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

FighterAce124 said:
Some people play the game for the journey.
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This is the hallmark of any legitimate "open world" game. You make up your own adventure either through exploration or whatever imagination you come up with. Having a linear quest system would seem rather boring to me. That's like running through a checklist of predetermined things. You might as well be on rails.

Stalker 2, while not perfect, delivers its open world experience via immersion. I'd say exploring the world leads to 80% of the content that the main story doesn't really lead you to. If I see a thing in the distance, I go explore the thing. Who knows what adventure I'll find?

Kingdom Come Deliverance 1/2 does this in spades. Another good example of a true open world game.

The very reason why my Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout 4 playthroughs end up hundreds of hours. These type of games are my jam.
 
Guess I don't have time for this. Also there hasn't been much to see in the past 30 or so hours and not much I saw in videos etc. Even the artifact hunting is not really a required activity. I would spend more time if it helped me get better or more powerful but right now I feel I am right leveled with what I am doing.
 
KickAssCop said:
Even the artifact hunting is not really a required activity.
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NGL i've played through twice now and never really paid much attention to the artifacts unless they were legendary. Didn't seem to make much of a difference.
 
criccio said:
NGL i've played through twice now and never really paid much attention to the artifacts unless they were legendary. Didn't seem to make much of a difference.
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None at all? I find the radiation absorbing artifacts to be essential. Without at least one of those, even a common one, I spend half the time drunk.
 
Mr Evil said:
None at all? I find the radiation absorbing artifacts to be essential. Without at least one of those, even a common one, I spend half the time drunk.
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I wouldn't slot them if they gave you radiation until I could upgrade the slot to a rad container, and by then I've upgraded the armor so much that the base rad protection is pretty good. That and just avoided radiated areas.

Yeah, I dunno, just didn't really notice that much. I used most of my artifacts for cash.
 
for me every single game I play is about exploration- not just open world RPG's...literally every game I play I always explore off the beaten path and spend time soaking in the gameplay experience...which is why it takes me way more time to finish games because it's not about the story quests, side quests etc...even games I know have no hidden areas or secrets I just love walking around and seeing the world...I play games for the overall experience...if you're just running from quest to quest trying to finish the game as fast as possible it would feel very robotic
 
Absalom said:
Stalker 2, while not perfect, delivers its open world experience via immersion. I'd say exploring the world leads to 80% of the content that the main story doesn't really lead you to. If I see a thing in the distance, I go explore the thing. Who knows what adventure I'll find?
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I gotta be honest though, it feels like about 80-90% of random POIs don't really have anything interesting. There are a ton of "named" locations on the map, but most of them have little to no loot, and no quest associated.
 
MavericK said:
I gotta be honest though, it feels like about 80-90% of random POIs don't really have anything interesting. There are a ton of "named" locations on the map, but most of them have little to no loot, and no quest associated.
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The game clearly isn't finished, especially once you hit a certain point in the story,
notably leaving SIRCAA
 
criccio said:
The game clearly isn't finished, especially once you hit a certain point in the story,
notably leaving SIRCAA
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from Day 1 most reviewers said it's best to wait before playing...I remember Skill Up specifically stating that it might take around 1 year before the game is in good enough shape to play...there's no need to play every game on Day 1...if you've been looking forward to a game for 4 years than another 6 months to a year won't make any difference

it seems people would rather play a broken, bug ridden game versus just waiting...I always want my first playthrough to be the best it can be...that doesn't mean perfection but I don't want any major issues...STALKER 2 sounds more broken than usual...normally 3 months is a good amount of time to wait for most AAA games but STALKER 2 has broken quests, features, performance, bugs etc...of course the usual suspects will claim that it runs perfect for them with zero issues and they are getting 144 fps with everything maxed out :rolleyes:
 
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I am getting 90-110 fps maxed out with FG. Thus far, I haven’t had crashes and only bug I found which was good was to get gaffer to give me 1000 coupons everytime I tagged him. After 200K each the game did crash but then I was able to reboot and keep doing this to get another 200K or so. Led me to stock up 600K before that bug was resolved.

I also have had no quest breaking bugs thus far. And now I am going to look for Richter.

Having said that the game is janky af. Stamina regen is annoying, shooting is annoying, walking is annoying. Weight limits are annoying. So I ended up fixing those things with mods except shooting as that is part of the “experience”.
 
maybe Summer 2025 I'll jump into this...but I'm not touching it until the hardware ray tracing patch is released...hopefully by then the major bugs/features/performance will be fixed
 
polonyc2 said:
from Day 1 most reviewers said it's best to wait before playing...I remember Skill Up specifically stating that it might take around 1 year before the game is in good enough shape to play...there's no need to play every game on Day 1...if you've been looking forward to a game for 4 years than another 6 months to a year won't make any difference

it seems people would rather play a broken, bug ridden game versus just waiting...I always want my first playthrough to be the best it can be...that doesn't mean perfection but I don't want any major issues...STALKER 2 sounds more broken than usual...normally 3 months is a good amount of time to wait for most AAA games but STALKER 2 has broken quests, features, performance, bugs etc...of course the usual suspects will claim that it runs perfect for them with zero issues and they are getting 144 fps with everything maxed out :rolleyes:
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I agree with everything said here, but I gotta say I still enjoyed what is there enough to play through it twice. Well, almost twice.
 
polonyc2 said:
how many hours for a single playthrough?
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I think I put roughly 90 hours into the first playthrough? I made a mistake and didn't fully explore Pripyat before the "point of no return" and I'm just about to get to the city in my second playthrough though the last couple of weeks I've taken a break for some other games.
 
Is the stealth function broken, every time they zero in wherever I am, no matter what.
 
killroy67 said:
Is the stealth function broken, every time they zero in wherever I am, no matter what.
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There is pretty much no stealth. It was never advertised as a stealth game. You can hide until they stop actively looking for you, but that's about it. Once they're alerted, they'll converge on your location.
 
killroy67 said:
Is the stealth function broken, every time they zero in wherever I am, no matter what.
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The secret is that you need to kill them very quickly and noiselessly, ideally in one shot, otherwise they will realise they are under attack and start moving towards you. Since shots from stealth do extra damage, you can usually kill in one hit even with an ordinary pistol. If the first shot doesn't kill, get another headshot immediately or it will be too late.

Also you need to be crouched and in shadow.
 
Mr Evil said:
The secret is that you need to kill them very quickly and noiselessly, ideally in one shot, otherwise they will realise they are under attack and start moving towards you. Since shots from stealth do extra damage, you can usually kill in one hit even with an ordinary pistol. If the first shot doesn't kill, get another headshot immediately or it will be too late.

Also you need to be crouched and in shadow.
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I think a lot of people exclusively watch the visibility indicator but forget about the blue sound level bar. At least I was doing that. Also, throwing bolts to distract enemies is kind of OP.

Stealth is definitely still janky (and I hate the hivemind awareness enemies have when you are detected) but the recent 1.2 patch was an improvement. I was able to sneak out of the Orbita station without firing a shot.
 
Mr Evil said:
The secret is that you need to kill them very quickly and noiselessly, ideally in one shot, otherwise they will realise they are under attack and start moving towards you. Since shots from stealth do extra damage, you can usually kill in one hit even with an ordinary pistol. If the first shot doesn't kill, get another headshot immediately or it will be too late.

Also you need to be crouched and in shadow.
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I did all that, used a silencer, one shot to the head, and immediately they converged to exactly where I was.

KickAssCop said:
There is no stealth. AI cheats hard.
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It's just retarded that they can stop you in the dark while crouched and hiding, or behind walls or just about anywhere. The mission I'm on is supposed to use stealth to get through, including a silencer, I just gave up and went to run and gun.
 
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I am halfway through the game. There was no mission that required stealth. I am assuming you are not playing Ward. Play Ward, roam about the lands in peace, only thing I learnt from watching one of the reviews that stuck with me and helped a lot thus far. I just flash a badge and go anywhere. lol.
 
killroy67 said:
I did all that, used a silencer, one shot to the head, and immediately they converged to exactly where I was.
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Did anyone see the kill? I forgot to mention that if an NPC sees his mate drop dead, he will immediately move towards you.
 
Mr Evil said:
Did anyone see the kill? I forgot to mention that if an NPC sees his mate drop dead, he will immediately move towards you.
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Once the notification area below the UI heading (center-top) starts to pulse red the AI is alerted. There is nothing you can do but relocate because they're all heading to your current location whether you like it or not. And they're pretty good about finding you at that.

If you actually have the luxury of relocating to another spot without being seen, you can typically wait it out and they'll go back to passive status (from red back to blue).

I turned off the chevrons in the UI options, so deton8 's suggestion above is accurate in my experience. Rely on the red/blue indicator for stealth. Crouching helps. Hiding bodies, while logistically improbable, helps too.
 
^^^ Eff stealth in this game.. once spotted close fast using cover and wipe them all out. Best way to keep your armor and health intact. Early on I got so tired of these aimbotting NPC mothereffers that can toss a frag a country mile. Once you set yourself to kill every one of the effers, life in the zone becomes a lot more tolerable. :)
 
Evil Scooter said:
^^^ Eff stealth in this game.. once spotted close fast using cover and wipe them all out. Best way to keep your armor and health intact. Early on I got so tired of these aimbotting NPC mothereffers that can toss a frag a country mile. Once you set yourself to kill every one of the effers, life in the zone becomes a lot more tolerable. :)
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Sadly, you are right. The stealth mechanics are there, there's just no commitment from the developers on making stealth a viable tactic. You're better off murdering everything you see than trying to stealth right past them. A missed opportunity for sure.

The stealth mechanics are still useful though, like when you want to avoid confrontation at a distance. I still crouch walk around the perimeter of an enemy encamped area to avoid having them take shots at me. Running away from combat is probably the most useful (and economical) tactic in this game.
 
Evil Scooter said:
^^^ Eff stealth in this game.. once spotted close fast using cover and wipe them all out. Best way to keep your armor and health intact. Early on I got so tired of these aimbotting NPC mothereffers that can toss a frag a country mile. Once you set yourself to kill every one of the effers, life in the zone becomes a lot more tolerable. :)
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I pretty much gave up on stealth and went directly to run and gun, kill everything.
 
peppergomez said:
Is the game running smoothly now that they've released a huge patch?
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It runs good as long as you have decent horsepower to run it, the new FG for the 4 series helps as well. One of these days they should be adding DLSS4, which will help significantly.
 
Yeah you can brute force your way to a smooth experience but the game is still very broken performance wise.
 
peppergomez said:
Ok thanks, guess another 4,, 6, or 12 month wait before buying it will be prudent
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Hopefully. Looking at benchmarks, even at a lowly 2560x1440, it seems like they will have issues staying above 80-90 frame rates on my GPU with DLSS. But I may decide to play it anyways soon.
 
Flogger23m said:
Hopefully. Looking at benchmarks, even at a lowly 2560x1440, it seems like they will have issues staying above 80-90 frame rates on my GPU with DLSS. But I may decide to play it anyways soon.
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Depends on your GPU and what setting you want to play at, my system gets between 150-180fps using DLSS quality and using the updated frame gen on epic settings, at 1440p.
 
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Flogger23m said:
Hopefully. Looking at benchmarks, even at a lowly 2560x1440, it seems like they will have issues staying above 80-90 frame rates on my GPU with DLSS. But I may decide to play it anyways soon.
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On my GPU, I was avg around 97-100fps and my minimum was around 90fps and about 85fps in the worst towns w/ DLSS Q @ 1440p and FG, Epic.
FG is better now so I would probably get better minimum frames now.

Most benchmarks are aimed at the worst case scenario from what I've seen.
Most of the time in the middle of the zone, I was around 125fps.
 
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CAD4466HK said:
On my GPU, I was avg around 97-100fps and my minimum was around 90fps and about 85fps in the worst towns w/ DLSS Q @ 1440p and FG, Epic.
FG is better now so I would probably get better minimum frames now.

Most benchmarks are aimed at the worst case scenario from what I've seen.
Most of the time in the middle of the zone, I was around 125fps.
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Haven't tried frame gen on the current drivers, is it better or is it just better in STALKER 2 in particular? Personally I always seem some micro tearing with frame gen, and typically I don't like using it. Even if it is smoother visually the micro tearing bothers me quite a bit. DLSS upscaling has its issues, but IMO is much less noticeable than frame gen tearing. What kind of frame rates do you get with DLSS quality, without frame gen?
 
Flogger23m said:
Haven't tried frame gen on the current drivers, is it better or is it just better in STALKER 2 in particular? Personally I always seem some micro tearing with frame gen, and typically I don't like using it. Even if it is smoother visually the micro tearing bothers me quite a bit. DLSS upscaling has its issues, but IMO is much less noticeable than frame gen tearing. What kind of frame rates do you get with DLSS quality, without frame gen?
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As long as you are getting 60fps or above in most games, FG is pretty good. I've only had issues with it in Cyberpunk and the Great Circle. I stopped using it all together in the Great Circle since it caused a strobe effect and I was getting mad screen tearing (still had it in the cut scenes even with it off).

I'm using it now in Dying Light 2 and it works pretty damn good @ 4K.
In Stalker 2, FG was good enough that I could of played @ 4K but you need more than 60-70fps in that game to smooth out the jank at lower frames, which is why I played @ 1440p.

Stalker 2 played great @ 1440p without FG but just felt more fluid with it enabled. It basically pushed it past the line of it being playable at 4K I was getting so many frames which is why I tried it out.
Some people complain about the grainy look of S2 and some say it gets worse with FG, but I was too busy trying to stay alive at Stalker difficulty to notice.
I will say it has the UE5 look though.

All in all I say to give it a try. You still have that 7800x3d? You should get better frames than I was getting with that CPU compared to my OC'ed 10700K.
 
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