My only gripes are things like optimization, the lack of faction identity or ability to join them and the lack of A-Life 2.0. I hope to see those fixed or implemented. I know there’s going to be some dlc which is interesting given stalker never had expansions before as far as I’m aware and I know they’re still hammering away at making A-Life work without killing peoples’ systems but it’s still a bummer to see it missing on release.
@@derpthegr8689 I agree that its a bummer to see these things missing, but I am happy that I enjoy the foundation for when those things come. What are your specs btw?
They didnt have ''shoestring'' budget. They have microsoft money and investors, plus pre-order money. And they still lied to people with the release and missing core features like a-life. This game is ALSO unfinished.
@@PsycosisIncarnated They also had Russia attack their country and had to relocate... I'm sure Bethesda never had to do that never and still release the buggiest games ever.
@@PsycosisIncarnated Have you ever played any other STALKER games on release. There no difference. It's like playing a new Stalker game or a new Bethesda Game. Just how it is in modern times.
What was my favourite bit was hunting down all the locations of the original map, most of the journey to Rostock is in the game just spread out and moved a little. Was pretty cool navigating using previous knowledge, it's like going back to your home town that had developments, same but different and the way devs should weaponize nostalgia.
I know there’s a lot of bugs in a lot of problems with this game, but I am absolutely enamored with this game and world. I’ve been checking out all your content leading up to it and can’t thank you enough for all your detailed reviews. Keep up the great work. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
As a slavic person and an old stalker enjoyer I really like Stalker 2, but game now feels more like farcry (due to it's UI). locations sometimes feel generic and I absolutely agree it is rough and amazing. Mods fix plenty even now tho, lol. Can't imagine playing it without mods, had no crashes, tho. Hope stuff will be fixed and they will also fix a-life, but the game is defo next step.
I doubt they have any plans to change the npc behavior systems significantly, which is a real shame as it means it will never be close to as advanced as it was in the 2007 game
And the fact that it was made primarily for Xbox since Microsoft funded it and the yellow paint also makes it feel a bit farcryish. Not as hardcore as I had hoped it would be. Mods will fix everything and customize the game to my liking but I don't wanna wait that long 😭
agree completely right now it feels like farcry or any other generic open world shooter... and it hurt my heart to say this because i want it to stand out
The game was just released. I guess some people didn't experience S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chornobyl & Crysis 1 in 2007 when they were first time released with their requirements and "optimization", not even to say when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky came out afterwards :) Once the game is patched, hopefully it will be more balanced. It's just a raw overestimation of GSC regarding customers' equipment :D
@@Chud-mb7gl Well, if you really wanted to steer up this conversation with political unawareness, I believe every country should be respected for whatever changes they do, from the cultural side it's our obligation to understand and learn why that was done. "Chernobyl" is not the original name of the town; it's a direct phonetical translation of the town's name from Russian language. The original name of the town is in Ukrainian - "Chornobyl" - you can Google it.
@@Chud-mb7gl It always had the "O" in it! The city is literally called chornobyl IRL. We had an exam about it and all spellings are basicly correct! :D Half of the class used english spelling other half used russian spelling and 3-5 people used the actual spelling... nobody lost points since it has been misspelled all over media and books for literally decades at that point :D
Just a reminder that technically this is an INDIE game. Meaning that development was made fully on studios budget. We can talk about bugs and glitches at least in a month - not like 5 days after realease.
I have a video on determining what makes "Indie" Indie. I would have to disagree with your parameter about a Studio using only their budget to be a "indie" title. There was a lot more help than actual Indie studios get, especially by Microsoft. This is from an interview with one of GSC's leads: "(The PR manager continues, noting that Xbox head Phil Spencer has personally been "very supportive and caring" to the devs, and reiterating the unexpectedness of the corporation being so "close to the developers who are in a bad situation." )" So its not like GSC were a 10 person group out of their small town office with no external help. I think it deflects from the glaring issues the game has, dismissing them because of our definition of the studio. But that's my two sense. No games are perfect, once Art is released, the critics will come. I'm confident that the bugs and major problems will be fixed in the months to come.
@@Dog.Dad.Studiosthat’s honestly a great take on it and while I sympathize with the devs who were in a terrible situation and had to move office, they still had tons of support from a major tech and software company so the game being released in its current buggy mess shouldn’t get a free pass by anyone who dropped money on it. It’s a very fun game all things considered and I hope they can fix as many of the issues people are having as quickly as possible on top of implementing a promised feature in A-Life 2.0. Overall I’d say I’d have rather waited a little longer for them to polish some more of the major glaring issues than release it to patch later, it’s becoming way too common in the video game industry and just needs more resistance from buyers voting with their wallets to not tolerate this practice.
Best review of Stalker 2 yet imo! We'll be eating so good the next years, especially once there is official mod support with the SDK being released. Anomaly 2 will probably make this game into one of the most replayable games of all time and as a Stalker fan since 2009, I couldn't be more happy about this fact :D What you said about the lang walks in the game is also my experience! I don't find the long ways between locations boring at all, it helps me to become immersed even more into the zone. Imo this is 100% what Stalker is about!
Thank you so much for your kind words and I agree with you whole hardheartedly. What we have is a great baseline for whats to come. Should that be the case with AAA games? No. Did I think it would be for HoC? Absolutely, its "euro jank" or whatever, but I knew after playing the originals that HoC wasn't going to be smooth sailing. And I know that it has a bright future ahead of it.. I swear when people get their hands on the modding tools, you're going to be seeing shreks roaming the swamps...
Loving the content. This is my first STALKER game so I’ve been watching all your retrospective content and am sooo thankful. I am LOVING this game and it makes me wish I would’ve played the og trilogy before playing this. But I am having a blast
I personally never got to experience A-life. But man. From how it sounds it sounds AMAZING. If they can get 2.0 handled I can’t begin to imagine how this game will be then
Also, I LOVE how this game doesn’t hold your hand on things. Like I found a pda with a convo incriminating one of the games vendors. No markers. No side quest. Just walked up to him and confronted him. He caved and pass me money to keep quiet. It’s those little things that keep me playing and trying out different approaches and things. I love it. Now if only people would actually tell me how to play stalker anomaly. I’d REALLY be happy. I’m new to pc gaming with MAYBE 1 month experience
Thank you for taking the time to write this! I'm so glad you're having a great time with the game, and thank you so much for taking the time with my content! If you ever have the chance, if you like 2, you'll love the originals, even with the jank. Wishing you the best!
I’m enjoying this game, however after the halfway point of the game everything is broken for me on console. Trying to save zalissya and none of the npcs are out no enemies everything is locked. Also with the dr in the bunker at noontide base being locked and can’t do the optional mission. I’ve quit playing to see if any patches fix it.
I left Zalissya since I was all the way north when it was hit, I was surprised this was a quest they intended for the player to do. Yes the doctor part got me too sadly. I’ll be running this back in a month once they have time to polish the side stuff. Thanks for taking the time to comment and watch! Hope you get to finish it and I’d love to know what you think?
i’m having the exact identical bugs!!! I decided to say screw it and just go on with the story, but the next couple of missions after that halfway point are all bugged too!!! especially “a minor incident” has completely softlocked my story…. i’m unable to even finish the story despite having missed on optional content due to bugs. i was defending the game until this point too lol
@@candideoptimism8775seriously i was liking it until this point but how are these even passing quality control it seems pretty common with the player base too i feel like if they just had one or two months more of playtests and this game would be a masterpiece
@@dreydydog sadly I couldn’t agree more. it’s very similar to Cyberpunk 2077’s botched launch. see you in the Zone in 2 years stalker, with Stalker 2 2.0 update!
With a few mods I have it nearly ironed out and it runs much better. Finally a game with some damn content and no bloat. Recommend the vaulting over objects mod, and the soft patches/damage adjustments.
Are you gonna make a lore video? Its my first stalker game but ive been looking up the story of the old games etc. I still have no idea whats going on and ive finished the story. Its there plotholes or am I missing stuff?
Under normal circumstances, I do not like games that are this buggy and broken. However given this was made by a company who’s country is literally being invaded by another country? I am more understanding, especially given that this game has really impressive high points and overall is enjoyable to play.
@@Dog.Dad.Studios I like how when out wandering the world you can get attacked even while looking into your inventory. It’s incredibly immersive. Comparing this to games like say “Starfield” which all the planets felt for the most part empty. Which to no surprise will leave players incredibly bored and want to play something else. (Which based on the countless Starfield reviews on UA-cam, it’s definitely the case)
Dude I recently found your channel and you are great, keep making videos man, I'd love to hear more breakdowns on other games (not that I don't love stalker).
I appreciate your kind words! That’s my intent! If this is what the first year of production is like, I’m excited for what’s to come! Absolutely, the only factor against me is time itself. I’m still finding my formula, but there are so many games that i want to cover. Whether that’s retrospectively, review wise, or something else, time will tell. Next up is StarCraft 2 retrospective and maybe a video on a couple of indie titles I’m playing on the side. I hope this finds you well and I truly appreciate you taking the time to watch my content and comment! It helps the channel so much! All the best, Dog dad
Just finished my first playthrough. On Xbox S…. It was amazing. Seen two endings… Speechless .. it was so damn good! I already build plans for next playthrough I already looking forward to DLCs. Gonna buy them. Technical problems… yeah. They were. Didn’t affect my enjoyment even a bit.
I am having a blast. Save and save often and fuck around! This is Stalker and it will only get more refined. Those unhappy, go play Shadow of Chornobyl until the game get's patched a few times.
I’ve been a huge stalker fan since the beginning, and Stalker 2 is exactly what I wanted. Some of it is janky, but the whole thing is extremely stalker.
Its unfortunate that A-Life is butchered right now (hopefully not forever) and that the economy is so lackluster. By the time i got to cement factory though i had 100K because I neverrrr repair anything at all, just buy new or replace with gear i find in the zone. Now im finding armors i dint even need and making bank. Early game economy is kind of unusable unless ur rich tho
I bet when implemented correctly a-life 2 tanks CPU performance. Frames are already low and dependent on upscaling and frame generation for a smooth experience having to perform complex instructions will tank fps even further. You'll likely need an AMD x3d CPU to run this game with good frame rates unless they spend a lot of time optimizing the game and are successful.
@Silentheaven89 yeaaa....frankly I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that their intended version or 2.0 is more of an imitation...trying to run actual A-Life in this game isn't doable, but maybbeeee they figured out a system that does enough to make it feel right. I hope we get to see that soon or I'll be a sad boy
I mean the game is really poorly optimised right now. And modders have already said that they could fully implement A-Life into the game, it's just a matter of how long than if it can be. I think there will be massive performance patches in the months and year to come that will drastically improve performance. And then I think a-life can be implemented well
Also, I have a question about the game: Exploring the world, have you seen those black-white portrait photos on the tables? In different locations, if there is an office table, there is oftenly a photo of a person. Small, barely noticeable. But those all are uniq photos of people. Do you know anything about them? I have my suspicions that those are real people.
Howdy! Thanks for taking the time to write this! I did see them and my only assumption is that it’s the GSC development team : ) nice little touch to have them immortalized in the zone
I've gotten to missions past the Duga and ill say- on console i didn't notice any real concerning bugs up until *after* i played the clear sky mission. That was when i began seeing these problems: 1. Soldiers spawning mere meters away from me and attacking 2. Monsters like bloodsuckers randomly spawning in areas that i had previously cleared have been to. 3. People throwing grenades as often as they shoot at you. 4. The game began crashing. 5. Missions and side missions began not working properly or even being unable to initiate those missions at all. I would honestly not recommend people playing main missions beyond the Clear Sky mission until things get patched.
Currently stuck on the classic “Answers Come at a Price” bug. I decided just to explore every inch of the map I can for now. I’m 12 hours in and only halfway done. That says something 😭. Can’t wait to get to what you’re talking about tho.
Yo, great video, i am in my first playthrough with 35 hours and haven't yet finished the main story and besides the bugs and not so good optimization i think this is my favourite game of the year
Great video. Stalker 2 just brought me back to awesome memories. That's how games should be made and kudos to GSC for making it right. Yeah, its buggy but that's part of the trip and we know they are doing the best to fix it their best. I just kinda miss some variety on handguns. What happened to the pistols? Not too far into the game but I've only seed the makarov and the usp. I remember we had a few more in the trilogy...
Yeah the variety of handguns is a little thin, hoping it gets expanded upon with mods! Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment : ) hope all is well!
This is my first STALKER game. I am a lifelong fan from here on out. I will be playing the original trilogy as soon as I’m able. This game is special. I feel for the dev team, I fell in love with the Zone, and most importantly, this game makes me feel like a kid playing video games again. Bugs be damned, I know when a game is doing something right and when it’s doing something wrong. STALKER 2 does so much right for me that I can for ONE TIME in my life accept that a broken game is worth it, and I’d rather be playing it now with all it’s bugs than in a year when it’s improved. STALKER 2 is special, and I have so so so much love and faith for the team that put this together. I haven’t played a single GOTY nominee for 2024 because they don’t interest me (except black myth, but that’s ps5 for now), so STALKER 2 takes my game of the year by a long shot, even with the state it’s in. I just can’t find it in me to care about the downsides this game has, it’s too much fun.
I’ve been playing on PC, and I’ve had some glitches but… it’s really not that bad imo? A lot of the negatives that people don’t like, I’ve actually loved those things as an important part of the game’s experience.
I'm enjoying my time so far but my current playthrough Will just be exploring the early areas of the map and not progressing the story. Once a few patches are done then I'll do a fresh playthrough when the Ai is fixed
I know that many of you didn’t like STALKER clear sky, but it did introduce the one of the best features which was faction wars, and I wish HOC would have implemented this (not to mention they had the drippiest faction ever, my beloved clear sky)
Hi OP. New to your channel, appreciate and watched all your lore vids, as I never played the original trilogy. Currently in the swamps and planning to continue powering through the jank. Have a few short tips to share related to mods. I'm currently running the optimized tweaks S.2, readable ammo, longer sprinting (which is bugged for me leading to infinite sprint, yay), and a mouse fix. I would highly recommend the last one to everyone. For some reason, the devs gave the X and Y axis different sensitivity values, it's a simple mod that fixes that. It's called Equalized Aim Sensitivity X-Y. Lastly, I believe I heard you mention the frame drops after an hour or so of play in one of your videos. From my research and experience it's frame generation, and disabling these at the expense of 30FPS allows me to play indefinitely. Oh well. Anyway, thanks for all of your content, very much looking forward to more and will be following you. Time to go compile some shaders and jump back into it!
Howdy and welcome! Where are you finding mods at the moment and how easy are they to install? My knowledge of modding games is pretty rough, and the last time I extensively did it was for Fallout New Vegas. I appreciate you!! Thanks for your kind words
@@Dog.Dad.Studios You're very welcome. I've gotten all of mine from nexusmods. Been using manual download option with very easy installation. Initially had to create a "~mods" folder at a specific location, then every mod just asks to be dropped there. Relaunch the game and that's it. The modding community is already hard at work. There are already 19 pages of Stalker2 mods. Hoping nothing is broken, patching the game now...
Ya for me I'm going to try this game after some time I bought it and returned it because i met pc recommended specs it did run very well like i thought it should.
I think they perfectly nailed how Bethesda used to do their games. Start a mission, see interesting place on the way, just go to check it out, forget the quest...
May i inquire as to what ending you did do? I as a newconer did the ward ending knowing nothing of the greater world and it felt like a satisfying conclusion to Skif's story.
Something that's not gonna translate for english speakers, the lack of original voices is a bit sad. Yes, it's localized to ukrainian and english but in the original games people spoke a mix of ukrainian, russian and surzhyk and it really gave character to the zone. And the english localization is just not great in it's own right.
Im at the end and the bugs are making me want to pull my fkin hair, ive had to reload countless times because of scenes not progressing, doors nog opening. Its so annoying getting to the end just to have all the tension spoiled by frustrating bugs and performance
If you’re at the door not opening after pressing the button, don’t go down the elevator, there are two doors behind the button. Yeah that was frustrating, no two ways about it
@Dog.Dad.Studios I appreciate the help but no it was a bug during the part where you have to reconnected the generators, you have to leave the bunker up the ladder and out the hatch, the hatch kept closing shut on me lol
Apart from the gameplay bugs, my major issues are how much of a bullet sponge enemies and mutants are. I want to fight a bloodsucker when I run into them but I can’t afford it if I’m guna burn 150 rounds, 3 medkits, and 4 bandages. I ended up just running away from them for now. Money and ammo wasn’t a problem for me in the first 10 hours, but from hour 15-25 I find myself bringing 300-400 rounds for one gun plus 100 shotgun shells and still worrying about ammo. And the fact that guns and armor cost so much to repair it makes it harder to buy ammo. I spent 20 hours stock piling 5.56 (about 700 rounds) and not using a single 5.56 weapon, and when I took out a 5.56 weapon it took me 2 main story missions to run out of that stockpile. I love the game, the story, I’m addicted to it. But enemies need like 60-70% of there current health and repair costs need to be dropped to make the game more enjoyable.
Just beat it this morning, everything is really good damn near perfect but needs to be worked on with patches or mods which will take time. After that and letting you continue the same save file after the main storyline concludes it would be perfect.
As someone who fell in love with anomaly and then gamma i have to say im not liking stalker 2 so far... not because its not like the moded experience, i well aware that im playing a heavily moded version of the vanilla and never expected S2 to be like them however the fact that so many things are broken just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth while exploring the zone. i might still finish the story just because im worried someone will spoil it down the line... but other than that, im going back to gamma for now
I've gotten two story missions into Garbage and decided to start exploring. About 30 hours in now. I'm still lost on how to get to pripyat, and don't care about spoilers on how to get there. Just need to know how at this point 😂
What device are you using? I know of the issue with the video mic not picking up as well as when recording off camera, but on my tv and headphones, it’s okay balancing. I’ll continue to try to tinker with it! Thank you so much for caring enough to mention it! Hope all is well!
I would just like the major bugs fixed faster. Stuck in the main quest because you can't open a bunker door is absolutely v annoying. And I am far from the only one with this one bug alone
Is it the bunker door way into the end game? If so, load up a save before pushing the button to restore elevator usage, click the button and go through the two white doors, not the elevator leading to the bunker door thats shut. If its the noontide base one with the scientist, that one is broken broken. Its very annoying and no excuses for quests to be that bugged in a final release in the main story line..
@Dog.Dad.Studios I don't know where it is in the story as I refuse to look through spoilers. It is the noontide base though. I first noticed the issue with the roof zombie quest and sent in a bug report and went ahead with the story. Now I am back with a different quest and it is still broken.
Great game, rare in game design like some kind of FPS dark souls. So let’s wait for the fixes. Now there is an info that A-life is there but partially disabled as it loads CPU a lot now, so the performance would suffer a lot and they need time for optimisation
I’ve been waiting 15 years for this game… but I’m going to wait at least a year, so I can build a decent PC! Hopefully the game will be much better by then.
Definitely holding off getting Stalker 2 until I get a new PC or laptop. Currently have a Lenovo IdeaPad 3 AMD 5500U laptop, I don't dare try to temp fate with this game.
@Dog.Dad.Studios - Budget PC with AMD RDNA 4 at least 12 GB VRAM GPU. Slight chance I'll get a budget 5000 Series Nvidia GPU PC. Want to spend around $800.00. I'm definitely of a console mindset with gaming and wouldn't go into the thousands for a PC. The organic food I buy takes alot of my money these days.
@@Dog.Dad.Studios HBO gets a pass cuz they're talking about Chornobyl in the USSR when russians told everyone it's called "Chernobyl", proper nouns do not translate etc., but the title of the game is Heart of Chornobyl, big man, it's in your steam library under the correct name, and you misspell it not once, but twice, in the title, and in the description, though i understand ofc that you can't change anything at this point without the YT algorithm goin "woooooooah, where did that video go, crazy" edit: great video otherwise, massive work, pretty levelled review
@@xanazf You might want to bring this up with Microsoft and its spell check as well; I don't know if this is the medium to spur the change you want to see, but I've done my part. Cheers!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios russians have a tight grip around both Microsoft and Google's autocorrect/spell check, simply because there's more of them using the spelling that they want to see, since the other spelling gives credence to the Ukrainian language that they vehemently hate, and the algorithms often use past user spellings to offer spell checks edit: and English first language folk most of the time don't bother doublechecking
I felt like it took so long to the point where it didn’t feel like there was damage, but I’m glad they can still finish each other off. You have more patience than I : )
while I share some of the praise you gave this game, I'm definitely going to be playing anomaly with the gamma modpack while I wait for more bug fixes and patches. I feel like some areas of the game (specifically enemy AI) were better in the old games. Also the point you made about not being able to tell which faction you're looking at right before they send a bullet your way is a huge downside for me.
As much as I love the game, the constant 3 bloodsuckers random spawns make this a 0/10. You learn to engage every enemy. You learn to conserve resources. Exploring the map is fun. Quite unfortunate the random spawns ruin the game for me. I don't even get constant crashes.
I know it sucks to say, but have you tried just running? That’s what I had to do before the patches. No excuse for the game. Have you tried with the new patches? I’m replaying now, hoping they fixed it. I agree very annoying to deal with
@Dog.Dad.Studios Yes, so I usually try to get like a car or something to stand on. If I can't get a vantage point I just run away. I have the game fully patched on linux and windows.
I just wish the game was in a better technical state. I can't get past my third or fourth hour of progress. If you crash in a very particular way, the game may wipe your save of the last playthrough or all data, along with performance and batman AI, I have to wait. The game is so far from a masterpiece and this is coming from someone who play the first vanilla
Howdy thanks for taking the time to share your experience with the game. I'm sorry that progression block is happening to you, as I say in the video, all power to you not playing the game because of that; its inexcusable to have these game breaking glitches, yet here we are again. Hope all is well!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios Thanks man. Its just the more I watch reviews, the more I actually want to play some more and uncover the story. I will just wait for updates!
I have not played the other games but I do truly enjoy this one. While the game does have some parts that can glitch out and etc.. it has been fun so far even to the point I might try the older games
It is definitely worth checking out the older games, and if you don’t have a ton of time, I do have a retrospective series where I play through the trilogy. Still recommend playing them yourself!
That was so annoying! Definitely moments where they had to get you to a specific spot for the scripting. I spent way too much time trying to sneak my way in..
The economy is fucked so bad you have to abuse glitches to keep up but isn't too big a deal imo. Stalkers can be dropped in 1or 2 headshots from any gun at any point in the game but mutants take a small fortune to down. The 65 meter bubble around you where AI can spawn with absolutely nothing outside of that is pretty ridiculous and not a replacement for A-Life. Bugs aren't too bad for the most part until after the SIRCAA quests in my experience, but still pretty frequent (a good portion of them can be fixed via UETools). Still having a blast with the game and when the pieces fall into place it creates wonders. Here's hoping they beat the game into shape and get it ready for the insanity of the mod scene to take over and transform the game into something truly crazy.
Well written, thank you! I feel like that’s the general consensus now, baseline is good but far too buggy, time will heal all wounds. Still not great for release
finished it yesterday. tbh I felt weird. lore expanding was good but Im not sure if l liked how some of the things turned out. Gameplay felt strange too it felt like I was playing some other game that stalker inspired. Really liked the designs of the suits but this game really needs cyberpunk style photomode maybe not as detailed but still I need to see my character from thirdperson.
Interesting, can you elaborate more about that feeling? Which ending did you get? I’m pretty sure there is a hidden ending. Completely agree I filled my steam screenshots folder lol.
@@Dog.Dad.Studios There has to be a hidden ending. I got the skif ending and about the feeling idk how to explain it. Its like it let me down but also exceeded my expectations also after playing so many mods stalker 2 also felt like a mod. I guess after waiting for so long I cant accept that this is an official game.
I'm still on the beginning of the game, just found my way to Garbage. Gunfights are fun, but kinda annoying when you die and restart other side map. When it comes to bugs, they don't really bother me thanks to playing Bethesda titles. Also having almost bug free game is kinda impossible, especially these when games are fucking complex. Also also it's a miracle that this game even came out so I'll cut so lack. Can't say anything about A-Life because I've never saw it in action. As whole I liked the game but now just wondering should I continue it or wait until the game breaking stuff gets fixed.
Howdy! Thanks for taking the time to write this! I laughed at the Bethesda thing, since I guess we’re now older adults who remember that release… It does make you stronger to games like that, and I think you’re right about the complexity shooting developers in the foot. I would say it’s all about what you’d like to do. Do you feel like you want to explore more and play? Or do you feel like you’re forcing yourself to go out? I didn’t really have game breaking stuff personally, but there were a bunch of little things I didn’t understand how they weren’t fixed ( side mission, one portion of a specific main mission). In the end it’s about you having fun with the time you have. Ask yourself are you having fun or would you be having a better time with something else at the moment
@Dog.Dad.Studios Thanks for answering. When it comes to games I don't expect anything or at least I can't recognize if I've any expectations. So that explain why I don't get that disappointed when game is released in sorry state. It also explain why most of the time I get positively surprised when game happens to be better than I expected. Dead Island 2 was one of those games, and to this day I'm blown away how polished and complete game felt when I played it last time. Then again I play video games I enjoy and continue play them even if they are hated by some like Cyberpunk 2077 or Starfield.
As someone new to the series with minimal exposure to the previous games (Cheeki Breeki memes): I've enjoyed it, but the AI spawning in your pocket, AI gunfights never ending, and lighting issues in buildings are making it very difficult to get immersed. Side note: The Ukranian voice actors sound great.
I was loving the Game, but at about 25 hours in it crashed after loading in after a death and now it doesn't matter what save i try to load, it crashes the game on loading into it. Kinda sucks. But otherwise it was fun.
All of the saves for that game crash i had gone as far back as like 4 hours if I remember correctly. And do you mean verify the game files and see if that works? I did start a new game just to see and that one worked and saved good. So I don't know what was causing the issue on my original game
The mission popup notifications are very instrusive even when you turn them off. Also I’m very disappointed with the emissions. They shook your screen and the sound was deafening it made the experience terrifying in CS and CoP. Everything just turns a deep red then blam. I hope modders can bring that back. Then lastly the difficulty is non existent even when playing on Veteran. I am inundated with resources there is no real sense of scarcity. Other than that the game is fun once the textures load in and the frames rates stablize
4:11 I like what 2 has to offer but this, along with MANY decisions makes 2 feel like a regression. My problem with 2 isn't that it doesn't feel like S.T.A.L.K.E.R because it does. (And my poor Acer Laptop struggling to run it aside) It's that they stripped quite a few elements and mechanics from previous games. I already can't tell enemies apart from friendlies due to having every graphics setting mostly set to low, creating a blurry jaggy mess. So throwing on the lack of distinct gear makes things so hard. They also didn't bring back a statistics screen or low crouch.... petty complaints aside it's a good game. Just needs some love from the devs and I'm glad they aren't just ignoring the problems and burying their heads in the sands for years until they suddenly decide they care (I'm looking at you Techland and 343)
ive decided to just wait a few months for a few patches before jumping in myself, mostly becuase of that AI spawning thing everyone has mentioned. just seems something that would piss me off alot
I wouldn't necessarily say they "faithfully recreated" the zone. They got a lot of broad strokes right, but many of the details have been changed in ways that don't make sense. On some level, I understand they did this in order to do more with the older maps, but it drives the autistic little stalker in me crazy. Plus, they moved a lot of the areas to completely different places on the map. It's not enough to make me hate the game, but it does bother me every time I play.
I'm glad to see that the sequel kept the same unique Stalker vibe after a 10+ since the last entry in the series. As someone that valued the world and atmosphere of the original game, I dislike anything that breaks the immersion. For example, the combat music. I hated it in Clear Skt, not as much in Stalker 2 but it really doesn't add anything. A firefight in SHOC felt like something that just happens and the world doesn't care about it happening. On the visual side, the game looks a little worse than the trailers imo. The first Stalker had the amazing lighting for the time it came out and seeing flaslight not casting dynamic shadows in a game released in 2024 just bums me out, especially a Stalker game. I'm just happy that this game saw the light of day and the scale of it is trully impressive. All the technical issues should get adressed in due time by GSC and the modders.
So, it's sad that they have to do ot during a war, but the game is still raw. Real cyberpunk 2077, crashes, bugs and all. Abysmal performance, but that's understandable. But man, the lighting is terrible, no dynamic shadows, no A-life, enemy ai is wack, the economy is terrible, it costs like 10k to repair a suit from 95%. And a lot of other small things that make a messy emergy drink chugging simulator
@Dog.Dad.Studios I was using voice to text so sorry for the short comment. I'm on mobile, throughout the video your audio will change, I'm not too techy so unsure how best to describe it. Almost sounds like you're recording it in a different place at a different time than the last audio clip. I enjoy listening to your videos while in the car, so sorry I don't know the exact time frames!
A-life is the biggest problem for me,because of that I stopped at garbage hoping they fix it.All other bugs can be fixed but Im scared A-life will be hard to fix,at least fast. Also,I didn't saw comments about mutants being dumb,just me talking about it.I cant stand how they behave.Pack of dogs spawn...yes spawn,not roaming around as they should and when they attack you just jump on something and they hide,you jump down they rush,up hide,down rush,up hide,down rush and funny is that they hide behind some tree and its like they are peeking lol Every mutant encounter for me was like that if I jump on something.I mean in old game dogs jump,cats too,boars could hit you sometimes even if you stand on the car Anyway,that killed my immersion so i stopped for now
Stalker is a hard game, I hope new player who came into this franchise can embrace the difficulty rather than trying to gimp the game down into yet another CoD. I will recommend to turn off most of the UI for better immersion, otherwise you will rely too much on the UI for cue rather than actually looking at the beautiful world. that is actually true for a lot of games, the UI is in the way of immersion. And Stalker 2's immersion is something to behold. 50h in I still haven't reach Cordon. Yeah. I taking my time (or die a lot 😆)
Hi, there is a coop mp mod for CoP called "X-Ray Multiplayer Extension (xrMPE) - Call of Pripyat Coop", if you want to play it and make a video, I would love to join.
Howdy! Firstly thank you so much for taking the time to watch my content and comment, that means a lot! I never knew about this and I’ll do my research, thank you! As for playing with people, as of this moment I’m unavailable to do so. I hope in the future we’ll be able to set up charity streams and use that as a way to play with people. Hope this finds you well! All the best, Dog dad
Felt that completely! The open world mechanics, weapon systems, armor, etc.. felt pretty bland, and i was very suprised there wasn't like a metro crafting system or something maybe a mild rpg system. Like Skif runs and walks a lot, how is his endurance not going up marginally? Artifacts glitched on my run, even with the best armor I was getting radiation, really wish they took the artifact blender from GAMMA and put it in. Anyways, mods and GSC will add stuff, but what's there now I don't think is enough to get excited about, like I say in the video. If you're a fan of the series, those systems aren't priority, at least for me they weren't.
They had the perfect formula in SoC! It’s interesting to see how modern games have to shed certain things, especially when using the unreal engine, despite its beauty! Hope all is well, thanks for commenting!
Emphasis on the broken nearly eveey quest after rostok is simply broken NPC's wont spawn map markers are wrong etc game needed another year at the very least sidequests fail even though you did everything right.
@Dog.Dad.Studios Ive found work arounds but the coller quest is totally broken the side quest one the collar at malachite will not spawn no matter what.
Im having a great time, then again Im kind of a masochist, I like hard games and I played the original and knew what I was going into. But yeah the AI is a bit unfair, like sometimes I clear an area and Im looting the place and not even 2 min later the same enemies Spawn in again. Its crazy. Oh and the mutants move like they are on crack of something, all the mutants move sooo fast, Im playing on Xbox and try to hit a goddamn mutant rat or dog with the controller its sooo hard... The developers are working on fixing the AI and balancing the economy, if they fix those two things I will be happy, the other bugs dont even bother me at all.
To me, it just feels like an empty world. I've played other open world games, and this one just feels empty. There is nothing to do. And people say the map is huge, and I'm like, yeah, but there's nothing to do. The most interesting thing so far has been the poppy field. I'm also playing the game at the hardest difficulty, and the enemies are bullet sponges, taking like 10 shots to the body with a 12 Guage shot gun ! Like, wtf are they made of ? I would understand if the invisible monster has loads of health, but regular people ?!? It's stupid. And the AI sucks ! The most redeeming part of the game is the graphics. I don't mind the stutters and low graphics or bugs ! It's the gameplay I'm after. I'm still having fun, though 😂. Not enough side quests. The main mission is the only thing keeping me playing the game and the difficulty. Because if I were to breeze through the game like it was nothing, I'd be pist ! Also, why is there even a food requirement or water requirement as I heard ? I rarely eat or drink eater, and my character is good. Also, I have only ever slept like 3 times in the game to pass the storms... it's like not even needed.
The food and survival stuff reminded me of fallout 4s survival mode? Or maybe it was new Vegas system, but yeah it was weird, there was also a tip in the load menu about sleeping? But I never got tired.. so idk lol. Yeah the ai is pretty rough but yeah I’m had a great time even with my frustrations, definitely waiting for a patch or two to go back for the other endings
its missing basically everything that made the first 3 games great. No faction wars, no A.I(enemies are braindead) and no a-life, no russian VO, no gopnik feel. No cheeki breeki iv damke. Massive disappointment.
@ hey im all for updates , I read through the notes looks great on paper , just entered jupiter and im stuck redownloading the game to see if I can hop on , I have 5 days playing time on this game veteran mode
@@kazuhira7777 if it’s a crash issue I’m sure they’ll be on it ( usually happens to a lot of people) is there a ue5 reporter for the game? I forget. Crossing my fingers it gets resolved soon!
@ steam is pretty good with file accreditation and backups, but I understand being worried when the actual game is being wonky. I truly appreciate you saying that. I’m so glad so many people enjoy the series and I’m excited for what’s to come!
I think it was worth finishing it in this state as a fan, like yourself I was equally as hyped, and still am to replay it Yes, A-life isn’t there, making enemie encounters, npc fights, and roaming NPC’s, but despite this, I’m sure in a year, I’ll play again with A-Life being fixed and just reminisce over how the lack of encounters really made me believe I was in a world and not a game, it’s unrealistic to imagine seeing 20 things happen in the span of 1.2km, so I like it right now It’ll be a great open world game tho in a bit, but for now, this is peak Stalker for me, it even beats the Metro trilogy (which was made by old GSC employees) Like you said, “A love letter to S.T.A.L.K.E.R fans”
They should have taken another 6 month to polish it. But a thing that cant be polished easily is the art style. It somehow doesnt "feel" like the old Stalker visually. For me its especially the NPC designs. They all look bland without recognizable features. They all look a tad "Disney"fied.
I mention in the video how the different factions all look similar, sure spark is green, but it blended in so much. The older games had a more distinct style, the one downside of unreal engine
I would argue without any context, that it’s not spoiling anything. Especially with context, it’s not real.. If I had show a certain main character that wasn’t shown in the trailers, that’s what I consider “spoiler” Thanks for expressing your concern
I might shed a tear. That means so much to me. He helped me when my mother was succumbing to ALS. I’ll never forget his Edith Finch review as well as the classic dark souls. I hope I can be like that for someone else. Hope all is well!
Kind of funny how stalker 2 ended up being everything I wanted fallout 4 to actually be while also just being stalker haha
Felt very much fallout 4 while playing. I loved it on release but it also had a ton of wild bugs!! Also skif reminds me of Sean
My only gripes are things like optimization, the lack of faction identity or ability to join them and the lack of A-Life 2.0. I hope to see those fixed or implemented. I know there’s going to be some dlc which is interesting given stalker never had expansions before as far as I’m aware and I know they’re still hammering away at making A-Life work without killing peoples’ systems but it’s still a bummer to see it missing on release.
@@derpthegr8689 I agree that its a bummer to see these things missing, but I am happy that I enjoy the foundation for when those things come. What are your specs btw?
Same lol
Spaz 12 made me go from hiding from mutants to hunting bloodsuckers like van helsing.
Hugh Jackman Van Helsing? Ahaha 🤣 I need to upgrade mine!!
Just wait until they make the saiga drum mag available to be found in the open world instead of gatekeeping it behind a single mission! :D
stalker 2 being made in a war zone with a shoestring budget VS bethesda with 1B budget and 10 year development who wins
It’s a great question!!! I say stalker, no idea how Bethesda releases unfinished content
They didnt have ''shoestring'' budget. They have microsoft money and investors, plus pre-order money. And they still lied to people with the release and missing core features like a-life. This game is ALSO unfinished.
I knew what I was walking into, and I'll take the Zone everytime.
@@PsycosisIncarnated They also had Russia attack their country and had to relocate... I'm sure Bethesda never had to do that never and still release the buggiest games ever.
@@PsycosisIncarnated Have you ever played any other STALKER games on release. There no difference. It's like playing a new Stalker game or a new Bethesda Game. Just how it is in modern times.
What was my favourite bit was hunting down all the locations of the original map, most of the journey to Rostock is in the game just spread out and moved a little. Was pretty cool navigating using previous knowledge, it's like going back to your home town that had developments, same but different and the way devs should weaponize nostalgia.
Absolutely!! Knowing how to flank in lab x18 was insane!
I know there’s a lot of bugs in a lot of problems with this game, but I am absolutely enamored with this game and world. I’ve been checking out all your content leading up to it and can’t thank you enough for all your detailed reviews. Keep up the great work. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Your kind words mean so much to me, thank you!!
The mods for this game are going to be epic.
I cannot wait!
As a slavic person and an old stalker enjoyer I really like Stalker 2, but game now feels more like farcry (due to it's UI). locations sometimes feel generic and I absolutely agree it is rough and amazing. Mods fix plenty even now tho, lol. Can't imagine playing it without mods, had no crashes, tho. Hope stuff will be fixed and they will also fix a-life, but the game is defo next step.
Very well put!
I doubt they have any plans to change the npc behavior systems significantly, which is a real shame as it means it will never be close to as advanced as it was in the 2007 game
And the fact that it was made primarily for Xbox since Microsoft funded it and the yellow paint also makes it feel a bit farcryish. Not as hardcore as I had hoped it would be. Mods will fix everything and customize the game to my liking but I don't wanna wait that long 😭
Picture it complete on the Dev's side with a Complete Mod, like every other entry :)
agree completely
right now it feels like farcry or any other generic open world shooter... and it hurt my heart to say this because i want it to stand out
The game was just released.
I guess some people didn't experience S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chornobyl & Crysis 1 in 2007 when they were first time released with their requirements and "optimization", not even to say when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky came out afterwards :)
Once the game is patched, hopefully it will be more balanced. It's just a raw overestimation of GSC regarding customers' equipment :D
It didn't have the O in 2007, the town's called Chernobyl in English and most other languages
@@Chud-mb7gl Well, if you really wanted to steer up this conversation with political unawareness, I believe every country should be respected for whatever changes they do, from the cultural side it's our obligation to understand and learn why that was done. "Chernobyl" is not the original name of the town; it's a direct phonetical translation of the town's name from Russian language. The original name of the town is in Ukrainian - "Chornobyl" - you can Google it.
@@Chud-mb7gl It always had the "O" in it! The city is literally called chornobyl IRL. We had an exam about it and all spellings are basicly correct! :D
Half of the class used english spelling other half used russian spelling and 3-5 people used the actual spelling... nobody lost points since it has been misspelled all over media and books for literally decades at that point :D
Just a reminder that technically this is an INDIE game.
Meaning that development was made fully on studios budget.
We can talk about bugs and glitches at least in a month - not like 5 days after realease.
I have a video on determining what makes "Indie" Indie. I would have to disagree with your parameter about a Studio using only their budget to be a "indie" title. There was a lot more help than actual Indie studios get, especially by Microsoft. This is from an interview with one of GSC's leads:
"(The PR manager continues, noting that Xbox head Phil Spencer has personally been "very supportive and caring" to the devs, and reiterating the unexpectedness of the corporation being so "close to the developers who are in a bad situation." )"
So its not like GSC were a 10 person group out of their small town office with no external help. I think it deflects from the glaring issues the game has, dismissing them because of our definition of the studio. But that's my two sense. No games are perfect, once Art is released, the critics will come. I'm confident that the bugs and major problems will be fixed in the months to come.
@@Dog.Dad.Studiosthat’s honestly a great take on it and while I sympathize with the devs who were in a terrible situation and had to move office, they still had tons of support from a major tech and software company so the game being released in its current buggy mess shouldn’t get a free pass by anyone who dropped money on it. It’s a very fun game all things considered and I hope they can fix as many of the issues people are having as quickly as possible on top of implementing a promised feature in A-Life 2.0. Overall I’d say I’d have rather waited a little longer for them to polish some more of the major glaring issues than release it to patch later, it’s becoming way too common in the video game industry and just needs more resistance from buyers voting with their wallets to not tolerate this practice.
100 million dollar indie game
Best review of Stalker 2 yet imo! We'll be eating so good the next years, especially once there is official mod support with the SDK being released. Anomaly 2 will probably make this game into one of the most replayable games of all time and as a Stalker fan since 2009, I couldn't be more happy about this fact :D What you said about the lang walks in the game is also my experience! I don't find the long ways between locations boring at all, it helps me to become immersed even more into the zone. Imo this is 100% what Stalker is about!
Thank you so much for your kind words and I agree with you whole hardheartedly. What we have is a great baseline for whats to come. Should that be the case with AAA games? No. Did I think it would be for HoC? Absolutely, its "euro jank" or whatever, but I knew after playing the originals that HoC wasn't going to be smooth sailing. And I know that it has a bright future ahead of it.. I swear when people get their hands on the modding tools, you're going to be seeing shreks roaming the swamps...
Очередной бред упитого бояркой русака. Первые игри полюбили не из-за всратих модов от школьников.
Loving the content. This is my first STALKER game so I’ve been watching all your retrospective content and am sooo thankful. I am LOVING this game and it makes me wish I would’ve played the og trilogy before playing this. But I am having a blast
I personally never got to experience A-life. But man. From how it sounds it sounds AMAZING. If they can get 2.0 handled I can’t begin to imagine how this game will be then
Also, I LOVE how this game doesn’t hold your hand on things. Like I found a pda with a convo incriminating one of the games vendors. No markers. No side quest. Just walked up to him and confronted him. He caved and pass me money to keep quiet. It’s those little things that keep me playing and trying out different approaches and things. I love it. Now if only people would actually tell me how to play stalker anomaly. I’d REALLY be happy. I’m new to pc gaming with MAYBE 1 month experience
Thank you for taking the time to write this! I'm so glad you're having a great time with the game, and thank you so much for taking the time with my content! If you ever have the chance, if you like 2, you'll love the originals, even with the jank. Wishing you the best!
I’m enjoying this game, however after the halfway point of the game everything is broken for me on console. Trying to save zalissya and none of the npcs are out no enemies everything is locked. Also with the dr in the bunker at noontide base being locked and can’t do the optional mission. I’ve quit playing to see if any patches fix it.
I left Zalissya since I was all the way north when it was hit, I was surprised this was a quest they intended for the player to do. Yes the doctor part got me too sadly. I’ll be running this back in a month once they have time to polish the side stuff.
Thanks for taking the time to comment and watch! Hope you get to finish it and I’d love to know what you think?
I just hit the same problem too hopefully they fix it in the patch but for now I'm totally softlocked especially on console
i’m having the exact identical bugs!!! I decided to say screw it and just go on with the story, but the next couple of missions after that halfway point are all bugged too!!! especially “a minor incident” has completely softlocked my story…. i’m unable to even finish the story despite having missed on optional content due to bugs. i was defending the game until this point too lol
@@candideoptimism8775seriously i was liking it until this point but how are these even passing quality control it seems pretty common with the player base too i feel like if they just had one or two months more of playtests and this game would be a masterpiece
@@dreydydog sadly I couldn’t agree more. it’s very similar to Cyberpunk 2077’s botched launch. see you in the Zone in 2 years stalker, with Stalker 2 2.0 update!
With a few mods I have it nearly ironed out and it runs much better. Finally a game with some damn content and no bloat. Recommend the vaulting over objects mod, and the soft patches/damage adjustments.
How easy is it to mod at the moment? Any problems?
I'll probably wait for the optimization and A-Life patches before buying it, but I'm happy that many people are enjoying it.
Great thought! Thanks for sharing!
Are you gonna make a lore video? Its my first stalker game but ive been looking up the story of the old games etc. I still have no idea whats going on and ive finished the story. Its there plotholes or am I missing stuff?
You can check out my lore videos, or retrospectives on the old trilogy. Hope it helps!
I got some 30 hrs in S2 and it’s a great game! They reeeeeally gotta do some performance fixes though… but i think we’ve got a 10-year gem here
100% agree with you!! Hope all is well!
@ thanks you too man! Congrats on the wedding and welcome back!🍻
@@tottistenstrom815 I truly appreciate your kind words and sentiment! So excited to be working again!!
Under normal circumstances, I do not like games that are this buggy and broken.
However given this was made by a company who’s country is literally being invaded by another country? I am more understanding, especially given that this game has really impressive high points and overall is enjoyable to play.
Well said, thanks for sharing your view point! What’s been one of your favorite parts so far?
@@Dog.Dad.Studios
I like how when out wandering the world you can get attacked even while looking into your inventory. It’s incredibly immersive.
Comparing this to games like say “Starfield” which all the planets felt for the most part empty. Which to no surprise will leave players incredibly bored and want to play something else. (Which based on the countless Starfield reviews on UA-cam, it’s definitely the case)
Dude I recently found your channel and you are great, keep making videos man, I'd love to hear more breakdowns on other games (not that I don't love stalker).
I appreciate your kind words! That’s my intent! If this is what the first year of production is like, I’m excited for what’s to come!
Absolutely, the only factor against me is time itself. I’m still finding my formula, but there are so many games that i want to cover. Whether that’s retrospectively, review wise, or something else, time will tell.
Next up is StarCraft 2 retrospective and maybe a video on a couple of indie titles I’m playing on the side.
I hope this finds you well and I truly appreciate you taking the time to watch my content and comment! It helps the channel so much!
All the best,
Dog dad
Just finished my first playthrough. On Xbox S….
It was amazing. Seen two endings… Speechless .. it was so damn good! I already build plans for next playthrough
I already looking forward to DLCs. Gonna buy them.
Technical problems… yeah. They were. Didn’t affect my enjoyment even a bit.
Thank you for sharing this : )
I am having a blast. Save and save often and fuck around! This is Stalker and it will only get more refined. Those unhappy, go play Shadow of Chornobyl until the game get's patched a few times.
Love it!!
I’ve been a huge stalker fan since the beginning, and Stalker 2 is exactly what I wanted. Some of it is janky, but the whole thing is extremely stalker.
Well said!
Its unfortunate that A-Life is butchered right now (hopefully not forever) and that the economy is so lackluster. By the time i got to cement factory though i had 100K because I neverrrr repair anything at all, just buy new or replace with gear i find in the zone. Now im finding armors i dint even need and making bank. Early game economy is kind of unusable unless ur rich tho
I bet when implemented correctly a-life 2 tanks CPU performance. Frames are already low and dependent on upscaling and frame generation for a smooth experience having to perform complex instructions will tank fps even further. You'll likely need an AMD x3d CPU to run this game with good frame rates unless they spend a lot of time optimizing the game and are successful.
@Silentheaven89 yeaaa....frankly I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that their intended version or 2.0 is more of an imitation...trying to run actual A-Life in this game isn't doable, but maybbeeee they figured out a system that does enough to make it feel right. I hope we get to see that soon or I'll be a sad boy
I mean the game is really poorly optimised right now. And modders have already said that they could fully implement A-Life into the game, it's just a matter of how long than if it can be. I think there will be massive performance patches in the months and year to come that will drastically improve performance. And then I think a-life can be implemented well
@@Guns_N_Gl0ryh0les заявити можна що завгодно, а таке життя на 64 кілометрах просто знищить компьютер
Also, I have a question about the game:
Exploring the world, have you seen those black-white portrait photos on the tables? In different locations, if there is an office table, there is oftenly a photo of a person. Small, barely noticeable. But those all are uniq photos of people.
Do you know anything about them? I have my suspicions that those are real people.
Howdy! Thanks for taking the time to write this! I did see them and my only assumption is that it’s the GSC development team : ) nice little touch to have them immortalized in the zone
Good review and like the use of C&C music
A man of Soviet culture and grace! Ahahah, its some great music
Finished the game before Patch 1.0.1, definitely worth it. So much fun. Never played a Stalker game before
What was one of your favorite parts?
I've gotten to missions past the Duga and ill say- on console i didn't notice any real concerning bugs up until *after* i played the clear sky mission. That was when i began seeing these problems:
1. Soldiers spawning mere meters away from me and attacking
2. Monsters like bloodsuckers randomly spawning in areas that i had previously cleared have been to.
3. People throwing grenades as often as they shoot at you.
4. The game began crashing.
5. Missions and side missions began not working properly or even being unable to initiate those missions at all.
I would honestly not recommend people playing main missions beyond the Clear Sky mission until things get patched.
Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and comment! I did get past this point but agree it’s messy! Hope they fix it soon!
Currently stuck on the classic “Answers Come at a Price” bug. I decided just to explore every inch of the map I can for now. I’m 12 hours in and only halfway done. That says something 😭. Can’t wait to get to what you’re talking about tho.
@Dog.Dad.Studios Don't get me wrong, I love the game. I've been obsessively playing it lol. Even if I have to take breaks.
@@Rayquicidal it’s always important to take breaks : )
Yo, great video, i am in my first playthrough with 35 hours and haven't yet finished the main story and besides the bugs and not so good optimization i think this is my favourite game of the year
What are some other contenders for game of the year? Thanks for sharing!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios i think helldivers 2 would be a great oponent, but i still prefer stalker 2
I keep having the music cut out on me when I was exploring the underground areas, making it feel super creepy
Great video. Stalker 2 just brought me back to awesome memories. That's how games should be made and kudos to GSC for making it right. Yeah, its buggy but that's part of the trip and we know they are doing the best to fix it their best. I just kinda miss some variety on handguns. What happened to the pistols? Not too far into the game but I've only seed the makarov and the usp. I remember we had a few more in the trilogy...
Yeah the variety of handguns is a little thin, hoping it gets expanded upon with mods! Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment : ) hope all is well!
Started playing yesterday and loved it so far it definitely feels like a true stalker game
So glad you’re enjoying it : ) what’s one of your favorite parts so far?
@@Dog.Dad.Studios so far I enjoy getting absolutely destroyed by the poltergeist in the boat at the beginning because I wanted some loot 👌🏻
This is my first STALKER game.
I am a lifelong fan from here on out. I will be playing the original trilogy as soon as I’m able.
This game is special. I feel for the dev team, I fell in love with the Zone, and most importantly, this game makes me feel like a kid playing video games again.
Bugs be damned, I know when a game is doing something right and when it’s doing something wrong. STALKER 2 does so much right for me that I can for ONE TIME in my life accept that a broken game is worth it, and I’d rather be playing it now with all it’s bugs than in a year when it’s improved. STALKER 2 is special, and I have so so so much love and faith for the team that put this together. I haven’t played a single GOTY nominee for 2024 because they don’t interest me (except black myth, but that’s ps5 for now), so STALKER 2 takes my game of the year by a long shot, even with the state it’s in. I just can’t find it in me to care about the downsides this game has, it’s too much fun.
Thanks for sharing this!
I’ve been playing on PC, and I’ve had some glitches but… it’s really not that bad imo? A lot of the negatives that people don’t like, I’ve actually loved those things as an important part of the game’s experience.
I hear you, I’m with you, some people aren’t. There’s some wacky stuff going on late game
I'm enjoying my time so far but my current playthrough Will just be exploring the early areas of the map and not progressing the story. Once a few patches are done then I'll do a fresh playthrough when the Ai is fixed
I know that many of you didn’t like STALKER clear sky, but it did introduce the one of the best features which was faction wars, and I wish HOC would have implemented this (not to mention they had the drippiest faction ever, my beloved clear sky)
love clear sky issues aside
Just started the video but im going to be using this video to gauge whether or not im getting Stalker 2
Hi OP. New to your channel, appreciate and watched all your lore vids, as I never played the original trilogy. Currently in the swamps and planning to continue powering through the jank.
Have a few short tips to share related to mods. I'm currently running the optimized tweaks S.2, readable ammo, longer sprinting (which is bugged for me leading to infinite sprint, yay), and a mouse fix. I would highly recommend the last one to everyone. For some reason, the devs gave the X and Y axis different sensitivity values, it's a simple mod that fixes that. It's called Equalized Aim Sensitivity X-Y.
Lastly, I believe I heard you mention the frame drops after an hour or so of play in one of your videos. From my research and experience it's frame generation, and disabling these at the expense of 30FPS allows me to play indefinitely. Oh well.
Anyway, thanks for all of your content, very much looking forward to more and will be following you. Time to go compile some shaders and jump back into it!
Howdy and welcome! Where are you finding mods at the moment and how easy are they to install? My knowledge of modding games is pretty rough, and the last time I extensively did it was for Fallout New Vegas.
I appreciate you!! Thanks for your kind words
@@Dog.Dad.Studios You're very welcome. I've gotten all of mine from nexusmods. Been using manual download option with very easy installation. Initially had to create a "~mods" folder at a specific location, then every mod just asks to be dropped there. Relaunch the game and that's it.
The modding community is already hard at work. There are already 19 pages of Stalker2 mods.
Hoping nothing is broken, patching the game now...
Ya for me I'm going to try this game after some time I bought it and returned it because i met pc recommended specs it did run very well like i thought it should.
I think they perfectly nailed how Bethesda used to do their games. Start a mission, see interesting place on the way, just go to check it out, forget the quest...
I loved S2 for the story, didn't much care for the gameplay or graphics but both turned out to be great as well
Every time I leave a cave, the lighting/transition the lighting almost look read.
May i inquire as to what ending you did do?
I as a newconer did the ward ending knowing nothing of the greater world and it felt like a satisfying conclusion to Skif's story.
I went strelok and I’m interested to play through it again for those endings : ) did you play the original games?
@Dog.Dad.Studios no, this was my first and I'm currently unemployed so gotta wait to get them.
@ let me know how you like them when you do play them : ) wishing you the best
@Dog.Dad.Studios oh I'm going to love them. Especially after sitting down and listening to your merged retrospective videos.
@@Xeakquh fantastic : ) thank you for taking the time!
is that background music at the beginning diablo 3 music?
Good ears, Diablo II Tristram
@@Dog.Dad.Studios thought it was diablo 3 Tristram dang I got way to many hours on diablo 3 to be honest
@@Legal_beagle187 It was a great game!! Got unfairly panned
Something that's not gonna translate for english speakers, the lack of original voices is a bit sad. Yes, it's localized to ukrainian and english but in the original games people spoke a mix of ukrainian, russian and surzhyk and it really gave character to the zone. And the english localization is just not great in it's own right.
It’s also interesting that the lip sync is for the English apparently! Very odd
Im at the end and the bugs are making me want to pull my fkin hair, ive had to reload countless times because of scenes not progressing, doors nog opening. Its so annoying getting to the end just to have all the tension spoiled by frustrating bugs and performance
If you’re at the door not opening after pressing the button, don’t go down the elevator, there are two doors behind the button. Yeah that was frustrating, no two ways about it
@Dog.Dad.Studios I appreciate the help but no it was a bug during the part where you have to reconnected the generators, you have to leave the bunker up the ladder and out the hatch, the hatch kept closing shut on me lol
Apart from the gameplay bugs, my major issues are how much of a bullet sponge enemies and mutants are. I want to fight a bloodsucker when I run into them but I can’t afford it if I’m guna burn 150 rounds, 3 medkits, and 4 bandages. I ended up just running away from them for now. Money and ammo wasn’t a problem for me in the first 10 hours, but from hour 15-25 I find myself bringing 300-400 rounds for one gun plus 100 shotgun shells and still worrying about ammo. And the fact that guns and armor cost so much to repair it makes it harder to buy ammo. I spent 20 hours stock piling 5.56 (about 700 rounds) and not using a single 5.56 weapon, and when I took out a 5.56 weapon it took me 2 main story missions to run out of that stockpile. I love the game, the story, I’m addicted to it. But enemies need like 60-70% of there current health and repair costs need to be dropped to make the game more enjoyable.
Just beat it this morning, everything is really good damn near perfect but needs to be worked on with patches or mods which will take time. After that and letting you continue the same save file after the main storyline concludes it would be perfect.
Well put! 100% agree!
As someone who fell in love with anomaly and then gamma i have to say im not liking stalker 2 so far...
not because its not like the moded experience, i well aware that im playing a heavily moded version of the vanilla and never expected S2 to be like them however the fact that so many things are broken just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth while exploring the zone.
i might still finish the story just because im worried someone will spoil it down the line... but other than that, im going back to gamma for now
Whose your favorite faction to play in GAMMA?
@@Dog.Dad.Studios Mercs all the way, my man!
Finding Dark and killing all the mercs there i felt like a navy seal with my vector
It was a sick set piece
I turned the ambient music off immediately and I'm glad I did.
1080p?
I've gotten two story missions into Garbage and decided to start exploring. About 30 hours in now.
I'm still lost on how to get to pripyat, and don't care about spoilers on how to get there. Just need to know how at this point 😂
You’ll need to progress through the story or go all the way northwest but I don’t know if that’s possible before a certain point
Love the video dude but how come your audio is so quite?
What device are you using? I know of the issue with the video mic not picking up as well as when recording off camera, but on my tv and headphones, it’s okay balancing. I’ll continue to try to tinker with it! Thank you so much for caring enough to mention it! Hope all is well!
I would just like the major bugs fixed faster. Stuck in the main quest because you can't open a bunker door is absolutely v annoying. And I am far from the only one with this one bug alone
Is it the bunker door way into the end game? If so, load up a save before pushing the button to restore elevator usage, click the button and go through the two white doors, not the elevator leading to the bunker door thats shut. If its the noontide base one with the scientist, that one is broken broken.
Its very annoying and no excuses for quests to be that bugged in a final release in the main story line..
@Dog.Dad.Studios I don't know where it is in the story as I refuse to look through spoilers. It is the noontide base though. I first noticed the issue with the roof zombie quest and sent in a bug report and went ahead with the story. Now I am back with a different quest and it is still broken.
@ yes it’s a known issue sadly : (
Great game, rare in game design like some kind of FPS dark souls. So let’s wait for the fixes. Now there is an info that A-life is there but partially disabled as it loads CPU a lot now, so the performance would suffer a lot and they need time for optimisation
Interesting, can you explain a bit more about what you mean by FPS dark souls? Yeah you can tell it needed more time in the oven.
@ hardcore and not forgiving first person shooter (not my idea of comparison, heard it in other video and it seems to fit well)
I’ve been waiting 15 years for this game… but I’m going to wait at least a year, so I can build a decent PC! Hopefully the game will be much better by then.
Two great things to look forward to : )!
Definitely holding off getting Stalker 2 until I get a new PC or laptop. Currently have a Lenovo IdeaPad 3 AMD 5500U laptop, I don't dare try to temp fate with this game.
Yeah that would blow up ahahah 😂 what are you thinking for your new pc?
@Dog.Dad.Studios - Budget PC with AMD RDNA 4 at least 12 GB VRAM GPU. Slight chance I'll get a budget 5000 Series Nvidia GPU PC. Want to spend around $800.00. I'm definitely of a console mindset with gaming and wouldn't go into the thousands for a PC. The organic food I buy takes alot of my money these days.
@ better to focus on your body for the long term : ) can’t game if you aren’t healthy!
how do you misspell the name... while putting the correct spelling in the thumbnail
Ask HBO
@@Dog.Dad.Studios HBO gets a pass cuz they're talking about Chornobyl in the USSR when russians told everyone it's called "Chernobyl", proper nouns do not translate etc., but the title of the game is Heart of Chornobyl, big man, it's in your steam library under the correct name, and you misspell it not once, but twice, in the title, and in the description, though i understand ofc that you can't change anything at this point without the YT algorithm goin "woooooooah, where did that video go, crazy"
edit: great video otherwise, massive work, pretty levelled review
@@xanazf You might want to bring this up with Microsoft and its spell check as well; I don't know if this is the medium to spur the change you want to see, but I've done my part.
Cheers!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios russians have a tight grip around both Microsoft and Google's autocorrect/spell check, simply because there's more of them using the spelling that they want to see, since the other spelling gives credence to the Ukrainian language that they vehemently hate, and the algorithms often use past user spellings to offer spell checks
edit: and English first language folk most of the time don't bother doublechecking
17:13 actually they do real fight. You can just stand and watch from distance until they finish each other and loot em all.
I felt like it took so long to the point where it didn’t feel like there was damage, but I’m glad they can still finish each other off. You have more patience than I : )
while I share some of the praise you gave this game, I'm definitely going to be playing anomaly with the gamma modpack while I wait for more bug fixes and patches. I feel like some areas of the game (specifically enemy AI) were better in the old games. Also the point you made about not being able to tell which faction you're looking at right before they send a bullet your way is a huge downside for me.
As much as I love the game, the constant 3 bloodsuckers random spawns make this a 0/10. You learn to engage every enemy. You learn to conserve resources. Exploring the map is fun. Quite unfortunate the random spawns ruin the game for me. I don't even get constant crashes.
I know it sucks to say, but have you tried just running? That’s what I had to do before the patches. No excuse for the game. Have you tried with the new patches? I’m replaying now, hoping they fixed it. I agree very annoying to deal with
@Dog.Dad.Studios Yes, so I usually try to get like a car or something to stand on. If I can't get a vantage point I just run away. I have the game fully patched on linux and windows.
I just wish the game was in a better technical state. I can't get past my third or fourth hour of progress. If you crash in a very particular way, the game may wipe your save of the last playthrough or all data, along with performance and batman AI, I have to wait. The game is so far from a masterpiece and this is coming from someone who play the first vanilla
Howdy thanks for taking the time to share your experience with the game. I'm sorry that progression block is happening to you, as I say in the video, all power to you not playing the game because of that; its inexcusable to have these game breaking glitches, yet here we are again.
Hope all is well!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios Thanks man. Its just the more I watch reviews, the more I actually want to play some more and uncover the story. I will just wait for updates!
I have not played the other games but I do truly enjoy this one.
While the game does have some parts that can glitch out and etc.. it has been fun so far even to the point I might try the older games
It is definitely worth checking out the older games, and if you don’t have a ton of time, I do have a retrospective series where I play through the trilogy. Still recommend playing them yourself!
The only thing that really bugged me is the unkillable guass sniper on a later mission hes chris kyle and will one tap you throgh walls 😂
That was so annoying! Definitely moments where they had to get you to a specific spot for the scripting. I spent way too much time trying to sneak my way in..
Bolero's keyboard is upside down lol
The economy is fucked so bad you have to abuse glitches to keep up but isn't too big a deal imo. Stalkers can be dropped in 1or 2 headshots from any gun at any point in the game but mutants take a small fortune to down. The 65 meter bubble around you where AI can spawn with absolutely nothing outside of that is pretty ridiculous and not a replacement for A-Life. Bugs aren't too bad for the most part until after the SIRCAA quests in my experience, but still pretty frequent (a good portion of them can be fixed via UETools).
Still having a blast with the game and when the pieces fall into place it creates wonders. Here's hoping they beat the game into shape and get it ready for the insanity of the mod scene to take over and transform the game into something truly crazy.
Well written, thank you!
I feel like that’s the general consensus now, baseline is good but far too buggy, time will heal all wounds. Still not great for release
finished it yesterday. tbh I felt weird. lore expanding was good but Im not sure if l liked how some of the things turned out. Gameplay felt strange too it felt like I was playing some other game that stalker inspired. Really liked the designs of the suits but this game really needs cyberpunk style photomode maybe not as detailed but still I need to see my character from thirdperson.
Interesting, can you elaborate more about that feeling? Which ending did you get? I’m pretty sure there is a hidden ending.
Completely agree I filled my steam screenshots folder lol.
@@Dog.Dad.Studios There has to be a hidden ending. I got the skif ending and about the feeling idk how to explain it. Its like it let me down but also exceeded my expectations also after playing so many mods stalker 2 also felt like a mod. I guess after waiting for so long I cant accept that this is an official game.
@ interesting thank you for taking the time to explain your point of view!!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios thank you too have a nice day
I'm still on the beginning of the game, just found my way to Garbage. Gunfights are fun, but kinda annoying when you die and restart other side map.
When it comes to bugs, they don't really bother me thanks to playing Bethesda titles. Also having almost bug free game is kinda impossible, especially these when games are fucking complex. Also also it's a miracle that this game even came out so I'll cut so lack.
Can't say anything about A-Life because I've never saw it in action.
As whole I liked the game but now just wondering should I continue it or wait until the game breaking stuff gets fixed.
Howdy! Thanks for taking the time to write this! I laughed at the Bethesda thing, since I guess we’re now older adults who remember that release…
It does make you stronger to games like that, and I think you’re right about the complexity shooting developers in the foot.
I would say it’s all about what you’d like to do. Do you feel like you want to explore more and play? Or do you feel like you’re forcing yourself to go out?
I didn’t really have game breaking stuff personally, but there were a bunch of little things I didn’t understand how they weren’t fixed ( side mission, one portion of a specific main mission).
In the end it’s about you having fun with the time you have. Ask yourself are you having fun or would you be having a better time with something else at the moment
@Dog.Dad.Studios Thanks for answering. When it comes to games I don't expect anything or at least I can't recognize if I've any expectations. So that explain why I don't get that disappointed when game is released in sorry state. It also explain why most of the time I get positively surprised when game happens to be better than I expected.
Dead Island 2 was one of those games, and to this day I'm blown away how polished and complete game felt when I played it last time.
Then again I play video games I enjoy and continue play them even if they are hated by some like Cyberpunk 2077 or Starfield.
@ I couldn’t get through starfield lol, it was soulless : (
@Dog.Dad.Studios on that we can agree to disagree or how that sentence went again.
As someone new to the series with minimal exposure to the previous games (Cheeki Breeki memes): I've enjoyed it, but the AI spawning in your pocket, AI gunfights never ending, and lighting issues in buildings are making it very difficult to get immersed.
Side note: The Ukranian voice actors sound great.
Ahahaha the memes are powerful! Well put.
Glad the VA in the native language is great! Thanks for taking the time to comment
I was loving the Game, but at about 25 hours in it crashed after loading in after a death and now it doesn't matter what save i try to load, it crashes the game on loading into it. Kinda sucks. But otherwise it was fun.
Load an older save, try like five or ten minutes back.
Have you checked integrity of files? Do all files not load or cause a crash?
All of the saves for that game crash i had gone as far back as like 4 hours if I remember correctly. And do you mean verify the game files and see if that works? I did start a new game just to see and that one worked and saved good. So I don't know what was causing the issue on my original game
The mission popup notifications are very instrusive even when you turn them off. Also I’m very disappointed with the emissions. They shook your screen and the sound was deafening it made the experience terrifying in CS and CoP. Everything just turns a deep red then blam. I hope modders can bring that back. Then lastly the difficulty is non existent even when playing on Veteran. I am inundated with resources there is no real sense of scarcity. Other than that the game is fun once the textures load in and the frames rates stablize
Well written and thought out, thank you!!!
4:11 I like what 2 has to offer but this, along with MANY decisions makes 2 feel like a regression.
My problem with 2 isn't that it doesn't feel like S.T.A.L.K.E.R because it does. (And my poor Acer Laptop struggling to run it aside) It's that they stripped quite a few elements and mechanics from previous games.
I already can't tell enemies apart from friendlies due to having every graphics setting mostly set to low, creating a blurry jaggy mess. So throwing on the lack of distinct gear makes things so hard.
They also didn't bring back a statistics screen or low crouch.... petty complaints aside it's a good game. Just needs some love from the devs and I'm glad they aren't just ignoring the problems and burying their heads in the sands for years until they suddenly decide they care (I'm looking at you Techland and 343)
ive decided to just wait a few months for a few patches before jumping in myself, mostly becuase of that AI spawning thing everyone has mentioned. just seems something that would piss me off alot
That’s reasonable! And I support your choice!
Finished my play through last night lets just say she'll never be free but she will be protected.
I went down the same path : )! Sorry skif! You found your home muahaha!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios That's insane when I got the achievement steam said only 0.1% of people got it crazy we chose the same path
@@gravewarden9691 my achievement for the ward ending on console is sitting at a 0.03% have done rating lmao.
I wouldn't necessarily say they "faithfully recreated" the zone. They got a lot of broad strokes right, but many of the details have been changed in ways that don't make sense. On some level, I understand they did this in order to do more with the older maps, but it drives the autistic little stalker in me crazy. Plus, they moved a lot of the areas to completely different places on the map. It's not enough to make me hate the game, but it does bother me every time I play.
I still don’t understand the 2 in the title
What do you mean? Its a direct sequel to the trilogy
@Dog.Dad.Studios I'm pretty sure the title defines it as its own chapter "Heart of Chornobyl"
I'm glad to see that the sequel kept the same unique Stalker vibe after a 10+ since the last entry in the series. As someone that valued the world and atmosphere of the original game, I dislike anything that breaks the immersion. For example, the combat music. I hated it in Clear Skt, not as much in Stalker 2 but it really doesn't add anything. A firefight in SHOC felt like something that just happens and the world doesn't care about it happening. On the visual side, the game looks a little worse than the trailers imo. The first Stalker had the amazing lighting for the time it came out and seeing flaslight not casting dynamic shadows in a game released in 2024 just bums me out, especially a Stalker game. I'm just happy that this game saw the light of day and the scale of it is trully impressive. All the technical issues should get adressed in due time by GSC and the modders.
So, it's sad that they have to do ot during a war, but the game is still raw. Real cyberpunk 2077, crashes, bugs and all. Abysmal performance, but that's understandable. But man, the lighting is terrible, no dynamic shadows, no A-life, enemy ai is wack, the economy is terrible, it costs like 10k to repair a suit from 95%. And a lot of other small things that make a messy emergy drink chugging simulator
The important part is that it IS a true stalker game.
The changes in your audio throughout the video is super jarring
Thanks for taking the time to share this, what device are you using?
@Dog.Dad.Studios I was using voice to text so sorry for the short comment. I'm on mobile, throughout the video your audio will change, I'm not too techy so unsure how best to describe it. Almost sounds like you're recording it in a different place at a different time than the last audio clip.
I enjoy listening to your videos while in the car, so sorry I don't know the exact time frames!
@@Dog.Dad.StudiosFound an example at around the 7:27 mark, as your footage changes to you in a room with a red light
@ thanks so much! I’ll address this in the upcoming videos
A-life is the biggest problem for me,because of that I stopped at garbage hoping they fix it.All other bugs can be fixed but Im scared A-life will be hard to fix,at least fast.
Also,I didn't saw comments about mutants being dumb,just me talking about it.I cant stand how they behave.Pack of dogs spawn...yes spawn,not roaming around as they should and when they attack you just jump on something and they hide,you jump down they rush,up hide,down rush,up hide,down rush and funny is that they hide behind some tree and its like they are peeking lol Every mutant encounter for me was like that if I jump on something.I mean in old game dogs jump,cats too,boars could hit you sometimes even if you stand on the car
Anyway,that killed my immersion so i stopped for now
Thanks for sharing! I appreciate you!
Stalker is a hard game, I hope new player who came into this franchise can embrace the difficulty rather than trying to gimp the game down into yet another CoD.
I will recommend to turn off most of the UI for better immersion, otherwise you will rely too much on the UI for cue rather than actually looking at the beautiful world.
that is actually true for a lot of games, the UI is in the way of immersion. And Stalker 2's immersion is something to behold.
50h in I still haven't reach Cordon. Yeah. I taking my time (or die a lot 😆)
Didn’t know that was an option, I’ll try it out for the second play through!
Hi, there is a coop mp mod for CoP called "X-Ray Multiplayer Extension (xrMPE) - Call of Pripyat Coop", if you want to play it and make a video, I would love to join.
Howdy! Firstly thank you so much for taking the time to watch my content and comment, that means a lot!
I never knew about this and I’ll do my research, thank you! As for playing with people, as of this moment I’m unavailable to do so. I hope in the future we’ll be able to set up charity streams and use that as a way to play with people.
Hope this finds you well!
All the best,
Dog dad
I just wish there was more advanced mechanics. I want deeper systems. :(
Felt that completely! The open world mechanics, weapon systems, armor, etc.. felt pretty bland, and i was very suprised there wasn't like a metro crafting system or something maybe a mild rpg system. Like Skif runs and walks a lot, how is his endurance not going up marginally? Artifacts glitched on my run, even with the best armor I was getting radiation, really wish they took the artifact blender from GAMMA and put it in.
Anyways, mods and GSC will add stuff, but what's there now I don't think is enough to get excited about, like I say in the video. If you're a fan of the series, those systems aren't priority, at least for me they weren't.
Graphics crazy nice. Character models suck tho. Agroprom underground was sick I loved it
Dude did you go to streloks old hideout?!
@@Dog.Dad.Studios Yup
It doesn't have that same resource management feel stalker 1 had
They had the perfect formula in SoC! It’s interesting to see how modern games have to shed certain things, especially when using the unreal engine, despite its beauty! Hope all is well, thanks for commenting!
Console is completely different minimal issues on the lack of fps
That’s fantastic and baffling lol 😂 thanks for letting us know! Hope all is well!
Emphasis on the broken nearly eveey quest after rostok is simply broken NPC's wont spawn map markers are wrong etc game needed another year at the very least sidequests fail even though you did everything right.
Thanks for sharing, thats wild I did not have that experience.
@Dog.Dad.Studios Ive found work arounds but the coller quest is totally broken the side quest one the collar at malachite will not spawn no matter what.
@ that’s so disappointing I want to know about x5!!!!!
Im having a great time, then again Im kind of a masochist, I like hard games and I played the original and knew what I was going into. But yeah the AI is a bit unfair, like sometimes I clear an area and Im looting the place and not even 2 min later the same enemies Spawn in again. Its crazy. Oh and the mutants move like they are on crack of something, all the mutants move sooo fast, Im playing on Xbox and try to hit a goddamn mutant rat or dog with the controller its sooo hard... The developers are working on fixing the AI and balancing the economy, if they fix those two things I will be happy, the other bugs dont even bother me at all.
So well written! Thank you!
To me, it just feels like an empty world. I've played other open world games, and this one just feels empty. There is nothing to do. And people say the map is huge, and I'm like, yeah, but there's nothing to do. The most interesting thing so far has been the poppy field. I'm also playing the game at the hardest difficulty, and the enemies are bullet sponges, taking like 10 shots to the body with a 12 Guage shot gun ! Like, wtf are they made of ? I would understand if the invisible monster has loads of health, but regular people ?!? It's stupid. And the AI sucks ! The most redeeming part of the game is the graphics. I don't mind the stutters and low graphics or bugs ! It's the gameplay I'm after.
I'm still having fun, though 😂. Not enough side quests. The main mission is the only thing keeping me playing the game and the difficulty. Because if I were to breeze through the game like it was nothing, I'd be pist ! Also, why is there even a food requirement or water requirement as I heard ? I rarely eat or drink eater, and my character is good. Also, I have only ever slept like 3 times in the game to pass the storms... it's like not even needed.
The food and survival stuff reminded me of fallout 4s survival mode? Or maybe it was new Vegas system, but yeah it was weird, there was also a tip in the load menu about sleeping? But I never got tired.. so idk lol.
Yeah the ai is pretty rough but yeah I’m had a great time even with my frustrations, definitely waiting for a patch or two to go back for the other endings
all is good but why does it feel like uam looking at a metro game somtimes yeesh
Similar theme and topic?
i still think it should have been on the X-Ray engine instead of UE5
1:38 ahhh yes stalker
its missing basically everything that made the first 3 games great. No faction wars, no A.I(enemies are braindead) and no a-life, no russian VO, no gopnik feel. No cheeki breeki iv damke. Massive disappointment.
games amazing , 1.1 update killed it cant launch it , as broken as it was i loved it and cant play it now , stop fixing the zone...
Damn I’m so sorry! The patch notes looked great! I’m hoping they get this fixed
@ hey im all for updates , I read through the notes looks great on paper , just entered jupiter and im stuck redownloading the game to see if I can hop on , I have 5 days playing time on this game veteran mode
@@kazuhira7777 if it’s a crash issue I’m sure they’ll be on it ( usually happens to a lot of people) is there a ue5 reporter for the game? I forget.
Crossing my fingers it gets resolved soon!
@ im just scared my files will get scrambled , btw love ur reviews stalker series is amazing you do it justice
@ steam is pretty good with file accreditation and backups, but I understand being worried when the actual game is being wonky.
I truly appreciate you saying that. I’m so glad so many people enjoy the series and I’m excited for what’s to come!
Did i just heard Red Alert music!
A Soviet classic
I think it was worth finishing it in this state as a fan, like yourself I was equally as hyped, and still am to replay it
Yes, A-life isn’t there, making enemie encounters, npc fights, and roaming NPC’s, but despite this, I’m sure in a year, I’ll play again with A-Life being fixed and just reminisce over how the lack of encounters really made me believe I was in a world and not a game, it’s unrealistic to imagine seeing 20 things happen in the span of 1.2km, so I like it right now
It’ll be a great open world game tho in a bit, but for now, this is peak Stalker for me, it even beats the Metro trilogy (which was made by old GSC employees)
Like you said, “A love letter to S.T.A.L.K.E.R fans”
Well written, thank you for taking the time to both watch and comment! Hope you're doing well!
I’ll buy that for a Dog Dad Dollar™️!
They should have taken another 6 month to polish it. But a thing that cant be polished easily is the art style. It somehow doesnt "feel" like the old Stalker visually. For me its especially the NPC designs. They all look bland without recognizable features.
They all look a tad "Disney"fied.
I mention in the video how the different factions all look similar, sure spark is green, but it blended in so much. The older games had a more distinct style, the one downside of unreal engine
No spoilers? Bruh you spoiled one of the coolest visuals in the first seconds of the video without any warning. Be more careful man.
I would argue without any context, that it’s not spoiling anything. Especially with context, it’s not real..
If I had show a certain main character that wasn’t shown in the trailers, that’s what I consider “spoiler”
Thanks for expressing your concern
You remind me of Joseph Anderson.
I might shed a tear. That means so much to me. He helped me when my mother was succumbing to ALS. I’ll never forget his Edith Finch review as well as the classic dark souls.
I hope I can be like that for someone else. Hope all is well!