Most disappointing game of 2024?

[Night FM]

While its possible this game may get better in future updates, the lack of proper A-Life compared to previous titles was a big let-down from the get-go. Even that, I could live with if the game had more action, but in its current state, you get a huge but mostly empty map to explore, with encounters outside of story missions usually just being a few bandits or mutants at best. And even many story missions, such as the SIRCAA missions, are mainly comprised of walking, with only a few sparse firefights to interrupt the tedium.

The first substantial mission for me didn't come until after the Monolith invasion, where you have to acquire an emitter from the Sphere. There were a substantial number of enemies to fight, and it was the first major firefight I encountered which felt relatively challenging (and I'm playing on veteran difficulty. Then I attempted the Zalyssia defense mission and encountered bugs that prevent the mission from being completed properly, and am now debating uninstalling the game and waiting for updates before I play it any further, since an $80 game shouldn't be a beta test.

Honestly, I wish the developers had skimped on the graphics and put more effort into the core gameplay, such as making the A-Life work and having enemy encounters be more frequent and more substantial. There are huge, well-designed bases in this game which could have provided the opportunity for memorable firefights like in previous titles, but wind up being virtually empty. With the high system requirements, you'd think you'd be able to include a more advanced A-Life than what was available in a game from 2007, and the fact that games like Death Stranding and Elden Ring have noticeably lower system requirements, but IMO end up looking better than this game shows that you don't need the highest-end graphics to make a game that looks good.

Overall, I feel like the game sold out to graphics and left core features unfinished. I'm happy that some players are still getting enjoyment out of this game, but compared to what could be, and what we should expect from the publisher, I'm very disappointed, and am tempted to say that, in its current state, this is the worst game I've played this year. I'm more than happy to revise my opinion once the game gets fixed with future updates, and am hoping that the developer is willing to properly do so.

[paxton]

Im gonna be honest. I recently deinstalled the game.

Waiting for more patches and fixes and it wasnt that good after all.

Its not bad but it doesnt blew me away.

[Spiderlegs-As-Fingers]

People clowning you are normies who delight in playing slop all day long, keep your head up you're right.

[LMPT]

Originally posted by Belmont:

Everyone knew Concord was going to be absolute dogwater. (...)
Meanwhile people were actually excited for Stalker 2.

I can't wrap my head around the fact that some of you guys sincerely expected a semi-vaporware:

• delayed multiple time,
  
• made by a team that suffered casualties in a war and had to relocate twice, notably in another country,
  
• as part of that war, was a constant target for cyberattacks and other forms of assymetric warfare,
  
• had to undergo a full engine upgrade in the middle of the development process,
  
• was finally released because of publisher pressure and to prevent crunch from breaking the team,

to be polished at launch.

If people manage to understand the obvious in the case of Sony's game - that it would absolutely suck, then why can't they also get the obvious when it comes to Staker 2 - that the launch was going to be hard anyway because of its development history ?

If people are dissapointed by the state of STALKER 2, they clearly haven't paid attention to the conditions the game was made since 2018. The fact that the game released at all is a miracle in its own right.

[BatriX]

statistically , almost everyone disagrees with you. gratz

[alquemir]

Originally posted by LMPT:

Originally posted by Belmont:

Everyone knew Concord was going to be absolute dogwater. (...)
Meanwhile people were actually excited for Stalker 2.

I can't wrap my head around the fact that some of you guys sincerely expected a semi-vaporware:

• delayed multiple time,
  
• made by a team that suffered casualties in a war and had to relocate twice, notably in another country,
  
• as part of that war, was a constant target for cyberattacks and other forms of assymetric warfare,
  
• had to undergo a full engine upgrade in the middle of the development process,
  
• was finally released because of publisher pressure and to prevent crunch from breaking the team,

to be polished at launch.

If people manage to understand the obvious in the case of Sony's game - that it would absolutely suck, then why can't they also get the obvious when it comes to Staker 2 - that the launch was going to be hard anyway because of its development history ?

If people are dissapointed by the state of STALKER 2, they clearly haven't paid attention to the conditions the game was made since 2018. The fact that the game released at all is a miracle in its own right.

Half of the team moved to Prague during the early stages of the war.

[lockwoodx]

It's a game I hate to love. The problem is that the zone goes from immersive and beautiful to... knowing a bloodsucker will spawn if you go check that corpse and, feels very artificial and methodically dull.

The previous stalker games only broke immersion because of eurojank. This stalker game does it on purpose to cut corners and its a travesty modders will have to fix.

[SiriusLee]

i agree. im very dissappointed in the game. the rediculous spawning issues as well as lack of A life. the zone feels empty. it dosent feel alive like in the original games. and the combat dosent feel the same. the AI of enemies isnt as good as in the original game. its feels too easy. the only way they make it difficult is because of spawning behind you or all around you. and the enemies can see through walls. im having no performance issues but the bugs, spawning, and lack of Alife are ruining the experience. is it possible that trying to get the game to work on consoles instead of focusing on the PC game has caused some of the issues? maybe they should have used an updated version of the XRAY engine, which had alife built into the engine, instead of using unreal 5. im thinking of putting the game aside untill the issues are fixed or the moders do the work.

[BloodyVikings!]

I couldn't care less about A-Life. It's just the same as now but it would've happened further away so whatever. Every game is like this anyway. I couldn't care less if a named non-important NPC is doing something 10 kilometers away or like 30 meters away from me, or if mutants migrated across the map. I wouldn't know it's happening so it feels the same no matter how far away or close it's happening.

[Night FM]

I'm nearly finished with the game, so I think I can give a fair review. This game has the potential to be great, but in its current state, it's the worst game I've played in a long time, primarily due to the emptiness of the maps and the inferior spawn system.

And I'm one of the lucky ones who hasn't encountered any game-breaking bugs.

[ImHelping]

In spite of my starfield avatar background. At least I WANT to finish stalker 2, and the buggy piece of ♥♥♥♥ softlock nature of it is frustrating because I want better for it.

...wait starfield was 2023, you win this time, starfield!

[lockwoodx]

Me: Can we have Shadow of Chernobyl mom?
Mom: No we already have Shadow of Chornobyl at home.

[Panther]

Think a lot of reasonable feedback.
Am patiently waiting, said here I was most hopeful of A life improvements pre release, and most concerned for it after review embargo was lifted.

But I don't believe the engine is as limiting a factor as some suggest, it's more about if the devs or modders will be the one's to fix it, how much work that will take and if it will be optimisations or time based hardware capitulation that enables wide distribution of that improved experience.
All immersion is an illusion, so it isn't about the minutia of the implementation as much as it is the result experience.

I was a little disappointing with the way bloosdsuckers where so liberally thrown about, but it's nothing mods won't fix over time.
Devs seem committed to the legacy of the game and the series so I wouldn't be surprised if they do a lot of post production polish and release a mod kit with good blueprint support.

[Night FM]

Originally posted by Panther:

Think a lot of reasonable feedback.
Am patiently waiting, said here I was most hopeful of A life improvements pre release, and most concerned for it after review embargo was lifted.

But I don't believe the engine is as limiting a factor as some suggest, it's more about if the devs or modders will be the one's to fix it, how much work that will take and if it will be optimisations or time based hardware capitulation that enables wide distribution of that improved experience.
All immersion is an illusion, so it isn't about the minutia of the implementation as much as it is the result experience.

I was a little disappointing with the way bloosdsuckers where so liberally thrown about, but it's nothing mods won't fix over time.
Devs seem committed to the legacy of the game and the series so I wouldn't be surprised if they do a lot of post production polish and release a mod kit with good blueprint support.

I still have faith that the developers will address the issues, or at very least give modders the tools they need to do so. Sadly, the game feels like a beta test in its current state.

[Konrad]

Weird. More weeb complaining.

[Jargen]

The game sucks. Should get this year's scam nomination