Recent reviews by (Sedo)Riku

Let me get this out of the way first, i am a absolute Stalker fanboy, loved the original triology.
and my system is way better than the average Gaming PC (I9-14400k 64GB ddr5 RAM, and 4070ti)
and with these specs the game runs butter smooth on max settings....
until it doesn't
after sessions that exeed 3 hours sometimes can get choppy, i don't know if its due to memory leak or a shader saying goodbye but it wasn't frequent enough for me to investigate.
i would say it runs well on 95% of the time if not more.

next onto the gameplay, and here we have good news:
(naturally i played on veteran true stalker fans know why)

this game captures what made the original franchise so beloved and expands upon it massively without ruining aspects.
i would say its a bit more story focused or at least has more meat on the bones than the older titles.
there are new factions and splinter groups that formed out of old groups wich captured me as a old fan as i want to know whats different.
the same goes for locations i love seeing the old setpieces in a new light, especially with new anomalies sprinkled in its a feast.
but the devs didn't stop there, sometimes a location hits you with a nostaliga or easter egg flashbang that you can't help but smile at.

next up enemies, generally the quality of animations and behaivior is decent to good the AI is generally quite perceptive and not as abuseable as the old ai.

tho theres a glaring issue that i cannot sweet talk, a part of the old games is missing that caused as much jank as it enriched the experience but also made the old games world feel alive, lived in and special.

the AI rarely does things without player involvement. you never hear random skirmishes happening 2/3 hundred meters away or random stray stalkers getting attacked by mutants

this is because stalker 2 doesn't have small maps in wich all actors are active at the same time and could be running into each other
it has a massive map that has seamless background transitions, so instead the random zone events that happend organicly in the old games even if the player is afk or totally uninvoled, now in Stalker 2 are tied and emulated by simply spawning random encounter near the player, which is extremly noticeable especially because the range is extremly low sometimes spawning mutants 10m away from you in a location you just been in. its extremly noticable and imersion breaking.

the old games could have total jank situations from a guy giving you a quest to hunt a mutant with him just for you to end the dialog and 2s later him running into a anomaly and exploding. but it gave the feeling that anything could happen to anyone for no reason other than thats the law of the zone.

next up is stealth, while the old games weren't marvelous stealth titles, it had enough nuance that there were various possible applications, such as killing a stray stalker for his weapon and as long as you killed him instantly without witness the faction wouldn't know it was you (i know you want the early tunder, im not judging)
this feature didn't make it, as soon as you kill anyone from a faction will flip a switch and they become hostile to you, and they neither need to be aware of your presence or the presence of their dead comrade. while they won't know your location they do know you killed him somehow. that meanst you cannot thin out an soon to be enemy base you're going to doublecross wich is a shame especially since they bothered to implement new stealth takedowns and "carry body" mechanics
(this might be a problem due to difficulty tbh as on lower difficulty they seem to be less perceptive not sure tho).

there's also abit of detail missing where in the old games healing an downed stalker while usually not very useful at least had a chance to be worth a stash but in the very least a thanks, where in S2 random NPC's won't even aknowledge what just happend and say their standard grunt line "speak to boss" type of deal

so what's the Conclusion?
overall there is fun to be had in this game, its massive, it doesn't suffer most of the awful nickle and dime shenanigans,
its a game made for the audience not for the investors, and it respects old fans, and is a genuine good baseline for updates or if nececary mods sort out the bad aspects, and while not everything i hoped for, after having so many franchises trampled on and destroyed, having a game that takes the old franchise treats it with respect and is supposed to give the fans what they want is genuine fresh take.

also cut the devs some slack, Canot imagine with whole war situation.

The Most Pro Consumer 4P-CooP shooter on the market.

the 4 distinct classes offer great vareity as they are quite unique, and work best in tandem.
Contentwise it sometimes takes a bit until fresh content arives but for a starter there are 5 Seasons filled to the brim with content.

are there Negatives to this game?
Honestly not really, Technically it has a shop but unlike all modern games this is the mildest example i've ever seen, it doesnt try to limit cool stuff to the shop while all the plebs have to run around in rags there's plenty of cosmetics that are amazing looking in their own right free to unlock.

sony buckled, mandatory PSN account no longer mandatory, we won.

for anyone else, HD2 is a chaotic high adrenalin game that while not reinventing the wheel, what it does it does exeptionally well.

Sony still Sucks tho

This game is worth based on the sound design alone, even better that the game is quite good aswell!

easily among the best rpg's,
extreme amounts of choices in, ... well everything, presentation is above expectations.
and gameplay mechanics are fun both on the larger scale as in individual fights.

only negative i can think of is the complexity, just to paint a picture:
there are like 20classes with 4-6 subclasses each with the possibility to multiclass, if your new to these type of games i figure it would be overwhelming.

don't hesitate when you can pick this game up for free, its worth at fullprice already.

(first day of release)
pretty rough launch, played both beta's was fully aware they wouldn'tbe finishing it until release, was willing to go along and play an unfinished game anyway.

coming from the vermitide games i thought to myself the monetisation will be fair for players, but NOPE i open the game to see a fully functional PREMIUM shop with the whole slew of shady predatory practices. (FOMO and whack currency you never can buy the right amount of)

(3.5 months after release)

at this point im willing to change my review to positive on the precipice that it is in a playable state, and is incredibly fun.

currently this game is still plagued with, anoying/unrewarding loot/crafting mechanics and quite bad UI menu's, however the coregameplay is very good, albeit lacking heavily in content compared, the release version of its predecessor vermintide 2 even.

they adjusted many of aspects people despised, and generally going in the right direction, that being said they nowhere near, nailing things. things that were horrible are now passable.

so if you only care about the game itself there's nothing that should hold you back anymore.
if you care about misteps of developers and get cautious about buying, there are still many things they could ruin easily, so maybe wait.

overall fun and well made game, dlc policies kills it

one of the best(if not the best) basebuildergames to date

lets get this straight this game is suited to kill a few hours,
but beyond that you really need to invest in it, also its an coop game its not meant to played solo or duo or trio its meant to be played as 4 man group if you intent to duo it in a private lobby you gonna have a bad day yes there are bots but honestly they suck, so you gonna need to socialize a little, still interested?
good but make sure that you have a few hours to spare because its grindy you wont have all the end game weapons after 100h nor 300h nor even 1000h, 2000h probably but not guaranteed since the loot system has a random aspect to it that can be frustrating. that aside in my opinion its worth it.
why you ask?
Simply because the gameplay itself is fun, its extremly challenging and satisfying to come out victorious.
all core gameplay mechanics such as dodge manouvers, atackpattern, animation timewindows can be mastered and combined to great effect creating a fun and fluid dance that really feels right

however the game is in a state rightnow that couldnt be further away from a bugfree masterwork, from ghosthits to bosses who turn and B-slap you in half a second to patrols full of heavyamored enemys spawning right infront of you sometimes you gonna face situations who are plain unfair and often result in the team wipe. however triggering a patrol is not the end of a run you can overcome it (if its not in a small coridor right after a point of no return) i would say that, when such unfair situation ocures its still in 9/10 times overcomable

So, gratis Wochenende dachte mir kannst ja mal reinschauen

Hat am anfang auch richtig spaß gemacht und versteht mich nicht falsch es würde warscheinlich auch immernoch spaß machen wäre da nicht dieser kleine haken am game

anfangs hatte ich das gefühl gegen gleichrangige gematcht zu werden was zu fairen und ausgeglichenen matches führte aber nach knapp 10 stunden ca lvl 15 ereicht und sie an ich Vollnoob (der zwar gut performt hat solang ich fair gematcht wurde) werd pausenlos mit leuten die mindestens lvl 100 haben gematcht und mich völlig rasieren ich meine ich weiß nochnichtmal was die ganzen Operator machen und werde mit leuten gematcht die 200h in dem game haben

sowas raubt nun leider den spaß völlig, und kann daher keine emfehlung raushauen, für leute und gansbesonders freunde die sich in einen competetive shooter einfuchsen wollen ist das ein würdiger konkurent zu games wie CSGO

aber wegen dem schlechten matchmaking, manchmal (ich denke ping bedingten) abschüssen wo man den gegner nichtmal sehen konnte, und der tatsache das man nur ein leben pro runde hat, kann das game sehr frustrierend sein.