The Zone feels dead ?

[Rothsol]

The zone doesn't feel as alive as it was in the older games. There are no stalkers travelling around gathering artifacts and the like. They only spawn in your vicinty in combat right away, no getting to spot their patrol from afar and setting up an ambush or avoiding them entirely. No little messages from other stalkers on your PDA forcing you to make a moral decision when they find a rare artifact. I feel like lots of the small things that made the zone feel alive is missing from stalker 2.
Is my game just acting up or has this been your experience aswell?

[IHaveBadWiFiBro]

yep and u cant even shoot wildlife just because, they have fish, frogs and birds in stalker 2 and u cant even shoot them, they simply don't "exist" this entire game is a downgrade, speaking of wildlife, i believe hunting was suppose to be in this game because in rostok there is a merchant area with mounted heads and nobody in sight, a lot of things have been removed from the previous games too and I played myself thinking this was gonna be a great successor, so i guess for now just play the story and be done with it, if you can with all the bugs and corrupted missions that are tainted in bugs.

[Joikax]

Look around you in this place. Welcome to the real world, Neo.

[Rothsol]

Originally posted by Joikax:

Look around you in this place. Welcome to the real world, Neo.

Cypher was right, I'm going back to Anomaly.

[ImHelping]

Dead silence is precious. It means the game is not chain spawning things like a glitchy MMO.

Sometimes to the detriment of other life.
*shoots flesh in the face that ran in from god knows where, gets the 'kill squad that just killed another squad cheevo*
"Oh, so that is why the distant sound of gunfire stopped."

[Rothsol]

Originally posted by IHaveBadWiFiBro:

yep and u cant even shoot wildlife just because, they have fish, frogs and birds in stalker 2 and u cant even shoot them, they simply don't "exist" this entire game is a downgrade, speaking of wildlife, i believe hunting was suppose to be in this game because in rostok there is a merchant area with mounted heads and nobody in sight, a lot of things have been removed from the previous games too and I played myself thinking this was gonna be a great successor, so i guess for now just play the story and be done with it, if you can with all the bugs and corrupted missions that are tainted in bugs.

I used to be excited when there was controllers and the like around for the rare stuff they could drop which you would sell to the ecologist for a fair amount. Now I sigh and hope I can just avoid them entirely

[Rothsol]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Dead silence is precious. It means the game is not chain spawning things like a glitchy MMO.

Feels like that is what it's doing right now though. There will be nothing going on and then a pack of mutants or squad(s) of other stalkers will just spawn in directly on you. Theres is no build up to anything. It will go from dead silence to complete chaos in seconds, and you don't get to do anything about because they spawn from thin air.

[Kain]

I don't remember if STALKER pda chat was on the og or was a mod think. It did wonders for immersion.

[Phil Leotardo]

Originally posted by IHaveBadWiFiBro:

yep and u cant even shoot wildlife just because, they have fish, frogs and birds in stalker 2 and u cant even shoot them, they simply don't "exist" this entire game is a downgrade, speaking of wildlife, i believe hunting was suppose to be in this game because in rostok there is a merchant area with mounted heads and nobody in sight, a lot of things have been removed from the previous games too and I played myself thinking this was gonna be a great successor, so i guess for now just play the story and be done with it, if you can with all the bugs and corrupted missions that are tainted in bugs.

we should ve dropped our expectations the moment we saw it was gonna release for consoles aswell, a game this ambitious is too much for the 400 euro new hardware to handle lmao, wish we were in the universe they kept it a pc exclusive but hey €€€

[Rothsol]

Originally posted by Kain:

I don't remember if STALKER pda chat was on the og or was a mod think. It did wonders for immersion.

I feel like I remember it being there but maybe not as expanded as it is in anomaly

[Ricky Icky]

I guess i sort of agree that it feels dead....even though i absolutely love the game. I never played the originals mind you, and i didn't really go into this with any expectations.

Honestly, i'm really enjoying the setting and its kind of what's gotten me hooked on the game. There's tons of detail in locations...some of these locations are completely void of....anything....yet look like they took so much time to craft.
i'm kind of just having fun getting an out of reach stash and checking each room just so i can appreciate how much time was spent on a particular area.

Sometimes stalker 2 reminds me a bit of playing shadow of the colossus, looks good but ya, feels a little empty at times.

[virtu0s0ul]

Once you get to Pripiyat, you will cherish that silence lol can't finish playing two songs on my guitar without some random monolith/bandit/mutant ambushing me. I've had as much moments of peace and quiet as fits of absolute pandemonium and random carnage, but damn I think this A-life works better depending on how good your GPU/overall system setup is.

Don't have the most high-end setup but strangely had more dynamic encounters than other users. Guess the zone just doesn't open up to everyone, I guess

[Rothsol]

Originally posted by virtu0s0ul:

Once you get to Pripiyat, you will cherish that silence lol can't finish playing two songs on my guitar without some random monolith/bandit/mutant ambushing me. I've had as much moments of peace and quiet as fits of absolute pandemonium and random carnage, but damn I think this A-life works better depending on how good your GPU/overall system setup is.

Don't have the most high-end setup but strangely had more dynamic encounters than other users. Guess the zone just doesn't open up to everyone, I guess

I've never been to Pripiyat without it being a warzone so it being dead silent would be wierd to me. currently playing on max settings so maybe the frog in water that didn't even die to an RPG is what keeping my game from dynamic encounters

[MS-14A Gelgoog]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Dead silence is precious. It means the game is not chain spawning things like a glitchy MMO.

Sometimes to the detriment of other life.
*shoots flesh in the face that ran in from god knows where, gets the 'kill squad that just killed another squad cheevo*
"Oh, so that is why the distant sound of gunfire stopped."

I think it shows you never played the original games.

In fact I think their jank spawning is the reason you don't have binocs anymore. In the opld games you could see squads from a distance. plan ahead, either engage or avoid. In this one they spawn like 5 feet behind you. Some mutants (like the flesh) feel oddly hyper aggressive now compared to OG games. Where they tended to be cowardly, unless there was a boar present in the heard or you had em backed into a corner.

Same with dogs. I'm getting mauled more often than not by packs that seem to phase into reality. in SoC or CoP You could hear em barking and see em running around from a bit. sometiems they weren't even hostile to you, just territorial. Only attacking if you encroached on their little spot. With a Psudeodog in the mix they'd have a pack alpha and could break off if you killed it.


This game just feels wrong on so many levels

Originally posted by Kain:

I don't remember if STALKER pda chat was on the og or was a mod think. It did wonders for immersion.

Mod. Anomaly introduced the idea (or was it Call of Chernobyl) of NPC Stalkers posting "updates" on the network.

There WAS a mod that actually integrated an IRC function into the PDA so you could, quite literally, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with other Stalkers in the zone as you played.

[Stnank]

Yeah, unfortunately the game's lack of a proper A-Life system means NOTHING is around you, until it is. And you will know it is because it probably made a noise and is now beelining right to you. It's all the more noticeable when you're exploring old areas from SoC/ CoP. Set pieces still exist for when NPCs would spawn in those areas, but there's absolutely nothing there now. Until you hear 4 people spawn in right in front of you and they open fire

[virtu0s0ul]

Originally posted by MS-14A Gelgoog:

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Dead silence is precious. It means the game is not chain spawning things like a glitchy MMO.

Sometimes to the detriment of other life.
*shoots flesh in the face that ran in from god knows where, gets the 'kill squad that just killed another squad cheevo*
"Oh, so that is why the distant sound of gunfire stopped."

I think it shows you never played the original games.

In fact I think their jank spawning is the reason you don't have binocs anymore. In the opld games you could see squads from a distance. plan ahead, either engage or avoid. In this one they spawn like 5 feet behind you. Some mutants (like the flesh) feel oddly hyper aggressive now compared to OG games. Where they tended to be cowardly, unless there was a boar present in the heard or you had em backed into a corner.

Same with dogs. I'm getting mauled more often than not by packs that seem to phase into reality. in SoC or CoP You could hear em barking and see em running around from a bit. sometiems they weren't even hostile to you, just territorial. Only attacking if you encroached on their little spot. With a Psudeodog in the mix they'd have a pack alpha and could break off if you killed it.


This game just feels wrong on so many levels

Originally posted by Kain:

I don't remember if STALKER pda chat was on the og or was a mod think. It did wonders for immersion.

Mod. Anomaly introduced the idea (or was it Call of Chernobyl) of NPC Stalkers posting "updates" on the network.

There WAS a mod that actually integrated an IRC function into the PDA so you could, quite literally, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ with other Stalkers in the zone as you played.

Nothing will beat SoC for me, it's a mod/total conversion that's leagues above this sequel or previous titles. When it comes to sheer visual overhaul and overall vibe, however, this sequel nails it for me. I just hope it will reach the level of freedom SoC offered in the future.

HoC is fun as it is now, especially story-wise (on my second playthrough) but loads of potential to be even better, and I hope the devs do just that. I actually paid for this game's development instead of the actual product, like I did with Postal -- that eventually was updated enough to be the product I wanted -- here's hoping the devs do the same here.