This is why I love solo games, life is too fast, too loud, and too much sometimes. Walking 10 miles from one town to another with no conversation in between makes talking to people at the next town all the more worth it. I literally sat on a hill and watched the sun set and had a little smoke sesh, then the sun set and I heard blood stalkers attacking a nearby group and I hopped into action like an ODST. I fucking love making my own story.
I still remember the moment in Stalker Call of Pripyat when I was scouting a bandit camp at dawn and getting my sniper rifle ready. I layed down in the grass on a hill and was about to shoot the first bandit. Then a loud shriek and slashing sound - and I was dead. A chimera oneshotted me.
Red Dead Redemption 2 really captured this well too. Lots of times I was just riding my horse taking in the vast expanses with the subtle ambient music amplifying the solitude.
@@d1rect0rnI second this best story and theatrical game I have ever played better than mgs or any other intricately written story driven game. I will pre order number 2 I’m so satisfied with the original cannot wait
I get jealous of videos like these, I can't analyze games this quickly and then I see videos like these and like dang these guys are meta analysis psychology majors.
stalker really does do something to me no wonder why i fell in love with the original series you described it perfectly and made the connection clear as day with ODST that lonely gritty feeling leaves you with a different type of emotion and stalker 2 did just that it is hard to get such a feeling correct for game
This game put me on edge. The sound design is great, it creates tension and anxiety. Highly recommend getting a good pair headphones and set the full dynamic setting. As for the feeling of dread and loneliness, it captures that really well. I'm an introvert, and this game has times where I remember those true moments of loneliness. Not in a sad way, but knowing I'm going about my life and choices alone with no one to help me but myself. I dont mind being alone 99% of the time, but even introverts have needs to want some kind of socializing eventually even if small.
If you've played CoP or Clear Sky (I loved CoP with Misery mod 2.0) S2 really hits that last one - almost the same feel but just a tad easier so far and not as oppressive but it hits what I want - survival is a struggle. You gotta go slow, burn slowly - choose your fights, keep fed and be careful how you manage your equipment conditions - save your pennies and upgrade.
They did a fantastic job on the ambiance and that feeling of isolation for better and worse. It has great moments of glory and desperation due to the sense of loneliness.
Stalker went from being that one OperatorDrewski video i watched to being a morning routine before work. It has become my absolute favorite game in less than a week. Bugs? Yoy mean anomolies. Random patrol spawn? You mean a time anomaly that warped a crew back from the future to where you were. Wrong place wrong time stalker. Random svd put in your hands? Congrats you just time traveled! You were gonna get it anyways, why not sooner? 10/10 game
I create the same cannon in my head to justify the bugs too 😂. Day night cycle all jacked up? That’s just what happens in the zone. I told myself guns being put in my inventory is something done by a mutant to hinder me. They just need to fix the story progress blocking bugs. I can’t get that scientist and his grad student to build me the suppressor from the blue prints. He just wants to drink that special vodka with me instead 😂. And that zombie on the roof of the noontide base is glitched out so the professor thinks I haven’t killed him and won’t let me into his lab. I started a second play through making different decisions and have had the same exact bugs blocking my progress.
The game is tiring to play for me, but in, a good way? Although the game can be peaceful at times, but the random bush rustling, something that sounds like footsteps, a low distant growl, it all keeps me on edge, waiting for the next bloodsuckers to jump me, or a random firefight with bandits, and the few times I walk into a new town and see friendlies there’s a huge wave of relief go through me. I thought I wished you could have companions, but the loneliness adds to the “stalker” experience.
@ in my case it’s often pack of dogs or boars. It’s kinda funny that those mad wild animals are better in stealth then u, although I understand that it’s just bad spawn system
Stalker gave me a first in video gaming. I thought to myself “I can’t wait to see this character again”. That character for me is richter, you don’t see him for hours of gameplay after getting to know him a little bit. just running around alone, only encountering humans who lie to you or shoot at you, or mutants.
Stalker 2 is my first experience with The Zone - although a bumpy intro, Im completely entranced by it now. Only thing Im missing on my long walks is a small portable radio - because the radio-soundtracks is great. But perhaps it not just meant to be.
Im a Stalker veteran, Im just passing by i dont wish to see spoilers. Ill just be playing the other Stalkers until i can buy this One. Ill leaves a like cuz u know...Stalker.
Yoooo odst was the best comparison. I was not ready for that game. I was like 10 years old or smt and was not ready to be abandoned like that after playing Reach and having a whole team to accompany me. Little did i know it wouldnt be the last time either. It was just getting me ready for the reality of life and what was to come in the next ten years to follow.
Some mods off nexus mods can help with them nasty performance anomalies. Also the UETools mod disables shader compiling at start of game cause it does nothing rn and that's been based to removing an arbitrary 20 min startup.
Commenting so this can be out there more. Plus i recently got into stalker right before stalker 2 came out. So many complaining about the game Sure it's pretty buggy, devs shouldnt be blamed as much due to their situations With all that aside, it gives you the dense of loneliness Something i felt aggressively in my past despite having plenty of friends. Being alone isn't inheritently bad and being surrounded by people isn't either. People need to understand about time for themselves to understand themselves and the world around them, and stalker feels like it captures that well. Game not only makes you a nobody at start so you are part of the small droplet of the water in a huge ocean that is in chaos Yet somehow it feels calming despite being on alert. Its hard to explain, more so coming back from work, all tired. I hate being alone, but this game series makes me feel weirdly comfortable being alone
I get that feeling in Project Zomboid too when I start a run. I always end up playing the game solo, but it evokes a feeling similar to how STALKER 2 does. Makes me love both the games very deeply.
I've spent about 12 hours getting the correct mods together and merging them to have the perfect non cancer, no pop in, and the least amount of stutter and best visual quality I could ask for. I now have 40 hours. And I can't stop playing.
I found that you can enable both DLSS and the AMD frame generation together if you have an Nvidia card. I've haven't seen another game that allows that since I don't have a 4000 series card, but it actually significantly increases FPS on my 3080.
I believe Stalker 2 is the second game to do this; The first was Ghost of Tsushima as of the update it got in May. I can’t stand the input delay when the before-frame-gen framerate is below ~60, but to each their own.
I keep hearing some stories about horrible performance and bugs. My PC is 10 years old. (i5-6600k GTX 1070) and I get 50-60 fps with upscaling and frame generation turned on. Sometimes, fps drops to 30 for a few seconds. I haven't encountered any game breaking bugs.
How on earth did you not get more subscribers from your cyberpunk video, especially when you continue to make good content. Well, have a comment for the almighty algorithm in the meantime at least
I have had none of those issues, even on High graphics I've certainly had no FPS drops. In fact, aside from a few graphical anomalies (flickering), I have had almost no issues until the first patch, and I have no issues that weren't fixed by reloading an hour or so old automate. And I play on a 3-4 year old laptop with a 2070, 16gb memory.
If your having issues with stuttering, lowering some settings that are typically done on the gpu, will then be done on the cpu, which can make stuttering worse. Just lowering settings can make fps worse
This might actually convince me to try stalker 2 despite all its glaring technical issues. Because, i loved cyberpunk. And i mean day 1 last gen consoles cyberpunk. Technically it was a mess, gameplay wise it was so undercooked I could've sworn someone forgot to plug in the oven. But do you know what it did have? an atmosphere and a story that was unforgettable. Even crashes, corrupted save files and horrible loading issues could not ruin this for me.
I still find the performance issue talk weird. I have only experienced like a 10 fps drop in towns before and that was only the first time i went there. I dont even have that insane of a PC.
UE5 has it issues in this game: The performance is poor and the lighting/ shadows freak out alot :) On the other hand there wouldnt have been another way to create a Zone like this for a smaller studio like GSC. I hope they iron out the kinks in future updates and add great DLC, people play this game because its good underneath the bugs and jank.
Huh running a Ryzen 5800X3D proc and 7900XT and have experienced 2 issues well 3. 1) A-Life doesn't quite work yet YET 2) a single npc had a glitch with his mouth when talking with him 3) I get the occasional screen tear, I could fix it but I HATE tying frame rate and turning speed (I get solid 60 fps without vsync and 30 with). People are just really bloody dumb these days and have no idea what the term system requirements means or know how to build a PC anymore
The zone is so quiet and you can take in all of the atmosphere I wonder if it’s because there’s no women in any of the games maybe that’s why it also feels so lonely
regarding what you said at the beginning about the flaws with bugs and performance being overlooked - I believe they're overlooked with this game is because there's a really good game underneath it all; most other aaa releases with the same launch problems are also just dogshit games anyway
I disagree, from what I've seen its people who dont own this game that have denying the bugs/blaming players for their games being bugged, that and people who support Ukraine, I've been told I shouldn't care about the game being broken because they are at war, stalker is awesome but this game compared to stalker anomoly doesn't hold up at all. This game isn't another cyberpunk because cyberpunk holds up on its own now, this game will only be good when modders have fixed it, not when the devs have fixed it.
Although Stalker always had a certain sense feeling of loneliness and existential dread, I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions from Stalker 2 gameplay/vibe about how lonely you are meant to be. The so-called A-life 2.0 is clearly broken. For all we know once it works the Zone might be teaming with life. It’s kinda like playing Anomaly with a 0.5 population factor and a 2 population factor. Same software, Same area. NOT same experience. Stalker 2 can be judged on a lot of stuff but anything related to AI/NPC population needs to be taken with heavy reservations.
Stalker 2 feels so downgraded to anomoly its not even funny, I've been strongly reconsidering downloading it until modders fix stalker 2 I just hate getting all the sub mods working for it.
I think the game is broken, there's no A-Life at all and we are literally the beta testers until CSG fixes everything, it's kinda disappointing, but is not a bad game. At least for me the gunplay is good, the atmospheric weather, the music, the side content and even the main missions are good. Someone can say it's not the true Stalker because it's not super janky and the gameplay is not trash, i can understand that A-Life missing it's a huge thing, but i don't think Stalker 2 at it's core is a bad game.
They can't fix what does not exist. There is no a-life at all. The game is just empty, hollow, shallow and vastly unfinished and they obviously won't really rectify that. I don't even think they have the competence to make a game that would be even remotely as deep and wholesome as the original games.
@laurenwoods4199 bullshit. GSC are lying. There is no a-life at all. They might make it look a tiny bit more lively in the future, but they can't fix what doesn't exist. I'd expect them to add a-life in the next game, if they actually have the competence to make it, which I doubt they do.
i dont get this feeling from stalker... i play it on a 4090 in 4k and i dont know, like all the other unreal engine 5 open worlds, the world looks kinda boring and static, its not that immersive for me... im only at 11 hours so far but im not impressed by the visuals of the open world at all...i cant explain it, maybe its the lack of vegetation, maybe its the bad AI... this game looks already heavily outdated, i expected more...
The reality is, Stalker 2's world is just empty because there is no A-life and you can only meet someone either when you go to a camp or when they spawn out of thin air 20 metres behind you. There is no environmental storytelling: the map is one huge piece of nothing with POIs randomly placed on it. Unlike Stalker 1, there is no meaning to how the POIs are placed, they aren't infrastructurally connected to each other. And inside of them you won't find much of anything, they will be just empty, except for story locations. "Loners" in Stalker are in fact not meant to be completely alone. They usualy travel in small groups with their friends, sometimes with a rookie they're teaching (as well as using them as a disposable in case of danger).
The locations are nearly all from the previous games. I replayed all three previous games in the last two months before 2 came out and nearly every location is exactly where they were in the original games, with a few very nice updates and new locations. They are not random, they are mostly based on the real-world locations in Ukraine. As to NPCs? I run into them all the time, in small groups and individuals, some of which are definitely random, and some you can meet again later when visiting "towns". That's not even counting all the survivors from previous games that you can meet.
@jamesmccrea4871 The locations are often the same, except they aren't logically connected like they used to be. For example: Dark Valley is one big set of automobile park and service facilities. Nothing like that in S2. Agroprom has its own boiler house, which makes sense. Meanwhile in Zalessiye there is a boiler house which heats nothing because the settlement is heated with furnaces. In the original you won't see a settlement right next to a military radar facility. Or a military radar facility that is kinda a motorized troops facility at the same time. Those are all small things but they show the devs' attitude and how shallow the whole thing is. I didn't say there aren't many NPCs. What I meant is that the world around you is dead, and the best it can do is spawn someone 20 metres away occasionally to entertain you. You can't even spot a mutant lair from a distance to evade it. Meanwhile in the original all the NPCs exist and live their lives at all times, you can watch them do different things, you can see them from a distance, if you meet them it means they have actually been on their way from somewhere to somewhere with a specific goal.
Stalker itself isn't overhyped but Stalker 2 is, that person sending the clown emoji is a clown themselves that probably never played Stalker anomoly to know how bad Stalker 2 is
@@exoticspeedefy7916 What else can be said? The game is obviously not for you. I heavily recommend you refund it if you can and go find your greener pastures. Wandering the Zone is part of the stalker experience. If this is not your cup of tea, don't idle. Leave for a game that you prefer.
@@lebitelexie9350 I get what you're saying, but calling it a 'walking sim' isn’t entirely dismissive, it's more about the pacing and atmosphere. I appreciate the immersive world and storytelling, but some mechanics could use more depth to keep the journey engaging. Stalker 2 has potential it just needs to balance wandering with a bit more impactful gameplay, as it's much of the same, to fully click for me
“What separates stalker from the triple a mass is a feeling”
~ dj peach cobbler
Is the stalker has the worst fps mechanics right now or any game
@ what
@skeeter3969 u might wanna fix ur grammar
@ I swear that sentence made sense when I wrote it
This is why I love solo games, life is too fast, too loud, and too much sometimes. Walking 10 miles from one town to another with no conversation in between makes talking to people at the next town all the more worth it. I literally sat on a hill and watched the sun set and had a little smoke sesh, then the sun set and I heard blood stalkers attacking a nearby group and I hopped into action like an ODST. I fucking love making my own story.
I still remember the moment in Stalker Call of Pripyat when I was scouting a bandit camp at dawn and getting my sniper rifle ready. I layed down in the grass on a hill and was about to shoot the first bandit. Then a loud shriek and slashing sound - and I was dead. A chimera oneshotted me.
its 2024, where is AI life???. game looks pretty but the gunfights are terrible, just another farcry 6 feeling openworld shooter game
@@chineseuncles943turn the rest of your brain
@@Studenthj-m1m cant wait till usa stops funding :D
@@Studenthj-m1m i got the game for free on a free xbox gamepass trail :D less money for the war
@@chineseuncles943 its not being added in, the ubisofication of open worlds is here and you cant stop the glorious tide
Red Dead Redemption 2 really captured this well too. Lots of times I was just riding my horse taking in the vast expanses with the subtle ambient music amplifying the solitude.
Yeah I remember spending so many hours just hunting the forests, the Metro series is also really good for this sort of feeling too.
No game does it better than Death Stranding
@@d1rect0rn Take 1 tumble and that baby will remind you that you're not alone.
RDR is not post-apocalyptic though.
@@d1rect0rnI second this best story and theatrical game I have ever played better than mgs or any other intricately written story driven game.
I will pre order number 2 I’m so satisfied with the original cannot wait
I get jealous of videos like these, I can't analyze games this quickly and then I see videos like these and like dang these guys are meta analysis psychology majors.
Lol it was enough to test game, yep he mostly shows the vids in small zone but it still a character of zone
Glaze harder
stalker really does do something to me no wonder why i fell in love with the original series you described it perfectly and made the connection clear as day with ODST that lonely gritty feeling leaves you with a different type of emotion and stalker 2 did just that it is hard to get such a feeling correct for game
This game put me on edge. The sound design is great, it creates tension and anxiety. Highly recommend getting a good pair headphones and set the full dynamic setting.
As for the feeling of dread and loneliness, it captures that really well. I'm an introvert, and this game has times where I remember those true moments of loneliness. Not in a sad way, but knowing I'm going about my life and choices alone with no one to help me but myself. I dont mind being alone 99% of the time, but even introverts have needs to want some kind of socializing eventually even if small.
If you've played CoP or Clear Sky (I loved CoP with Misery mod 2.0) S2 really hits that last one - almost the same feel but just a tad easier so far and not as oppressive but it hits what I want - survival is a struggle.
You gotta go slow, burn slowly - choose your fights, keep fed and be careful how you manage your equipment conditions - save your pennies and upgrade.
They did a fantastic job on the ambiance and that feeling of isolation for better and worse. It has great moments of glory and desperation due to the sense of loneliness.
Stalker went from being that one OperatorDrewski video i watched to being a morning routine before work. It has become my absolute favorite game in less than a week. Bugs? Yoy mean anomolies. Random patrol spawn? You mean a time anomaly that warped a crew back from the future to where you were. Wrong place wrong time stalker. Random svd put in your hands? Congrats you just time traveled! You were gonna get it anyways, why not sooner?
10/10 game
I create the same cannon in my head to justify the bugs too 😂. Day night cycle all jacked up? That’s just what happens in the zone. I told myself guns being put in my inventory is something done by a mutant to hinder me.
They just need to fix the story progress blocking bugs. I can’t get that scientist and his grad student to build me the suppressor from the blue prints. He just wants to drink that special vodka with me instead 😂. And that zombie on the roof of the noontide base is glitched out so the professor thinks I haven’t killed him and won’t let me into his lab. I started a second play through making different decisions and have had the same exact bugs blocking my progress.
It's like you're touching grass without actually touching grass.
A manga called BLAME! Really captures this feeling too i highly recommend anyone to check it out
Great recommend! Probably one of my all time fav mangas.
I've heard of it but I'll check it out
And there is one movie about it
You got me tearing up once I heard the ODST music. Wish stalker had music. Also you touch a lot on stoicism too which I enjoyed.
The game is tiring to play for me, but in, a good way? Although the game can be peaceful at times, but the random bush rustling, something that sounds like footsteps, a low distant growl, it all keeps me on edge, waiting for the next bloodsuckers to jump me, or a random firefight with bandits, and the few times I walk into a new town and see friendlies there’s a huge wave of relief go through me. I thought I wished you could have companions, but the loneliness adds to the “stalker” experience.
Excellent video. Also the ODST reference 🤌🏾👌🏾🙌🏾
Great video! Keep up the good work bud
Stalker 2 teaches u not to lose hope if u feel lonely. Someone will definitely spawn, just look behind your back
in my case, it was a bloodsucker that spawned behind my back
@ in my case it’s often pack of dogs or boars. It’s kinda funny that those mad wild animals are better in stealth then u, although I understand that it’s just bad spawn system
Yes, it is a very paradox world, a peaceful hell. I don't think any other FPS can give you this feeling.
Stalker gave me a first in video gaming. I thought to myself “I can’t wait to see this character again”. That character for me is richter, you don’t see him for hours of gameplay after getting to know him a little bit. just running around alone, only encountering humans who lie to you or shoot at you, or mutants.
Stalker 2 is my first experience with The Zone - although a bumpy intro, Im completely entranced by it now. Only thing Im missing on my long walks is a small portable radio - because the radio-soundtracks is great. But perhaps it not just meant to be.
As you can imagine, the Another Rain drop out of nowhere hit me hard
Im a Stalker veteran, Im just passing by i dont wish to see spoilers.
Ill just be playing the other Stalkers until i can buy this One.
Ill leaves a like cuz u know...Stalker.
Game pass on pc/Xbox is like 8 bucks on cdkeys i think dude
Great work brother. Big up
Yoooo odst was the best comparison. I was not ready for that game. I was like 10 years old or smt and was not ready to be abandoned like that after playing Reach and having a whole team to accompany me. Little did i know it wouldnt be the last time either. It was just getting me ready for the reality of life and what was to come in the next ten years to follow.
finally a review that talks about ambiance and emotion, game journalists are immature brats
Some mods off nexus mods can help with them nasty performance anomalies. Also the UETools mod disables shader compiling at start of game cause it does nothing rn and that's been based to removing an arbitrary 20 min startup.
I felt the need to see another human in the game after while doing the swamps mission.
The zone is the main character
Commenting so this can be out there more.
Plus i recently got into stalker right before stalker 2 came out.
So many complaining about the game
Sure it's pretty buggy, devs shouldnt be blamed as much due to their situations
With all that aside, it gives you the dense of loneliness
Something i felt aggressively in my past despite having plenty of friends. Being alone isn't inheritently bad and being surrounded by people isn't either.
People need to understand about time for themselves to understand themselves and the world around them, and stalker feels like it captures that well.
Game not only makes you a nobody at start so you are part of the small droplet of the water in a huge ocean that is in chaos
Yet somehow it feels calming despite being on alert.
Its hard to explain, more so coming back from work, all tired.
I hate being alone, but this game series makes me feel weirdly comfortable being alone
I get that feeling in Project Zomboid too when I start a run. I always end up playing the game solo, but it evokes a feeling similar to how STALKER 2 does. Makes me love both the games very deeply.
I stopped to watch a thunderstorm, and the game brutally reminded me that it's not a skybox by dropping a bolt 10 feet in front of me. Shat my pants
Man, just imagine what masterpiece that game will be after GSC fix everything and modders will take over the whole thing
didnt expect to click a STALKER video and get Persona background music
"What a Lack of Alife Teaches About Loneliness"
It just really feels and sounds like im there... Something new fallout cant do...
Oh, this Is why i feel at home.
I've spent about 12 hours getting the correct mods together and merging them to have the perfect non cancer, no pop in, and the least amount of stutter and best visual quality I could ask for.
I now have 40 hours. And I can't stop playing.
I found that you can enable both DLSS and the AMD frame generation together if you have an Nvidia card. I've haven't seen another game that allows that since I don't have a 4000 series card, but it actually significantly increases FPS on my 3080.
damn how?
@ in the graphics setting in the game
I believe Stalker 2 is the second game to do this; The first was Ghost of Tsushima as of the update it got in May.
I can’t stand the input delay when the before-frame-gen framerate is below ~60, but to each their own.
Same on my 3080, I switched off frame generation and my fps improved
I keep hearing some stories about horrible performance and bugs. My PC is 10 years old. (i5-6600k GTX 1070) and I get 50-60 fps with upscaling and frame generation turned on. Sometimes, fps drops to 30 for a few seconds. I haven't encountered any game breaking bugs.
Great video!
Solitude is fucking great.
Sociopaths winning with this one.
How on earth did you not get more subscribers from your cyberpunk video, especially when you continue to make good content.
Well, have a comment for the almighty algorithm in the meantime at least
Thank you! I appreciate it :)
Ahh a bug? It’s just an Anomlay within an Anomaly.
I love this game
I have had none of those issues, even on High graphics I've certainly had no FPS drops. In fact, aside from a few graphical anomalies (flickering), I have had almost no issues until the first patch, and I have no issues that weren't fixed by reloading an hour or so old automate.
And I play on a 3-4 year old laptop with a 2070, 16gb memory.
Insta sub, good vibes, great content, and based halo references
If your having issues with stuttering, lowering some settings that are typically done on the gpu, will then be done on the cpu, which can make stuttering worse. Just lowering settings can make fps worse
This might actually convince me to try stalker 2 despite all its glaring technical issues. Because, i loved cyberpunk. And i mean day 1 last gen consoles cyberpunk. Technically it was a mess, gameplay wise it was so undercooked I could've sworn someone forgot to plug in the oven. But do you know what it did have? an atmosphere and a story that was unforgettable. Even crashes, corrupted save files and horrible loading issues could not ruin this for me.
I still find the performance issue talk weird. I have only experienced like a 10 fps drop in towns before and that was only the first time i went there. I dont even have that insane of a PC.
man will go to zone just not to see a therapist
5:40 🥲
This video shows why the largest faction in the zone are called loners. ;)
UE5 has it issues in this game: The performance is poor and the lighting/ shadows freak out alot :)
On the other hand there wouldnt have been another way to create a Zone like this for a smaller studio like GSC.
I hope they iron out the kinks in future updates and add great DLC, people play this game because its good underneath the bugs and jank.
i guess thats one way too look at it
Huh running a Ryzen 5800X3D proc and 7900XT and have experienced 2 issues well 3. 1) A-Life doesn't quite work yet YET 2) a single npc had a glitch with his mouth when talking with him 3) I get the occasional screen tear, I could fix it but I HATE tying frame rate and turning speed (I get solid 60 fps without vsync and 30 with).
People are just really bloody dumb these days and have no idea what the term system requirements means or know how to build a PC anymore
The zone is so quiet and you can take in all of the atmosphere I wonder if it’s because there’s no women in any of the games maybe that’s why it also feels so lonely
I'm having no problems with the game
regarding what you said at the beginning about the flaws with bugs and performance being overlooked - I believe they're overlooked with this game is because there's a really good game underneath it all; most other aaa releases with the same launch problems are also just dogshit games anyway
I disagree, from what I've seen its people who dont own this game that have denying the bugs/blaming players for their games being bugged, that and people who support Ukraine, I've been told I shouldn't care about the game being broken because they are at war, stalker is awesome but this game compared to stalker anomoly doesn't hold up at all. This game isn't another cyberpunk because cyberpunk holds up on its own now, this game will only be good when modders have fixed it, not when the devs have fixed it.
I'm highly disappointed in this game
it's bad optimization from the Dev Side, not a bad game engine.
Bro just summarized all post apocalypse games like it was profound like plato
Although Stalker always had a certain sense feeling of loneliness and existential dread, I wouldn’t draw too many conclusions from Stalker 2 gameplay/vibe about how lonely you are meant to be.
The so-called A-life 2.0 is clearly broken. For all we know once it works the Zone might be teaming with life. It’s kinda like playing Anomaly with a 0.5 population factor and a 2 population factor. Same software, Same area. NOT same experience.
Stalker 2 can be judged on a lot of stuff but anything related to AI/NPC population needs to be taken with heavy reservations.
Stalker 2 feels so downgraded to anomoly its not even funny, I've been strongly reconsidering downloading it until modders fix stalker 2 I just hate getting all the sub mods working for it.
I think the game is broken, there's no A-Life at all and we are literally the beta testers until CSG fixes everything, it's kinda disappointing, but is not a bad game. At least for me the gunplay is good, the atmospheric weather, the music, the side content and even the main missions are good. Someone can say it's not the true Stalker because it's not super janky and the gameplay is not trash, i can understand that A-Life missing it's a huge thing, but i don't think Stalker 2 at it's core is a bad game.
They can't fix what does not exist. There is no a-life at all. The game is just empty, hollow, shallow and vastly unfinished and they obviously won't really rectify that. I don't even think they have the competence to make a game that would be even remotely as deep and wholesome as the original games.
A-life is being worked on, it's in the game but it's not working.
@laurenwoods4199 bullshit. GSC are lying. There is no a-life at all. They might make it look a tiny bit more lively in the future, but they can't fix what doesn't exist. I'd expect them to add a-life in the next game, if they actually have the competence to make it, which I doubt they do.
@@yeruschmift8422 modders literally found tons of a-life code in the game, stop the cope lil ivan
Its not that deep
Far Cry 2
i dont get this feeling from stalker... i play it on a 4090 in 4k and i dont know, like all the other unreal engine 5 open worlds, the world looks kinda boring and static, its not that immersive for me... im only at 11 hours so far but im not impressed by the visuals of the open world at all...i cant explain it, maybe its the lack of vegetation, maybe its the bad AI... this game looks already heavily outdated, i expected more...
+15p lil bro
uh..nah..it's unplayable, very disappointing..uninstalled after 5-6 hours
But I hate it, that the game kinda pushes you to form a buddy relationship with Richter.
The reality is, Stalker 2's world is just empty because there is no A-life and you can only meet someone either when you go to a camp or when they spawn out of thin air 20 metres behind you. There is no environmental storytelling: the map is one huge piece of nothing with POIs randomly placed on it. Unlike Stalker 1, there is no meaning to how the POIs are placed, they aren't infrastructurally connected to each other. And inside of them you won't find much of anything, they will be just empty, except for story locations.
"Loners" in Stalker are in fact not meant to be completely alone. They usualy travel in small groups with their friends, sometimes with a rookie they're teaching (as well as using them as a disposable in case of danger).
The locations are nearly all from the previous games. I replayed all three previous games in the last two months before 2 came out and nearly every location is exactly where they were in the original games, with a few very nice updates and new locations. They are not random, they are mostly based on the real-world locations in Ukraine.
As to NPCs? I run into them all the time, in small groups and individuals, some of which are definitely random, and some you can meet again later when visiting "towns". That's not even counting all the survivors from previous games that you can meet.
@jamesmccrea4871 The locations are often the same, except they aren't logically connected like they used to be. For example: Dark Valley is one big set of automobile park and service facilities. Nothing like that in S2. Agroprom has its own boiler house, which makes sense. Meanwhile in Zalessiye there is a boiler house which heats nothing because the settlement is heated with furnaces. In the original you won't see a settlement right next to a military radar facility. Or a military radar facility that is kinda a motorized troops facility at the same time. Those are all small things but they show the devs' attitude and how shallow the whole thing is.
I didn't say there aren't many NPCs. What I meant is that the world around you is dead, and the best it can do is spawn someone 20 metres away occasionally to entertain you. You can't even spot a mutant lair from a distance to evade it. Meanwhile in the original all the NPCs exist and live their lives at all times, you can watch them do different things, you can see them from a distance, if you meet them it means they have actually been on their way from somewhere to somewhere with a specific goal.
games made nowadays should be better... stalker is overhyped. its okay
🫵🤡
@@habhdyst722 why?
Stalker itself isn't overhyped but Stalker 2 is, that person sending the clown emoji is a clown themselves that probably never played Stalker anomoly to know how bad Stalker 2 is
That's it's just another walking sim.
I guess you never really played a proper walking sim. But thats fine.
@@lebitelexie9350 Not the biggest fan of any walking sim actually.
@@exoticspeedefy7916 What else can be said? The game is obviously not for you. I heavily recommend you refund it if you can and go find your greener pastures. Wandering the Zone is part of the stalker experience. If this is not your cup of tea, don't idle. Leave for a game that you prefer.
@@lebitelexie9350 I get what you're saying, but calling it a 'walking sim' isn’t entirely dismissive, it's more about the pacing and atmosphere. I appreciate the immersive world and storytelling, but some mechanics could use more depth to keep the journey engaging. Stalker 2 has potential it just needs to balance wandering with a bit more impactful gameplay, as it's much of the same, to fully click for me
@@exoticspeedefy7916 congratulations on being a dumbass 🫵🤡