For those who say game looks bad.

[QuanChis]

Game looks insanely good, weather and atmosphere gsc nailed it.

Shameless plug, but to prove my point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAYd4whxTc

It just facts that it looks and feels great if you got the pc to run it, game feels like it has a soul to it, can't say that for 80% of all the other triple A games.

[QuanChis]

Originally posted by Kashra Fall:

For an UE5 game, it isn't the best looking in the world. The game has LOD pop in, at one point in the game it has flickering textures (You'll know it when you know it if you look.) The lighting is an absolute joke DESPITE it using lumen. Muzzle flares from the guns don't do much more than look light light brights even in the dead of night and you'll see the reflective sheen from a gasmask far before you see the flare off their gun.

I could keep going, but it is what it is. The game looks fine, but it isn't utilizing a lot of what UE5 can do and do it well. The game has horrible AI, a broken A life system (Being fixed.) shoves more resources down your throat than you'll ever need and has super tanky mutants that are designed to take those resources in droves.

It's great if you love it, but damn, after 7 and a half hours on gamepass. I struggle to find the urge to play it again. I WANT to love it, but the game is just mediocre and the looks are simply one part of that.

a lot of what you say is facts, gotta admit and give props where props due.

I think they should've delayed until A-life system was fixed. But todays release standard is quite low.

People compare this game to cyberpunk but let's talk about how cyberpunk released...
in comparison to cyberpunk this game has a heavenly release state.

[k4Qu]

a game engine does a lot of things to render the game world. some of the things are passable and as good as expected for a 2024 game. other things are atrocious. you can see the last minute 'optimization' work they were doing.

[Rj]

Originally posted by bewareoblivionisathand_:

The game is unfinished. Thanks to you fanboys, publishers are releasing more and more unfinished games. Thanks for your help o7

That's so brave to say without even specifying what the game is missing, genius at work

[impactos_enredos0i]

Originally posted by Rizzbrok:

Game looks insanely good, weather and atmosphere gsc nailed it.

Absolutely.

[loriziell]

It doesn't look good, if you turn off upscaling it looks worse than the original stalker games, if you turn it on, it's blurry and I feel like I need to buy glasses to see better. I don't blame the devs at all, I blame UE5. I refunded because of this and I'm gonna wait to see if there's improvements in a few months, maybe mods will fix it

[Pecheurman]

Originally posted by bewareoblivionisathand_:

The game is unfinished. Thanks to you fanboys, publishers are releasing more and more unfinished games. Thanks for your help o7

cry me tears.

it was always like that, including stalker shadow of chernobyl , players cried for it to release since 2004 (when it was announced to release) then people trashed it because it was full of bugs, but then we didn't have game reviews like today where it's full of entitled kids who think they know all.
a game can die because of the development time too, that you think you know how it gonna release don't mean it will release like you deluded yourself to believe.
if you downgrade the version everyone gonna trash it because it don't look like the trailer, if you keep the version detailed people gonna trash it because they have a potato pc.

go work, buy yourself a good pc and you won't be loosing your time in this comment section.

[Kaiju4Hire]

Originally posted by loriziell:

It doesn't look good, if you turn off upscaling it looks worse than the original stalker games, if you turn it on, it's blurry and I feel like I need to buy glasses to see better. I don't blame the devs at all, I blame UE5. I refunded because of this and I'm gonna wait to see if there's improvements in a few months, maybe mods will fix it

That's because you config is glitched out. Delete the config files in appdata and problem solved. This issue occurred because the day 1 patch wasn't released until hours after launch and it changed the structure of the config files. I had the dim lighting issue because of that, fixed it with the config delete to reset everything then boom, looks flippin amazing.

[Arbadacarba]

It does look really good, but is inconsistent imo.

[MarcusDavidus]

Game looks ok but for FPS I have on 4070ti this graphics are just bad.. 8 heave 100 fps in cyberpunk without scaling and framegen with Path tracing... Here 45 without dlss and framegen.. not acceptable srsly

[GodfatherPlunger]

The game does look good, but removing muzzle flash shadows and dynamic flashlight shadows which were both in the 15 years older original is really, really disappointing... The performance is also not reflective of the visuals. (I own it on GOG)

[bewareoblivionisathand_]

Originally posted by Pecheurman:

Originally posted by bewareoblivionisathand_:

The game is unfinished. Thanks to you fanboys, publishers are releasing more and more unfinished games. Thanks for your help o7

cry me tears.

it was always like that, including stalker shadow of chernobyl , players cried for it to release since 2004 (when it was announced to release) then people trashed it because it was full of bugs, but then we didn't have game reviews like today where it's full of entitled kids who think they know all.
a game can die because of the development time too, that you think you know how it gonna release don't mean it will release like you deluded yourself to believe.
if you downgrade the version everyone gonna trash it because it don't look like the trailer, if you keep the version detailed people gonna trash it because they have a potato pc.

go work, buy yourself a good pc and you won't be loosing your time in this comment section.

Oh little Boi. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Baron01]

@OP
I partially disagree.

There are absolutely moments when the game shines and oozes atmosphere but they are interspersed with mediocrity all around. Most importantly the game feels life-less very often.

It is also important to realize that GSC nailed emissions--their feel, the dread they impose on stalkers--back in 2009. Emissions in Stalker 2 are slightly more visually impressive but they still do not compare to the original trilogy.

[bewareoblivionisathand_]

Originally posted by Stormbleidd:

Originally posted by bewareoblivionisathand_:

The game is unfinished. Thanks to you fanboys, publishers are releasing more and more unfinished games. Thanks for your help o7

I mean, I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you haven't played it?

BUT... I'm also gonna let you off. Because that cheat code is the only one i remember from Turok 2, after all these years. Have a good day.

Gamepass. Have a nice weekend too

[Kan3da.]

Originally posted by Rizzbrok:

Game looks insanely good, weather and atmosphere gsc nailed it.

Shameless plug, but to prove my point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAYd4whxTc

It just facts that it looks and feels great if you got the pc to run it, game feels like it has a soul to it, can't say that for 80% of all the other triple A games.

It is not a fact. In fact, its extremely subjective. One can discuss the technical expertise and how up to date the technology used is, but that rarely is the governing factor in appeal for most people playing games.

Technically, this games graphics arent great. Shadows and lighting are very static, light sources make no sense most of the time and brightness is extremely unrealistic HDR on and off.

A lot of the textures are really low quality, there is tons of repetition and geometry is pretty bland. Trees look absolutely awful up close, animations are very simple and movement of creatures and people is borderline awkard.

However: That doesnt have to impede anyones enjoyment or appreciation of the look as its subjective as in some people notice one or many or none of these and the reaction can be positive or negative. And they are all valid.

Personally, i love the games look during the night, especially with storms and clouds. Under the right conditions, distance shots from up high are breathtaking, for real. In the intro, when the camera pans out and shows the zone, the sense of distance is incredible. Cutscenes are sometimes amazing too, i love the details for the scanner for example in the first reading, the lighting of the bolts, when the tower collapsed on the piece of wall it looked stupid. Should have hidden it behind a cloud of dust.

The closer you got though, for me, the more difficult it gets. Its not that the game looks BAD. Its just boring to me. And thats not the brutalist and soviet style as i love that ish.

I never had that feeling for Metro Exodus or Atomic Heart, which i finished both probably mostly for the aesthetics for which you can make the same arguments as i did for this game.

But Atomic Heart just never got boring to look at until the end, as did Metro. I think Metro did it with the interesting compacted small level world design and constantly changing environments and Atomic Heart was just artistically appealing to me.

Importantly, i think the blandness of the open world and gameplay is a big factor why the games looks appears worse, as the brain doesnt segment these things neatly.

If your not really engaged with the game, thinking about what your doing or captivated by the gameplay and mechanics you get bored much easier by the surroundings, pay more attention to detail.

Paying attention to detail is the end of any immersion in a game because every game comes apart if you look for the seams hard.

Its like when a movie is so boring and you stop listening and following and start looking at the costumes and set design and notice how dumb this looks and how bad the background is.

Pretty sure its a lot of that here.

[Moofers]

I went in knowing it'd have the stalker buggy charm like the old games, at least it hasn't crashed like crazy like the old games.

The flickering/glitching out textures on certain areas is odd though like z-fighting but it looks like two textures fighting for dominance.