very engaging - I keep thinking about what I’m going to do next in the game when I get home from work. I don’t understand the "bad game" comments. Seriously? Calling it that feels childish and thoughtless, especially given the context.
I totally agree,... this is my first time playing a Stalker game and im hooked, bugs and all. Such a crazy atmosphere and the story is amazing...But i do tell ppl to turn the voices into Ukrainian, the english voice is terrible LOL
2:27 I have also experienced the radio audio glitch and tbh, I’ve never played Stalker so, I thought it was part of the game and immediately started looking around for the dude to have teleported behind me 😅
get ready stalkers! lets lower our gaming standards because forget good performance and a general expectation of quality. lets fork over money for a terribly made game that should've been delayed and play tested.
@@Travis_Scorsese There is no money in QA/play testing anymore. You just release an unfinished product and update it along the way. I miss the 90s/2000s when there were no updates.
@@Travis_Scorsese I mean considering what the dev team went through to get the game ready i'd say they deserve a pass more than most. Plus the actual game seems pretty great, they just need more time to get the bugs patched.
So game came out 20th November. I'm writing this as of 17th December, same year. Also, I appreciate the game being updated constantly and like the guy in the video said, feel sorry for those that tried to play it on release, that being said it has its good points when it works it is smooth. But my god, I don't think I've ever played a game so hard to play, and I don't mean difficulty wise. I have never had to wait so long to load in to a game just to play it. If you thought GTA 5 was bad when that released, oh buddy, you ain't seen nothing. Not to mention when you die it takes an age to reload the game to continue playing, even worse though is most the time you load into a game that looks like a Gary's mod sandbox but with way less detail. Then you've got to wait another 5 minutes whilst the game catches up to whatever URE5 is doing, from what I am aware of, of ye btw if you spawn next to an enemy like that either run like hell or be ready to be stuck in a never ending cycle of long ass respawns. It is extremely frustrating to play. My only other gripe is that randomly my weapons will vanish mid-combat, or the game freezes fully for a minute. Now I could understand this if my PC was on the older side, maybe didn't run too well. But for the most part, it's a pretty damn good pc. I've optimised the game, followed these fixes tutorial videos (very useful btw before I couldn't run the game at all, check them out). Probably my most frustrating game by far. Not to mention I've died 26 times at this point, I would say out of all those deaths, 90% are due to one of the issues from above. I would honestly drop the game, if it wasn't for the fact I do enjoy it. But damn companies have got to stop releasing half-baked games, for a game that's worth £49.99 I would love a finished product. What happened to the days of companies releasing finished products and not an oh my bad we didn't have play testers. We shall use our buyers as guinea pigs instead. It sucks. I wish it was an isolated issue just for me because like I said it's a genuinely fun to play game but all the issues damn, makes me want to drop it as well. If it doesn't improve soon, I might just do that. Fuck playing loading simulator for another 2 years before I finally see the ending. Damn shame.
No it's a 'play it now, enjoy it for the buggy mess it is, then play it again in 2 years once they've ironed out most of the bugs and there are mods for it' game :) Just like the original!
i fucking lost game saves from 3hrs of gameplay an had to start again, so xbox app version is.. mid at best rn, other than that game itself is wjat metro could have been like
Most manufacturers are forced to so recalls and fix issues with their products. Why is the gaming industry allowed to release broken games and request obsured prices at the same time?
Bit of a warning for those playing atm: If you go into your inventory and then to your menu whilst inventory is open to save your game, it WILL cause your game to become unresponsive. I was stuck looking in one direction, couldn't attack, crouch, jump or pull out any weapons and was stuck moving only in one direction up until the moment I opened the menu and closed it again. This then ended up breaking the game entirely and forced me to restart the game. *LUCKILY* my game autosaved before this happened. I'm also on Series X, so, I'm not sure if this is a bug on Series S or PC; but be careful not to do this. You could lose some progression if you haven't manually saved for a bit or autosave hasn't kicked in yet. The one enemy who can turn invisible to walk around you and turn visible once close to attack also has a bug that causes them to *STAY* invisible, making it extremely frustrating to deal with them and kind of makes it look like you're fighting a ghost.
Yeh I lost all my progress no idea why, I manually saved before closing the game down and numerous auto saves, frustrating but the game is so good so it softened the blow a little
Happened to me on PC. I was so confused and thought the game was focusing me to enter a building but then it just kept auto pointing in and out of the door. It didn't happen while in any menus but just getting close to that door and building would cause it to happen . Thank god it was only an outside cabin area with no loot inside. So I reloaded a save from right before going close to that building and avoided that area at all costs. So far it's fine but PC is having a problem with random massive fps drops that I need to shut down the game and reload and go through that long loading screen before the start menu. I have a healthy computer with a 4070 card . But I'm powering through all that cause the game is pretty damn good. It's nothing game breaking for now but knowing it'll all get better as the days pass makes me have hope and keep going. Great game
Played yesterday for 3 hours, didn’t see any gliches, only a FPS drops in the first village. Other than that - the game is superb, atmospheric and immersive! Graphics are astonishing and the Zone feels unforgivable for those who rush or act lightheaded (playing on Veteran difficulty)! I am very happy with this game!
@@Puck_out Yep, unfortunately it is, i have a 3080 and am running it on middle settings in 1080p, probably could go to high with a bit of tweaking. The optimization will get better as patches come out but its not a light game. If you have a low end pc try the older stalker games, they are amazing (especially with a few mods) and run on a toaster.
@@Puck_out I strongly disagree with @matejnovotny8909's statement. I have an RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB of DDR5 RAM running at 6000MT/s, and I'm playing Stalker 2 on an ultra-wide monitor (3440x1440 resolution, roughly 3K) with the game installed on an M.2 SSD. All my settings are maxed out on ULTRA, and I'm consistently getting 54-58 FPS. The only significant FPS drop occurs in the village, where it dips to around 32-38 FPS. However, aside from that, the performance remains stable at 54-58 FPS. The graphics and animations-especially during bad weather events like storms, lightning, and electric anomalies-are absolutely stunning!
There was a moment I loved approaching the sawmill a little further into the game, and it was a perfect example of how the audio can be amazing when it works(key words there) the trees knocked and scraped up against eachother in the wind, anyone who’s spent time in the woods while it’s storming will recognize the sound and it’s so soothing after fighting a handful of bloodsuckers
@@PrimeNPC NPCs commonly attribute the games buggy unoptimized messes to the war in Eastern Europe. Truly clueless 😂 game has been in development for a decade and due to money mismanagement and staff mismanagement took that whole decade to come up with a product that is inferior to the original trilogy in one absolutely major aspect - the A Life is so shit in comparison with a limited range of 100 meters…in a map that’s 60km wide.
@@pavlomorhun It was announced again after several years had been spent working on it. You think they scrapped years of work and started fresh in 2018? The fan boy cope is hilarious
I am almost 10 hours in and haven't even left the first region yet. And I am loving every minute of it. Also I haven't experienced any bugs except for frame drops in the main town of Zalissya. Other than that it's smooth sailing
Hello! As your resident radiation protection technician, some radioactive isotopes, mainly those insoluble like metals, can in fact pass through the body through natural processes like pee and poop if inhaled or ingested. Gamma radiation is more like a radio-wave, it kind of just goes through you, where beta and alpha radiation are actual particles. Those ones can pass through. Alpha is less likely to pass due to its size. Causes a lot of damage too. Just thought I’d share!
I bought the first game back when it came out. It was the second game I bought on Steam(the first being CS:S). From that first game, I've been hooked on the series. Still have my physical copy of Clear Sky. I've sunk about 25 hours into the new game and it's everything I'd hoped it would be! Would love some better optimization, but I remember the old games were not well optimized.
Best review on the internet so far. For the newcomers, all STALKER games are buggy, that’s just the way it is. I won’t even get into mods. If you haven’t played any STALKER game before, you’ll struggle a lot at the beginning. But for veterans, it’s just too easy, tons of loot, crazy amounts of healing, etc. It’s not a 100% survival mode. Whether you play on Veteran or Easy, both feel like Easy mode. If you’re looking for a real challenge, wait for mods or play STALKER GAMMA. They’ve kept so much of the “old-school” vibe but also catered to newcomers. Peace!👍
I love the Bethesda-style quick save system. Being able to save before jumping off a radio tower or shooting a random NPC by pressing F5 is just awesome. Every single player game should implement this.
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but most PC shooters had quick saves since as early as late 80s, and that was the standard until publishers started prioritizing consoles.
@@BasedBebswell, Bethesda have been about for longer than a decade 🤣 for sure they didn't invent quick saves, but it also wasn't invented 10 yesr ago 🤣
If this can bring back that first time I played fallout 3 i'll be happy af. That was the first time I completely immersed myself in a world + the environmental storytelling was great
If you have the gear to run it good enough, this is a game you can get lost in. The typical “4 hours go by when you thought it was 30 minutes” vibe. It drips with atmosphere. As a fan since SoC’s release in 07, I am so pleased.
I am about five hours in and it really is a STALKER game. A really damn good one as well. It feels a bit harder than previous titles but it's not in any way unbalanced or "unfair". If you get your ass handed to you at a location, maybe gear up a bit more and return at a later time idk. I haven't even encountered too many bugs at this point. The radio static disappearing I did witness and some weird door physics but nothing too bad yet. The performance is the main negative for sure as I get a barely acceptable experience with my 3070Ti and Ryzen 5600X both overclocked to oblivion. I am eager to see what the future brings for STALKER!
This game is kinda ass. yeah it looks good but, the ai is so bad compared to the last games, they only added like 9 kinds of mutants, like 6 different anomalies, like 9 artifacts. the previous games have so much more little details. the best way to play stalker is the gamma mod.
This game is incredible, I’m 20hours in and barely touched surface it seems. Bugs and performance aside, this is an immersive experience like no other honestly. To think I actually didn’t like it during the prolog, but once I got to the lesser zone I got sucked in. Playing it on Xbox series X and haven’t had tooo many bugs, nothing game breaking honestly.
Jumping in blind here can’t wait. Never got to play the 1st one. Didn’t even know about it until stalker 2 promos. New favorite game, havnt even played it yet.
3:57 yes, yes it does. not enough to make any kind of difference but it does help. if your blood is thinner there are less things for the rays to fuck up. again wont have any real effect but it does help
Maybe it's a skill issue, maybe a dead zone issue with the analog sticks, but man I am ASS at gunplay in this game. That and I wish repairing equipment was a bit cheaper or guns didn't degrade as quick. Beyond that game is gold, atmosphere is incredible. Also, tip for new players that are still early looking to get a good gun, get to the stash at the water tower north of the first safe zone (mission from bartender will take you there so two birds), there is a 100% health rifle with a scope, it's a game changer.
if its like what people are saying, that there currently is no A-Life system in the game, then it was not worth the wait, because then it can not be considered a proper stalker game. currently downloading so we'll see. but the A-life system is what made the previous games so unique compared to other open world shooter games. for those that don't know the A-Life system in the stalker games was a persistent AI system. even if you could not see a NPC on the other side of the map, that NPC was still being simulated in the background, it was not being rendered. but it was being simulated. there are very few scripted events in the original stalker games when you are in the open world. NPC squads of all factions are moving around the open world, they have the same needs as player characters in terms of food and water, they can trade with each other. so to fulfill their needs, they would go looking for food, or ways to make money, they would even attempt to hunt artifacts (they would die most times, but its besides the point) packs of mutant dogs would roam around hunting for food. this caused encounters to be very dynamic. as you could run into NPC's who were in the middle of a patrol, or scavving a location, or running from a pack of mutants. you could walk into a location, find a group of friendly scavs, and think this is a good place to stay during the night, and then you'd wake up in the middle of a gunfight because another group of hostile NPC's on a patrol, are now fighting the friendly scavs you were hanging out with. and it would not be just a scripted encounter that got spawned in when the player moved into a trigger box, they were fully dynamic encounters. there are allot of videos that show, and allot of people saying this system is completely absent in STALKER 2. and that lots of evens seem to be just scripted events that spawn in when the player comes within a certain distance. this is really sad.
Regardless of it being scripted or not unless you are slow and watch a whole ass series on the game before playing it the encounters will still be new and random to you you could obviously argue that it makes replays worse but the game is massive so good luck remembering all the scripted little events
I actually saw a developer video that was saying how the npcs are always doing their thing I. The world and you could follow them across the maps watching as they did things. So I think it is in there.
@@carrot6788 No if or but. First Stalker games are old and very old. Janky and etc. Still they had unique features. AI Life was a very cool thing. This feature clearly adds a lot to the game. For example we can use Hogwarts Legacy as example. Whole castle area had a large amount scripted stuff so it would take a lot of time to see most of them. From my experience Hogwarts Legacy probably has most scripted stuff in the game. I doubt Stalker 2 has large amount of scripter unique things. NPC's already have a small amount of voice lines and interactions in the world. You won't experience the same thing you saw in older STALKER games. People moded the whole thing to a degree where NPC's reported to things happening around the Zone. Like "I hear gunshots around" or "Bandits are attacking". Point is you could do nothing and the world would live, move and change. From what I see new system is far away from original Stalker and scripted stuff is limited. You describe this game like it's Witcher 3. Massive, polished and will take you over 100 hours. It's ok until they do more and fix things.
I'm ready to return to the zone with all of its slav jank. And the best part, when the devs and modders iron out the kinks, it'll be even better. CHEEKI BREEKI my friends...
First time in awhile I've watched a "Before You Buy" from gameranx. I always thought these videos were the most informative when it came to games I thought about getting and that hasn't seemed to change. Very cool, thank you
Honestly I have learned that the best way to play any single player game is wait for 1-2 years after release when all bugs have been fixed and all DLC are out in a discounted bundle. Buy the whole bundle at like 50% or less when on sale. There is no rush to buy any new game anymore for me, I have like 50 games i bought I need to work through still.....
If you want good games, you buy good games at the start or shortly after. Naturally, any product becomes obsolete, even intellectual property. I can't blame you for that. But still, everything costs money, any human labor does. there is no need to avoid this fact.
@@yakovlevskiy What are you even talking about? Do you think games become worse the longer you wait to buy it? Who said it didn't cost money? Are you dumb?
@@sterlingarcher2366 I've got a lapboard thingy with a wireless mouse and keyboard, so I can slouch on the couch, play on my TV and actually hit stuff.
Xbox X version. 3 hours in. atmosphere is great, gamepad gameplay is great, graphics are great. really minor issues, like some FPS drops and got stuck in a car once, that I wasn't supposed to get into.
@@dontworrybehappy1677 I mean it’s really hard to release something for so many systems broski like there’s so many different builds and pc kits out there u have to think about so many different factores its crazy so yeah I can’t blame developers at all
Three hours into the game, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It feels like the classic STALKER games but with upgraded graphics. I do miss the Russian-English accents of the NPCs. The game runs well on my R5 7600X and RTX 4060, though I’ve noticed some frame drops in certain areas. Overall, it’s an amazing experience that never feels boring the more I play, the more I enjoy it. I’m looking forward to the developers optimizing the game further.
There's exploit which currently is not fixed yet and allows you to break into Prypiat before main story quest gives you access to the city. Get to the Yaniv station (google the map of zone to see where it is) At Yaniv station you need to attack guardians being INSIDE station building When alarm triggered, all doors will shut immidiately, leaving you inside the station (all NPCs inside will become enemies but will not attack you) Go to the door which leads to the Jupiter plant and press E really fast many times With some luck there will appear option to just open it and it will actually open After that you need to RUN - because guards will shoot at you This probably will breake the game a little bit, and i don't know is it possible to trigger main story quest somewhere in the city, or you'll be forced to return back And probably there's really no point of breaking into the city early, but at least it's possible to do if you want to
Jeez, I remember buying the metal boxed edition of the OG back in the day, came out of nowhere from an unheard of studio and just blew everyone away! I think for me what made it so special was that I was used to FPS games like Quake at the time, unlimited ammo and just a few enemies but this was a whole new world, literally. You were constantly on edge from the title screen to the "exit game" menu option, you were always aware of how much ammo, food and clothing every second worried you'd be cuaght somewhere by something and not be able to survive. I rarely buy anything "zero day", I almost always wait for the first Steam sale on any new game, gives the devs time to patch out the worst bugs. It;s been a few years wait already so I think I can wait 3-6 months. Looks good, looks classic and I can't wait to get in there but when it's more stable.
Also depends on if you can handle bugs and such. If you only grew up on the past 10 years of games, you’ll hate stalker 2. If your like me, who grew up over 20 years of games, this is par for the course. Also, there’s competition in finding the most bugs lol.
My first impressions after about 5 hours of gameplay (on a 3060 RTX) is that it is running flawlessly, has realistic aspects similar to modern war games but has the welcome but unrealistic healing options. The game environment is as dangerous as content providers and reviewers have stated, and I am playing on Stalker difficulty level for good reason. The youtubers have also correctly identified the lack of hand-holding, though the tutorials are sufficient. I am finding locating caches to be a bit frustrating, but after a few hours, you get the knack and understanding finding the goodies is hard on your character's health and medical supplies... standing in a radioactive swamp, for example. Also, it's frustrating to try and heal yourself and hear enemies organizing against you. Very realistic. Overall, this game was worth the wait and I'm so happy I have a computer good enough to run it. Hats off to the devs.
The developers lied about A-life being in the game and now they're doing damage control on discord, lying more! No dynamic shadows on torches? GSC can't replicate a feature from 2007!? No double crouch. Not a single good idea introduced by the modding community in almost 20 years incorporated into the game. I pre-ordered on steam and have already refunded. The only way this week could get more disappointing is if somebody I knew DIED. That is how bad STALKER 2 is. I finished SoC and CoP this week (again) to get myself hyped for the launch. What a let down!
@ghost-rv9vy you sounds like a real hating ass mf fr. Also comparing the disappointment you experience with the state of the game at release to one of your friends dying makes you sound like a sociopath so check yourself bro.
Honestly one of those times I could excuse the unfinished state. Having one of the lead devs die in a war, the actual war happening, covid and the numerous attacks from russian hackers are quite a series of events to go through
damn i didnt know all that, glad they pushed through tho hard times make hard men hard men make good game
Man is that true? If so, poor guys and kudos to them for sticking with it
@@aneeshazmaton3358yes it's true you xan search documentary film about development that film is a memory to devs who died due to russian invasion
@@aneeshazmaton3358 Yep, it is. russians are mad becouse that's ukrainian made game, and GSC specificly took off russian and if I'm not wrong they blocked the possibility to buy Stalker 2 on russian steam market
that’s not an excuse for a shit game what smoke are you on? you sound like you get bent over by men, it’s a business end of the day it should of been delayed
Vodka does not protect, nor purge radiation, although during the Chernobyl accident the liquidators were all given vodka shots regularly after shifts as it was believed it helps
Might be wrong, but I think somewhere in one of the earlier stalkers or a mod for them that they mentioned mixing antiradiation drugs into vodka.
in theory if you drink alcohol your body is dehydrated .it helps with getting in less radiation
In fact, it was vodka with iodine mixed into it. It specifically stopped iodine-131 from entering your body
Sometimes helping a nervous mind is equaly as important as helping your body
3.6 Roentgen... not great, not terrible.
Needs optimization for sure but the gameplay is solid imo
exactly
Unplayable on console, we have non stop joystick drift since the deadzone of the joysticks is set to 0 and we cant change it yet...
put scaling method on tsr or dlss then put on frame gen
@@ni7aa425 same issue with pc controller.
@@Scuba7400 thats called the game needing a crutch and its a giant red flag the game is unoptimized.
My brother in law was stationed at the Nuke Plant after it melted down. He told us some Weird, Strange Stories. He died in 1993 of Massive Leukemia from his time stationed there. Looks like a great game and I am going to buy it in Memory of him. Kraseva,
What were some of the stories
He said roads near the plant had signs posted on the roads- Roll your windows up, Drive fast and DO NOT stop for any reason. They are probably still up. Convicts were brought in , unprotected to dig and try and cover the exposed Nuclear Pile. All higher-ups in the Army and politicians, " Phoned in ", all their orders to the troops, none of them would be on the ground or anywhere near the exposed reactor. He said Signs were put up on all the roads near the plant that said- Roll your windows up, Drive Fast and DO NOT STOP for any reason. He died in the early nineties, of Leukemia after they amputated his leg. He died of Radiation Poisoning. He was just in the Army, in the Wrong Place at the Wrong time. What I can tell you, is anyone who worked or provided security at the plant when it melted down, are no longer with us. I had no idea a popular video game would pop up, 40 years after it happened. I think of him while I am playing the game. Thanks for asking, .
@@DIOSpeedDemon the drive fast is probably to get out of the radiation area as soon as possible.
The video game is based on a 1979 Soviet Sci-Fi film with the same title by Andrei Tarkovsky. You may enjoy the film a lot. For some reason, his world building and concepts have really picked up. Another game you should check out is Into The Radius, which is the same concept but in VR.
@@londontrack6099 Thank you, I will check them out, thanks for the advice on any good games, I love sandbox exploring games.
Was he stationed in chernobyl?
TIP! At the end of the prologue, when you have to place the scanner for the 3rd time, before you do, drop ALL your equipment. The next cutscene removes all your equipment, but if you drop all your gear you can return and pick it all back up.
Im about 2 hours in but now I want to restart just to do that and sell all those guns and whatnot lol
Wish I saw this comment sooner 😂
That are some Clear Sky moves there
That are some Clear Sky moves there
I love comments like these 🙏🏾
Sometimes, a guy in a ghillie suit domes you
sometimes, u walk in the woods and a guy in a ghillie suit domes you
@@maze8974 rofl* I was scrolling down to find these comments
Sometimes you'll be walking in the woods and a guy in a ghillie suit you didn't even see just domes you.
DOMES you
Why did he say this twice 😂
I have never played the original, but the way you describe this game - the immersion, the need to really pay attention to your surroundings in a gun fight, the lack of ammo, and feeling the effects of every little improvement, the survival aspects, no hud indicators, etc... this to me sounds like everything I am looking for in FPS shooter. This is going straight to #1 on my wish list! Thank you for this amazing, HONEST review.
btw seeing that wall tapestry 8:21 was so surreal, I grew up seeing those all over the place in my childhood.. I don't think I've ever seen those anywhere else in a videogame.
Maybe go play the original, they are on sale.
Idk what game he played but mine ran and played excellently....super fun, exactly everything you described above. And more. It's a mini horror game mixed with fallout exploring. The more you look around the better. Hope in soon as you can is my suggestion
From what you described I'd recommend going for the metro series next. Ex-devs of the same game inspired by it so they turned it into a linear, russian game(no crafting except the 3rd installment, but doubles the immersion and horror). Highly suggested
My childhood
In the originals there is no lack of ammo haha, I think I had over 6000 rounds of ak ammo at one point
Back in 2006 in Poland, my best friends older brother was installing this game on his pc one day and we spent like a whole week just watching him play. Then I got a little order and played it on my own. I'm pretty sure I got PTSD from encountering the bloodsucker in one of the underground structures because I jumped up and screamed when I saw the first bloodsucker in stalker 2 the same way I did when I played stalker SoC back in the late 2000s. They absolutely nailed the atmosphere in this game and I'm happy they didn't compromise on anything, so far this feels like a true successor. Clunkiness and buggies of it all is part of the franchise :)
"I'm happy they didn't compromise on anything" bro why lie about playing the originals if you're going say something as dumb as that straight afterwards. There is no A-life system.
Naw, it's the first time you run into a Controller that causes PTSD.
Looks like I'm safe, but... what's that high-pitched tone? Is the audio glitching or- AAAAAHHHH!
@@ghost-rv9vy A-Life is literally in Stalker 2. devs confirmed. the spawns are apparently bugged atm though .
The bloodsucker you meet for the first time after you get the documents in Agroprom and need to go underground, the first time I played that the roar made me shit my pants and close the game HAHAHA.
@orestesbastos YESSSS!!! THATS THE ONE. Somehow I skipped an hopped around the area when hearing the noises and then right as I turn into one of the doorways bro covered up my whole screen and I literally jumped out of my seat and fell backwards screaming like a baby
Vodka can get rid off anything; radiation, problems, depression, wife, family, etc. i mean anything hahahahah
It even got rid of my alcoholism
Forgot about life imo
@@LucaEnzothe taste of it probably would
Enjoy the world wiht guitar 😂
Memories, don't forget about memories.
9:40, enemies so good they dome you twice lol
Thought I was having a stroke lol. Good ol editing
It will be patched out.
Dome?
@@shadowsdie2wice Another way of saying headshot. Just saying headshot isn't cool anymore apparently.
@@dongyschlontong-ck5xg I mean it's been a saying for quite awhile lol, especially if you've played rust
RIP:
Volodymyr Anatoliyovych Yezhov
1981-2022
Same guy associated with the metro games?
@@Slippery-Hand no.
Vladimir 💅
Did he know you?
@@Slippery-HandOne of the lead developers who died at war
The "stuck leaning" bug you're experiencing is a feature not a bug.
So in the controls for leaning the default selection is "Toggle and Hold." If you tap the lean key while aiming Scif will continue to lean until you ADS and tap or hold lean again even while not ADS. I find it very helpful since I'm using a controller to play.
If he can't stop, then ye, he's stuck. Just because there's also a feature doesn't mean there isn't also a bug.
Even tho I bought the game already I still watch the Before You Buy from gameranx
I only watch the Flacon videos.
Did they patched smth already ?
Same. Watching this while the game downloads lol
I do that every time lol
Enjoy the bugs on day 1.
Thanks for the review!
I played the first STALKER when it came out. I remember it being janky, buggy and unstable. It ran horrendously on my PC at the time, giving 20-30 FPS at a resolution of 1024x768. I also remember playing through the entire game like that and loving it to bits.
This is what I expect - a quintessential slav-jank experience with unique feeling of exploration, adventure and survival I won't find anywhere else. Bugs can be fixed, and as long as the soul of the game is there (that seems to be the case) - I will buy it and play it. I am one of those people for whom STALKER scratches a particular itch, something no other game really does.
> I remember it being janky, buggy and unstable
BUT WAIT, some of the developers of x-ray engine told in interview he was burned out. How is it not an excuse then? Dude was in a clusterfk
its there. the game is awesome. I have a tearing issue but other than that nothing crazy.
This is a good point. Bugs and performance issues are regularly fixed over time. But fundamentally unfun gameplay or overall... soullessness are problems that are rarely solved.
So yeah, ideally, the technical issues and jank would have been ironed out BEFORE selling it, but at least the game sounds like it's only suffering from the fixable sort of problems that are just a matter of time. As a patient person with a huge backlog anyway, waiting for bugfixes and tweaks is hardly a problem at all.
I can't wait to play this game when it isn't $100+
As a veteran player I will say this is one of the toughest starts to a stalker game. I definitely died a LOT in the first 3 hours from situations that were just completely out of my capabilities, or some interesting AI bugs at the beginning of the game that made npc's only aggro me at moments when they usually would in-fight. Frustrating. But baby we are so back.
I felt exactly the same way. Its the hardest start for a stalker game. Especially when you get encounters with (you know the mutant) very early in the game. Its nuts. Im surprised devs didnt hold back. Definitely a work worthy successor. Newcomers are going to be shitting their pants
These are not bugs, buddy. There is no A-life system im this game, it's a feature, not a bug!
Stop calling yourself a veteran. You play video games. You are not a veteran just because you play video games.
@@Jake-777-7 What's the problem? Probably he's had long experience in the field of playing video games? This fits the dictionary meaning of "veteran." So a veteran player.
@@freda7961 thats exactly what he meant. The other guy is just high or something.
I’m new to the stalker series, but so far everything I’ve experienced in this game bugs included have only added to the awesome time I’m having. As a married father of two in his 30s I’ve been really disappointed with games lately and haven’t been able to find anything worth what little time I have until this.
I feel this. I've been so excited for this game to release. I'm glad with how little it holds your hand. I'm a 28 year old father.
Yes there's issues, but I'm having a blast overall.
Aye thanks, gives me hope. I’ve been trying to find an actual good game with the little time I got and just keep getting disappointed.
As a married father of two in his 30s who's been also really disappointed with games lately I find your comment very useful. Added to wishlist :D
Same boat big dawg.
Cheers 🤝🏽
Day one patch seems like it's improved a lot of the issues I'm seeing reported in reviews. 5 hours in, running it at 1440p on a 3080ti and i7 12700 with most setting on epic and DLSS on balanced and it's been a very solid 60+ fps, with no overly egregious bugs. Gameplay though, it's STALKER through and through, and as a massive fan of the original trilogy this is exactly what I wanted from a STALKER 2
you are so full of crap.
this reviewer has played the patch.
tell us again how you didn't watch the video and you are here as a corporate cuckold to defend the product of a company that doesn't even know you exist. ya wanker.
it's ok if people don't like what you like. it's not a personal attack. if you weren't so insecure, you'd already know that. dumb, dumb.
@shoulderoforion115 i think overall it has to with hardware compatibility. They seem fairly competent, and are pushing patches so soon to make the game better. If they continue to improve it I would expect better frames within a month. For reference I get between 30-75 dlss quality w 3080, 32gb ram, 5950x. Do you have it downloaded on a ssd?
@@shoulderoforion115 "my pc is better than yours" What you present is interesting, I have an EVGA 3060ti and an AMD 5600GT, barely overclocked, graphics at high and some mediums, I'm at 75fps (some fps drops), vertical on, I'm at 1080p, what resolution are you at? what are you calling lowest resolution? I've seen a lot of people complain that they can't play while trying to force a 4k resolution on a system so poorly optimized that it barely runs Tetris, or without updating the drivers.
@DDcasanova 1080p. I actually just got an update for the game and it fixed the game running so terribly! No longer have a problem it just needed a patch! Can comfortably play at high settings with 120fps without the fsr fram generator!
4080 here everything on max only issue I have is when I load into a save it takes an absurd time for everything to load in if I’m outside.
i've played about an hour, the only bug I had was I had to restart the game because the first artifact wasn't spawning in so I couldn't progress. other than that its honestly feels exactly how I wanted it too. I'm not too bothered by bugs, I mean I loved cyberpunk when It first came out and we all know what that was like.
if you love the franchise and don't mind putting up with some bugs (and can run the damn thing) then its definitely worth considering now or at least keeping informed on updates.
I just had the same thing happen to me on PC submitted a bug report on their website
Could you not load a previous save? I save often in every game because you never know.
"The only bug I had was a gamebreaking bug at the start" the ONLY, lmao 😂
@@ColdFear6666well he did say only. so?
@ I did multiple times, didn’t fix it until I restarted the game, I even started a new save and that didn’t even help.
I am a huge fan of Stalker series, played all of them. I had read original Strugatsky brothers book, later I read fan fiction books as well. And the most cool thing I experienced was real life RP games with airsoft guns. Guys made bar, bases, played real characters, made monster costumes and RP monsters. I remember when I first time stepped in the bar and heard the music from the game I felt sooo in.
That sounds really cool
Holy shit man that Airsoft experience sounds dope!
@@soluciones11s.a.s81 yeah. In my first game I was a free stalker obviously :) I just tried to survive, no money no experience only pistol and 10 rounds. But you can by a weapon in the bar( your own rifle you gave to barman before the game start). I was looking for artifacts and was hiding from monsters and bandits.
But the next game I joined bandits and did old good “gopstop” :) but still ran away from duty and military guys )))
@@Toje87 which country?
dude. dope. as. fuck.
7:36 The grenade spam would probably bring back memories for those who played the COD World At War campaign on veteran…
Que the WaW flashbacks 🫠
Dude. I just got over that 2 weeks ago. I've been suffering through that for 15 years. Now it is all back. Thanks.
@ I decided to give veteran a try a week ago and I haven’t played it since because I’m stuck on Blowtorch & Corkscrew! 😭
7 hours livestream, 0 crashes, only minor bugs. But beautiful world, great story, interesting characters.
Console or Pc?
If so than good. Kinda expected cyberpunk like launch (im from ua so i can preemptively shit on our developers:3 )
@MegaWizarrd Game is in a much more playable state than Cyberpunk was at launch at least on PC could personally care less though just wanted to support UA devs
12 hours
12 bugs
Corrupted save
T-pose characters, bodies cut in half walking
Falling through the world on saves
PC
@ eh, 12 bugs in 12 hours is not that bad, i expected it to be infested like Asmons house tbh
Liking that this one is in widescreen! Also, getting domed by a guy in a ghillie suit TWICE (9:41) is a vibe :)
2:54 "...recommend wait a little bit." Good advice. I wait a few months for the bugs and fixes to settle out -- which is exactly what you're saying some people may do. Good video. I hope to buy it in early January.
I have been playing since day one on Series X, no issues at all
The context of the game’s development has to be considered. It’s a miracle it got finished period.
The detail of the "white noise" present on screen as if the video sensor is subjected to radiation is an awesome attention to details!
Are your eyes a video sensor in a camera? It's stupid.
@@ghost-rv9vyУ тебя здоровье измеряется в единицах? Это глупо.
good thing it plays well on console
@@redflame300😂😂😂
@@ghost-rv9vy LCD's experience visual artifacting when exposed to high amounts of radiation.
You're stupid.
I gotta say that house clearing at 8:04 was smooth. You hit the headlamp for better visibility going inside, checked every corner moving in, and even when you were distracted by the yawning chasm in the floor you still checked the last room before you investigated further.
Do yourself a favor and disable the aiming reticle. It adds a lot to the immersion, and makes it a little bit more challenging
That's how I always play Fallout games. I disable all the HUD except when hovering over items and my health. I also dislike overhead maps and ESPECIALLY radars that tell you where people are. I also disabled the "listen mode" in Last of Us games. It is more challenging but also WAY more immersive - the number 1 reason I love post-apoc worlds.
Do yourself a favor and play your way, I'll do the same
First thing i did after launching game, looks so much better
@@gsimon123listen mode in TLOU kills the entire game,real ones know to turn it off asap.
What kind of shit advice even is this
Maybe I'm just lucky, but I haven't experienced any critical or even noticeable glitches. Optimization could be better for my RTX 3070, but the game is still playable. The plot is very engaging - I keep thinking about what I’m going to do next in the game when I get home from work. I don’t understand the "bad game" comments. Seriously? Calling it that feels childish and thoughtless, especially given the context.
I totally agree,... this is my first time playing a Stalker game and im hooked, bugs and all. Such a crazy atmosphere and the story is amazing...But i do tell ppl to turn the voices into Ukrainian, the english voice is terrible LOL
2:27 I have also experienced the radio audio glitch and tbh, I’ve never played Stalker so, I thought it was part of the game and immediately started looking around for the dude to have teleported behind me 😅
Who up gamin their ranx rn?
Hella ranx gamed rn
rn up ranked games
Reset my Ranx just so I could game them again 🫡
Ranxed mine 20 mins ago
Huh?
Get ready Stalkers! Its time I hope to see you in the zone. Remember these aren't glitches or bugs theyre anomalies.
Beyond excited.
If only it not being able to run good on my 4070 super was a glitch 🙄 they need to fix this shit i was so excited
Nah this game runs like crap
get ready stalkers! lets lower our gaming standards because forget good performance and a general expectation of quality. lets fork over money for a terribly made game that should've been delayed and play tested.
@@Travis_Scorsese There is no money in QA/play testing anymore. You just release an unfinished product and update it along the way. I miss the 90s/2000s when there were no updates.
@@Travis_Scorsese I mean considering what the dev team went through to get the game ready i'd say they deserve a pass more than most. Plus the actual game seems pretty great, they just need more time to get the bugs patched.
So game came out 20th November. I'm writing this as of 17th December, same year. Also, I appreciate the game being updated constantly and like the guy in the video said, feel sorry for those that tried to play it on release, that being said it has its good points when it works it is smooth. But my god, I don't think I've ever played a game so hard to play, and I don't mean difficulty wise. I have never had to wait so long to load in to a game just to play it. If you thought GTA 5 was bad when that released, oh buddy, you ain't seen nothing. Not to mention when you die it takes an age to reload the game to continue playing, even worse though is most the time you load into a game that looks like a Gary's mod sandbox but with way less detail. Then you've got to wait another 5 minutes whilst the game catches up to whatever URE5 is doing, from what I am aware of, of ye btw if you spawn next to an enemy like that either run like hell or be ready to be stuck in a never ending cycle of long ass respawns. It is extremely frustrating to play. My only other gripe is that randomly my weapons will vanish mid-combat, or the game freezes fully for a minute. Now I could understand this if my PC was on the older side, maybe didn't run too well. But for the most part, it's a pretty damn good pc. I've optimised the game, followed these fixes tutorial videos (very useful btw before I couldn't run the game at all, check them out). Probably my most frustrating game by far. Not to mention I've died 26 times at this point, I would say out of all those deaths, 90% are due to one of the issues from above. I would honestly drop the game, if it wasn't for the fact I do enjoy it. But damn companies have got to stop releasing half-baked games, for a game that's worth £49.99 I would love a finished product. What happened to the days of companies releasing finished products and not an oh my bad we didn't have play testers. We shall use our buyers as guinea pigs instead. It sucks. I wish it was an isolated issue just for me because like I said it's a genuinely fun to play game but all the issues damn, makes me want to drop it as well. If it doesn't improve soon, I might just do that. Fuck playing loading simulator for another 2 years before I finally see the ending. Damn shame.
Make that 27 -_-
Update they have fixed it. Slightly.
Sounds like it's a "wait a month or two for patches" type of game. Look really cool though!
Literally any PC game these days trash optimization is like a new must for PC games
more like a year
shewt its wait a year or two and get it 50-75% off for any game nowadays.
No it's a 'play it now, enjoy it for the buggy mess it is, then play it again in 2 years once they've ironed out most of the bugs and there are mods for it' game :) Just like the original!
I've played for 10 hours straight there's a couple bugs but none game breaking
As Ukrainian i feel bad that you can't experience ukr voice acting. It's so freaking good. Besides bugs and first "mission" game feel so good 😂
I think everyone is saying the voice acting is terrible, and best to just leave native language with english subtitles. That's how i'll play anyway.
That's the only good way to play, have the native language with subtitles. Can't wait to try it
It's so hard to be looting and playing fast and trying to read the subtitles at the same time tho - I found it hard to follow what was going on :(
@@Shadowdash66XThat's how I played the Metro series.
I'm playing the game with Ukrainian voices and English subtitles, it's the way to go, tbh.
game is great tbh
I hope it's fixed soon. I've already had to restart the game four times because of hard crashes and problems with the UI that just will not go away.
@@2Guys1ControllerShow Its not a STALKER game if you don't need to save constantly from fear fear of bugs.
i fucking lost game saves from 3hrs of gameplay an had to start again, so xbox app version is.. mid at best rn, other than that game itself is wjat metro could have been like
this game is very unoptimized, they need to fix that and it'll be playable. im on a 3080, 5800X3D which should be able to run this in a good state.
Nope
Most manufacturers are forced to so recalls and fix issues with their products. Why is the gaming industry allowed to release broken games and request obsured prices at the same time?
Bit of a warning for those playing atm: If you go into your inventory and then to your menu whilst inventory is open to save your game, it WILL cause your game to become unresponsive. I was stuck looking in one direction, couldn't attack, crouch, jump or pull out any weapons and was stuck moving only in one direction up until the moment I opened the menu and closed it again. This then ended up breaking the game entirely and forced me to restart the game. *LUCKILY* my game autosaved before this happened. I'm also on Series X, so, I'm not sure if this is a bug on Series S or PC; but be careful not to do this. You could lose some progression if you haven't manually saved for a bit or autosave hasn't kicked in yet. The one enemy who can turn invisible to walk around you and turn visible once close to attack also has a bug that causes them to *STAY* invisible, making it extremely frustrating to deal with them and kind of makes it look like you're fighting a ghost.
Xbox problem only
Thanks for the heads up 👍
Yeh I lost all my progress no idea why, I manually saved before closing the game down and numerous auto saves, frustrating but the game is so good so it softened the blow a little
Happened to me on PC. I was so confused and thought the game was focusing me to enter a building but then it just kept auto pointing in and out of the door. It didn't happen while in any menus but just getting close to that door and building would cause it to happen . Thank god it was only an outside cabin area with no loot inside. So I reloaded a save from right before going close to that building and avoided that area at all costs. So far it's fine but PC is having a problem with random massive fps drops that I need to shut down the game and reload and go through that long loading screen before the start menu. I have a healthy computer with a 4070 card . But I'm powering through all that cause the game is pretty damn good. It's nothing game breaking for now but knowing it'll all get better as the days pass makes me have hope and keep going. Great game
@GrimWarJeff your original comment said xbox series x. Now your talking about being on pc? Lol sounds like you're just a bot commenter.
The Bloodsucker in the intro is such a Stalker way of filtering those thinking they are ready for the hardest difficulty.
Killed him on my first try. Pro tip: Jump
Played yesterday for 3 hours, didn’t see any gliches, only a FPS drops in the first village. Other than that - the game is superb, atmospheric and immersive! Graphics are astonishing and the Zone feels unforgivable for those who rush or act lightheaded (playing on Veteran difficulty)! I am very happy with this game!
Is it hard on the graphics?
@@Puck_out Yep, unfortunately it is, i have a 3080 and am running it on middle settings in 1080p, probably could go to high with a bit of tweaking. The optimization will get better as patches come out but its not a light game. If you have a low end pc try the older stalker games, they are amazing (especially with a few mods) and run on a toaster.
How do you pick up the fire attract in the cave behind where you save that guy who was capture due to gambling debt?
@@matejnovotny8909 Thx bud!
@@Puck_out I strongly disagree with @matejnovotny8909's statement. I have an RTX 3080, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB of DDR5 RAM running at 6000MT/s, and I'm playing Stalker 2 on an ultra-wide monitor (3440x1440 resolution, roughly 3K) with the game installed on an M.2 SSD.
All my settings are maxed out on ULTRA, and I'm consistently getting 54-58 FPS. The only significant FPS drop occurs in the village, where it dips to around 32-38 FPS. However, aside from that, the performance remains stable at 54-58 FPS. The graphics and animations-especially during bad weather events like storms, lightning, and electric anomalies-are absolutely stunning!
There was a moment I loved approaching the sawmill a little further into the game, and it was a perfect example of how the audio can be amazing when it works(key words there) the trees knocked and scraped up against eachother in the wind, anyone who’s spent time in the woods while it’s storming will recognize the sound and it’s so soothing after fighting a handful of bloodsuckers
I'm so happy to see this game come to light after it being delayed due to the Russia/Ukraine war. And to have it come out as a banger earns my respect
It was announced in 2010 lol. "Delayed due to war in 2022" what are you smoking?
@@PrimeNPC NPCs commonly attribute the games buggy unoptimized messes to the war in Eastern Europe. Truly clueless 😂 game has been in development for a decade and due to money mismanagement and staff mismanagement took that whole decade to come up with a product that is inferior to the original trilogy in one absolutely major aspect - the A Life is so shit in comparison with a limited range of 100 meters…in a map that’s 60km wide.
@@PrimeNPCit was announced in 2018. The 2010 game was canceled, and studio have been closed.
@@pavlomorhun It was announced again after several years had been spent working on it. You think they scrapped years of work and started fresh in 2018? The fan boy cope is hilarious
@ only what you can save from 2012 year, some story, ideas and no more. Too much time passed and engine change, old team gone.
I am almost 10 hours in and haven't even left the first region yet. And I am loving every minute of it. Also I haven't experienced any bugs except for frame drops in the main town of Zalissya. Other than that it's smooth sailing
Hello! As your resident radiation protection technician, some radioactive isotopes, mainly those insoluble like metals, can in fact pass through the body through natural processes like pee and poop if inhaled or ingested. Gamma radiation is more like a radio-wave, it kind of just goes through you, where beta and alpha radiation are actual particles. Those ones can pass through. Alpha is less likely to pass due to its size. Causes a lot of damage too. Just thought I’d share!
I bought the first game back when it came out. It was the second game I bought on Steam(the first being CS:S). From that first game, I've been hooked on the series. Still have my physical copy of Clear Sky. I've sunk about 25 hours into the new game and it's everything I'd hoped it would be! Would love some better optimization, but I remember the old games were not well optimized.
Best review on the internet so far. For the newcomers, all STALKER games are buggy, that’s just the way it is. I won’t even get into mods. If you haven’t played any STALKER game before, you’ll struggle a lot at the beginning. But for veterans, it’s just too easy, tons of loot, crazy amounts of healing, etc. It’s not a 100% survival mode. Whether you play on Veteran or Easy, both feel like Easy mode. If you’re looking for a real challenge, wait for mods or play STALKER GAMMA. They’ve kept so much of the “old-school” vibe but also catered to newcomers. Peace!👍
> all STALKER games are buggy, that’s just the way it is
yeah, and dont forget the price tag to figure out something, like 1 USD per 1 fps lmfao
just don’t buy it, it’s a piece of shit. Install it on game pass if you want to waste a few hours of your life.
I love the Bethesda-style quick save system. Being able to save before jumping off a radio tower or shooting a random NPC by pressing F5 is just awesome. Every single player game should implement this.
Bethesda did not invent quick-saving but yes, it's neat.
You mean the Stalker style saving? Bethesda didn't create that
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but most PC shooters had quick saves since as early as late 80s, and that was the standard until publishers started prioritizing consoles.
F5 quick-save has been an industry standard key-bind for over a decade, where have you been?
@@BasedBebswell, Bethesda have been about for longer than a decade 🤣 for sure they didn't invent quick saves, but it also wasn't invented 10 yesr ago 🤣
4:08 he said it, thick of it
Literally came here when I heard it 😂
i noticed it too lmao
Everybody knows bro
Great game. I can't stop playing it, like the old times
SHUT UP😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
4:09 Reference to mid. Thank you so much Gameranx
If this can bring back that first time I played fallout 3 i'll be happy af. That was the first time I completely immersed myself in a world + the environmental storytelling was great
for me the game feels allot like when i played Fallout 3 for the first time.
That’s the goat. The single greatest gaming experience in my entire life was Fallout 3 the first time around.
Mine was New Vegas, way better than 3@@BuckScrotumn
If you have the gear to run it good enough, this is a game you can get lost in. The typical “4 hours go by when you thought it was 30 minutes” vibe. It drips with atmosphere. As a fan since SoC’s release in 07, I am so pleased.
@@ТАДАМ-ю4ж 100%
I am about five hours in and it really is a STALKER game. A really damn good one as well. It feels a bit harder than previous titles but it's not in any way unbalanced or "unfair". If you get your ass handed to you at a location, maybe gear up a bit more and return at a later time idk.
I haven't even encountered too many bugs at this point. The radio static disappearing I did witness and some weird door physics but nothing too bad yet.
The performance is the main negative for sure as I get a barely acceptable experience with my 3070Ti and Ryzen 5600X both overclocked to oblivion. I am eager to see what the future brings for STALKER!
Bugs will be fixed its not a problem for me is the story and atmosphère are good ??
Hows your frames looking like? Im one 3070ti 12600k
Are you playing at 1440p?
Yeah, real stalker game with no A-life system, seems about right.
This game is kinda ass. yeah it looks good but, the ai is so bad compared to the last games, they only added like 9 kinds of mutants, like 6 different anomalies, like 9 artifacts. the previous games have so much more little details. the best way to play stalker is the gamma mod.
@6:04 this is exactly why you use a mouse and keyboard.
I was looking for this comment 😂😂
This game is incredible, I’m 20hours in and barely touched surface it seems. Bugs and performance aside, this is an immersive experience like no other honestly. To think I actually didn’t like it during the prolog, but once I got to the lesser zone I got sucked in. Playing it on Xbox series X and haven’t had tooo many bugs, nothing game breaking honestly.
Nothing immersive about human npcs taking 10 rounds to the torso without flinching.
Jumping in blind here can’t wait. Never got to play the 1st one. Didn’t even know about it until stalker 2 promos. New favorite game, havnt even played it yet.
Drinking vodka = no radiation ☢️
Btw, Vodka named "Козаки" meaning "Cossack" - reference to another GSC game.
No vodka. Gorilka😏🇺🇦
3:57 yes, yes it does. not enough to make any kind of difference but it does help. if your blood is thinner there are less things for the rays to fuck up. again wont have any real effect but it does help
Been playing for 8 hours today and it's pretty damn amazing!!
9:38 "Just Domes you"......"Just DOMES you" lol
dude yes they put both takes in there lmao
give me that straight down gameplay
Maybe it's a skill issue, maybe a dead zone issue with the analog sticks, but man I am ASS at gunplay in this game. That and I wish repairing equipment was a bit cheaper or guns didn't degrade as quick. Beyond that game is gold, atmosphere is incredible. Also, tip for new players that are still early looking to get a good gun, get to the stash at the water tower north of the first safe zone (mission from bartender will take you there so two birds), there is a 100% health rifle with a scope, it's a game changer.
This game is just complete yes theres bugs and all but i absolutely love this game so far!! Just like Space Marine 2 its amazing so far!!!
if its like what people are saying, that there currently is no A-Life system in the game, then it was not worth the wait, because then it can not be considered a proper stalker game.
currently downloading so we'll see. but the A-life system is what made the previous games so unique compared to other open world shooter games.
for those that don't know the A-Life system in the stalker games was a persistent AI system. even if you could not see a NPC on the other side of the map, that NPC was still being simulated in the background, it was not being rendered. but it was being simulated.
there are very few scripted events in the original stalker games when you are in the open world. NPC squads of all factions are moving around the open world, they have the same needs as player characters in terms of food and water, they can trade with each other. so to fulfill their needs, they would go looking for food, or ways to make money, they would even attempt to hunt artifacts (they would die most times, but its besides the point) packs of mutant dogs would roam around hunting for food. this caused encounters to be very dynamic.
as you could run into NPC's who were in the middle of a patrol, or scavving a location, or running from a pack of mutants. you could walk into a location, find a group of friendly scavs, and think this is a good place to stay during the night, and then you'd wake up in the middle of a gunfight because another group of hostile NPC's on a patrol, are now fighting the friendly scavs you were hanging out with. and it would not be just a scripted encounter that got spawned in when the player moved into a trigger box, they were fully dynamic encounters.
there are allot of videos that show, and allot of people saying this system is completely absent in STALKER 2. and that lots of evens seem to be just scripted events that spawn in when the player comes within a certain distance. this is really sad.
Stalker 2 is still a really good game though, also pfp Buuntas the goat
Regardless of it being scripted or not unless you are slow and watch a whole ass series on the game before playing it the encounters will still be new and random to you you could obviously argue that it makes replays worse but the game is massive so good luck remembering all the scripted little events
I actually saw a developer video that was saying how the npcs are always doing their thing I. The world and you could follow them across the maps watching as they did things. So I think it is in there.
@@cl0ckisg0d58 They said, I think so I believe. Your broken English translated.
@@carrot6788 No if or but. First Stalker games are old and very old. Janky and etc. Still they had unique features. AI Life was a very cool thing. This feature clearly adds a lot to the game.
For example we can use Hogwarts Legacy as example. Whole castle area had a large amount scripted stuff so it would take a lot of time to see most of them. From my experience Hogwarts Legacy probably has most scripted stuff in the game.
I doubt Stalker 2 has large amount of scripter unique things. NPC's already have a small amount of voice lines and interactions in the world. You won't experience the same thing you saw in older STALKER games. People moded the whole thing to a degree where NPC's reported to things happening around the Zone. Like "I hear gunshots around" or "Bandits are attacking".
Point is you could do nothing and the world would live, move and change. From what I see new system is far away from original Stalker and scripted stuff is limited.
You describe this game like it's Witcher 3. Massive, polished and will take you over 100 hours. It's ok until they do more and fix things.
The shooting just feels so underwhelming. No feedback, feels like you’re shooting in air no matter what you are shooting at. Pretty rough.
Gitgud
News flash that's what's it like irl... no hitmarkers lol
Vodka sure kept the legendary and brave liquidators a bit motivated as few knew what the rads was doing to em
I'm ready to return to the zone with all of its slav jank. And the best part, when the devs and modders iron out the kinks, it'll be even better.
CHEEKI BREEKI my friends...
I wonder if a guy in a ghillie suit just domed him 9:36
The zone takes 🤷♂️
Lol yeah, that was funny af. They must have messed it up in post.
@@tobiastheblueman it’s happened a few times I shows they are real people I like it tbh
Yall just read my mind by posting this.
Literally just turned on my pc to see how the game is. Perfect timing.
First time in awhile I've watched a "Before You Buy" from gameranx. I always thought these videos were the most informative when it came to games I thought about getting and that hasn't seemed to change. Very cool, thank you
Honestly I have learned that the best way to play any single player game is wait for 1-2 years after release when all bugs have been fixed and all DLC are out in a discounted bundle. Buy the whole bundle at like 50% or less when on sale. There is no rush to buy any new game anymore for me, I have like 50 games i bought I need to work through still.....
I've played Witcher 3 after 5 years from release and it still had glitched missions and quest, you cannot complete.
If you want good games, you buy good games at the start or shortly after. Naturally, any product becomes obsolete, even intellectual property. I can't blame you for that. But still, everything costs money, any human labor does. there is no need to avoid this fact.
@@yakovlevskiy What are you even talking about? Do you think games become worse the longer you wait to buy it? Who said it didn't cost money? Are you dumb?
@@xrodrockx2100 Yea well now it has next gen graphic update with ray tracing and two big ass DLCs for half the price.
@@yakovlevskiy What? What are you smoking man, you must be trolling.
whatsinmy AI fixes this. STALKER 2 game review overview.
Bot
Walking around looks so cinematic
Walking simulator
@@RedWolfensteinoh you expected a fortnite surfboard to travel in an apocalyptic world
@@connor80059yes I did
@@niavellir7408 too sad for you they didn't add cart racing in this one
it’s not. Janky as fuck
Love these videos - even for games, like this one, that aren’t in my wheelhouse. I just love learning about what’s out there.
Do they have someone in a ghillie suit and domes you ?
7:34 As a Tarkov player, I can 100% relate. Scavs have been going WILD with nades the past wipe or 2.
Yeah but Tarkov is in Russia.
This game isnt because theyre xenophobic.
@@SeriousDragonifyYour tarkov was inspired by Stalker. Stalker was a game about Ukraine, always.
@@tonyshor3434 Except Chernobyl isnt in there.
Thats location in Russia.
And characters are Russian.
@@SeriousDragonify lol
good review as always, but why you play on a PC with a controller is beyond me
It is much more enjoyable. You can sit back and play on a 4k tv. Save the keyboard for games that actually need it.
@@sterlingarcher2366 I've got a lapboard thingy with a wireless mouse and keyboard, so I can slouch on the couch, play on my TV and actually hit stuff.
Jake, yall videos are the best videos for anything game related. Sometimes we gotta call a spade a spade and gameranx has no equal 🤷🏽♂️
I had no clue this was coming out anytime soon!
Xbox X version. 3 hours in. atmosphere is great, gamepad gameplay is great, graphics are great. really minor issues, like some FPS drops and got stuck in a car once, that I wasn't supposed to get into.
0:53 *cough cough* gladiator 2 *cough cough*
It was such a let down for me🥲
@@Lachielp247 lol i havent seen it yet, not sure if i need too
This is my first stalker game Ive played and so far I love it.
Will developers ever release a game that doesn’t require multiple patches at launch?
No cause u keep buying it
@@dontworrybehappy1677 I mean it’s really hard to release something for so many systems broski like there’s so many different builds and pc kits out there u have to think about so many different factores its crazy so yeah I can’t blame developers at all
@@jibsij3964 Plenty of developers manage to do it just fine. Keep eating up your slop.
@@hi-iq7zdd name 5
Thanks for all the info about this game. As someone with a tight budget, I have to be careful about what I buy.
Time is more valuable than money yet your handle suggests you don’t mind wasting that. Jk 😂
You should be focus on working and getting a better job than gaming. No way you should be struggling but gaming your time away
I mean it has no denuvo
Just birate it
Always love the guy that comes to a game channel and judges people for playing games lol. @Ccubed92
Guys I’m up gamin my ranx rn.
Three hours into the game, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It feels like the classic STALKER games but with upgraded graphics. I do miss the Russian-English accents of the NPCs. The game runs well on my R5 7600X and RTX 4060, though I’ve noticed some frame drops in certain areas. Overall, it’s an amazing experience that never feels boring the more I play, the more I enjoy it. I’m looking forward to the developers optimizing the game further.
Hope the day one patch fixes all the issues I've heard about it..
Probably not, day one patches aren't magic spells.
@@AlixPalixplus the whole Russia/Ukraine war thing.
Playing it now and unfortunately it's still pretty bad.
@@crimsonchunk7811 would you say it's still worth playing if I've got game pass?
@@BurnedOutWeeb they moved their office to prague shortly after the war started...
It's free in Gamepass so I might swell looks pretty neat in graphics and gameplay tho
Console version has no controller dead zones. From what reviews say. So hook up a mouse and keyboard and enjoy
its fun af on the series x,. havent had any problems
@@thanos-xy8si that's good 👍 .
@@thanos-xy8siHow come you haven't had stick drift problems?
@@Christ1732because he’s not playing on ps5
Sometimes a guy in a ghillie suit just DoMeS YeW. 9:40
I’ve been playing on Xbox and I’ve encountered two bugs. One I had to restart the game, and the other fixed it self in less than a second
0:15 vivec city?
Morrowind lol
How and why?!
No. Nerd.
What?
Is that the one set in India?
I'm so for the scrappy, full swing gameplay. Im shocked and amazed how this studio brought this game to light with the current world issues.
The same game, only better graphic, along with more bugs...
There's exploit which currently is not fixed yet and allows you to break into Prypiat before main story quest gives you access to the city.
Get to the Yaniv station (google the map of zone to see where it is)
At Yaniv station you need to attack guardians being INSIDE station building
When alarm triggered, all doors will shut immidiately, leaving you inside the station (all NPCs inside will become enemies but will not attack you)
Go to the door which leads to the Jupiter plant and press E really fast many times
With some luck there will appear option to just open it and it will actually open
After that you need to RUN - because guards will shoot at you
This probably will breake the game a little bit, and i don't know is it possible to trigger main story quest somewhere in the city, or you'll be forced to return back
And probably there's really no point of breaking into the city early, but at least it's possible to do if you want to
Jeez, I remember buying the metal boxed edition of the OG back in the day, came out of nowhere from an unheard of studio and just blew everyone away! I think for me what made it so special was that I was used to FPS games like Quake at the time, unlimited ammo and just a few enemies but this was a whole new world, literally. You were constantly on edge from the title screen to the "exit game" menu option, you were always aware of how much ammo, food and clothing every second worried you'd be cuaght somewhere by something and not be able to survive.
I rarely buy anything "zero day", I almost always wait for the first Steam sale on any new game, gives the devs time to patch out the worst bugs. It;s been a few years wait already so I think I can wait 3-6 months. Looks good, looks classic and I can't wait to get in there but when it's more stable.
Stalker does not have bugs , it have anomalies
Such a funny and original comment.
8:53 bruuuh!!
So basically hold off for 6 months and this game will be golden.
Depends on how the war goes unfortunately
Also depends on if you can handle bugs and such. If you only grew up on the past 10 years of games, you’ll hate stalker 2. If your like me, who grew up over 20 years of games, this is par for the course.
Also, there’s competition in finding the most bugs lol.
@@jaygee5874 they're not in it
@@Ezdine_G8261 some of the devs got conscripted. If they raise the draft age again they might lose some members
@@jaygee5874
They're in Prague. Not Ukraine.
My first impressions after about 5 hours of gameplay (on a 3060 RTX) is that it is running flawlessly, has realistic aspects similar to modern war games but has the welcome but unrealistic healing options. The game environment is as dangerous as content providers and reviewers have stated, and I am playing on Stalker difficulty level for good reason. The youtubers have also correctly identified the lack of hand-holding, though the tutorials are sufficient. I am finding locating caches to be a bit frustrating, but after a few hours, you get the knack and understanding finding the goodies is hard on your character's health and medical supplies... standing in a radioactive swamp, for example. Also, it's frustrating to try and heal yourself and hear enemies organizing against you. Very realistic.
Overall, this game was worth the wait and I'm so happy I have a computer good enough to run it. Hats off to the devs.
This game is for sure not running flawlessly lol wtf.
@@dominikgose2609on your pc
@sunlightliquid8420 yeah and i have a4080 and you have a shitty 3060. Guess which ones lying
@@dominikgose2609tbf you got mugged off buying any 4xxx series card both just as shit tbh your card is only decent if frame gen is included 😂😂
@@mythicgoose say that again in English
The developers lied about A-life being in the game and now they're doing damage control on discord, lying more! No dynamic shadows on torches? GSC can't replicate a feature from 2007!? No double crouch. Not a single good idea introduced by the modding community in almost 20 years incorporated into the game. I pre-ordered on steam and have already refunded. The only way this week could get more disappointing is if somebody I knew DIED. That is how bad STALKER 2 is. I finished SoC and CoP this week (again) to get myself hyped for the launch. What a let down!
@ghost-rv9vy you sounds like a real hating ass mf fr. Also comparing the disappointment you experience with the state of the game at release to one of your friends dying makes you sound like a sociopath so check yourself bro.
To get out of lean mode, just ADS and then hit the lean key again that you hit initially. It’s not a bug.
Sounds like STALKER 2077 on early release
Might be good game this year