At 120 hours myself & gotten 46% of the achievements on pc gamepass & I’m lovin the game, personally id rather play a buggy game that’s actually fun than a smooth running game that suck’s
@@dMidnightb maybe you just got a shit opinion because the game’s at an overall positive review rating on steam bud, don’t worry, they got a game just for you, it’s called dragon age veilguard that’s more up to your speed bucko, you clearly have never played a stalker game before & it shows.
@@jasonbrody1134 i completed it on the 22nd on stalker without upgrading anything the game is so lame it throws rooms at you full of gear to fight the next part upgrading is pointless
@@BensSistersUndies well that sucks for you, I’m having fun with the game & that’d what matters to me, also F.Y.I if you’re playing the game on pc you can mod it to reduce the amount of Loot & whatnot you find.
4:55 There are issues with enemies spawning next to you… but this isn't one of them :) That guy's body disappeared because he was a psi-induced hallucination. I had the same happen in this exact spot, so it might be scripted on top of that. That said, enemies spawn near you from time to time. What I find funny though is that they spawn with unloaded guns. In one place near the end of the game (no spoilers) I pressed the button to open an elevator and a guy spawned behind me shouting "I will destroy you!", then he started loading his shotgun. I wonder what was going through his head… apart from a slug from my Gauss Rifle.
I think actually why there are spawning issue right behind you - is that about psyche anomalies presented in game - they might have screwed something about it - between like normal encounters and this particular mechanic
@@rudemption basically that is the thing in this situation - its an anomaly making you hallucinate, same as the controller or the monolith altars and so on.
Yeah, I cant believe this guy, its heavily shown that this is just psionic hallucinations (also voices and whispers you hear in your head), with psi blocker they usually disappear, but ignorantly "its a bug"...
100%. Now there still is random enemy spawn around you that are not immersive and not a psi damage consequence but hopefully, listening to devs, the life system is gonna be implemented at some point.
Yeah, there are the psy hallucinations and the random spawns. The same way that there are hallucinations that give you random guns, but also a bug that give you random guns.
It is. If i could play it. But i got hard locked from the main mission. Have to wait a patch now. Also totally 4 sidequests i can not finish because they are bugged. And two super artifacts i can not collect because they dont spawn.
5:06 it's not a broken A-life system, it's a phantom from psy anomalies. And i remember you said about it that you wanted phantoms to warn you before shooting, but it's a brain damage, how can it warn you before get harm to you 😏
Yeah, I've had actual spawns real close, also they generally happen behind you so you can't see them. In the swamps for example I've seen a LOT of big packs of dogs and boars spawn. Fortunately they are hostile to each other so I could often just run but having this big 12 pack of dogs and a 6 pack of boars just pop in within 50m of me happened at least half a dozen times while going through the swamps.
While there are psi enemies and they do disappear like that one, the issue he brought up does happen and often. He knows it was a psi enemy. The best way to deal with them is just not waste the bullets The a life system has been spawning enemies literally on top of you in the game. This is because the system doesn't work the way it should and this has been confirmed by the devs
Even stashes are broken. I just looted a stash, left the house and went 10 meters away. I checked the map and then the stash icon is at the same location again. I went back and the bag that i just looted 30 seconds before was full with stuff again. Great job, guys.
5:00 Oh, no, no. That's the way it should be. At this place, the character starts hallucinating and being attacked by “false enemies,” so it's really an anomaly (not in a joking sense). There was a strange man sitting there who was going crazy, and if you stayed there long enough, you started to go crazy too.
I'd say it's between stalker 2 and helldivers 2 but overall helldivers offers a more smooth and polished experience so my vote goes for helldivers. Unfinished games shouldn't get a chance to get voted for goty. Make a category for it "best unfinished game of the year" I'll let stalker 2 sit on that pedistol
Mine too. If i could play it. I m hard locked on main mission. 4 sidequests i can not complete. And two super artifacts i can not collect because they dont spawn.
@@udtojanpestillos2094 >Mine too. If i could play it. That's literally all anyone needs to know about delusional attempts to hype up this lazy piece of code.
Having 100+ hours in the game, latest patch fixes 90% of the issues I encountered during my fully finished story. I do recommend some mods, like A-Life + Longer days. Other than that, there's noting gamebreaking. The story is real good.
A clue for you is this is stalker 2 not cod year 27.stalker 2 just came out unlike cods 27 years of regurgitated formula. Cod also has a fortnite style shop and hackers 😂 @platanito4494
Cod had 20 years, billions of dollars and a multi billion dollar company to get it right, this game was made by half the employees and not eben half the budget. Cod has hackers and fortnite skins for 30 dollars. This game can have a couple mistakes cause its not a big franchise that should have there formula figured out by now
the bug you are talking about at 5:08 when an enemy appeared out of nowhere, this particular case is not a bug, it's like the mechanics of the game, when you are affected by radiation or psi radiation you start to see enemies but when you search them they disappear, this happens in the game and later in various anomalies or battles with some enemies but yes yes there is a bug that will spawn enemies out of nowhere with love from Ukraine 🥰🥰🥰
5:30 loosing my mind over a randomly spavned enemy in a place where they should not be spawned. As it appeared - it is not a bug :D enemies that are vanished like these are hallucinations cause by a cat or a controller chilling somewhere arrond.
When I was in that location, I could infinitely spawn in enemies by walking between the box Cohh hid behind and the place the NPC spawned. The enemies would just keep spawning opposite of me. So something was definetly bugged out on my end when I was there it seems 😅
@@Bobi13317 have you tried looting them? If they dissappear, then that's a hallucination of a controler or something else. It did spawn infinite enemies for me as well, but they all were a hallucination.
@@Alexandru007a I think they were hallucinations as they disappered, but still seems a bit broken to me that they would keep respawning endlessly as I walked over an imaginary line in the game world. I have no problem with it if it happened once in a while and not in an endless loop.
This game is personally my GOTY by far , yes its got bugs but I've never played a game for as long as i can remember that has immersed me so much and brought me right back to the 90s-00s when i was fully drawn in and invested in the worlds does anyone else feels games are missing something they had in the early 00s ? This game brought me right back like your moms homemade soup and it was glorious.
Yes, many things are missing today in mainstream titles. And STALKER 2 is the same. It's literally missing exactly the same things. Wth you're on about? It's literally open-world walking/shooting simulator which 80% of games these days are.
@@olslobodyan how is that the Zone 'doesn't accept me' if my comment is literally about how the Zone is 'accepting' anyone? Does Horizon or Forspoken also 'doesn't accept' people? i know it's a joke, but damn that's an out of place joke, bro.
It's a win/win - you purchase the game and have fun, the devs get paid to make improvments. Imma Stalker fan, as well, and will continue to support these devs through the thick of it.
Honestly, the smartest thing GSC did with this release was get the CEO of the company out in front of the press to say, forthrightly, that there's some important features not working and that they won't let it go unfinished. it sucks, but being honest is the right thing to do. Hopefully we get a little Cyberpunk 2077/No Man's Sky treatment in a year or two.
Having never played a stalker game,I found the game very frustrating at first, but after sticking with for a few hours i found out its because i was playing it wrong, i was playing like its your regular fps, oh no this is wayyy different type of beast and now im really loving it, glad i stuck with it easily one of my games of the year, and also not had many mad bugs to break my immersion so pleased with that.
In an example on 5:15 that’s not a bug, that’s a psi-created enemy. They disappear when you try to loot a body. But I did have real enemies spawned behind me in a small closed space, like real bandits a mine in Red forest or a burer in a cave near Slag Heap
I'm playing Stalker 2 in small bursts because I'm waiting for more patches before completely diving in the main story. Just doing some exploring of the unknown landmarks in the meantime. And yeah I agree with what you said. Game still needs more work, but I'm enjoying a lot of it so far.
Yeah, that body de-materializing was psi-induced. There's a place called Cave of Death in Cordon where a corpse does that very same animation. Psi-induced being the key here, as they might be "hallucinations" but the damage is very real. Your defense of the current state of the game has been my push back as well - the foundation of Stalker 2 is solid. I've always thought the part most people miss in the STALKER series is that The Zone is the main character, and you are just another insignificant life form doing your thing on its body. In the greater scheme of things, it matters not one iota that you're here. I get the very same feeling in this sequel.
You either really like the Fallout walking aspects or the Fallout esc looting. The enemies are brutal. The difficulty, even on the easiest, is still hard asf. I love this game so far. It was made by a studio in a country at war. Im willing to forgive all its short comings because it feels this GOOD. The bones of Stalker 2 give me great hope that they can make a stalker 3 or whatever because this feels 10x than Starfield. Which is not hard to pass but feels good it has surpassed it. XBOX series X playerz set to preformace over graphics. Little eye sorey when stepping outside form in. But otherwise. Almost no crazy ass bugs yet console side.
The game may not be perfect(not yet atleast) but it has gotten me hooked from beginning to end. I just finished the my first playthrough recently, and I do want to play it again when it's polished up. My favorite and most unforgettable part in the game is: SPOILERS When you meet the not brainwashed Strider again and you tell him what happened after the attack on SIRCAA.. It felt wrong to lie to him about winning but I didn't want to break his spirit(literally)
5:07 I know that the spawn is kinda broken but that example is not a bug but rather psi hallucinations, when you go loot them they literally dissappear into like a blue aura or something, basically skif is just going schizophrenic
the example given at 5:30 is actually just PSI damage taken from a nearby psi-cat or possibly a controller. those types of enemies are 'hallucination' that still deal damage but when looting them it shatters the illusion and makes it disappear. even after killing the enemy causing the PSI damage the effect will linger for a little bit (given you do not take psi blockers at all).
The bug with Zalissia is probably the worst thing I faced in the game. Thankfully, I managed to save the city. The next bad thing is enemy spawn and their aimbot. Seriously, if any part of your body is not covered, be sure they will lend the shot. Also, there are a lot of minor bugs and development issues that only affect your play a little. For example, when a boar or flesh launches into the sky. Beside those things, the game is fantastic!!! It is so tense, so immersive, and so beautiful.
Dude the aimbot!!! Encountering Monolith hit squad on the open field, out of the blue, late game, they all have Exos, ur DED! Worst thing you can do is to run and try to hide (which is basic instinct for most of us xD). Its even worse in the forests, you cant see them, but oh boy, do they see you xD Zalissya has been fixed, thanks god, but not before trader and his bodyguard died when entering the building, from a aneurism I presume...
@davidwolf6927 yeah, it was broken in my run too. I had been running around the house at the south entrance of the city to trigger opening the door. Then I tried to lure monolith guys from the building. After some time, I killed all of them and the quest started. Competed the quest and went outside the city. The second assault started, so I go back and had been defending against multiple waves of monolith soldiers. Here I died many times. Only one friendly NPC stayed alive, so it was almost successful. I got the achievement, and all trader came back to trade.
Bro... not saying a-life wasn't broken, but the soldier spawning behind you was you being infected by psychic waves or whatever they're called... proof is in the fact that he despawned, which is what happens when things are not real.
This is such a good review of the game, not gloom and doom, but looking on the realistic side and also optimistic about the current state of the game, I believe this kind of review is well suited for stalker 2.
Nice i love this game, love the weather effects, leafs and dust blown everywhere, lightning storms, emmisions that makes you chug those energy drinks you otherwise just hoard 😭. The amazing headshot feel on enemy soldiers, the scary sounds all around, the bloodsuckers that put you on edge. The immersive world building. Everything fals in place until you clear an area and while you are looting you hear " He must be around here, keep alert! Grenade the f***er !" for the fifth time a new wave of spawning soldiers that aggro immediately, just takes you out of the moment ... Ah well hope they can patch it :)
Fair and I agree. Even back in the day, I remember vividly after the initial launch of Clear Sky, GSC were quick to release fixes and updates to their games. The difference being back then the updates were more likely to break and corrupt your saves 😄 I lost two +50 runs of that game before I gave it up for a decade. Now, at least the updates aren't breaking saves and people can improve their games as they play along. Also, the first storm in the zone you witness in STALKER 2 ... I mean, wow, it's something else.
This game is definitely a hit or miss from hours of reviews I've watched and read. You hit it right on the head Cohh, per usual. For a STALKER experience, I guess I walked into this with lower expectations than some. It's worth mentioning right out the gate, this was my first time playing STALKER, so my expectations were naturally not as high as some, although I spent dozens of hours reading and watching past LORE to catch up and got myself revved up. After 15 years since the last game, I think it was fair for me to assume it wasn't going to be flawless. That's a lot of time to pass for a game Dev to let an IP sit and collect dust. However, this game is missing a few key points as someone who is brand new to an IP. Top TWO: I feel like the Stealth System sucks, I'm seen/detected before I can visibly see any target with my Legolas Ears and I expected more for the A-Life (Allegedly being worked on and high priority). Smaller Points:I expected the NVGs, not a fan of the flashlight or it's system at all, 9 times out of ten an enemy is attacking me from outside my range of view and flashlight and lastly I expected a better system in regards to Mutants, they feel useless and an obligatory obstruction. I think this could have been countered with a cooking system, it's been mentioned a few times in the game story the idea of 'eating FLESHES', I feel like it would at least give mutants a value to killing them instead of running from them. But in the big picture of everything, bearing in mind I've been fortunate enough to have no graphical or FPS issues, these feel like minor issues, yet are my most major complaints. With that in mind, I consider the game outstanding.
5:30 yeah there are still problems with enemy spawns. But I think that in this particular location, it was intentional. The mercenary sitting there is an alcoholic who drank himself into hallucinations. And as you noticed, the enemies that spawned there are also hallucinations, but this time, they’re yours.
Im on patch 1.1.3, have over 20 hours and haven't seen a single bug yet. The game could definitely be optimized better, but this more of a UE5 issue than a STALKER 2 specific issue.
Regarding the stalket that spawned in the factory behind you. You understand that it is not a problem of the spawner, but the influence of the psi field. They shoot at you, but it's an illusion and they disappear when you try to dodge them. The same effect will be in any psi field, for example near the controller.
A-Life is not a simple spawning system, like that what is in the game currently. A-Life is about a persistent world, which means NPC's are tracked and persist, so that you can run out of render range and come back a bit later and find them again. The NPCs are supposed to follow goals and are simulated in a background simulation. Back in the day, they even simulated battle encounters of opposing factions when they got near to each other (its basically a dice roll in the end) but it determines the victor and the winner gets to live on. Later modders used this feature to hook into this systems and made radio calls for backup when such battles happened to create a really immersive feeling. Sadly stalker 2 is not having anything like that currently (but there is supposed to be the beginnings of such systems in the games code, but deactivated), and the developer of the system is allegedly in the military, fighting against Russias unprovoked invasion at the moment.
@@MrEvans1 The dice rolls are happening in the background simulations in the old games not by npcs that are currently rendered for you. They are far away in another zone, but still being simulated.
I've "only" had progression breaking bugs in 2 quests of the main story, but after forcing through those via console commands, everything went smoothly until the end credits. That's pretty good for GSC standards. It also helps that the game is such a blast to play
So Cohh. I skipped around in your video up to the 5:10 situation. Your character was under the effects of Psy-radiation (hence the ominous sounds in your ears) and that guy spawned there because being under the influence of Psy-radiation will cause phantoms of enemies spawn around your vicinity (hence the corpse vanishing), no matter where you are at.
You're such a wholesome reviewer it makes a really pleasant change! Watched your Path of Exile 2 vid and subscribed from there and after putting in over 90 hours in Stalker 2 it's nice to see a similar and positive viewpoint on it. Cheers :)
Appreciate the video, and I think your recommendation is right. I have been enjoying my time with the game but have told some friends to wait for updates. Some issues I have had have been annoying, some actually frustrating, but the ambition on display in parts of this game have amazed me.
Exactly my thoughts as well, I am a fan of Stalker series and the way I can immerse myself into Stalker 2 is just so incredible. I am having an awesome blast!
I've seen some players who are still mad about the bugs since the patches havn't actually listed every fix they believe these are fake numbers. I havn't gotten to complete the game fully so maybe I'm missing some real bad ones near the end? The zalissya one did happen for me, basically enemies spawn inside the building and you can't open the door since enemies are present. The method that I found online that worked was to aggo another group of enemies from the sphere to the town, defeat them, then the doors can be unlocked. Then I slept (I wasn't able to pull out all the enemies) and that seemed to get the right character (the stalker in an exo suit) to leave. This activated the side quests and character dialog when we defeated a spawned patrol. Doing all that and the town is still around, still weird to have to figure that initial part out..
Actually I’ve dealt with those magically disappearing enemies when encountering controllers or Burers. They can now project fake enemies at you that damage you. I guess because they are psi mutants they both can do that.
Your totally right a out the spawning although in that particular instance it was a psychic anomaly attacking you with "ghosts" so in fact that was a super immersive encounter.
It's an awesome game but yeah if you're on the fence, don't have a great computer, it are easily frustrated, wait 6 months. I'd never played a stalker game and there was a bit of a learning curve, but it had an incredible way of making you feel like you're there. The gunplay is also incredible.
From what I hear, the A-Life system is still busted. " S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Fans" should just play G.A.M.M.A. It's free, easy to install (as long as you can read and comprehend basic instruction), full-featured, and fully customisable for your ideal experience. Most importantly, the A-Life system WORKS. They also just recently dropped a MASSIVE update, and it's better than anything the developers dropped with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 patch.
"This is better than any AAA game I've played in a long while." - FACT Game has it's flaws yes, I encountered some bugs like artifacts spawning underground (I allowed myself to "Console: Ghost" them) and the (random) spawns of enemies in areas you just cleaned - but besides that this game is a BLAST to play and I think a setting like this would fit a new fallout game as well
omg the amount of people who say a game is not good and don’t play it when it first comes out are ridiculous. im pkaying this a month later and it’s fine. be patient people
I had to change my play style to like the game. I like to play as a cautious Sniper in the STALKER Series, scoping camps/bases out at distance, sniping people in lookout posts etc. With current A-LIFE 2.0 spawning enemies randomly 50-60 yards from you it's frustrating now that I have to play this like a Call of Duty game running in guns blazing.
I will continue to say this for now, I think the game we got was 85% complete, due to an obvious interference (think what you like) I feel they shipped out a mostly full single player game so people could actually play it, like with og stalker games, Its always been buggy, yet it didnt stop people from playing it, and arguably, yes there are bad issues, and playing through it with the issues is kinda comforting to vets of the series, because a lot of the bugs, they are identical to previous games, thats me at least. I think a "buggy game" does not mean its bad, and ill reference cyberpunk as that had a identically buggy launch, typically on console, PC it worked somewhat, but the biggest thing about cyberpunk was it was over promised on what we got, if we include PL content there is like 60% more of a game there than release, and thats an issue because the majority of things that were added were what people expected from the start, and i think that can be reflected on the PL steam release charts. And you can also see with stalker, the bugs get people down, but they still WANT to play the game, its always in someones head, i dont want people expecting a bug free game in the future because its unrealistic, and its not like PS1 or PS2 games didnt have them either back in the day, we all want better, but as you say, it released in the best state that was expected.
I'm at the chemical plant also known as X-5 and this place is as scary as vacationing in hell. The levels I have to go down make it seem like it was designed as a missile silo,it seems really familiar like I've been here before in the first Stalker game but can't remember it's layout. . .super terrifying.
The footage you showed about the random spawn of enemies is actual mechanics of the PSI effect. But the problem with the random spawn does exist for sure
Enemies don't really spawn that near to you unless its a psi hallucination. They DO spawn a bit farther than that. But I'd rather have human enemies than those annoying bloodsuckers or a pack of blind dogs.
@@bojanjovanovic6716 pretty sure he's not new to the zone calling them "blind dogs" cause let's face it - they are anything but blind in stalker 2 - hiding behind cover when you get out of reach and actively avoiding where you point your gun...
The guys was leaving comments about it but im gonna go for 1 more, it was a psy-spawned enemy, which has me freaking out at the time until i figured to take my psy-pills. That being said, there is a spawn issue but it's a separate one. The guys are spawning right outside your range of vision and spank you into oblivion while you can even get a hold of where are they shooting from (i turned of the hit markers and the corsshair for immersion, but still have to look at compass from time to time cuz those spawns are a bit cursed)
My bug with quest currently is the quest with Beard and Sultan, you got send to kill both of them but as soon as I accept the quest, both Sultan and Beard instantly die somewhere in Zaton. Apparently, you can went to the sniper spot and watch their conversation and decide to kill them or help them.
I really Want a fast travel option since the map is 100x bigger than the og trilogy. Or at least add way more encounters along the way. Znd the loot from them refills the resources lost from them.
The game is too heavy for proper A-Life to be ever implemented. I suggest you to absolutely ditch this fantasy right away. A-Life will require an absurd level of processing power and game already struggles with simple lazy and broken UE spawner that they implementrd on last day before release. To expect them to implement a feature that will only be remotely enjoyable on RTX 4090 with latest gen CPUs is too much for asking. S1 was only able to run A-Life at stable 60 fps after 7 years since release in CoP mods and game was rather light on graphics fidelity as is, so it was possible to redirect resources. Unless processing power of XBOX will be doubled, A-Life isn't coming anytime soon. Expect simple rework of UE spawner and that's it. So what is A-Life? A-Life is a more complex system, than a spawner, it requires serious processing power to work and simulate events in online (300m radius from a player) and offline (the entire Zone). A-Life is a complex system that is supposed to make all events, characters persistent. So if you met some stalker and remember his name, the same stalker will continue traveling the zone until he dies in your radius of A-Life or in offline radius of A-Life. If he dies in offline radius, system will remember where he died and later will spawn his body once you will enter the 300m radius of the online A-Life. This creates a living breathing universe that Stalker was famous for. But Stalker 2 is an extremely technologically heavy title to bring any of this to a life. Pun intended.
I don't think a-life would have anything to do with graphics cards. It only requires processing power, which is not where Stalker's current performance problems are concentrated. I don't see why it can't be implemented at least on some level.
That one instance you used for the spawing was like a psi-radiation so it's OK when they spawn in random because it's like schizophrenia but I totally agree in every other instance. I've moved to the left and back to the right quickly and there's been spawns right there in my face like cyberpunk. But I also loved cyberpunk.
A true fan's review. Appreciate this a lot. I've never played the STALKER games but have loved the Metro series since 2033 and always thought they had similar vibes. Really looking forward to diving in to this.
Those of us that have been looking forward to see what they had done with A-Life 2.0 are highly disappointed. Very highly. There is no A-Life. What we got was more like A-Life .002. Just lame spawn mechanics. Walk by a locked door in a hallway, but as you get 2 yards away from that door a zombie spawns out of no where. I had been playing Gamma before S2 was released, and in S2.... the Zone feels dead in comparison. In the OG titles you had chatter on the radio about things going on in other parts of the Zone. You'd get there much later, but still discover the bodies of the attack, or arrive in time and help the other NPC stalkers out. Hearing gun shots far away, then hearing the stalkers in trouble asking for help. That immersion is missing, and for anyone that has played the previous title should instantly realize that. What S2 does extremely well, and why it such a good title even without the A-Life is the Zone itself. Though several cool aspects of the previous titles are missing, like the dynamic lightning shadows, giving the zone a very eerie feeling when a storm is happening. But the looks of the over all zone is superior on several levels. Just too bad the tech has changed direction where it requires way too many resources to give us those shadows back due to how they are now generated. UE5 was designed for scripted linear AI/NPC events. Their devs never considered a background sim, and the A-Life dev probably had a huge soul wretching experience trying to get some form of the mechanic working in this bloated console game engine. If they can work with the UE devs, or even the GPU devs to offload all the background NPC sim to the GPU, get A-Life 2.0 running as they had originally planned.... This game will set a new standard, and hopefully open the eyes of gamers everywhere to the possibilities of what can be done, and should be. Maybe we'll see a new set of GPU drivers that include this tech in the future. The GPUs are really designed for that now, but instead of using if for gaming... it's being used for data mining.
Yes, one should purchase this. 1 / It's a really really good game... a few bugs, agreed, and A life is not quite there... yet when they iron out the bugs and make A life work properly this game will be genre changing and in a league of its own. 2 / it supports a small Dev team that have put this game together during a time of war when some of its Devs died in this war... jeez... what a thing... that deserves some support at the very least as well. If you are on the fence on this game, make the purchase, enjoy the game and accept a few bugs (really not that many in a 70h+ game) for a bit until they are ironed out.
4:37 I had that bug too, but I somehow managed to get it and save the village. You just kinda have to enter and leave. Enter and leave for each wave to respond.
His confusion at 5:20 is perfectly valid. There’s not enough of an indicator for those psi emission especially on series S. His point about enemies spawning in that fashion is still a fact with or without the hallucinations.
There is an indicator which is the ominous sound effects that play whenever your psi levels are affected. As it progressively worsens you start hearing more and more misleading sound cues.
That guy spawned in the tunnel, it was a halucination. When i reached the end of that tunnel i realised that i was under some heavy psy influence and i never found the source. The thing is that when you try to loot a body of a psy phanto it disappears.
I had that bug with the town. 2 1/2 hours to save them then right after the achievement popped they radioed that they were over ran. Was still loving it until I got locked out during Subtle Matter. I'm going to give it 6 months or so and hope I can play through the whole thing
First time S.T.A.L.K.E.R player here. I've played about 16h and I love it, I am thinking about waiting for A-life to be fixed, but I really want to continue my playthrough. might just play Indiana Jones while I wait and if the patch isn't out when Im done Ill just go
People are saying that stalker 2 should be moe similar to gamma, which in the larger community is the "definitive " stalker experience. The majority of complains are that there arent enough guns and the systems arent as deep as in gamma.
5:39 isn't that an illusion caused by one of the mutants/anomalies? I remember it happened to me in one of the quests and it frustrated me massively until I tried to loot one of these bodies to realise it is part of the game
yea spot on! thats like the worse example for Cohh to use because thats the only spawn that doesnt need fixing. The ghost/ psi projected enemys should be in wtf positions as often as possible. But the point still stands as i still get bands of real/lootable enemys in the vanilla game without mods. (was able to complete the game though, if anyone is deep in the comments here)
Its the buggiest game I've played, and a few bugs were really infuriating (Zalyssa bug, energy consumables not working 30% of the time, and Malachyte guard not spawning in), but I'm still addicted to the game so much and loving it (92 hours in, trying to complete all quests and fing almost all stashes). Talking to my friends, seems that I was really unlucky with the bugs it seems.
A life not being there definitely hurts it. Other than that and the bugs, which i honestly haven't experienced too many. I did mod it a bit. Mostly balancing. I am playing on veteran and it started getting a little easy so i turned up human gun damage done to me by 3x and i turned down most mutant HP pools.
I got the Zalissya bug too. I tried for hours to save the town but the Monolith soldiers (which are immune from damage inside the HQ), won't leave the damn building. You are forced to abandon it and lose the mission thus losing the town. Overall, the game is fairly buggy, enemies can occasionally spawn in front of you or behind you, and the anomalies are quite frustrating at times, but the game is still quite fun.
As others have pointed out, enemies spawning behind you in that instance was a result of psi-damage, but I do want to say that psi-damage is incredibly annoying with the way that particular hallucination spawn-in mechanic works, and how obscenely rare Psi-Block is. Psi-Damaging fields have no immediate visual cue that it's happening (unlike the original trilogy with either a HUD notification or visual wibbly-wobblies with psi-columns), only an audio cue once you've entered one, and if psi-damage gets severe enough I believe it then starts messing with the screen. It feels like 80% of the time for me, I walk into a psi-damaging field (whether it be just walking around and finding one by accident, or coming across a Controller), it just decides to spawn multiple hallucinations right behind me, even before the audio cue starts. IMO this feels incredibly cheap, even by STALKER standards. This is not helped by the fact, as mentioned above, I cannot find any damn vendors that sell psi-block. I've been actively checking every medic I can, since it would make sense for them to carry psi-block, and so far I have yet to find any vendor that carries any psi-block. The lack of psi-block at vendors is driving me up a wall at this point since it's kind of limiting how much I can explore, since I don't really wanna risk coming across a psi-field and getting randomly jumped by 5 ghosts the moment it starts happening.
Beyond this though, my only other gripe is that some of the mutants are severely unbalanced. Less about the health, since there's mods to nerf the health values, but more in how they attack. There's a bunch of mutants I could point to for this, but the most notable offender of this is the Psy-Dog. Every Psy-Dog encounter I've had was "dog sees me, dog spawns 10-15 phantom clones, can replace the phantoms super quick, there's no way to tell them apart and the real one can swap places with a phantom", which is just ridiculous, easily the worst designed mutant in the entire game from a balancing perspective.
that before, when the victim just disappears for 5 minutes, these are manifestations of psi radiation, there is a kind of anomalous zone, but in general, the Alive system really does not work as it should
I had the fortune of only needing to defend Zali once. Well, the first time i got there.... Everyone was stuck inside the main building so the game forced them to all put their guns down but they kept pulling them out and trynna shoot each other but then being forced to put them back..... I only had a save where i was physically far from the place... Luckily when i got back, it ran as normal..... Until i got about 100 meters away.... Then it got attacked, lucky i made it back quick and defended it properly. Its been 2 days now and everything is still kosher there
It's a great game, but as it currently stands with broken A-Life, base Stalker Anomaly is just an objectively better experience. And sure, it makes sense. But I really disagree with the "Stalker has always been jank" argument. Something always releasing broken is not an argument of why it's okay that it's broken. We need to stop defending broken states. It's okay to say "I had fun with this game, but it's broken and it's unacceptable that it was released broken." You can enjoy the game, be satisfied with it, and still recognize that they shouldn't have released it as is.
I really wonder why he (after having played stalker 2 for quite some time) says this is a bug. Those PSI Soldiers show up a couple of times in the game and this video was made just 3 days ago.
about the “save the town” mission, i’ve encountered same problem and thought that i just leave it unfinished since I could do nothing, (I also checked on it every now and then by coming back to the area) but after maybe 5 hours of gameplay and couple of main quests completed I came by just going through for another quest and it resolved itself, monolith came out of hiding from inside and let me kill them, also completed local quests for the town and everybody lived 4:29
I'm 96 hours in this game and didn't complete the main mission. just exploring and upgrade my weapons. Loving every moment.
At 120 hours myself & gotten 46% of the achievements on pc gamepass & I’m lovin the game, personally id rather play a buggy game that’s actually fun than a smooth running game that suck’s
nerd
@@dMidnightb maybe you just got a shit opinion because the game’s at an overall positive review rating on steam bud, don’t worry, they got a game just for you, it’s called dragon age veilguard that’s more up to your speed bucko, you clearly have never played a stalker game before & it shows.
@@jasonbrody1134 i completed it on the 22nd on stalker without upgrading anything the game is so lame it throws rooms at you full of gear to fight the next part upgrading is pointless
@@BensSistersUndies well that sucks for you, I’m having fun with the game & that’d what matters to me, also F.Y.I if you’re playing the game on pc you can mod it to reduce the amount of Loot & whatnot you find.
4:55 There are issues with enemies spawning next to you… but this isn't one of them :)
That guy's body disappeared because he was a psi-induced hallucination. I had the same happen in this exact spot, so it might be scripted on top of that.
That said, enemies spawn near you from time to time. What I find funny though is that they spawn with unloaded guns.
In one place near the end of the game (no spoilers) I pressed the button to open an elevator and a guy spawned behind me shouting "I will destroy you!", then he started loading his shotgun.
I wonder what was going through his head… apart from a slug from my Gauss Rifle.
I also had the same experience in the same spot.
I think actually why there are spawning issue right behind you - is that about psyche anomalies presented in game - they might have screwed something about it - between like normal encounters and this particular mechanic
You are right
@@rudemption basically that is the thing in this situation - its an anomaly making you hallucinate, same as the controller or the monolith altars and so on.
Cohh has the IQ of a Mosquito
5:06 This glitch you're complaining about is not a glitch, it's a psionic anomaly. That's why the guy disappears, and more keep spawning.
Yeah, I cant believe this guy, its heavily shown that this is just psionic hallucinations (also voices and whispers you hear in your head), with psi blocker they usually disappear, but ignorantly "its a bug"...
Yup. That is a thing. The fact they dissolve away when you try to loot them is a clue there's something supernatural is going on.
100%. Now there still is random enemy spawn around you that are not immersive and not a psi damage consequence but hopefully, listening to devs, the life system is gonna be implemented at some point.
Yeah, there are the psy hallucinations and the random spawns. The same way that there are hallucinations that give you random guns, but also a bug that give you random guns.
yeah idk how the disappearing act didnt clue him in during the editing process more then enough time to think "huh maybe thats a mechanic actually"
This is better than any AAA game I've played in a long while.
That's not saying much, lol.
Me 2
It is. If i could play it. But i got hard locked from the main mission. Have to wait a patch now. Also totally 4 sidequests i can not finish because they are bugged. And two super artifacts i can not collect because they dont spawn.
I would say its best game since witcher 3 / elden ring in terms of scope.
@@udtojanpestillos2094damn, its unfortunate. I played for 70+ hrs since game was released, and got only 1 hard lock on side quest.
5:06 it's not a broken A-life system, it's a phantom from psy anomalies. And i remember you said about it that you wanted phantoms to warn you before shooting, but it's a brain damage, how can it warn you before get harm to you 😏
That enemy spawning there is not a bug. He's an imaginary enemy that gets spawned if you are psi damaged. They just gotta spawn them further away.
It does happen, a life is broken.. but your right the psi hallucination was not the best example ..
Yeah, I've had actual spawns real close, also they generally happen behind you so you can't see them. In the swamps for example I've seen a LOT of big packs of dogs and boars spawn. Fortunately they are hostile to each other so I could often just run but having this big 12 pack of dogs and a 6 pack of boars just pop in within 50m of me happened at least half a dozen times while going through the swamps.
The psi enemies are still fucked though, in certain missions underground they'll spawn behind walls and shoot you through said walls.
While there are psi enemies and they do disappear like that one, the issue he brought up does happen and often. He knows it was a psi enemy. The best way to deal with them is just not waste the bullets
The a life system has been spawning enemies literally on top of you in the game. This is because the system doesn't work the way it should and this has been confirmed by the devs
Even stashes are broken. I just looted a stash, left the house and went 10 meters away. I checked the map and then the stash icon is at the same location again. I went back and the bag that i just looted 30 seconds before was full with stuff again. Great job, guys.
5:00 Oh, no, no. That's the way it should be. At this place, the character starts hallucinating and being attacked by “false enemies,” so it's really an anomaly (not in a joking sense).
There was a strange man sitting there who was going crazy, and if you stayed there long enough, you started to go crazy too.
STALKER 2 is my game of the year for 2024.
A year when an expansion is the best game of the year
I'd say it's between stalker 2 and helldivers 2 but overall helldivers offers a more smooth and polished experience so my vote goes for helldivers. Unfinished games shouldn't get a chance to get voted for goty. Make a category for it "best unfinished game of the year" I'll let stalker 2 sit on that pedistol
Mine too. If i could play it. I m hard locked on main mission. 4 sidequests i can not complete. And two super artifacts i can not collect because they dont spawn.
@@udtojanpestillos2094
>Mine too. If i could play it.
That's literally all anyone needs to know about delusional attempts to hype up this lazy piece of code.
@@dMidnightb can you rlly blame him when the gaming industry became so scummy that the most mediocre undercooked stuff appeals to us so much?
Having 100+ hours in the game, latest patch fixes 90% of the issues I encountered during my fully finished story. I do recommend some mods, like A-Life + Longer days. Other than that, there's noting gamebreaking. The story is real good.
A few more patches and the game would be brilliant. The main thing the atmosphere is there!
A few more patches the size of the 1.04 seem to be needed. Lots of broken stuff in the later stages, specifically after the events with SIRCAA.
A clue for you is this is stalker 2 not cod year 27.stalker 2 just came out unlike cods 27 years of regurgitated formula. Cod also has a fortnite style shop and hackers 😂 @platanito4494
Cod had 20 years, billions of dollars and a multi billion dollar company to get it right, this game was made by half the employees and not eben half the budget. Cod has hackers and fortnite skins for 30 dollars. This game can have a couple mistakes cause its not a big franchise that should have there formula figured out by now
the bug you are talking about at 5:08 when an enemy appeared out of nowhere, this particular case is not a bug, it's like the mechanics of the game, when you are affected by radiation or psi radiation you start to see enemies but when you search them they disappear, this happens in the game and later in various anomalies or battles with some enemies
but yes yes there is a bug that will spawn enemies out of nowhere
with love from Ukraine 🥰🥰🥰
Glory to Ukraine!
5:30 loosing my mind over a randomly spavned enemy in a place where they should not be spawned. As it appeared - it is not a bug :D enemies that are vanished like these are hallucinations cause by a cat or a controller chilling somewhere arrond.
Thank you! That was intended! It is not a spawn in. But I have to say that is an issue in many other instances, but not the one showed in this video
When I was in that location, I could infinitely spawn in enemies by walking between the box Cohh hid behind and the place the NPC spawned. The enemies would just keep spawning opposite of me. So something was definetly bugged out on my end when I was there it seems 😅
@@Bobi13317 have you tried looting them? If they dissappear, then that's a hallucination of a controler or something else. It did spawn infinite enemies for me as well, but they all were a hallucination.
@@Alexandru007a I think they were hallucinations as they disappered, but still seems a bit broken to me that they would keep respawning endlessly as I walked over an imaginary line in the game world. I have no problem with it if it happened once in a while and not in an endless loop.
Psi field anomaly
This game is personally my GOTY by far , yes its got bugs but I've never played a game for as long as i can remember that has immersed me so much and brought me right back to the 90s-00s when i was fully drawn in and invested in the worlds does anyone else feels games are missing something they had in the early 00s ? This game brought me right back like your moms homemade soup and it was glorious.
Yes, many things are missing today in mainstream titles. And STALKER 2 is the same. It's literally missing exactly the same things. Wth you're on about? It's literally open-world walking/shooting simulator which 80% of games these days are.
@@kiberme it's just the Zone doesn't accept you
Yeah me too, GOTY
@@olslobodyan how is that the Zone 'doesn't accept me' if my comment is literally about how the Zone is 'accepting' anyone? Does Horizon or Forspoken also 'doesn't accept' people? i know it's a joke, but damn that's an out of place joke, bro.
@@kiberme don't feel offended please. The answer is hidden somewhere between the lines you are writing ;)
It's a win/win - you purchase the game and have fun, the devs get paid to make improvments. Imma Stalker fan, as well, and will continue to support these devs through the thick of it.
Honestly, the smartest thing GSC did with this release was get the CEO of the company out in front of the press to say, forthrightly, that there's some important features not working and that they won't let it go unfinished. it sucks, but being honest is the right thing to do. Hopefully we get a little Cyberpunk 2077/No Man's Sky treatment in a year or two.
How the fuck is that being honest? They knew about it when the game dropped, your amount of copium is staggering!
Having never played a stalker game,I found the game very frustrating at first, but after sticking with for a few hours i found out its because i was playing it wrong, i was playing like its your regular fps, oh no this is wayyy different type of beast and now im really loving it, glad i stuck with it easily one of my games of the year, and also not had many mad bugs to break my immersion so pleased with that.
In an example on 5:15 that’s not a bug, that’s a psi-created enemy. They disappear when you try to loot a body. But I did have real enemies spawned behind me in a small closed space, like real bandits a mine in Red forest or a burer in a cave near Slag Heap
Came to comment the same thing. Looting that stash was actually one of the coolest immersion moments ive had thus far, I thought I was going crazy.
I'm playing Stalker 2 in small bursts because I'm waiting for more patches before completely diving in the main story. Just doing some exploring of the unknown landmarks in the meantime. And yeah I agree with what you said. Game still needs more work, but I'm enjoying a lot of it so far.
Im just trying to get some mods to work while I wait for Alife patch from the devs
I love this game man…sure there’s some bugs but it’s amazing fun and immersive
Yeah, that body de-materializing was psi-induced. There's a place called Cave of Death in Cordon where a corpse does that very same animation. Psi-induced being the key here, as they might be "hallucinations" but the damage is very real.
Your defense of the current state of the game has been my push back as well - the foundation of Stalker 2 is solid. I've always thought the part most people miss in the STALKER series is that The Zone is the main character, and you are just another insignificant life form doing your thing on its body. In the greater scheme of things, it matters not one iota that you're here. I get the very same feeling in this sequel.
You either really like the Fallout walking aspects or the Fallout esc looting. The enemies are brutal. The difficulty, even on the easiest, is still hard asf. I love this game so far. It was made by a studio in a country at war. Im willing to forgive all its short comings because it feels this GOOD. The bones of Stalker 2 give me great hope that they can make a stalker 3 or whatever because this feels 10x than Starfield. Which is not hard to pass but feels good it has surpassed it. XBOX series X playerz set to preformace over graphics. Little eye sorey when stepping outside form in. But otherwise. Almost no crazy ass bugs yet console side.
The visual mode works well now on series x
I like stalker 2 . Has soul
The game may not be perfect(not yet atleast) but it has gotten me hooked from beginning to end. I just finished the my first playthrough recently, and I do want to play it again when it's polished up. My favorite and most unforgettable part in the game is: SPOILERS
When you meet the not brainwashed Strider again and you tell him what happened after the attack on SIRCAA..
It felt wrong to lie to him about winning but I didn't want to break his spirit(literally)
5:07 I know that the spawn is kinda broken but that example is not a bug but rather psi hallucinations, when you go loot them they literally dissappear into like a blue aura or something, basically skif is just going schizophrenic
Agreed. My 9800x3d and 4090 have my stalker 2 at 4k all ultra reaching 110-130 fps. Can’t complain one bit!
the example given at 5:30 is actually just PSI damage taken from a nearby psi-cat or possibly a controller. those types of enemies are 'hallucination' that still deal damage but when looting them it shatters the illusion and makes it disappear. even after killing the enemy causing the PSI damage the effect will linger for a little bit (given you do not take psi blockers at all).
The bug with Zalissia is probably the worst thing I faced in the game. Thankfully, I managed to save the city. The next bad thing is enemy spawn and their aimbot. Seriously, if any part of your body is not covered, be sure they will lend the shot. Also, there are a lot of minor bugs and development issues that only affect your play a little. For example, when a boar or flesh launches into the sky. Beside those things, the game is fantastic!!! It is so tense, so immersive, and so beautiful.
Dude the aimbot!!! Encountering Monolith hit squad on the open field, out of the blue, late game, they all have Exos, ur DED! Worst thing you can do is to run and try to hide (which is basic instinct for most of us xD). Its even worse in the forests, you cant see them, but oh boy, do they see you xD Zalissya has been fixed, thanks god, but not before trader and his bodyguard died when entering the building, from a aneurism I presume...
Zalissia is still not fixed in my run. Cannot save the city. Tried many hours.
@davidwolf6927 yeah, it was broken in my run too. I had been running around the house at the south entrance of the city to trigger opening the door. Then I tried to lure monolith guys from the building. After some time, I killed all of them and the quest started. Competed the quest and went outside the city. The second assault started, so I go back and had been defending against multiple waves of monolith soldiers. Here I died many times. Only one friendly NPC stayed alive, so it was almost successful. I got the achievement, and all trader came back to trade.
Bro... not saying a-life wasn't broken, but the soldier spawning behind you was you being infected by psychic waves or whatever they're called... proof is in the fact that he despawned, which is what happens when things are not real.
This is such a good review of the game, not gloom and doom, but looking on the realistic side and also optimistic about the current state of the game, I believe this kind of review is well suited for stalker 2.
Nice i love this game, love the weather effects, leafs and dust blown everywhere, lightning storms, emmisions that makes you chug those energy drinks you otherwise just hoard 😭. The amazing headshot feel on enemy soldiers, the scary sounds all around, the bloodsuckers that put you on edge. The immersive world building. Everything fals in place until you clear an area and while you are looting you hear " He must be around here, keep alert! Grenade the f***er !" for the fifth time a new wave of spawning soldiers that aggro immediately, just takes you out of the moment ... Ah well hope they can patch it :)
Fair and I agree. Even back in the day, I remember vividly after the initial launch of Clear Sky, GSC were quick to release fixes and updates to their games. The difference being back then the updates were more likely to break and corrupt your saves 😄 I lost two +50 runs of that game before I gave it up for a decade. Now, at least the updates aren't breaking saves and people can improve their games as they play along.
Also, the first storm in the zone you witness in STALKER 2 ... I mean, wow, it's something else.
This game is definitely a hit or miss from hours of reviews I've watched and read. You hit it right on the head Cohh, per usual.
For a STALKER experience, I guess I walked into this with lower expectations than some. It's worth mentioning right out the gate, this was my first time playing STALKER, so my expectations were naturally not as high as some, although I spent dozens of hours reading and watching past LORE to catch up and got myself revved up.
After 15 years since the last game, I think it was fair for me to assume it wasn't going to be flawless. That's a lot of time to pass for a game Dev to let an IP sit and collect dust.
However, this game is missing a few key points as someone who is brand new to an IP.
Top TWO: I feel like the Stealth System sucks, I'm seen/detected before I can visibly see any target with my Legolas Ears and I expected more for the A-Life (Allegedly being worked on and high priority).
Smaller Points:I expected the NVGs, not a fan of the flashlight or it's system at all, 9 times out of ten an enemy is attacking me from outside my range of view and flashlight and lastly I expected a better system in regards to Mutants, they feel useless and an obligatory obstruction. I think this could have been countered with a cooking system, it's been mentioned a few times in the game story the idea of 'eating FLESHES', I feel like it would at least give mutants a value to killing them instead of running from them.
But in the big picture of everything, bearing in mind I've been fortunate enough to have no graphical or FPS issues, these feel like minor issues, yet are my most major complaints. With that in mind, I consider the game outstanding.
5:30 yeah there are still problems with enemy spawns. But I think that in this particular location, it was intentional. The mercenary sitting there is an alcoholic who drank himself into hallucinations. And as you noticed, the enemies that spawned there are also hallucinations, but this time, they’re yours.
Im on patch 1.1.3, have over 20 hours and haven't seen a single bug yet. The game could definitely be optimized better, but this more of a UE5 issue than a STALKER 2 specific issue.
Yes this games a must
Regarding the stalket that spawned in the factory behind you. You understand that it is not a problem of the spawner, but the influence of the psi field. They shoot at you, but it's an illusion and they disappear when you try to dodge them. The same effect will be in any psi field, for example near the controller.
A-Life is not a simple spawning system, like that what is in the game currently. A-Life is about a persistent world, which means NPC's are tracked and persist, so that you can run out of render range and come back a bit later and find them again. The NPCs are supposed to follow goals and are simulated in a background simulation. Back in the day, they even simulated battle encounters of opposing factions when they got near to each other (its basically a dice roll in the end) but it determines the victor and the winner gets to live on. Later modders used this feature to hook into this systems and made radio calls for backup when such battles happened to create a really immersive feeling. Sadly stalker 2 is not having anything like that currently (but there is supposed to be the beginnings of such systems in the games code, but deactivated), and the developer of the system is allegedly in the military, fighting against Russias unprovoked invasion at the moment.
Not much of a dice roll. I got headshotted from across the map by a stray bullet.
@@MrEvans1 The dice rolls are happening in the background simulations in the old games not by npcs that are currently rendered for you. They are far away in another zone, but still being simulated.
It isn't a dice roll, it factors in their equipment and "level".
@@LaughingMan44 Yes I know, but i wanted to keep the explanation somewhat simple ;)
5:44 in this case, the reason why it spawned right behind you is that it was just an illusion of soldier caused by psi emissions
Its definitely one of the games which will be played for years.
Thanks for tour feedback ❤
I've "only" had progression breaking bugs in 2 quests of the main story, but after forcing through those via console commands, everything went smoothly until the end credits. That's pretty good for GSC standards. It also helps that the game is such a blast to play
My 2024 favorite game so far
So Cohh. I skipped around in your video up to the 5:10 situation. Your character was under the effects of Psy-radiation (hence the ominous sounds in your ears) and that guy spawned there because being under the influence of Psy-radiation will cause phantoms of enemies spawn around your vicinity (hence the corpse vanishing), no matter where you are at.
You're such a wholesome reviewer it makes a really pleasant change! Watched your Path of Exile 2 vid and subscribed from there and after putting in over 90 hours in Stalker 2 it's nice to see a similar and positive viewpoint on it. Cheers :)
Appreciate the video, and I think your recommendation is right. I have been enjoying my time with the game but have told some friends to wait for updates. Some issues I have had have been annoying, some actually frustrating, but the ambition on display in parts of this game have amazed me.
Exactly my thoughts as well, I am a fan of Stalker series and the way I can immerse myself into Stalker 2 is just so incredible. I am having an awesome blast!
I've seen some players who are still mad about the bugs since the patches havn't actually listed every fix they believe these are fake numbers. I havn't gotten to complete the game fully so maybe I'm missing some real bad ones near the end?
The zalissya one did happen for me, basically enemies spawn inside the building and you can't open the door since enemies are present. The method that I found online that worked was to aggo another group of enemies from the sphere to the town, defeat them, then the doors can be unlocked. Then I slept (I wasn't able to pull out all the enemies) and that seemed to get the right character (the stalker in an exo suit) to leave. This activated the side quests and character dialog when we defeated a spawned patrol. Doing all that and the town is still around, still weird to have to figure that initial part out..
Enemy disappearing is an illusion it works exactly in the way it should world , not a bug .
Actually I’ve dealt with those magically disappearing enemies when encountering controllers or Burers. They can now project fake enemies at you that damage you. I guess because they are psi mutants they both can do that.
Your totally right a out the spawning although in that particular instance it was a psychic anomaly attacking you with "ghosts" so in fact that was a super immersive encounter.
Definitely gonna be waiting for a couple more patches, then jumping in.
I think this is the best game of the year
Even with all the bugs and performance, just for the fun i have with it, this is my goty 2024 even before Space Marine 2 ( which i absolutely loved )
The human spawned and then disappeared is NOT a bug. It was a psy-enemy.
It's an awesome game but yeah if you're on the fence, don't have a great computer, it are easily frustrated, wait 6 months.
I'd never played a stalker game and there was a bit of a learning curve, but it had an incredible way of making you feel like you're there. The gunplay is also incredible.
From what I hear, the A-Life system is still busted. " S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Fans" should just play G.A.M.M.A.
It's free, easy to install (as long as you can read and comprehend basic instruction), full-featured, and fully customisable for your ideal experience. Most importantly, the A-Life system WORKS. They also just recently dropped a MASSIVE update, and it's better than anything the developers dropped with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 patch.
"This is better than any AAA game I've played in a long while." - FACT
Game has it's flaws yes, I encountered some bugs like artifacts spawning underground (I allowed myself to "Console: Ghost" them) and the (random) spawns of enemies in areas you just cleaned - but besides that this game is a BLAST to play and I think a setting like this would fit a new fallout game as well
omg the amount of people who say a game is not good and don’t play it when it first comes out are ridiculous. im pkaying this a month later and it’s fine. be patient people
I had to change my play style to like the game. I like to play as a cautious Sniper in the STALKER Series, scoping camps/bases out at distance, sniping people in lookout posts etc. With current A-LIFE 2.0 spawning enemies randomly 50-60 yards from you it's frustrating now that I have to play this like a Call of Duty game running in guns blazing.
I will continue to say this for now, I think the game we got was 85% complete, due to an obvious interference (think what you like) I feel they shipped out a mostly full single player game so people could actually play it, like with og stalker games, Its always been buggy, yet it didnt stop people from playing it, and arguably, yes there are bad issues, and playing through it with the issues is kinda comforting to vets of the series, because a lot of the bugs, they are identical to previous games, thats me at least.
I think a "buggy game" does not mean its bad, and ill reference cyberpunk as that had a identically buggy launch, typically on console, PC it worked somewhat, but the biggest thing about cyberpunk was it was over promised on what we got, if we include PL content there is like 60% more of a game there than release, and thats an issue because the majority of things that were added were what people expected from the start, and i think that can be reflected on the PL steam release charts.
And you can also see with stalker, the bugs get people down, but they still WANT to play the game, its always in someones head, i dont want people expecting a bug free game in the future because its unrealistic, and its not like PS1 or PS2 games didnt have them either back in the day, we all want better, but as you say, it released in the best state that was expected.
I'm at the chemical plant also known as X-5 and this place is as scary as vacationing in hell.
The levels I have to go down make it seem like it was designed as a missile silo,it seems really
familiar like I've been here before in the first Stalker game but can't remember it's layout. . .super terrifying.
I'm loving my run as well. I played all previous Stalker games, some multiple times and Stalker 2 is everything I could've asked for ❤
5:00 This is a psi anomaly from the previous parts, even the sound confirms this. Killed enemies disappear like this after being affected by psi
The footage you showed about the random spawn of enemies is actual mechanics of the PSI effect. But the problem with the random spawn does exist for sure
Enemies don't really spawn that near to you unless its a psi hallucination. They DO spawn a bit farther than that. But I'd rather have human enemies than those annoying bloodsuckers or a pack of blind dogs.
I have had 5m spawns from zombies.
Wait till you see the other kind of dogs for the first time (not gonna spoil it xD)
@@bojanjovanovic6716 pretty sure he's not new to the zone calling them "blind dogs" cause let's face it - they are anything but blind in stalker 2 - hiding behind cover when you get out of reach and actively avoiding where you point your gun...
they do infact spawn that close to you, even with the current update that adds fixes to Alife
@@Kalano Excellent point :)
The guys was leaving comments about it but im gonna go for 1 more, it was a psy-spawned enemy, which has me freaking out at the time until i figured to take my psy-pills. That being said, there is a spawn issue but it's a separate one. The guys are spawning right outside your range of vision and spank you into oblivion while you can even get a hold of where are they shooting from (i turned of the hit markers and the corsshair for immersion, but still have to look at compass from time to time cuz those spawns are a bit cursed)
My bug with quest currently is the quest with Beard and Sultan, you got send to kill both of them but as soon as I accept the quest, both Sultan and Beard instantly die somewhere in Zaton. Apparently, you can went to the sniper spot and watch their conversation and decide to kill them or help them.
I really Want a fast travel option since the map is 100x bigger than the og trilogy. Or at least add way more encounters along the way. Znd the loot from them refills the resources lost from them.
You can use the guides in the big bases to fast travel to other big bases in the other zones.
The game is too heavy for proper A-Life to be ever implemented. I suggest you to absolutely ditch this fantasy right away.
A-Life will require an absurd level of processing power and game already struggles with simple lazy and broken UE spawner that they implementrd on last day before release. To expect them to implement a feature that will only be remotely enjoyable on RTX 4090 with latest gen CPUs is too much for asking.
S1 was only able to run A-Life at stable 60 fps after 7 years since release in CoP mods and game was rather light on graphics fidelity as is, so it was possible to redirect resources.
Unless processing power of XBOX will be doubled, A-Life isn't coming anytime soon. Expect simple rework of UE spawner and that's it.
So what is A-Life? A-Life is a more complex system, than a spawner, it requires serious processing power to work and simulate events in online (300m radius from a player) and offline (the entire Zone). A-Life is a complex system that is supposed to make all events, characters persistent. So if you met some stalker and remember his name, the same stalker will continue traveling the zone until he dies in your radius of A-Life or in offline radius of A-Life. If he dies in offline radius, system will remember where he died and later will spawn his body once you will enter the 300m radius of the online A-Life. This creates a living breathing universe that Stalker was famous for.
But Stalker 2 is an extremely technologically heavy title to bring any of this to a life. Pun intended.
I don't think a-life would have anything to do with graphics cards. It only requires processing power, which is not where Stalker's current performance problems are concentrated. I don't see why it can't be implemented at least on some level.
Happy you liked it!
That one instance you used for the spawing was like a psi-radiation so it's OK when they spawn in random because it's like schizophrenia but I totally agree in every other instance. I've moved to the left and back to the right quickly and there's been spawns right there in my face like cyberpunk. But I also loved cyberpunk.
Hands down the best reviewer. Thank you for the video🎉
Yes, 100%
I hate when anyone uses the excuse that stalker was always janky it’s 2024 not 2007 😒
A true fan's review. Appreciate this a lot. I've never played the STALKER games but have loved the Metro series since 2033 and always thought they had similar vibes. Really looking forward to diving in to this.
They are both Ukrainian games. Developers of Metro originated from developers of Stalker, as I remember.
Those of us that have been looking forward to see what they had done with A-Life 2.0 are highly disappointed. Very highly. There is no A-Life. What we got was more like A-Life .002. Just lame spawn mechanics. Walk by a locked door in a hallway, but as you get 2 yards away from that door a zombie spawns out of no where. I had been playing Gamma before S2 was released, and in S2.... the Zone feels dead in comparison. In the OG titles you had chatter on the radio about things going on in other parts of the Zone. You'd get there much later, but still discover the bodies of the attack, or arrive in time and help the other NPC stalkers out. Hearing gun shots far away, then hearing the stalkers in trouble asking for help. That immersion is missing, and for anyone that has played the previous title should instantly realize that. What S2 does extremely well, and why it such a good title even without the A-Life is the Zone itself. Though several cool aspects of the previous titles are missing, like the dynamic lightning shadows, giving the zone a very eerie feeling when a storm is happening. But the looks of the over all zone is superior on several levels. Just too bad the tech has changed direction where it requires way too many resources to give us those shadows back due to how they are now generated. UE5 was designed for scripted linear AI/NPC events. Their devs never considered a background sim, and the A-Life dev probably had a huge soul wretching experience trying to get some form of the mechanic working in this bloated console game engine. If they can work with the UE devs, or even the GPU devs to offload all the background NPC sim to the GPU, get A-Life 2.0 running as they had originally planned.... This game will set a new standard, and hopefully open the eyes of gamers everywhere to the possibilities of what can be done, and should be. Maybe we'll see a new set of GPU drivers that include this tech in the future. The GPUs are really designed for that now, but instead of using if for gaming... it's being used for data mining.
Yes, one should purchase this.
1 / It's a really really good game... a few bugs, agreed, and A life is not quite there... yet when they iron out the bugs and make A life work properly this game will be genre changing and in a league of its own.
2 / it supports a small Dev team that have put this game together during a time of war when some of its Devs died in this war... jeez... what a thing... that deserves some support at the very least as well.
If you are on the fence on this game, make the purchase, enjoy the game and accept a few bugs (really not that many in a 70h+ game) for a bit until they are ironed out.
4:37 I had that bug too, but I somehow managed to get it and save the village. You just kinda have to enter and leave. Enter and leave for each wave to respond.
His confusion at 5:20 is perfectly valid. There’s not enough of an indicator for those psi emission especially on series S. His point about enemies spawning in that fashion is still a fact with or without the hallucinations.
There is an indicator which is the ominous sound effects that play whenever your psi levels are affected. As it progressively worsens you start hearing more and more misleading sound cues.
That guy spawned in the tunnel, it was a halucination. When i reached the end of that tunnel i realised that i was under some heavy psy influence and i never found the source. The thing is that when you try to loot a body of a psy phanto it disappears.
I had that bug with the town. 2 1/2 hours to save them then right after the achievement popped they radioed that they were over ran. Was still loving it until I got locked out during Subtle Matter. I'm going to give it 6 months or so and hope I can play through the whole thing
I’m loving these Cohh channel edits
First time S.T.A.L.K.E.R player here.
I've played about 16h and I love it, I am thinking about waiting for A-life to be fixed, but I really want to continue my playthrough.
might just play Indiana Jones while I wait and if the patch isn't out when Im done Ill just go
I totally agree with this video, i love the wasteland/zone exploration, hopefully more content will come for it but its already huge
Gotta give it to gsc for nailing psi hallucinations so well, they are indistinguishable from bu.. ahem anomalies
People are saying that stalker 2 should be moe similar to gamma, which in the larger community is the "definitive " stalker experience. The majority of complains are that there arent enough guns and the systems arent as deep as in gamma.
5:39 isn't that an illusion caused by one of the mutants/anomalies? I remember it happened to me in one of the quests and it frustrated me massively until I tried to loot one of these bodies to realise it is part of the game
yea spot on! thats like the worse example for Cohh to use because thats the only spawn that doesnt need fixing.
The ghost/ psi projected enemys should be in wtf positions as often as possible.
But the point still stands as i still get bands of real/lootable enemys in the vanilla game without mods. (was able to complete the game though, if anyone is deep in the comments here)
Its the buggiest game I've played, and a few bugs were really infuriating (Zalyssa bug, energy consumables not working 30% of the time, and Malachyte guard not spawning in), but I'm still addicted to the game so much and loving it (92 hours in, trying to complete all quests and fing almost all stashes). Talking to my friends, seems that I was really unlucky with the bugs it seems.
The specified spawn is a psi-attack location, not a bug)
That random spawn in at 5:10 was a hallucination dude..
Wanna try some Zone Sportsmanship Challenges?
How do you like how fleshpigs have evolved from galloping pig-lumps into leaping potato-pigs?!
A life not being there definitely hurts it. Other than that and the bugs, which i honestly haven't experienced too many.
I did mod it a bit. Mostly balancing. I am playing on veteran and it started getting a little easy so i turned up human gun damage done to me by 3x and i turned down most mutant HP pools.
I got the Zalissya bug too. I tried for hours to save the town but the Monolith soldiers (which are immune from damage inside the HQ), won't leave the damn building. You are forced to abandon it and lose the mission thus losing the town.
Overall, the game is fairly buggy, enemies can occasionally spawn in front of you or behind you, and the anomalies are quite frustrating at times, but the game is still quite fun.
aren't that spawned enemy and his dead body on 5:41 was a hallucination caused by some controller/psy anomaly around?
5:35 Proof of immersiveness as not the real person spawned in there but the hallucination
As others have pointed out, enemies spawning behind you in that instance was a result of psi-damage, but I do want to say that psi-damage is incredibly annoying with the way that particular hallucination spawn-in mechanic works, and how obscenely rare Psi-Block is.
Psi-Damaging fields have no immediate visual cue that it's happening (unlike the original trilogy with either a HUD notification or visual wibbly-wobblies with psi-columns), only an audio cue once you've entered one, and if psi-damage gets severe enough I believe it then starts messing with the screen.
It feels like 80% of the time for me, I walk into a psi-damaging field (whether it be just walking around and finding one by accident, or coming across a Controller), it just decides to spawn multiple hallucinations right behind me, even before the audio cue starts. IMO this feels incredibly cheap, even by STALKER standards.
This is not helped by the fact, as mentioned above, I cannot find any damn vendors that sell psi-block. I've been actively checking every medic I can, since it would make sense for them to carry psi-block, and so far I have yet to find any vendor that carries any psi-block.
The lack of psi-block at vendors is driving me up a wall at this point since it's kind of limiting how much I can explore, since I don't really wanna risk coming across a psi-field and getting randomly jumped by 5 ghosts the moment it starts happening.
Beyond this though, my only other gripe is that some of the mutants are severely unbalanced. Less about the health, since there's mods to nerf the health values, but more in how they attack.
There's a bunch of mutants I could point to for this, but the most notable offender of this is the Psy-Dog. Every Psy-Dog encounter I've had was "dog sees me, dog spawns 10-15 phantom clones, can replace the phantoms super quick, there's no way to tell them apart and the real one can swap places with a phantom", which is just ridiculous, easily the worst designed mutant in the entire game from a balancing perspective.
that before, when the victim just disappears for 5 minutes, these are manifestations of psi radiation, there is a kind of anomalous zone, but in general, the Alive system really does not work as it should
I had the fortune of only needing to defend Zali once.
Well, the first time i got there.... Everyone was stuck inside the main building so the game forced them to all put their guns down but they kept pulling them out and trynna shoot each other but then being forced to put them back.....
I only had a save where i was physically far from the place... Luckily when i got back, it ran as normal..... Until i got about 100 meters away.... Then it got attacked, lucky i made it back quick and defended it properly. Its been 2 days now and everything is still kosher there
It's a great game, but as it currently stands with broken A-Life, base Stalker Anomaly is just an objectively better experience.
And sure, it makes sense. But I really disagree with the "Stalker has always been jank" argument. Something always releasing broken is not an argument of why it's okay that it's broken.
We need to stop defending broken states. It's okay to say "I had fun with this game, but it's broken and it's unacceptable that it was released broken."
You can enjoy the game, be satisfied with it, and still recognize that they shouldn't have released it as is.
But 5:40 it’s not a bug, it’s tunnel with anomalies, where you have hallucinations and also noise sounds
I really wonder why he (after having played stalker 2 for quite some time) says this is a bug. Those PSI Soldiers show up a couple of times in the game and this video was made just 3 days ago.
about the “save the town” mission, i’ve encountered same problem and thought that i just leave it unfinished since I could do nothing, (I also checked on it every now and then by coming back to the area) but after maybe 5 hours of gameplay and couple of main quests completed I came by just going through for another quest and it resolved itself, monolith came out of hiding from inside and let me kill them, also completed local quests for the town and everybody lived 4:29
I also played since day 1 and it had not been patched at the moment