S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chernobyl

2022 jesus.
After watching though, it looks really good. They have a lot of what made the first one so good. Lots of weird monsters, and popular landmarks.
 
Last edited:
That looks really good. Only complaint I'd have is the weapon recoil looks a bit weird. But graphically it looks very good. Animations look good. Not sure about voice acting because the trailer wasn't in English. But looks a lot more smooth. I hope they keep it more nitty and gritty though. More story would be great, and I hope the exploration and whatnot is more natural like the original games and less about completing check marks on a map.
 
Flogger23m said:
That looks really good. Only complaint I'd have is the weapon recoil looks a bit weird. But graphically it looks very good. Animations look good. Not sure about voice acting because the trailer wasn't in English. But looks a lot more smooth. I hope they keep it more nitty and gritty though. More story would be great, and I hope the exploration and whatnot is more natural like the original games and less about completing check marks on a map.
Click to expand...
I like that it was in Russian. I hope there is that option in the game.
 
So far this has been the only thing interesting to me, to come out of 2021 E3. I know everyone is playing it safe due to the semiconductor shortage, but man this year has been plagued with boring, recycled garbage. Outer Worlds 2 piques my interest, and this... maybe Starfield if it doesn't end up being phoned in "games as a service" built around its monetization scheme, vomit. Still early, so hopefully better things to come.
 
Was pleasantly surprised by this today. It was only in my YT subs for 18min and already 30K views... lot of people anxious to get back to the Zone apparently.

Visuals look on point. Fingers crossed we get the next-gen A-Life and RPG elements we've been waiting all this time for as well...
 
Looks pretty good to me! As expected the intensity/lethality of combat encounters seems to have been toned down a lot though… unfortunate but hopefully we can tweak that somehow (settings, config, mods etc).
 
Heart of Chernobyl could finally be the game the series deserves, but it could also be too little, too late

The industry has changed enormously since Stalker’s debut in March 2007...when Shadow of Chernobyl first released, the idea of an open-world shooter was relatively new...Far Cry—the first game to demonstrate the potential of shooters where players could choose their approach—was only a couple of years old, while Crysis wouldn’t release for another nine months

Even in its compromised state, Shadow of Chernobyl was a trailblazer, lending it an appeal that made it much easier to look past its weird structure and wonky presentation...the same cannot be said today...Far Cry alone has five (soon to be six) games in the series, while the subgenre extends to games like Borderlands, RAGE, and even Fallout...Stalker isn’t even the only open-world shooter featuring a dilapidated Eastern-European setting, with Metro: Exodus having encroached on Stalker’s territory in 2019...Stalker 2 has further competition going forward, with games like Chernobylite and Atomic Heart demonstrating a similar tone and atmosphere

My concern is that GSC finally achieving their original vision won’t be enough to make Stalker 2 stand out...what seemed radical in 2007 is now familiar, while the space that Stalker used to occupy alone is now thronged with imitators...

https://www.pcgamer.com/stalker-2-h...ves-but-it-could-also-be-too-little-too-late/
 
Meh, I don't really share that concern, not if they get it right with Stalker 2. The originals are punishing for the careless or overly casual player. Unlike Ubisoft's games where you are basically Rambo. I found the underground levels in SoC terrifying the first few times I explored them earned only with a shotgun and an AK47. When have any Bethesda or Ubi games accomplished that? They are very player centric, whereas The Zone will hand your ass to you if you aren't careful. Nor are there a zillion resources everywhere to be found like in Ubi or Bethesda games. If that special quality of terror and brutality makes it into Stalker 2, it won't have any meaningful open world competition. And AFAIK Chernobylite isn't a true opens world game, though I am looking forward to playing it when it leaves early access.

And "too little too late" is frankly ridiculous. If it's a good game and the others mentioned are also good games, its a win win for gamers.
 
early PC Requirements via Steam...

Minimum

OS: Windows 10
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X / Intel Core i5-7600K
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Storage: 150 GB available space
Additional notes: SSD

Recommended

OS: Windows 10
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X / Intel Core i7-9700K
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB
Storage: 150 GB available space
Additional notes: SSD
 
150GB? Damn. Find that a bit large. Even the Assassin's Creed games tend to be under 100GB with all DLC. Can't really think of any single player open world game above 80GB? Hoping they can compress it down a bit.
 
Flogger23m said:
150GB? Damn. Find that a bit large. Even the Assassin's Creed games tend to be under 100GB with all DLC. Can't really think of any single player open world game above 80GB? Hoping they can compress it down a bit.
Click to expand...
Final Fantasy XV on PC is just about 150GB.
 
Armenius said:
Final Fantasy XV on PC is just about 150GB.
Click to expand...

Forgot about that one. Game was really ugly to graphically.

acairman said:
RDR= 118GB
Click to expand...

And that one. I can see that being around that size though. Game looked good and there was a lot of content. Still, Assassin's Creed Valhalla is around 60-70GB without the DLC and is about the same size and graphical quality. Likely comes down to compression and what types of files they use. STALKER 2 does look very good. I'm assuming the world is going to be huge with a lot of content then. Or, just new engine technology that takes up a lot of size.
 
I also hope they paid attention to the success of mods like Misery and offer a difficulty setting that makes the Zone a brutal unforgiving place. Fewer resource, smarter enemies, higher costs, more realistic sleep eat drink rad needs, weapon jamming and maintenance ,etc.
 
schoolslave said:
Looks pretty good to me! As expected the intensity/lethality of combat encounters seems to have been toned down a lot though… unfortunate but hopefully we can tweak that somehow (settings, config, mods etc).
Click to expand...
Are you talking about that initial firefight? I am pretty sure enemy damage was shut off for the sake of being able to get that grenade off for the trailer; I don't think he took any damage in the hail of bullets.

So I assume it is safe to say your hopes can be unscathed.
 
peppergomez said:
I also hope they paid attention to the success of mods like Misery and offer a difficulty setting that makes the Zone a brutal unforgiving place. Fewer resource, smarter enemies, higher costs, more realistic sleep eat drink rad needs, weapon jamming and maintenance ,etc.
Click to expand...

Personally I hate weapon jamming or degradation. It simply never works realistically or sensibly and boils down to something like going back to base/camp and holding a button down to "repair" it. Or needing to spend in game money on it. I'd rather put the money into other in game things.

I'd like to see a magazine system. Most single player games use the magical ammo pool system. I think it would actually add a bit to the scavenging aspect. You'd be scavenging useful things, rather than herbs or some other random junk item. Would require you to head back to base/camp a bit more to. If you have 7 magazines that are all partway used you'll be at a disadvantage in another fight as you'd need to reload more frequently. But with an ammo pool system you never have to worry about running dry. 150 rounds would be plenty, but 150 with reloads every 10-15 shots makes things more complicated.

You can also do things like add the ability to buy some larger magazines. Like buying one drum for your AK if you expect to ambush a group. You can add in the weight factor to. A single drum typically weighs 3-4 times as much as a regular magazine and costs more. So you'd give up overall ammo load for a higher volume of fire. Or as mentioned, mix them up. One drum, the rest regular capacity.

Honestly would fit well in a game like this. Go too far into an underground area with partially loaded magazines and you're more likely to get a click when a bloodsucker jumps out at you.
 
COD : Warzone and COD: Black Ops Cold War are both north of 120GB each with all the expansions etc.
 
Enigma said:
COD : Warzone and COD: Black Ops Cold War are both north of 120GB each with all the expansions etc.
Click to expand...
Those are not open world single player games like we were referring to.
Flogger23m said:
150GB? Damn. Find that a bit large. Even the Assassin's Creed games tend to be under 100GB with all DLC. Can't really think of any single player open world game above 80GB? Hoping they can compress it down a bit.
Click to expand...
 
The trailer definitely has me going all in. I really hate that I have to wait for spring of '22.
 
Porter_ said:
Looks good, definitely captures that STALKER vibe of the first 3 games.
Click to expand...
The character models look like garbage in my opinion. And yes I will be picky as hell as this will be a very demanding game.
 
polonyc2 said:
Heart of Chernobyl could finally be the game the series deserves, but it could also be too little, too late

The industry has changed enormously since Stalker’s debut in March 2007...when Shadow of Chernobyl first released, the idea of an open-world shooter was relatively new...Far Cry—the first game to demonstrate the potential of shooters where players could choose their approach—was only a couple of years old, while Crysis wouldn’t release for another nine months

Even in its compromised state, Shadow of Chernobyl was a trailblazer, lending it an appeal that made it much easier to look past its weird structure and wonky presentation...the same cannot be said today...Far Cry alone has five (soon to be six) games in the series, while the subgenre extends to games like Borderlands, RAGE, and even Fallout...Stalker isn’t even the only open-world shooter featuring a dilapidated Eastern-European setting, with Metro: Exodus having encroached on Stalker’s territory in 2019...Stalker 2 has further competition going forward, with games like Chernobylite and Atomic Heart demonstrating a similar tone and atmosphere

My concern is that GSC finally achieving their original vision won’t be enough to make Stalker 2 stand out...what seemed radical in 2007 is now familiar, while the space that Stalker used to occupy alone is now thronged with imitators...

https://www.pcgamer.com/stalker-2-h...ves-but-it-could-also-be-too-little-too-late/
Click to expand...
I don't necessarily disagree with alot of these points, but in the end, I think this franchise might actually be immune to them. STALKER is it's own thing, with a very particular "set of skills".

The fact that dudes are still modding and playing games from a decade ago shows it's more than just the open world and eastern bloc setting that attracts people.

If anything, I'm worried an influx of console peasants and normies might dilute the essence of what makes the fandom cheeki breeki, (whatever that is)
 
peppergomez said:
I think/hope the average dude bro gamer will be turned off by Stalker since the Zone will prove too difficult and bleak. I hope the sequel makes the Zone totally unforgiving.
Click to expand...

Honestly STALKER was never that hard. Later in the game I was throwing ammo away because I couldn't carry more stuff.
 
peppergomez said:
One thing I am definitely not looking forward to when this comes out is not being able to buy a recent video card for a reasonable price
Click to expand...
You never know, by this time next year shortages may have eased and Intel might be in the mid-range GPU game to add competition.

Or crypto could be on another boom, I guess...
 
Flogger23m said:
Honestly STALKER was never that hard. Later in the game I was throwing ammo away because I couldn't carry more stuff.
Click to expand...

Define never that hard? I tried like hell to get into the game because it was right down my ally for FPS but just couldn't. No or lack of ammo and oops you died in a radiation zone for walking in the wrong spot. And oh no, your oxygen mask ran out before getting to a safe zone. To each their own...
 
Bowman15 said:
Define never that hard? I tried like hell to get into the game because it was right down my ally for FPS but just couldn't. No or lack of ammo and oops you died in a radiation zone for walking in the wrong spot. And oh no, your oxygen mask ran out before getting to a safe zone. To each their own...
Click to expand...

I don't recall any problems like that. Save for maybe one time I always had the equipment ready to go. Maybe once I forgot something. Otherwise, by the end of the game I was tossing many rounds of ammo because I couldn't carry more. It was the first game I played where I would grab a bunch of weapons and run back to a store and sell them. Just a huge abundance of them. Anomalies were kind of mild in general. But that was part of the fun was paying attention and not running into something.
 
Flogger23m said:
I don't recall any problems like that. Save for maybe one time I always had the equipment ready to go. Maybe once I forgot something. Otherwise, by the end of the game I was tossing many rounds of ammo because I couldn't carry more. It was the first game I played where I would grab a bunch of weapons and run back to a store and sell them. Just a huge abundance of them. Anomalies were kind of mild in general. But that was part of the fun was paying attention and not running into something.
Click to expand...

Admittedly, some of the mods up the difficulty of the Stalker series to a whole new level of "Misery" ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top