S.T.A.L.K.E.R

Again not recommending the mod: as its a performance hog but as stated in the description A-Life in all its forms is somewhat just marketing, this isn't to say Stalker 2's implementation isn't borked as it obviously is! its a total mess and one we will hopefully see fixed soon.

personally i would like to see what was originally promised with A-Life 1.0, where we can follow an NPC across the map, watch them fight, avoid combat or collect artifacts. watch them slowly rack up kill, improve gear or die at the first mission. the closes we got was with Anomally and i wont be surprised if that is how we will achieve a fuller experience this time around.

anyway i didn't link the mod in vane, the dev has some in-depth knowledge and was a good 5 minute read.

Stalker 2 has released, what's everyone's thoughts?

Personally I spoiled myself with Anomaly and GAMMA so certain features are missing but as a jump from the original series I'd say the developers made a great new entry into the franchise.

No more loading screen:
For years I've been met by loading screens, sometimes within seconds of each other now we only have deal with the shader initialisation.

Movement:
In the original movement was limited but we now have climbing built in, but only to a limited degree not like the anomaly mod which I do prefer as it allows most structures to be climbable.

Voice acting and dialogue:
I'll be totally honest I don't like this aspect and I know I'm an outlier on this as with dyslexia I can't read subtitle's fast enough, meaning I can't use slavic language with English text as I can't read the text fast enough. Whereas og stalker had a text based interaction system meaning I could take my time.

Graphics:
Not something I really care all that much about, I think mood is more important but with that said its a pretty game although lighting has been odd from time to time, out side mid day dark as shit, this might be an atmospheric touch where the zone is an odd place but never saw this same lighting behaviour in the originals.

Mood:
Pretty good, its definitely carried the stalker vibe just wish the upbeat Americans would shut up lol. Dark caves are now black which I'm well into. Monsters are scarier then before.

Difficulty:
Being a veteran I figured I'd go veteran difficulty or the hardest difficulty. In the original series this was essentially a time to kill slider. The hardest mode meant the lest rounds the player could chew but in turn the least rounds enemies could chew. They've changed this and I feel for the worst, bloodsuckers and fleshes take an unholy amount of bullets to put down, whereas before mutants were difficult but the player could become proficient at killing them by knowing their behaviours, this doesn't feel like the case now but I'm still early game and have yet to see.

Controls:
Not massively into it as keybinds for the PC have been changed and we will need mods to revert the console centric stuff.

Stability:
Preface I'm using Linux and proton, my system is and last generation. With that said the game in 4 hours of play time crashed twice, FPS sits at 110 'Epic' graphics setting.

So stalkers all in all I'm having a good time. How's your experience?

I have had my ear to the ground on this for years, each cancellation, each delay, each push back against the development such as the introduction of crypto.
It will be an emotional launch but with bated breath I eagerly wait.
PLEASE BE WORTH IT!