Combat sucks.

[Peter_Paradox]

grenades are worthless, enemys dodge them with ease.. you cant even "cook" them to my knowledge.. maybe there is impacts? But i havent seen those yet. Bullets from enemys go through obstacles including metal and wood.. wood is more understandable.. All enemy's are practically faster than you, so reloading in a fight is a no go.. theyre also bullet sponges if not humans.. every single attack does bleed damage so you have to wrap up AND stim to not die while running and getting shot behind cover or being outrunned and smacked just as soon as you heal..

[TriGGrPuLLa]

Originally posted by Peter_Paradox:

grenades are worthless, enemys dodge them with ease.. you cant even "cook" them to my knowledge.. maybe there is impacts? But i havent seen those yet. Bullets from enemys go through obstacles including metal and wood.. wood is more understandable.. All enemy's are practically faster than you, so reloading in a fight is a no go.. theyre also bullet sponges if not humans.. every single attack does bleed damage so you have to wrap up AND stim to not die while running and getting shot behind cover or being outrunned and smacked just as soon as you heal..

This game isn't for you. fortnite is calling.....

[Rabbit]

Welcome to the zone!

[Masoterian]

git gud, and also, WELCOME TO THE ZONE.

[wafflesandp3ssy]

Originally posted by Kai:

The game actually has problems with AI and damage reactions, unless you shoot them in the head they won't stagger or go down if anything.

Also the animals are apparently worse, they do not flinch to being shot nor scamper when you kill a hound, also looks like the bloodsuckers knocks you down and are tanky now.

Not sure why they changed the AI from the original games that much, but the engine change is likely the culprit.

they DO STAGGER what u saying?upgrade ur weapons to a higher caliber or loot some with higher armor penetration and u will stagger every human enemy regardless of ur shot placement

[Dumar]

Originally posted by Nirvash:

There is a real problem with the combat, compared to previous games. The guns do feel very weak in ways they didn't in the previous games.

Like for example, you have the Toz shotgun. Long double barrel. And the primary purpose of those is "hunting". Then you have the Flesh enemies. Which in my opinion is the primary use for the double barrel shotguns. But now the flesh has more HP, and can do a Sonic Adventure homing attack on you every few seconds that takes exactly half of your health and inflicts bleed. But if you decide to face-tank the hit and get a perfect dome shot aimed and centered, there's only about a 40% chance that both shots will be enough to kill. And flesh always seem to travel in sets of 2 or 3.

So now we have a situation where, every time you encounter flesh up close, there isn't really a way to deal with them better or more skillfully, unless you just so happen to have the spawn happen exactly next to an anomaly. The shotgun just isn't strong enough to actually kill them effectively. Nevermind dumping 2 or 3 mags from an AK which also depletes about 40% of it's durability at the same time.

Now in the end it's not really game breaking. If I always have 15 medkits on me then it's fine popping 1 per every flesh I ever encounter through the entire time. But that's just not how it should be. It makes it feel like a turn-based RPG where I need a good randomized damage roll to end the battle in 1 cycle. Or maybe I need to increase my dexterity to increase my crit chance with ranged weapons.

This... This so much.

I have about 20medkits, and I can circle-jerk Bloodsucker encounters and avoid dmg, but trying to punish them with a shotgun is nigh impossible, and I might as well, just stand-still, get 'hit' to punish them with 1 or 2 shots, then heal up until next attk.

Reloading the slow ass Toz or Double-barrel shotty while circle jerking to avoid melee dmg is fine I guess.

However, to whiff-punish them, it's just easier to take a melee slash the face in-between their invis hits.

Otherwise, the fight will take 10mins, and I will miss-a lot, waste precious shotgun ammo, just to avoid using zero medkits/bleed kits.

People here saying its skill issue and this is how it is in the Zone, lol... Combat is "BAD" period.

Really, I just want Metro 4 even more now.

This game feels like its 2007 with higher textures... I thought this was in-line with Metro Series, but its like realllllly far behind in many combat aspects? How? Why?

Why is this game praised out the whazzo I wonder? This praise really should be going to Metro Series more-so than Stalker... I'm really disappointed and confused.

No disrespect to devs, and their hardship, but really, UE 5.1 games should be denied and placed back in oven to cook for at minimum, UE 5.2- 5.4.

Publishers/Devs, please, delay your projects if you are building on base UE 5.0 or 5.1... It's really really awful to release these games on PC packed with bleeding edge features to tank virtually every PC config.

Yea, I'm using a 4090/14700k @ 4k res, everything max, upscaled to DLSS performance with Framegen enabled... It's FINE but imagine anyone else below these specs.

Undoubtly, this game will run AWFUL for anyone/everyone not on top-end hardware.

So far, I have the most fun in this title walking around the environment and observing foliage etc... Game looks wonderful except for the reflections on Windows using crappy UE 5.1 LUMEN everywhere. (Again, projects in 5.0-5.1 UE should never release to market. It's really really crappy.)

Shooting dogs are the only thing that feels OK in this game.

I don't enjoy fighting respawning boars, humans, or any mutant other than dogs. Spongy, nothing flinches and even some humans take 3-shotgun hits to the chest, up close.... WEIRD.

The no-flinching is the WORST part of combat, utterly despicable.

[Nate]

Just do all yourselves a favor and download Anomaly GAMMA. It's so freaking good idk how anyone can go from that to stalker 2 and say good game. God GAMMA is next level. I never tried it before because it seemd annoying to install, it isnt, real easy to do. Back to the REAL zone, not the fake cant even render past 40m zone. The ironic part: my buddy who is playing s2 and his steam says exploring garbage, like even the devs knew.

[Joey Mouse Pad]

It's not a skill issue. You're all no life tryhards that never saw ♥♥♥♥♥. The combat isn't fun. Shooting mutants with 2 or 3 45 round AK48 mags isn't fun. You waste all your ammo on the stupid lest ♥♥♥♥. AI is absolutely stupid. I get around them no issue. The game is broken and completely unfinished.

[Jegedillo]

Originally posted by Joey Mouse Pad:

It's not a skill issue. You're all no life tryhards that never saw ♥♥♥♥♥. The combat isn't fun. Shooting mutants with 2 or 3 45 round AK48 mags isn't fun. You waste all your ammo on the stupid lest ♥♥♥♥. AI is absolutely stupid. I get around them no issue. The game is broken and completely unfinished.

If the AI is so stupid then why are you having problems with combat against them?

[Bad Distraction Carnifex]

Use mods if you don't like it. AI dodging nades is a git gud scenario.

[Fitzroy]

Another overrated game just like cyberpunk day 1. enemies spawn out of nowhere like cyberpunk day 1. i was shooting an enemy in the legs in Stalker 2 and he was still shooting at me as if it was nothing. The world is lifeless, Enemies with bionic eyes spawning in your pants. They see throught walls, they see you in a 2mm crack in the wall. Al is often very dumb, going to cover and stop moving for the rest of their life. wasting money. Far Cry 2 > Stalker 2.

[Jet]

Originally posted by Fearnley FitzRoy:

Another overrated game just like cyberpunk day 1. enemies spawn out of nowhere like cyberpunk day 1. i was shooting an enemy in the legs in Stalker 2 and he was still shooting at me as if it was nothing. The world is lifeless, Enemies with bionic eyes spawning in your pants. They see throught walls, they see you in a 2mm crack in the wall. Al is often very dumb, going to cover and stop moving for the rest of their life. wasting money. Far Cry 2 > Stalker 2.

So you rez a dead ass convo from almost a week ago just to parrot issues that I'm sure the devs are working to fix. You good now, stalker?

[Rektsmarshal]

Pfft. You use grenades on humans? Only headshots for them. I only use grenades against mutants, especially multiple Burers.

[BusinessPenguin]

Originally posted by Nate:

So I've been playing a little bit more and everything except combat is decent I guess. Found a couple mods to fix my input lag issues and such. But the enemy spawning, both human and flesh is insane and makes no sense. They just keep spawning right next to me, over and over and over. So I just ran away, but also I was going in the windmill and dogs spawned inside lol, in the walls, it was weird. I had to reload and then as soon as I left they jumped me, which is fine. It's just really janky.

It's not a terrible product but parts of it are terrible. It def does get better as you get further in and the story is compelling enough, but the voice acting is bad for both english and Ukrainian, its just weird. A-life 2.0 was supposedly data mined? Well if a-life 2.0 is random spawns right next to you. I'm talking like literally right next to me, then give us a-life 1.0 back please. I really wish they worked with a different engine to give us worse visuals for a better playing product.

Even with mods it stills feels a little floaty and disconnected, esp when making small movements. Also the loot in the game sucks. Idk if its even worth exploring anymore. Hopefully the devs rush a patch but with how the consumers are glazing them, I highly doubt it will get done in a timely manner. If I had cheerleaders I wouldn't be working hard at all. Let them work for me.

I really wish I could act like this IRL, just hire some slavic dude and whenever I don't feel like finishing a job I just point to him and say sorry, hired him, you know.... But my customers wouldn't pay me, and would never hire me again....

And dont forget the removed features like proper faction war, binoculars and NVGs....

[GronkiCaveman]

Shocking how all the "git gud" "welcome to the zone" comments all seem to come from children with anime profile pictures.

I just finished the game on veteran and as a fan of the earlier games in the series it was rather disappointing to see zero growth, and even regression in the gameplay.

The combat specifically however makes no effort to be engaging to the player. Having most mutants rely on disabling the players agency with knockdown or concussion attacks does little to provide entertainment when you just sit there waiting for control to return to your character, and i can't say that any of the new enemies proved to be very interesting or different either, the AI just has very little depth whether it be for mutants or humans.

(honorable mentions to npc grenade spam)

The problem comes down to the fact that combat actually lacks any interesting way to challenge the players skill, whether it be maneuverability or gunplay with any depth.

Given the tools the player have available and the way the game handles enemy spawns there isn't really much value in strategizing about these things either, because one second you're fighting a psydog, and the next a pack of bloodsuckers.

Even the storyline in the game fails to innovate on its predecessors, recycling just about a everything.

It all just feels extremely lackluster, if you love the series do you really just want it to be stagnant recycled leftovers because that's what you're used to?

[Konrad]

I John Wicked the first 10 hrs. Was awesome. Pistol head-shots for everyone. Very satisfying!