Recent reviews by CelsiuZ

Stalker 2 is a game that is almost a good game or even quite close to being a great game.
In it's current state I cannot recommend buying this game, if I had not bought the game on release I would have waited another 6-12 months.

Disclaimer - I understand that developing a game in Ukraine is very hard.
I respect the Dev's for all their hard work, and support them in their continued efforts.
I know that they will eventually fix all of the bugs and this will become an amazing game

Stalker 2 released on November 11, 2024 (as of today, that is 113 days ago).
These are the things that are still broken and make the game unplayable:
- The main quest is completely broken, and despite many patches being released by the dev's the main quest is still not playable and will game ruin you.
- A Life 2.0 (the AI control system simulating life in the zone) it is still broken and does not work.
- Cutscenes and animated parts of the story are still broken often resulting in the rendering them anywhere from 5-15 fps (this is not dependent on your system specs, it will happen to low and high tier pc builds).
- We still do not have binoculars or night-vision goggles in the game.
- The day / night cycle is too short.
- The AI has laser accuracy and can see you through both foliage and in the dark (the AI has night-vision, you don't).
- The economy is unbalanced and there is no point to looting (loot tables only contain junk items currently. Stashes do not contain cool weapons unless they are unique weapons)
- The survival aspect of the game is not really there - there is little point to eating, drinking or sleeping.
- Emissions are severely underwhelming compared to previous stalker titles (they don't visually render when you are in a safe house even if you can see outside through doors, gaps or windows).

Given that it has been 113 days since game launch and the above issues have not yet been fixed, it is clear that this game was not ready for release.
It should have been further delayed until it was in a playable state.

Currently Stalker 2 is a beautifully crafted sandbox with mediocre AI and shallow-unsatisfactory survival elements.
If that is all that you are looking for, buy it!
But if not, wait another 6-12 months - with a bit more love from the dev's this game will be amazing.

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This is a very surprisingly good game!

The railroad simulation does seem to have a bit to go!
In sounds, effects, realism, etc. But no doubt it will get there as the foundations that the devs are working with is solid gold.

The good:
- It runs well!
- It has a big map, with progression - similar to games like Snow Runner, you can build bridges, infrastructure, etc.
- Lots of locomotives and rollingstock.
- Solid economy, with many different types of jobs from passenger, to freight both local and main line.
- It's very pretty.
- Multiplayer - this game is really fun in multiplayer and the "limited" track means that you actually need to coordinate to break up freight consists and to ensure that nobody enters a segment of track that is already occupied.

The not so great yet
- The graphics... it's a pretty game, but the map and many set piece models are clearly placeholder.
- The sounds... They are good... but they can get so much better.

Well worth it in single player OR multiplayer if you can get some friends together!

Well done devs for coming out with a highly functional and fun to play EA game.

Genuinely one of the best city builders out there.
Very hard difficulty curve - but so rewarding.

I wish I could have a "wait for it" instead of saying "no".

The game needs to cook for a few more months before it will be "good".

The game is just not ready.
- Road building tools are amazing - but without "move-it" mod its beyond frustrating.
- I don't understand the economy at all - no matter what I do its never balanced, people can't afford their rents, stores go without customers, etc.
- Why does my city only want low residential suburbia? No matter what I do that's all they want. While I understand that everyone wants the dream of a house - in for example North America this dream needs to die. You will rent an apartment, and you will be happy.
- What's going on with the service buildings? Why are there not like 3-4 variations of schools?
- Why are the service buildings the size of city blocks? This makes 0 sense.

I will be interested to re-try this game in the spring and next summer to see what has changed.

CS2 is absolutely on to something here. But... it's just not there yet.
Foundations and bones for this game is A+.

I am joining in on the Creative Assembly / SEGA "feedback" train.

What happened CA / SEGA?

The good:
- The games you make are now very beautiful.

The bad:
- What happened to proper city sieges?
-- The sieges suck and nobody plays them anymore, this has been CONSTANT and CONTINUOUS feedback yet you keep not addressing it. You had it nailed in Rome II, why did you mess it up in later games?
- Why can we build towers during the battle?
-- You should not be able to magically build defensive structures DURING a battle, this is a no-brainer.
- Where are the deeper RPG elements?
-- In Total War Empire we could build forts - why can't we do this in later Total War Games?
-- We had to manage population, food, etc. Why is that not a thing in this game? or other games?
- Where is Empire 2?
- Where is Napoleon 2?
- Where is Shogun 3?
- Where is Medieval 3?
- Where are the historical games?!
- Where is your transparency and communications?
- Why are you not patching and supporting older games with game breaking bugs?
- Why are you increasing the cost of your games and reducing the mechanics?

You say that you listen to your fan-base? But how?

"Nobody" wanted 3 Kingdoms fantasy Total War - "nobody" wanted Britannia, Troy or Pharaoh.

Where are the games you used to make? The global ones? The impressive siege battles? The passion for the little details?
What happened after Rome II?

I love these games - but it is ridiculous that the prices are constantly increasing when the scale, complexity and details of the games are decreasing.

Do better - you have 0 competition in your field.

This game was originally really good.

I have 471 hours on steam (but more overall as I played via the original client since launch).

I would strongly advice everyone to stay away from this game until they update the monetisation model. Gaijin is one of the most hostile and predatory developers I have ever seen when it comes to how they treat their player base.

The positives:
- The selection of vehicles
- The graphics

The negatives:
- Grind, grind grind
- The playerbase is toxic due to everyone being laser focused on grinding in every game or they risk going bankrupt.
- The economy forces you to pay for expensive premium to earn in game currency and research points.
- If you do not have premium, you will almost never turn a profit (pay for ammo, repairs, crew training and vehicles).

Do yourself a favour and stay away.

A surprisingly good game!
I was very hesitant towards picking up this game, it just seemed like another "life sim game"

Boy was I wrong! This is "Papers Please" in 3D and with extra game mechanics.

It is not the least bit janky, and has a great degree of polish and attention to detail.

I am not review bombing, but I am however responding to recent events that do impact this game.

This game is $44.34, DO NOT purchase this game.

That is a full game price for a game that has very little content, and as far as I can tell has no future.

I will not elaborate too much, but today (2022-08-16) is the 3rd time that all, some or a large part of the development team has walked off the job.
The reason is always the same: "Internal team drama".

It is clear to me that this game does not have sufficient, strong enough leadership with a coherent plan.

Stay away from this game, stay away from this development team.

Obviously, I will update my review should the game somehow make it through this and become something fun.

But as it stands as of today, the game is dead, the community is outraged, and I don't see how they can move on from this disaster.

Do I recommend the game? - Yes, it really had great foundations here, but it's gonna need some work.

This is NOT a chill city builder, this is a hard-core survival city builder.

The game is unforgiving, if you make 1 single un-optimised design your map and save is done, you will enter a death spiral so quick that it's not possible to pull out of it.

I am 6+ hours into the game, I have yet to have a village over 300 pop.

The reason for this is the economy, it needs a hard re-balance in the early game to prevent death spirals.

Currently unless you min-max build like your life depended on it (which in this game it does) its not possible to survive the early game.
With 180 pop, you cannot break even in your money, coal and wood supply.

Money you need to buy trains, wood you need to build buildings, and coal to run the trains.
You should at least be able to break even or make a minute increase.

The game encourages you to build slowly and methodically, but this is untrue as you need to rush with all your available resources to get to "mid-game" whatever that is, I never got there. Where you're breaking even in all 3 main resources.

This dev deserves support as they're definitely working on a diamond in the rough, but ouch, its very rough around the edges currently.