Recent reviews by doof... again

What can I say...
Technical issues aside, the game is amazing. I love it a lot.
(It isn't perfect, but there is no perfect game, given that perfection is relative).

Why do I say that:
As a long-time fan of the STALKER series, this is an amazing sequel to the previous installments. It is noticeable that the previous installments of the series were treated with respect and dignity. STALKER 2 incorporates everything from the older titles and builds upon that to make a great spiritual successor to the series. And by that I do mean the gameplay, the world, the characters, and everything that makes STALKER - STALKER.

The developers were honest that it was the biggest project they have worked on and that it is a bit rough around the edges, and I respect the honesty a lot.

Let's address some of the things that stuck out about it to me since the release:

1) Bugs
The public outcry has claimed that it launched in a buggy state. It has. I've seen footage and have heard of a lot of complains regarding bugs and glitches. Thankfully, I only heard of that after trying the game out myself. My initial hours of the game were pretty clean and bug-free, and I was surprised that I was one of the lucky few, who had a pretty spotless experience. But as I continued playing the game, I have encountered a few minor bugs and glitches. Whether it was some questionable pathing of AI, or a main story quest that got softlocked. A lot of issues (in my experience) were solved through saving and loading often. But nothing extremely major has stuck out since. And the best part about is that the developers addressed a lot of issues and started releasing major patches at a swift rate. The community also did a great job communicating with the moderators and devs to report issues. So two weeks after the release, the game seems to be in capable hands to do some major cleanup.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the part where I'm running through a forest and a squad of enemies randomly spawns nearby and instantly spots me. Andsquads of enemies spawning after I clear the outpost. But I believe that has been addressed.

2) Optimization
A lot of people claim the game does not run well on modern high-end PCs. I have seen footage of that and would attest to it, but I literally played through the whole game at 20-50 fps because I play on an outdated PC (i have another week or so left, thanks to Black Friday deals. I literally have a 1060 6gb, which is the official MINIMUM requirement, and it was installed on a HDD, so I can't say much about waiting for the game to launch for 5-10 minutes each time).

3) This "Far Cry 5" feeling
I couldn't help, but often feel like I am playing Far Cry 5 all over again. The way the character moves, the way you shoot guns, the way AI behaves, the way stealth works, even the detection meter from enemies. You explore the map (which is fun, considering the game doesn't force you to visit every single location, and many locations are for you to choose to go to), notice a settlement of some kind, see that it is occupied by enemies, you look for places to infiltrate the compound from, or you can always go in guns blazing, try to get kills, and then "capture the outpost". The interactions with corpses are exactly the same, except the outcome is reversed from FC5 depending on whether you press F or hold it (as far as I remember, in FC5 you hold F to loot and press F to pick up a body, but here it is reversed). You either loot the body of pick it up.
But to be honest, how much more do you want from interactions with corpses in a video game? This is not Hitman.
Which brings me to my next point.

4) Stealth
Stealth has been my biggest pet peeve in the game so far. I played on the normal difficulty, but it felt like the enemies have hawk eyes. They can see you from very far away, and though the detection meter doesn't go up super fast, it felt like unless I break the line of sight or make a lot of distance, the enemies will always see me, regardless of the lighting, foliage, and etc. So unless there is something wide and high enough to cover the size of your whole body, eventually the enemies will see you.
Sometimes, when you stealthily kill an enemy, and their allies get alerted by finding the body, and if they do not see you at all, they will forget about it eventually and go about their day, which feels like a mechanic that was already outdated a decade ago. I feel like it should put most of the area into high alert and punish the player for the lack of carefulness or strategy. And the only time the enemies wouldn't forget about your existence was only during scripted sequences where you are supposed to go loud with enemies.

5) Lack of side content
There is an amazing amount of it at the beginning of the game. The first major hub you go to has plenty of side quests available that keep you away from the main storyline and will reward you in some way for their completion. It was great. But the further you progress, every other major hub seems to have less and less side missions. In almost every hub, there was either a trader or a mechanic that would give you a side quest. Which is fine, but one thing that bothered me a lot, was when you get to choose one of three side quests that a trader in a hub would let you choose from, but after that they don't let you pick the other ones up. And this felt like a massive downgrade from the other titles that were released almost two decades ago.
While exploring, there is a chance you might accidentally stumble upon a side quest or an interaction of some kind, but after about a 60% completion of the story line and visiting most major locations, I just did not find any more at all. It may be partially on me, because I chose not to explore every inch of the game, but it made the game feel a lot more empty, because as the story progresses, you end up having to run bigger distances from point A to B, with not a lot in-between.
Which also brings me to my next point.

6) Overabundance of loot (on normal difficulty).
While running in-between mission objectives, there were a lot of locations to explore and search. The optional exploration did not often feel as rewarding, considering that after the first 50% of the game, I rarely would find an upgrade to my current equipment (perhaps I managed within the in-game economy really well, and always had my equipment maxed out on upgrades, until i would find something better and max it out on the spot), and for most of my playthrough I ended up hoarding way too many things that I would just collect in my stash and never use.
One major plus of exploring was that not all equipment upgrades are available at mechanics, and for certain upgrades, you would have to explore stashes to find a schematic/blueprint in order to be able to do those upgrades.

Everything I mentioned above is just off the top of my head, and I may or may not have forgotten something. But all was said with the intention of providing constructive criticism.
I truly enjoyed the hell out of the game, and honestly, I would recommend most casual players to wait until the game is patched a bit more thoroughly, because most issues seemed to happen the further you got into the game.

Thanks so much to the community that has been doing great at communicating with the GSC team, and a massive thanks to the GSC themselves. I watched the STALKER 2 documentary, and I still can not even fathom all the roadblocks that the team had to endure to release this amazing work of art.

(Here come the politics)
As a Russian, my heart goes out to all of the Ukrainian people that were affected by the war. It is really hard to be judging this game, considering what the developers have been put through. I respect them a lot and wish only the best.
When I reached the credits, I knew I had to pay respects to the team. It was heartbreaking to see how many people this game was dedicated to. Огромное вам спасибо.

R.I.P. Volodymyr Yezhov.

Good hunting, stalker.

Was in beta, Still in beta

L Glizzard


Actual review:
We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I (do I)
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
We've known each other for so long
Your heart's been aching, but you're too shy to say it (say it)
Inside, we both know what's been going on (going on)
We know the game and we're gonna play it
And if you ask me how I'm feeling
Don't tell me you're too blind to see
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
We've known each other for so long
Your heart's been aching, but you're too shy to say it (to say it)
Inside, we both know what's been going on (going on)
We know the game and we're gonna play it
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
Thank you.

i dedicate my life to speedrunning this game

edit: i gave up before it came out of beta lol

6 ear assaulting company intros

The plot is great

I'm only here for the gems and because I like puzzles

at this point my real life is more enjoyable to get immersed in

Please don't waste your time on an unbalanced, unpolished, buggiest, glitchiest game on the market.

I am addicted. Best post-apocalyptic game since original Fallout titles.