@@Hasselwoof yeah, in my opinion it would be 9/10 or 10/10 with ai functioning better and smoother performance. I believe history will be kind to this game, and when all is said and done it will be remembered as one of the better games of the decade.
The first gameplay hours I thought it was being too hard to be enjoyable , but after a 30 minute shootout with the 30+ guys in the Sphere base I changed my mind… Fighting humans is great, but mutants are so annoying…
@runningfenrir6433 admittedly the mutants have always been annoying... but that's also kinda the point. They are intentionally unfair sometimes. It's annoying, but it keeps with the feeling of the world. Mutants are near unknowable eldritch creatures that defy the laws of physics and nature. If they made sense or were easy... I think it might take away from the game a bit.
@@christiaannel8339 u can see it as it runs around invisible slightly, so try to pay attention to that. Also, if u can get yourself into any type of building and let it funnel towards you one way itll keep running towards you, shoot it, and it’ll run away and repeat
This is my first Stalker game. I'm ~5 hours in. I've died ~30x. I like it, and I'm not a fan of really "hard" games. It's more intense than hard imo. I haven't encountered any bugs on Series X that I remember. It's more about learning what weapon/ammo to use against the enemy type. I was frustrated with trying to shoot the dogs and rats. I pulled out my knife and killed them almost instantly while taking little damage. Figuring out how to survive feels rewarding in this game. It's like a harder version of the Metro series.
Although i dont drink, i think we should raise a toast of Cossacks to our fellow Stalkers who too had been waiting for STALKER 2.. but sadly succumbed to the Zone before its release. Given its been 15 years since the last installment, wherein a global pandemic and a bunch of wars took place, and the STALKER community argueably being as old as 2003. There might be more of them than we realize.
@@clydefrog4959 because the old game didn't have real dynamic lighting. It's more expensive to cast shadows from multiple light sources with real dynamic lighting. People are already complaining about performance, adding that would make the performance even worse.
Stalker is my GOTY. The sound design, environment, immersion, gunplay, are as good as ever. Sure it needs a little polishing but this is the definition of a diamond in the rough. We need to pay respect to the devs , able to put out this masterpiece. One dev even lost his life to the war. As an OG stalker fan, thank you GSC. We know you’ll keep working on this to turn it into a undeniable must play for all gamers
Still scummy practices like all other Devs unfortunately. Say they hear the fans and will fix (which I'm sure they will). But didn't hear the community with releasing faulty product and using review embargos to make sure units were sold day one. Be a fanboy all you want and enjoy essentially art from your subjective viewpoint. But don't be dishonest and praise a team of clearly deceptive people who aimed to profit initially by 100% factually releasing a product using lies etc to obtain sales. Practice is so normal it's not even called out on anymore.
@Got-2B-Said Brother, the developers are in the middle of a war. One died, and multiple have gone off to fight in the war. Give them some slack that they wanted to get out a game that has already been delayed a ton.
@@Got-2B-Said The review embargo was strictly on recorded media. You could say WHATEVER you wanted before the embargo was lifted, but you could only use footage GSC provided you. It's a null point considering the fact that it was already known that the game was a bit buggy and have performance issues from the get go. YOU are the one who's at fault for not checking out the SEVERAL pre-launch previews that were posted, including one made by IGN, who stated these problems THEMSELVES. Another thing: This game had to make THREE different deals with three different companies to BARELY have enough funding to get it out in this state. One with Microsoft, one with Nvidia and one with Epic. Watch GSC's video on the development process that they had to go through during the war and you'll quickly realize you're entirely in the wrong here.
@@etcetc2478tarkov is just a mess, you can get one shot by a bot from hundreds of kilometres that couldn’t even possibly have the chance to see you, you lose all your stuff and get nothing in return. That’s not dark souls, that’s getting over it. Stalker IS a dark souls game. Because even thought it is difficult you get rewarded for your struggle( except the fucking mutants piece of tanks)
As a huge stalker fan who played all the games on release i am just gonna say this When they fix these things: - A-Life is not working at all - Enemy AI keeps randomly spawning even on the Main Missions - Ai not knowing what to do sometimes - Broken economy - Very Bullet sponge enemies - Day/Night cycle - Non existing cpu optimization And when they add these things from the previews Stalker games: - Stalkers ranking system - Factions reputation - Night Vision - Binoculars It will be one of the best games i've played The atmosphere, music, sound design, characters, animations, first person cutscenes are one of the best i've seen in a first person shooter ! After the checklist i provided will get done, it will be a 10/10 game
Glad to see that at least a couple of outlets went ahead and delayed their reviews to take the day one patch into account. Can't blame the rest for simply reviewing what the devs gave them but this at least gives us an idea of the product's quality as it is currently.
In all fairness the dev team were making this while their country as at war. I’m not a fan of bugs and glitches but I think we need to consider their situation.
This game was made by Ukrainians not IN ukrain. The devs left the country right as the war started and it maybe slowed them down for a month while getting set up in a new studio
@@punksnotdead5367are you ok in the head? They literally had to relocate their whole studio, some developers joined the army. And they had to work from a different country while watching their hometowns get bombed. Watch “war game: making of stalker 2” documentary
2:45 the screen with the FAR manager is one of the details that bring realism: I'm a physicist and my coworkers still use this ancient program every day, and shelves with old equipment are also so familiar!
Bugs can be fixed. What matters is there is a great game underneath it all. The bugs have also been somewhat overstated, this isn't Cyberpunk style launch. It's very far from unplayable, and every patch is improving the whole experience.
The game is excellent. Those performance issues and minor glitches (that are sometimes extremely funny) will definitely be fixed with future updates. It's not 10 only because it's not in polished condition at launch (which is very common in the modern world of gamedev). Good hunting, STALKERS!
The game is bad. The AI is stupid and can see through bushes and walls. There are only four different mutants, all with a single moveset, so once you've seen one attack, you already know everything there is to know. Out of my 50 deaths, I died once to an enemy and 49 times to bugs. There are no real factions, no interesting characters, and the world feels dead-nothing happens. Enemies spawn in randomly; you go into a house, walk out, and suddenly five enemies spawn outside without making a sound. The game is not difficult in any way. If you die, there’s no penalty, so you can just run around like an idiot without a care in the world. It falls short on every single point it was supposed to hit. It does one single thing right-it looks good-but I don’t care about that when the game is boring.
"It's a miracle that Stalker 2 even exists" is the most important line here. SO many factors speak against this game releasing, including the shutdown of the studio a decade ago. It's amazing that Stalker 2 is even real.
@@punksnotdead5367 because more people will be able to enjoy Stalker 2 when the bugs in the game will be fixed and also the more content will be added.
@@punksnotdead5367 they also did it for just cause 4 sometimes games change/improve a lot over time or a bunch of major/apparent bugs are removed shortly after release warranting a re-review look at No Mans Sky for example
I'm on Series X. It plays so well. I've encountered no bugs and only one stuttering incident. It's been perfect other than that. I absolutely love this game. I'm going to spend a long, long time in the Zone.
I really wish they would make it seem like you are not drunk or have motion sickness for controller users. Constantly looking to the right or left, not stick drift either lol. But man, the game is super fun, but that's the one negative thing holding me back.
@@saintsrown yes most people with less than 8gb vram and 16gb ram face memory leak issues which makes the game drop frames to single digits at random times but frequently
The atmosphere alone in the game is worth it for me. I'm not worried about the bugs, they managed to make this during covid, and in wartimes, I'm sure they will be able to fix the issues, they probably just needed to go ahead and release to pull in some income. But like I said, just the atmosphere and sound design of the game alone is a 10/10 for me, can't wait to see what they are able to do with this once the bugs are worked out. Also, I can already tell Mods are gonna be insane.
Clear Sky was my first Stalker game and I had so much fun facing many difficult anomalies, enemies, and mutants in the zone as I didn't know anything about the game's world yet. I've been waiting for this game after completing SoC and CoP as many of my fellow Stalker fans were... Heart of Chernobyl brought that feeling of wonder back when I first played Clear Sky.
Very good review. I’d currently give the game a 7.5/10, but a STRONG 7.5. Once the AI improves, bug fixes, performance fixes, this game is an easy 9.5/10. That being said, I’m hopelessly addicted. The gunplay of PUBG, survival horror, immersive, INCREDIBLE sound design, such a strong foundation.
To anyone having performance issues on PC please go to nexus mods and look at some of the optimization mods already available. There are mods for less lanky mutants, mods for inventory weight (I use one that only makes food, meds, and ammo weightless) and a ton more coming out every day. STALKER is supposed to be modded. Modding is Stalker.
finally after 20 years , I can buy a great FPS game after Half life 1,2,F.E.A.R , Far Cry 1 , Doom 3, Quake 2,Bioshock, Stalker 1. PS.What took you so long ?
That shit us reduckuas consdering how many early missions have them in it. Og game you take on 3 bearly get them but you would survive, but now it's one, but he does more damage than 3 put together from the og. Also there is no reason to fight them no either these no loot drops from them or bounty parts for traders
I've played about 10 hrs on the Series X and I'm loving it! What with Black Ops 6, Stalker 2, and Indiana Jones next month. It's great to get some use out of the Xbox.
Frustrating thing is the people who flock to commenters who reference the technical issues and overtly deny the existences of bugs/optimisation issues. These guys actually listen.. so don’t try to suppress valid criticism, that leads to a better experience, once fixed, for ALL of us 🙏
All reviews that I watched pointed a bugs and there are plenty themes on Reddit about it. So nobody is ignoring that but also Stalker 2 situation isn't near as Cyberpunk.
@ trust me, you’ll find people appearing in droves to deny the existence of bugs and poor optimisation. Not saying it’s as bad as CP’s launch, at least so far. There’s a lot of people blaming hardware lol, telling people they need to upgrade their PCs etc. I’ve seen it a lotttt so far lol. (At least launch day anyway)
I do not have the patience despite the near perfect atmospheric immersion. Will no doubt be returning in 6-8 months after the studio does multiple patches and performance fixes. GLHF all!
This game is amazing the aspect of it being hard is the whole point if your complaining about to hard quit complaining learn to deal with it or go to easy mode im in the middle difficulty and its hard but so fun i couldn't even imagine the hardest difficulty still everything they did with this game is top tier
If A-life 2 was working, the game was properly optimized, and the bugs and glitches were patched up, itd be a game of the year contender. As of right now, its in a semi-unplayable state with anything less than a 4060ti super, and even then you have to play on lowest graphical settings to prevent massive amounts of lag and stutter.
@@carpelunam i agree. we need 3 patches week one. first one with graphical and character/mutant model optimizations. If the game is atleast playable in a relatively functional state, it's way less frustrating. 2nd one needs to be adjustments to enemy numbers. i get they are trying to overpopulate the world to substitute of AL2, but its causing unneeded performance issues, especially when models have consistent memory leaks and rendering issues. 3. and this is just my personal suggestion, they need to decreast koupon cost for repairs by atleast 10-15%. Repairs in this game are ridiculous.
There is nothing like stalker, nothing really captures the post-apocalyptic feel as stalker does. After few months and some patches, it would be a perfect 9/10
Wow. IGN gets it! Stalker 2 is more than just the sum of its parts. It's an experience like no other for sure. As a long time of the series, who goes back to Stalker every year, Stalker 2 is absolutely amazing.
In my roughly 4 hours of gameplay on the Xbox Series X, I haven't encountered any major annoyances. While there are occasional performance issues, they haven't significantly impacted my experience. However, the experience may vary depending on your choices and settings. So, good hunting, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s!
It’s a 8 . It doesn’t look as good as I thought it would but people are saying it looks amazing. The movement feels a little stiff for me and I hate how the arms are stuck to the camera in that weird gun always pointing out mode like doom. From someone that’s not a fanboy, it’s just an average game seems like. I bought it so no hate but it just feels like any other game to me. Stop milking the they made it during a war we get it.
I'm happy that at its core Stalker 2 is a great game, from the sounds of it. The devs definitely must have put their heart and soul into this game, especially considering the actual war happening in their country. Because this game is so important to them, I'm sure they'll patch till it's practically perfect eventually - so not a big risk buying it right away. I'm a big fan of the original Stalker games! 👍
Hmmmm, I have never seen NPCs clipping in walls, animation elements out of place either. I did see a bunch of stuff clipping in terms of the environment, like decals z-fighting on warehouse walls and whatnot. To be honest though, those didn't bother me as much as the sound glitches. It freaks me out when I'm hearing a radio transmission and all of a sudden the guy sounds like he's next to me.
After thousands of hours in Tarkov, this game is a breathe of fresh air. Cant run around guns blazing but it definitely isnt as brutal as tarkov. The main thing i liked to do on Tarkov was farm the Rogues on lighthouse. last wipe i made the mistake of choosing BEAR. im coming from a game where the AI will one shot instakill you from 1000 meters away. This game is just fun.
@SeriousPeaches Tarkov probably wouldn't exist without Stalker that's wtf it has to do with it. The gameplay loops are completely different but the bones are similar.
For all this game's "Authenticity" to have to empty half a mag into a baddie to get him to go down *saving headshots*, I find it comical to watch...and it detracts from that grimdark narrative of brutal apathy the rest of the environment presents.
I'm glad he described what the game was. I was getting frustrated at 1st cause I couldn't differentiate between bugs or the way the game actually plays. Learning the mechanics etc. I just hate the shooting. Sometimes the bullets hit, sometimes it doesn't yet you're point directly on them at a semi distant range. Clearly it's my 1st Stalker experience. I can see the appeal in a game like this. I definitely going to play it through. Hopefully the gameplay bugs gets squashed.
glad IGN actually has a decent review guy right now, he actually beat the game and understood how to view the bugs. 8/10 for a buggy slavic fever dream is certainly better than previous IGN reviewers would have given it. totally agree too, cant wait for this to become a 9/10 in a year!
I actually respect the game. Developing a game is very challenging, especially one this ambitious in the midst of national crisis and challenges. I hope this game gets polished over the years.
It keeps getting better and better. Even in LOW Graphic settings, the game is so Cool. 👌 I keep mine on Low settings then i enabled the Nvidia Low latency and I Put HIGH on Texture Detail. I don't experience any FPS Drop and Game running smooth. Im playing on Rtx 3060ti and Ryzen 7 3700x. Game has issues but its playable. Its creepy and yeah i like the gunfight. AI is throwing a lot of grenades and i love it. I give this 9.5/10. But if the bugs and glitch got fix. I give em perfect 10. 👌 And this is my First time to play STALKER Game.
Alife and spawning is the biggest issue. with that said, after about eight hours, a decent gun and some basic armor, it's not that bad (it's pretty darn good actually). Ironically, Id rather face a bloodsucker than a pack of dogs. for reference, I'm playing cloud on an Xbox S with a TV that can't handle the graphics. Constant pixelation and recalibration. Im still having fun and completing missions on Stalker (medium) difficulty.
I enjoy everything I play regardless of how bad/broken it might be. I love this game and franchise so much but even I'm exhausted from the performance/Ai issues and bugs with this game Playing it on veteran is so incredibly fun but also disappointingly easy but when it's working well it's incredible
Leaving this comment for anyone that might stumble by. Its definitely a issue of what pieces are in your PC but you dont need a 5090 to run this game. Im on a 1080 and run it at medium literally just fine , only bugs ive encountered were occasional clipping. Play the game for yourself and make a decision, its not like any of you actual agree with IGN if they say something is bad or good , so just play it yourself
Thanks for the review ❤ I already play about 10 hours on my Xbox Series X and didn't see serious bugs. Sending you greetings from Ukraine, STALKERS! 💛💙
Lets see what A-Life 2 becomes, sinking suspicion its feature complete. Makes me wonder how much had to be sacrificed to get this to consoles. Sad to think about
This shows me you've never played the originals because the AI is NOT smart AT ALL in the original, there are multiple moments they won't even fire at hostiles and shoot at each other lmao.
Is it me or the character animations look rather stiff? Almost reminiscent of Far Cry games and why do blood decals look like red clouds when shooting enemies? Kinda old school for a next gen game
I know this game's great and I've been waiting for it. I haven't started playing yet, hope they'll push more hotfixes in couple of weeks..so I can enjoy it fully
Enjoying this on Xbox but the current state of it on Xbox, especially with terrible controls, has me waiting impatiently for them to fix it, rather. Seems like a really special game but just needs to iron out these bugs. Incredible it came out at all.
Incredible game! It has so much atmosphere which lacks in mostbof the modern games nowadays. Anyway, bugs and optimization will be fixed soon, and the quality is much better on release than it was in previous parts
I will say the AI is one of my few genuine disappointments. In the oks games enemies would flank you , bait you out and make some genuinely hard gunfights. Oh and A life i guess but let's be honest. A life meant nothing to kosy people then just seeing stapkers walk around the zone
![Coheed and Cambria - Searching for Tomorrow [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hDsYGLbmadg/mqdefault.jpg)
So I guess it would be a 9/10 without bugs
Probably a 10 honestly. It's that good
Nah it would be a 10/10 if a-life was in the game
@@Hasselwoof yeah, in my opinion it would be 9/10 or 10/10 with ai functioning better and smoother performance. I believe history will be kind to this game, and when all is said and done it will be remembered as one of the better games of the decade.
@turtleboi1547 agreed. It'll get there. Compared to the shit we've been getting throughout the years this is really good
10/10 if the flashlight casted shadows
The first gameplay hours I thought it was being too hard to be enjoyable , but after a 30 minute shootout with the 30+ guys in the Sphere base I changed my mind… Fighting humans is great, but mutants are so annoying…
I just finished that mission now. Man it wasn't easy.
But yes. Mutants are terrible
@@runningfenrir6433 but don’t you think it’s on purpose ? I think fighting mutants in real life wouldn’t be a walk in the park too
@runningfenrir6433 admittedly the mutants have always been annoying... but that's also kinda the point. They are intentionally unfair sometimes. It's annoying, but it keeps with the feeling of the world. Mutants are near unknowable eldritch creatures that defy the laws of physics and nature. If they made sense or were easy... I think it might take away from the game a bit.
@@runningfenrir6433 does anyone know how to kill that invisible one. I just run away
@@christiaannel8339 u can see it as it runs around invisible slightly, so try to pay attention to that. Also, if u can get yourself into any type of building and let it funnel towards you one way itll keep running towards you, shoot it, and it’ll run away and repeat
This is my first Stalker game. I'm ~5 hours in. I've died ~30x. I like it, and I'm not a fan of really "hard" games. It's more intense than hard imo. I haven't encountered any bugs on Series X that I remember. It's more about learning what weapon/ammo to use against the enemy type. I was frustrated with trying to shoot the dogs and rats. I pulled out my knife and killed them almost instantly while taking little damage. Figuring out how to survive feels rewarding in this game. It's like a harder version of the Metro series.
I’m actually surprised how well it’s holding up on the series x
@@fullblownaids3970 can’t wait to play it man! Downloading it rn!
Because the xbox is optimized on low settings.
The game was not optimized at all on PC.
A lot of former stalker devs worked on metro so that makes sense
Yeah I tried playing on PC but the frame rate drops were atrocious. Wish it was available for ps5 so I could have a smooth experience playing it
I just hope they fix the optimisation issues as soon as possible cause I am enjoying this game a lot
Lower your graphics settings, then it's optimised
@comicipedia frames aren't the problem I'm getting decent performance but I'm facing alot of input lag and the mouse movement feels delayed
@@alimurtaza9141 there’s already mods that fix this mate on nexus mods
just download the mod from nexus, dont rely on devs lol
@@alimurtaza9141 The game got mouse acceleration turned on (can't turn it off from settings), there's a video explaining on where you can turn it off
Although i dont drink, i think we should raise a toast of Cossacks to our fellow Stalkers who too had been waiting for STALKER 2.. but sadly succumbed to the Zone before its release.
Given its been 15 years since the last installment, wherein a global pandemic and a bunch of wars took place, and the STALKER community argueably being as old as 2003. There might be more of them than we realize.
Unpatched and unoptimized still an 8 says a lot based on what the devs had to go through
I haven’t ran into an issue on pc yet
It’s only going to get better also
So just release a half finished game??? 🤨
I haven't really run into any bug other than the fact that the game is very poorly optimised.
@ yeah. I’m getting 60 frames @1440p with a 6700xt. Which is fine
My only gripe is the removal of dynamic flashlight shadows/muzzle flash shadows. The old stalker games had it, why doesn't this one?
@@clydefrog4959 because the old game didn't have real dynamic lighting. It's more expensive to cast shadows from multiple light sources with real dynamic lighting. People are already complaining about performance, adding that would make the performance even worse.
probably perfomance reasons for lower HW. But higher HW should have been able to use it
Im hopping a modder adds this to the game soon.
@@PCZONE1 mods will add everything you want and even more on top of it!
@@dubey666manuI’m already using a few mods that adjust ai, monster health, physics, etc etc the mods for this game will be great in time
Stalker is my GOTY. The sound design, environment, immersion, gunplay, are as good as ever. Sure it needs a little polishing but this is the definition of a diamond in the rough. We need to pay respect to the devs , able to put out this masterpiece. One dev even lost his life to the war. As an OG stalker fan, thank you GSC. We know you’ll keep working on this to turn it into a undeniable must play for all gamers
Still scummy practices like all other Devs unfortunately.
Say they hear the fans and will fix (which I'm sure they will).
But didn't hear the community with releasing faulty product and using review embargos to make sure units were sold day one.
Be a fanboy all you want and enjoy essentially art from your subjective viewpoint.
But don't be dishonest and praise a team of clearly deceptive people who aimed to profit initially by 100% factually releasing a product using lies etc to obtain sales.
Practice is so normal it's not even called out on anymore.
@@Got-2B-Said economically it would make no sense to further delay
@Got-2B-Said Brother, the developers are in the middle of a war. One died, and multiple have gone off to fight in the war. Give them some slack that they wanted to get out a game that has already been delayed a ton.
@@Got-2B-Said The review embargo was strictly on recorded media. You could say WHATEVER you wanted before the embargo was lifted, but you could only use footage GSC provided you. It's a null point considering the fact that it was already known that the game was a bit buggy and have performance issues from the get go. YOU are the one who's at fault for not checking out the SEVERAL pre-launch previews that were posted, including one made by IGN, who stated these problems THEMSELVES.
Another thing: This game had to make THREE different deals with three different companies to BARELY have enough funding to get it out in this state. One with Microsoft, one with Nvidia and one with Epic. Watch GSC's video on the development process that they had to go through during the war and you'll quickly realize you're entirely in the wrong here.
A LITTLE POLISH? BRO… lol
The Dark Souls of FPSs. Arduous, unforgiving, grueling, and unforgettable.
thnik its called tarkov, this is ez
@@etcetc2478tarkov got inspired from stalker
@@etcetc2478tarkov is just a mess, you can get one shot by a bot from hundreds of kilometres that couldn’t even possibly have the chance to see you, you lose all your stuff and get nothing in return. That’s not dark souls, that’s getting over it. Stalker IS a dark souls game. Because even thought it is difficult you get rewarded for your struggle( except the fucking mutants piece of tanks)
It’s the STALKER of FPSs. Dark Souls? Stop😫😫😫
Is the Stalker really that hard?
As a huge stalker fan who played all the games on release i am just gonna say this
When they fix these things:
- A-Life is not working at all
- Enemy AI keeps randomly spawning even on the Main Missions
- Ai not knowing what to do sometimes
- Broken economy
- Very Bullet sponge enemies
- Day/Night cycle
- Non existing cpu optimization
And when they add these things from the previews Stalker games:
- Stalkers ranking system
- Factions reputation
- Night Vision
- Binoculars
It will be one of the best games i've played
The atmosphere, music, sound design, characters, animations, first person cutscenes are one of the best i've seen in a first person shooter !
After the checklist i provided will get done, it will be a 10/10 game
It would be a 10/10 , without bugs
The fact the devs even got this game out, WOW! Massive credit.
Glad to see that at least a couple of outlets went ahead and delayed their reviews to take the day one patch into account. Can't blame the rest for simply reviewing what the devs gave them but this at least gives us an idea of the product's quality as it is currently.
Stalker doesn't have bugs. Stalker have anomalies.
Braindead bot comment.
no dude it has a ton of game breaking bugs
You idiot, it was a joke.
@@mitchellbrinkerdp It MAY have been a joke, which you would've known if you had any literacy
@@Idkoscar1 real talk there have been a ton of people legitimately claiming the bugs are a part of stalker so that’s where i’m coming from
The most anticipated project for years. Can’t wait them to fixing bags. Game has beautiful mechanics and open world
In all fairness the dev team were making this while their country as at war. I’m not a fan of bugs and glitches but I think we need to consider their situation.
This game was made by Ukrainians not IN ukrain. The devs left the country right as the war started and it maybe slowed them down for a month while getting set up in a new studio
Some of the devs couldn’t leave or went off to fight - 2 even died. I’d say it’s a valid reason for it to be unpolished.
Stop saying this. It’s not true
@@punksnotdead5367are you ok in the head? They literally had to relocate their whole studio, some developers joined the army. And they had to work from a different country while watching their hometowns get bombed. Watch “war game: making of stalker 2” documentary
@@replexity… how is it not true?
Bugs or not, I applaud the developers for even releasing this game. I know it hasn't been easy for anyone on the team.
2:45 the screen with the FAR manager is one of the details that bring realism: I'm a physicist and my coworkers still use this ancient program every day, and shelves with old equipment are also so familiar!
It's Stalker. Enough said
So far I like it. Nothing out is like this game right now. It’s a mature game with a serious theme
Bugs can be fixed. What matters is there is a great game underneath it all. The bugs have also been somewhat overstated, this isn't Cyberpunk style launch. It's very far from unplayable, and every patch is improving the whole experience.
The game is excellent. Those performance issues and minor glitches (that are sometimes extremely funny) will definitely be fixed with future updates. It's not 10 only because it's not in polished condition at launch (which is very common in the modern world of gamedev). Good hunting, STALKERS!
@@RainbowCrewPeople I agree, I am probably going to lose a lot of productive hours just being in the zone this year.
The game is bad. The AI is stupid and can see through bushes and walls. There are only four different mutants, all with a single moveset, so once you've seen one attack, you already know everything there is to know. Out of my 50 deaths, I died once to an enemy and 49 times to bugs. There are no real factions, no interesting characters, and the world feels dead-nothing happens. Enemies spawn in randomly; you go into a house, walk out, and suddenly five enemies spawn outside without making a sound.
The game is not difficult in any way. If you die, there’s no penalty, so you can just run around like an idiot without a care in the world. It falls short on every single point it was supposed to hit. It does one single thing right-it looks good-but I don’t care about that when the game is boring.
Minor bugs ? Tf non of the game systems are not properly working 🤣
@@travisss15maybe up the difficulty?
@@manujayaperera6971 I've been playing it for more than 6 hours and I haven't seen a single bug.
I guess it's not the same experience for everyone
Would be a 9/10 if there were no bugs at launch
10/10 if there were MORE bugs at launch.
"It's a miracle that Stalker 2 even exists" is the most important line here. SO many factors speak against this game releasing, including the shutdown of the studio a decade ago. It's amazing that Stalker 2 is even real.
I hope you do a review when/if it gets fully patched
@@davismartin4348 and why would they do that?
@@punksnotdead5367 they same reason they did it for Cyberpunk
@@punksnotdead5367 because more people will be able to enjoy Stalker 2 when the bugs in the game will be fixed and also the more content will be added.
@@punksnotdead5367 they also did it for just cause 4
sometimes games change/improve a lot over time or a bunch of major/apparent bugs are removed shortly after release warranting a re-review
look at No Mans Sky for example
I'm on Series X. It plays so well. I've encountered no bugs and only one stuttering incident. It's been perfect other than that.
I absolutely love this game. I'm going to spend a long, long time in the Zone.
I really wish they would make it seem like you are not drunk or have motion sickness for controller users. Constantly looking to the right or left, not stick drift either lol. But man, the game is super fun, but that's the one negative thing holding me back.
The drift is so bad it's unplayable.
@MarkWitzel Bro...seriously
I said this too, really does feel like you’re drunk, whilst walking on ice😂
@Nion8six Faccccts hahah
Thought it was just me that can't take it. My first Stalker game...may just wait for patches to happen. Dont want it to ruin my experience.
This will be an amazing game to visit after some patches and community fixes! I don't want my first time experience to be unoptimized
It's got some bugs but it's no Cyberpunk 2077
The performance on pc is far worse than cyberpunk on release
@ I think it can vary depending on specs
@@thepaperninja3123this is just blatant exaggeration
@@punksnotdead5367 i really wish that were true.
@@saintsrown yes most people with less than 8gb vram and 16gb ram face memory leak issues which makes the game drop frames to single digits at random times but frequently
The Collector’s Edition of this game is really awesome 👌
What's different about the game in the collector's edition?
@yeahkevinn The Collector's Edition comes with some awesome additional goodies like a bag, figure, and a replica of the anomaly.
@@legizzle Wait, like in real life?
@@CrusaderJacky Yeah!
Ultimate Edition is even better! Super expensive though.
The atmosphere alone in the game is worth it for me. I'm not worried about the bugs, they managed to make this during covid, and in wartimes, I'm sure they will be able to fix the issues, they probably just needed to go ahead and release to pull in some income. But like I said, just the atmosphere and sound design of the game alone is a 10/10 for me, can't wait to see what they are able to do with this once the bugs are worked out.
Also, I can already tell Mods are gonna be insane.
I actually agree with IGN's rating this time
Clear Sky was my first Stalker game and I had so much fun facing many difficult anomalies, enemies, and mutants in the zone as I didn't know anything about the game's world yet. I've been waiting for this game after completing SoC and CoP as many of my fellow Stalker fans were... Heart of Chernobyl brought that feeling of wonder back when I first played Clear Sky.
Very good review. I’d currently give the game a 7.5/10, but a STRONG 7.5. Once the AI improves, bug fixes, performance fixes, this game is an easy 9.5/10. That being said, I’m hopelessly addicted. The gunplay of PUBG, survival horror, immersive, INCREDIBLE sound design, such a strong foundation.
To anyone having performance issues on PC please go to nexus mods and look at some of the optimization mods already available. There are mods for less lanky mutants, mods for inventory weight (I use one that only makes food, meds, and ammo weightless) and a ton more coming out every day. STALKER is supposed to be modded. Modding is Stalker.
Verdict at 8:37
Score at 9:30
@@mudassar14love thank you.
The GOAT of the comments. Thank you.
You kids with zero attention span are better off googling the score instead of watching the video
@@marioricardo7934 it could just be that people want to know the review score before buying, but dont want to face the risk of spoilers
Many thanks
It deserves an 8 even with the current bugs, I love it! ❤
finally after 20 years , I can buy a great FPS game after Half life 1,2,F.E.A.R , Far Cry 1 , Doom 3, Quake 2,Bioshock, Stalker 1.
PS.What took you so long ?
Have you tried it
Atomic Heart?
@@GoldenPhoenixGaming Atomic Heart is 🤮
Have you been living in a cardboard box for 17 years?!?
How old are you???
They need to nerf bloodsuckers asap
That shit us reduckuas consdering how many early missions have them in it. Og game you take on 3 bearly get them but you would survive, but now it's one, but he does more damage than 3 put together from the og. Also there is no reason to fight them no either these no loot drops from them or bounty parts for traders
@@zxcv010 dunno if you mod your games but there is a mod out rn that specifically reduces damage needed to kill bloodsuckers.
Been playing for about 2 hours and haven’t run into a single bug. We’ll see, so far so good
I've played about 10 hrs on the Series X and I'm loving it! What with Black Ops 6, Stalker 2, and Indiana Jones next month. It's great to get some use out of the Xbox.
Score is 8/10.
You didn’t have to spoil it
Frustrating thing is the people who flock to commenters who reference the technical issues and overtly deny the existences of bugs/optimisation issues.
These guys actually listen.. so don’t try to suppress valid criticism, that leads to a better experience, once fixed, for ALL of us 🙏
All reviews that I watched pointed a bugs and there are plenty themes on Reddit about it. So nobody is ignoring that but also Stalker 2 situation isn't near as Cyberpunk.
@ trust me, you’ll find people appearing in droves to deny the existence of bugs and poor optimisation.
Not saying it’s as bad as CP’s launch, at least so far.
There’s a lot of people blaming hardware lol, telling people they need to upgrade their PCs etc. I’ve seen it a lotttt so far lol.
(At least launch day anyway)
I do not have the patience despite the near perfect atmospheric immersion. Will no doubt be returning in 6-8 months after the studio does multiple patches and performance fixes. GLHF all!
u dodged a bullet. Game is boring and empty.
@@travisss15you have no idea what your talking about how many hours did you play did you even really do anything
Most. Atmospheric. Storms. In. A. Video. Game. (Full. Stop🤓)
This game is like Fallout 76 but with sixteen times the detail.
I’m loving it. Rebooting the game every hour until bugs fixed. Especially the memory leak.
I spent so many hours in the 3 OG STALKER games, pre-orderd this one and really looking forward to playing
Clean up the bugs, and it's a solid TEN game world and experience for me.
This game is amazing the aspect of it being hard is the whole point if your complaining about to hard quit complaining learn to deal with it or go to easy mode im in the middle difficulty and its hard but so fun i couldn't even imagine the hardest difficulty still everything they did with this game is top tier
If A-life 2 was working, the game was properly optimized, and the bugs and glitches were patched up, itd be a game of the year contender.
As of right now, its in a semi-unplayable state with anything less than a 4060ti super, and even then you have to play on lowest graphical settings to prevent massive amounts of lag and stutter.
dev said a-life fix with optimation is priority patch. first to get fixed
well if they're smart theyll realize they have a huge opportunity here to fix this or else it'll flail in the wind and be left to modders
@@carpelunam i agree. we need 3 patches week one. first one with graphical and character/mutant model optimizations. If the game is atleast playable in a relatively functional state, it's way less frustrating.
2nd one needs to be adjustments to enemy numbers. i get they are trying to overpopulate the world to substitute of AL2, but its causing unneeded performance issues, especially when models have consistent memory leaks and rendering issues.
3. and this is just my personal suggestion, they need to decreast koupon cost for repairs by atleast 10-15%. Repairs in this game are ridiculous.
Excellent game. It's a pity that the technical condition is not very good. But Stalker 2 has a very beautiful and atmospheric world.
for the ultimate beginner & mid game guide ===>
There is nothing like stalker, nothing really captures the post-apocalyptic feel as stalker does. After few months and some patches, it would be a perfect 9/10
Its like IGN finally got a legit reviewer to play a game. 👏👏👏
Wow. IGN gets it!
Stalker 2 is more than just the sum of its parts. It's an experience like no other for sure. As a long time of the series, who goes back to Stalker every year, Stalker 2 is absolutely amazing.
The dev just posted that a patch will come out this week, and that the next patch coming out will fix A-life.
I wish A-Life 2.0 was not busted and it wasn’t currently FarCry: Chornobyl because the atmosphere is S tier 😢
@@gtabro1337 💀💀💀
This game has been everything I’ve been waiting so many years for. A generational treasure and even with all it’s bugs it’s the people’s GOTY 🙂↕️
In my roughly 4 hours of gameplay on the Xbox Series X, I haven't encountered any major annoyances. While there are occasional performance issues, they haven't significantly impacted my experience. However, the experience may vary depending on your choices and settings. So, good hunting, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s!
It’s a 8 . It doesn’t look as good as I thought it would but people are saying it looks amazing. The movement feels a little stiff for me and I hate how the arms are stuck to the camera in that weird gun always pointing out mode like doom. From someone that’s not a fanboy, it’s just an average game seems like. I bought it so no hate but it just feels like any other game to me. Stop milking the they made it during a war we get it.
They’re saying the art design looks amazing, not the actual graphics. They’re right in that regard - the anomalies are eerily beautiful.
@@christopherlyndsay8611 It is a shame the downgrade
Gonna wait a couple of months for it to be more polished
I'm happy that at its core Stalker 2 is a great game, from the sounds of it. The devs definitely must have put their heart and soul into this game, especially considering the actual war happening in their country. Because this game is so important to them, I'm sure they'll patch till it's practically perfect eventually - so not a big risk buying it right away. I'm a big fan of the original Stalker games! 👍
Downloading right now on Xbox. Can’t wait to play!
I love the bugs because they seem to be the same as in the original games 15 years ago. True to the roots.
Hmmmm, I have never seen NPCs clipping in walls, animation elements out of place either. I did see a bunch of stuff clipping in terms of the environment, like decals z-fighting on warehouse walls and whatnot. To be honest though, those didn't bother me as much as the sound glitches. It freaks me out when I'm hearing a radio transmission and all of a sudden the guy sounds like he's next to me.
Great review!
They aren't "bugs"; they're "anomalies" lol
After thousands of hours in Tarkov, this game is a breathe of fresh air. Cant run around guns blazing but it definitely isnt as brutal as tarkov.
The main thing i liked to do on Tarkov was farm the Rogues on lighthouse. last wipe i made the mistake of choosing BEAR. im coming from a game where the AI will one shot instakill you from 1000 meters away. This game is just fun.
Wtf does Stalker have to do with Tarkov? They are completely different games lol
@SeriousPeaches Tarkov probably wouldn't exist without Stalker that's wtf it has to do with it. The gameplay loops are completely different but the bones are similar.
The game is bad, but the tech stuff needs to be fixed. It's a 9/10 for me. I love the Fallout games and Metro.
For all this game's "Authenticity" to have to empty half a mag into a baddie to get him to go down *saving headshots*, I find it comical to watch...and it detracts from that grimdark narrative of brutal apathy the rest of the environment presents.
I'm 6 hours in, and I've completely maybe 5 missions. I keep getting lost in the world exploring
I eagerly await the release of the next installment in the Metro game series. I can only imagine the title of this new installment: “Metro Leviticus.”
I'm glad he described what the game was. I was getting frustrated at 1st cause I couldn't differentiate between bugs or the way the game actually plays. Learning the mechanics etc. I just hate the shooting. Sometimes the bullets hit, sometimes it doesn't yet you're point directly on them at a semi distant range. Clearly it's my 1st Stalker experience. I can see the appeal in a game like this. I definitely going to play it through. Hopefully the gameplay bugs gets squashed.
1:24 had me cracking 😂😂
Good flow in the narrative of the host of this video.
glad IGN actually has a decent review guy right now, he actually beat the game and understood how to view the bugs. 8/10 for a buggy slavic fever dream is certainly better than previous IGN reviewers would have given it. totally agree too, cant wait for this to become a 9/10 in a year!
Despite the terrible performance of my pc this is the most fun I’ve had in a modern fps game because it is a actual video game not a playable movie
I actually respect the game. Developing a game is very challenging, especially one this ambitious in the midst of national crisis and challenges. I hope this game gets polished over the years.
A new review? It's been 3 days
Dang. If only this series had a passionate and dedicated modding community to streamline and improve the game. Oh wait.
This is the first game I know that recommends 32gb of RAM... Can't wait for the patches.
This is a fantastic review.
It keeps getting better and better. Even in LOW Graphic settings, the game is so Cool. 👌 I keep mine on Low settings then i enabled the Nvidia Low latency and I Put HIGH on Texture Detail. I don't experience any FPS Drop and Game running smooth. Im playing on Rtx 3060ti and Ryzen 7 3700x. Game has issues but its playable. Its creepy and yeah i like the gunfight. AI is throwing a lot of grenades and i love it. I give this 9.5/10. But if the bugs and glitch got fix. I give em perfect 10. 👌
And this is my First time to play STALKER Game.
Alife and spawning is the biggest issue. with that said, after about eight hours, a decent gun and some basic armor, it's not that bad (it's pretty darn good actually). Ironically, Id rather face a bloodsucker than a pack of dogs. for reference, I'm playing cloud on an Xbox S with a TV that can't handle the graphics. Constant pixelation and recalibration. Im still having fun and completing missions on Stalker (medium) difficulty.
I enjoy everything I play regardless of how bad/broken it might be. I love this game and franchise so much but even I'm exhausted from the performance/Ai issues and bugs with this game
Playing it on veteran is so incredibly fun but also disappointingly easy but when it's working well it's incredible
Eyyy you actually got good at games!
Leaving this comment for anyone that might stumble by. Its definitely a issue of what pieces are in your PC but you dont need a 5090 to run this game. Im on a 1080 and run it at medium literally just fine , only bugs ive encountered were occasional clipping. Play the game for yourself and make a decision, its not like any of you actual agree with IGN if they say something is bad or good , so just play it yourself
Thanks for the review ❤
I already play about 10 hours on my Xbox Series X and didn't see serious bugs.
Sending you greetings from Ukraine, STALKERS! 💛💙
Lets see what A-Life 2 becomes, sinking suspicion its feature complete. Makes me wonder how much had to be sacrificed to get this to consoles. Sad to think about
-A-Life is non existent
-mutants have zero loot
-A.I is very dumb which removes immersion
-no PDA radio or radio chatter
I was so excited for the a life. Hopefully they can patch it because I doubt this is what they envisioned.
"Mutants have no loot" lmfao. Do you come from gamma?
@@Westpine29 mutants were never supposed to have loot, that’s a modded feature
This shows me you've never played the originals because the AI is NOT smart AT ALL in the original, there are multiple moments they won't even fire at hostiles and shoot at each other lmao.
@@sesad5035 dude thinks it’s must be full of ammo, that he shoot at it))
0:33 goddamn I love it! XD
Is it me or the character animations look rather stiff? Almost reminiscent of Far Cry games and why do blood decals look like red clouds when shooting enemies? Kinda old school for a next gen game
I know this game's great and I've been waiting for it. I haven't started playing yet, hope they'll push more hotfixes in couple of weeks..so I can enjoy it fully
Enjoying this on Xbox but the current state of it on Xbox, especially with terrible controls, has me waiting impatiently for them to fix it, rather. Seems like a really special game but just needs to iron out these bugs. Incredible it came out at all.
Incredible game! It has so much atmosphere which lacks in mostbof the modern games nowadays.
Anyway, bugs and optimization will be fixed soon, and the quality is much better on release than it was in previous parts
This is going to be an amazing game in half a year.
This is an honest review that matches with my 10 hours of time spent on the game
This is a great review. My computer just cannot run this game well
Fair and accurate. This it what I’ve experienced with the game too. 6/10
I will say the AI is one of my few genuine disappointments. In the oks games enemies would flank you , bait you out and make some genuinely hard gunfights. Oh and A life i guess but let's be honest. A life meant nothing to kosy people then just seeing stapkers walk around the zone