STALKER 2 Review - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

[@Gggmanlives]

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[@ferminangelcarhuajulcaguil1196]

Nah, thanks, I have to eat.

[@PXAbstraction]

As an owner of 3 LG UltraGear monitors, don't buy them unless you like frustration, core features not working reliably and some of the worst support in the entire tech industry.

[@Andy-ef2on]

$1700 😂

[@blazzmatazz9051]

I just bought an LG 4k Oled monitor and my lord that is the way to game. I was delusional thinking 1440 was good. I have seen the top of the mountain and it is good.

[@csehszlovakze]

how strong is the knife in this game? in the other three, the best tactic for some monsters was to get to point blank range on purpose instead of waiting for them to get to you.

[@Caffeinated-DaVinci]

The artifacts causing radiation is why you need to find the one artifact that absorbs radiation. It was the same way in the old games. Using artifacts without that is pointless.

[@thesleepypiggy]

There were also plenty of artifacts that gave no radiation in the older games too.

[@vapshockxd6516]

In SoC were Radiated artifacts No radiation artifacts Radiation removing artifacts

[@Strelokos666]

Noone I knew used them and all trade em instead.

[@hellcatdave1]

@@Strelokos666fools

[@NajaToxicus]

@@Strelokos666 Honestly makes sense in SoC, foolish in other 2

[@TheMC1102]

Imagine telling someone a decade ago that we'd get S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 before Half-Life 3 and GTA VI.

[@shtein4476]

Decade ago no one would think that it will take more than 10 years to produce new gta.

[@TheMC1102]

@@shtein4476 Yeah, that's my point.

[@megajonnyboii]

I mean, they would believe it dude what’s the point of this comment 🤣

[@electricindigoball1244]

@@shtein4476 To be fair by 2014 most people have given up waiting for Half-Life 3 considering that Half-Life 2: Episode 2 released in 2007.

[@WayStedYou]

I'd believe it

[@droptheshiv4796]

A major incentive for artifact hunting has always been to sell them for a bunch of money instead of using them has it not?

[@ivanmonahhov2314]

In the first one , all artifacts had useful effects. Selling artifacts came more in Call of Pripyat. And it being the main source of money is more of Anomaly thing.

[@erencanayhan8514]

​​ @ivanmonahhov2314 you definitelly havent played clearsky seriously, have you? Artifacts were only pointless to sell in the very first game since there was no upgrades and repairing equipment. Whatever you bought would be thrown away eventually anyways, so it was pointless to buy anything making money was only good for buying medkits and ammo.

[@ivanmonahhov2314]

@erencanayhan8514 played clear sky on release. Don't remember much aside from helicopter boss. The most forgettable out of 3

[@erencanayhan8514]

@ivanmonahhov2314 i dont think much of the game otherthan what you hear from one time players is rememberable to you. Let me remind you, 80-90% of the artifacts through out the whole series was to sell except for the first game where they were unable to implement alot of features about artifacts and artifact hunting. All the mods including anomaly tries to make artifacts more actively usable

[@OnePlayer480]

​@@ivanmonahhov2314They changed it to most of them giving rad poisoning because otherwise people just stacked on good artifacts with no drawbacks and speed blitzed through the mid to late game.

[@KingMoon110]

Reviewers:""Stalker 2 is a buggy mess" Stalker fans: Ah just like old times

[@MrAxedead]

I would be disappointed if it wasn't buggy.

[@britishbeef4890]

Apart from the fact content is locked behind pre orders and ultimate editions. Back in the day when you bought a game you got the whole game

[@violentcoughing5135]

I’ve never been able to beat soc from game braking bug in Pripyat. Soc is also one of my favorites games of all time. Not all that upset with missing the ending with how much fun everything else was.

[@RoyLevan]

I wouldn’t have it any other way

[@pilotmanpaul]

Except it no longer runs on the X-Ray engine that needs the hopes and dreams of the devs to even boot up but instead is using the super modern UE5.

[@jasonensteinjag]

Only in Stalker where bugs can be seen as lore accurate anomalies

[@Ug-lordetheunmovable]

Yeah anywhere else it's a bug, in any stalker games it's an anomaly having fun

[@jankmedia1985]

That's how I felt while playing Into the Radius, lol.

[@xIQ188x]

Why complain about bugs when you can pretend they aren’t there? Pro gamer moves

[@electricsynthesis]

It’s ok when GSC does it

[@DMTEntity88]

Cope

[@009DarkStar]

They are so dedicated to make it feel like the old game that they ported the bugs too

[@Slyslug]

Im really enjoying everyone get mad about lugging atound tons of gear and being punished for it. This isnt skyrim

[@rkjeffery777]

This is one of the main things I was hoping for. It breaks immersion for me when I can carry 20 bazookas and 100 rockets for each lol.

[@GangsterFrankensteinComputer]

Sort of looks like it though lol

[@PugilistCactus]

I appreciate them not watering the game down to make yappers like this happy. Dude was even dumb enough to play the game with English audio. "Boohoo a foreign country didn't cater to my language!" Yikes.

[@Tory-JJ]

​@PugilistCactus that's an absolutely dumb take to have. The entire reason of having multiple languages to help the player understand the mannerisms and context of a situation they are in. Which are entirely lost when you can't understand their language. The fact you don't get that says a lot about whoever taught you critia thinking. Or in this case, the lack thereof.

[@TheRealRusDaddy]

@@PugilistCactusim actually really glad they added english dialogue it kinda sucked not knowing what they were saying in the first three games and yeah the dialogues janky but once youve heard all the dialogue you want just switch it to Ukrainian like he said its more immersive

[@GrimGearheart]

Vehicle?! My friend, the zone is known for having anomalies that pop up out of nowhere and turn you into a brick of fucking dry ramen. You can't drive in the zone!

[@jackpitman15]

Imagine driving and your car and it gets picked up into the air and crushed with you still in it, or it gets launched upside down or zapped and the engine breaks, would be annoying as hell

[@grimreamer2512]

Don't ruin my dreams if stealing and selling other Stalkers' bicycles for vodka and sausages

[@BlackWolf9988]

Bro there are literally IRL videos of people illegally entering the zone with e scooters. It really wouldn't be that hard to even have a bike in the game for faster travelling.

[@kraizerxthesimp46]

in SoC the dev try to implement drivable vehicle but they had cut down and yes good luck driving on those anomalies that constantly spawn at random spots 🤣

[@ruslankoller9891]

what about death trucks and helicopters in the first game

[@Coccyx69]

I was worried stalker 2 was going to be dumbed down like the last couple fallout games but I'm happy they didn't cave for people that weren't fans to begin with.

[@horacegentleman3296]

THIS

[@zataprime6454]

This

[@crooster1]

I get a sense it IS dumbed down.

[@PhantomicFilms]

@@crooster1 pretty sure it is too

[@ivilivo]

An exact copy of earlier gameplay, word and concept, is a dumb down in itself. Original games where highly innovative and unique. I might wait 6 months before trying this...

[@Finalph]

I started an hour ago and not even 20 minutes in i get mangled by a bloodsucker. Yep, stalker is back and has its spirit still intact

[@oregonhockeyfan]

Same happened to me. I didn’t even have enough time to pull out my AK and blam, another one claimed by the zone.

[@AABiscuit]

Dude they are everywhere...they take so many shots 😭

[@assaulthetz]

STALKER's soul is still there even in modern age, its heartwarming to see.

[@BirdbathAdventures]

Ammo doesn't go far in this game.

[@crowbarduck1818]

The bloodsucker is a scripted event. There's alot of goddamn scripted bloodsuckers in stalker 2

[@Sirgon88]

„Its a 2007 game in a 2024 Shell“ and thats a good thing.

[@lotovsvs]

Its actually very, very bad thing.

[@Malakaiii.u]

​@@lotovsvs Nah bro, 2020s games are the worst games i ever seen in my whole life, is just a good thing because its innovative in nowadays

[@its830p.m.7]

I mean we got a good bit of really good games ​@@Malakaiii.u

[@Drakid13Re3kt]

Do you not like 2007 games?​@@lotovsvs

[@rihards496]

@@lotovsvs No it's not LOL. Majority of people don't want new games. They want the old games, but on the new graphics and new engines. That's why all the "remakes" are so popular, like it was for Warcraft, Far Cry, Silent Hill and many more.

[@famosoanonimo602]

As a stalker fan since 2011, i assure you that bugs and glitches are the least of our concerns regarding stalker 2

[@lasskinn474]

the fixes by 2011 wasn't that bad

[@GayActorMichaelDouglas666]

What is of concern? As a non fan

[@karu1585]

@@GayActorMichaelDouglas666 Perishing to the zone. Multiple. Multiple. Multiple times

[@jere98ferri33]

Bugs and glitches? More like "game features"😂😂

[@MKR3238]

​@GayActorMichaelDouglas666 that the games not good :D bugs and glitches will be fixed eventually l, the core has to be solid

[@kittycat1376]

Moonlight artifact was nerfed way before stalker 2, even in clear sky it no longer gave you stamina, but just a lot of radiation and telepathy +2

[@xGr3mx]

Rip glorious stamina moonlight, behold telepathy and electric resistance wannabees

[@s3nate22]

Don't upset the circle jerk 😂

[@TheDude8008]

That artifact hunt rant sounds like if you actully hadn't played all the STALKER games tbh, bc in every game they change what the artifacts do and every single one gives radiation that you have to offset with another artifact

[@xnour2]

Literally over half the artifacts in SoC don't give off radiation

[@fieldersnl]

@@xnour2 And you can find the kolobok in agroprom underground that gives the best radiation protection so you can equip 4 artifacts without having the worry of radiation

[@ShinDMitsuki]

"I assume British accents" *Plays most American sounding guy of all time*

[@Gggmanlives]

It's almost like there's more than one accent in the game.

[@ShinDMitsuki]

@@Gggmanlives I dunno every voice so far has been American or an American doing the worst Russian accent they can manage. At any rate switching to Ukrainian is the exact correct advice anyway lol.

[@s3nate22]

​@Gggmanlives You touched on quite literally why there are more accents here tho.

[@Bloodynine606]

@@Gggmanlivesliterally didn’t hear one British accent in this video

[@chanhjohnnguyen1867]

@@Gggmanlives☝️🤓

[@mcarmands1625]

What i can see from reviews that lot of people don’t understand concept of game. For example lot of people are saying that artefacts are useless and at the same time there is theese complaints that weapon upgrades or repair coast lot of money….and there is a thing…you go after artefacts to sell them and buy things what you need, including upgrades and repairs. It was like that in old stalker games. You still can use artefacts on yourself but that is second thing, you do that when find artefacts whats fits well together. It is not just a regular shooter…

[@rubber924]

Lol everything he complained about, the healing, fixing equipment, selling things, artifacts, enemy AI, etc. Is all how the other games are, and it's what people were hoping for so I see it as an absolute win.

[@bobbob-mx6qo]

Braindead take

[@XmarcX92]

@@rubber924 so dumb down AI is what people were looking for? You guys really can’t be that pathetic with these excuses

[@guts2787]

​@@rubber924 old games didn't have respawning artifacts, if you sold one - it's gone. Ai is serious sam levels of stupid. Animations are bad. Kekw.

[@erickflores458]

​@@guts2787Wasn't artifact spawns literally changed in Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat?

[@OMGOMGOMGOGMOGMOGM]

I'm a huge Stalker fan. But this, still needs time in the oven. - No Alife AI, Enemies just spawn 5m away from me. The world does not really feel alive and everyone is mostly there because of you. - AlIfe was a huge deal for Stalker, it is really what made this game - Enemies organically living and fighting. - Bullet Sponge Mutants and Enemies, It's just no fun especially early game, when a Flesh takes a magazine of an ak, or 3 hits of a shotgun - Fighting with a double Barrel and an MP5 against a Bloodsucker is atrocious. - Thanks to the approach to the AI and encounters, the world feels barren and often you just run through empty fields. I really love Stalker but the current game feels like Fallout. I hope it will get better, or the modders will "fix" it.

[@foofoalkine]

exactly.

[@Studenthj-m1m]

Lol enemies spawn in 5m. Due to your psi health. Didn't you wonder why they disappear after death?

[@OMGOMGOMGOGMOGMOGM]

@ No it‘s not the psi Health. It‘s literally the spawning/encounter System. Theo do not disappear after Death. I am Talking about regular enemies.

[@alejochol9397]

Hey, i found out that spawn distance is based on your render distance; you might want to give that a try. They spawn way further away and i got to use (and need) a scoped gun for once.

[@OMGOMGOMGOGMOGMOGM]

@@alejochol9397 Thanks for the heads up. My render distance is farthest, the point I was getting to though, was that this is not Alife.

[@janeshepard9549]

Chernobylite : Wife is missing and won't stop haunting my dreams. Metro Exodus : Wife won't shut up about the world outside the bunker. STALKER 2 : That damn Artifact scorched my apartment !! The Zone owes me a new apartment now !!

[@MagnitudePerson]

TL;DR Fans of oldschool Stalker will LOVE IT. Everyone else, same as before

[@deadshot4245]

as it should be

[@loganarlov9686]

Wouldn't have it any other way.

[@lutherheggs451]

Which is most likely why they took WelfarePass pennies instead of actually forcing Xbots to actually purchase the game.

[@AlfredFJones1776]

@@lutherheggs451Pony spotted.

[@shrewm_]

@@lutherheggs451your comment is written in a way that tells me you’re chronically online

[@gtabro1337]

I waited for 17 long years. No bug will stop me from playing this, IDGAF.

[@derwamper1258]

Same here! Like 3 years ago i replayed the old games. Im hyped!!! Download is going right now

[@JohnJoatan2]

Nice hopium. It won’t get any better with updates.

[@potatohead5986]

​@JohnJoatan2 pal you have a misconception of the word "IDGAF"

[@thepopcornkid1423]

@@potatohead5986 no he’s using the acronym correctly here

[@LeoKasper47]

You people are starting to sound like Star Wars fans.

[@ruptakruptak439]

Man. I suddenly stopped playing this game one day, similar to how I once froze up on a jobsite and quit right then and there. Just put my tools down, took my hat off, and Charlie-Brown-walked pathetically to my car, never to return to that place. The sequence around 19:45 game me great comfort. The agony.

[@tomgekas7077]

Ok most important question: Is cheeky breeky in the game???

[@Maggi9909]

Da

[@conscioussubconsciousness1976]

Iv damke

[@homerit]

Amen

[@ivanmonahhov2314]

no, head of studio came out and said in Russian , that there will be no Russian voice over , only Ukranian. ( head of the stuidio doesnt speak Ukranian ) . So no Чики брики

[@tomgekas7077]

@@ivanmonahhov2314 I am gutted

[@baitboy3191]

A. going to wait until a lot of the performance issues are patched B. going to wait also until there is a solid modding community, which there will be, the original had a huge modding scene.

[@Wintercide]

The performance issues have been so mild I was blown away that there are so many people complaining on the internet. This isn't Cyberpunk 2077 launch. It's way better and even better than Cyberpunk was a year after its launch. For context I'm running the game on medium with an i5, 16Gb ram, and a 3060.

[@User.665]

​@@Wintercidecyberpunk was a whole other story with how bad that game launched. Honestly in a league of its own.

[@ShirleyTimple]

So you're waiting for it to NOT be broken

[@assaulthetz]

I guess people really liked their modded games like Anomaly huh.. though Gamma is a bit too tactical for me, but its great.

[@geeknproud321]

@@assaulthetz I did a custom setup using a lot of what GAMMA has but toned down closer to the original Stalker gameplay. It plays and looks great and is a lot of fun.

[@ReasonedFaith]

Been playing Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl for a few hours, and it’s incredible. The story hooks you, the Zone is hauntingly atmospheric, and the gunfights are intense. No bugs so far, just pure immersion. Huge respect to Ukrainian studio GSC Game World for delivering this masterpiece under such tough circumstances. A must-play!

[@Bled_Skry]

I second this. Played for 17 hours so far and I'm hooked. Loving the grind and I have only noticed a few bugs. Nothing game breaking. The game is difficult but the payoff feels great when finding that new armor or weapon. For what it is worth I am playing on PC also.

[@xrazzr1]

if you run into bugs just remember, its part of the immersion and you just found an anomaly, in stalker there aint no bugs but just anomalies

[@zloy1445]

In what other "difficult circumstances"?

[@billylong4245]

-SkillUp said its beyond busted. -ACG said he had a ton of fun even bugged. Tie breaking vote: G-Man.

[@henriklarssen1331]

Drewski loves it beside the lacking A.I life compared to Stalker 1, which hopefully will get fixed or modded. Splattercat also liked it. But as always never buy any game on day 1 nowdays.

[@billylong4245]

@@henriklarssen1331Ya Ive taken a more wait for a few patches approach to new games the last few years. But as a console player, as long as it doesn’t play like a 20fps flip book then I will be playing immediately.

[@leobustos740]

It's a new vegas situation I'm calling it now. Busted at launch, masterpiece with a cult following afterwards just watch.

[@mrhaast5053]

I couldn't take Skillup review seriously when he started complaining about encumberance while lugging around with half the USSR's AK-47s.

[@2opmataron991]

@@leobustos740 Kinda like cyberpunk lol. As long as the core elements are good I'm fine with technical issues and bugs, those can be fixed easily, a bad game cannot though.

[@therealamon]

For everyone playing this game ukraine dub and english text made the game so much more immersive and feel like a stalker game i reccomend everyone do it this way

[@KillerRedVine]

Yea, I honestly dont know why they even bothered to dub the game in any other language.

[@MrJekken]

ukraine dub makes the game less immersive since people in ukraine hardly speak ukrainian dialect except for those in the far west of the country

[@natashafutkovska]

@@MrJekken what shit you just said

[@daniilpaliy7117]

@@MrJekkenwtf are you talking about

[@Frem_Kra]

Very "immersive" since old Stalker was in Russian and at least 65% of Ukrainians speaks Russian. :)

[@labub]

Man, this video made me realise how good Crysis 3 looks.

[@smorior709]

To the surprise of absolutely no STALKER fans.

[@pilotmanpaul]

Its Anomaly with a 4K texture pack and Reshade and a Story Mode. It really offers nothing new except that. Its also not running in the clunky Eurojank X-Ray engine that needs the soul of a Dev to start up but instead is using the super modern UE5.

[@fugjewtube1822]

​@@pilotmanpaul and compared to anomally.... Stalker 2 is shit

[@UeusD]

@@fugjewtube1822 anomaly is garbage, go play tarkov instead

[@sesad5035]

​@@pilotmanpaulLmao. Anomaly looks like shit, look at the static objects, they're low poly af

[@zjanez2868]

@@pilotmanpaul if what you wanted was anomaly 2 than yes, you will be very dissapointed devs said multiple times they are NOT making anomaly 2

[@Klarkash-Ton]

Being an incredible, unique, immersive, but very broken experience is just what STALKER does. I'm stoked for this one!

[@DiddysBBOil]

Cool to lay down. It's been YEARS. Push the date back, stop releasing broken shit

[@VampiricNightMachine]

how can it be immersive if the AI is as stupid as a rock

[@fourtii8707]

I bet you didn't even buy

[@xIQ188x]

@@VampiricNightMachineyou just pretend like the Zone is making them that way! Immersion!

[@pilotmanpaul]

Why does this read like sarcasm? You are aware they aren't using the Slavjunk X-Ray engine to run this but instead is using the uber modern UE5?

[@Guitarded1995]

There are definitely too many bloodsuckers, and they're too tanky. Way too many dogs too, I mean holy shit. Why am I fighting 10+ dogs every time I run into them. And the fact that there's no mutant loot means you gain absolutely nothing from fighting them.

[@XmarcX92]

Yeah beside wasting a bunch of ammo and healing kits

[@assaulthetz]

This reminds me of OG Stalker, Shadow of Chernobyl. Now I want to buy it because of this. It isn't about the efficiency about the game, its about the experience... and you'd die a lot in the Zone.

[@Brew4097]

Welcome to Stalker

[@XmarcX92]

@@assaulthetzAnomaly shit on this

[@MintyLime703]

There are a lot of them, but the section he complained about them in particular is one where you don't even have to fight the bloodsuckers nor are you expected to. You can stealth past them there. Dying to 4 or 5 bloodsuckers should be enough to tell the player that they're doing something wrong. There's a lot of things like that people are getting tripped up on and then blaming the game for.

[@Cr1msnF4dger]

Old Stalker games: I hope i don't run into more gunfights Stalker 2: How long do i have to run just to get into more gunfights

[@almostontimehero5415]

These new people man, SMH. They bought the hype yet never bothered to play the original. The "bad" parts is what makes it good.

[@Cr1msnF4dger]

@@almostontimehero5415 I was just being sarcastic dude.

[@shawarmaman2902]

@@almostontimehero5415 What do you mean "These new people" brother if I have to run 2 hours just to get into a shitty ass gunfight than the game isn't good.

[@HuggieWuggies]

@@almostontimehero5415 this

[@jgaz33]

How is a game being shitty a good thing this community is disgusting mediocrity is a cancer upon this Earth that needs to be snubbed out

[@usernamehhhs4540]

It seems liek they completely removed A-life and all the NPCS are now stationarry and will only activate their AI when player gets near them wow that is dogsh*t

[@shawklan27]

Oblivion radiant ai moment it seems

[@zackhawn5944]

Big part of the Stalker games was the different factions fighting together in what felt like a living world that you are a part of, not the center of. Big disappointment for sure.

[@1738-l1j]

​@@zackhawn5944went from a-life to a-lifeless

[@retagainez]

actual only real criticism of the game.

[@ivanmonahhov2314]

officially there is A-life 2

[@tome373402]

I think they’ve made some changes. One specific one is that the dogs act more like the old games then they do in this footage. So obviously this isn’t on Gman. I’ve faced them like 5 times and every time they did the scrambling and hiding like they used to. It seemed natural and worked well. I can see why he criticized the way they all bum rushed in the version he played

[@Zolyasm]

Homie is showing the new LG monitor but all i can see is Shodan on that CPU cooler looking at my soul and now i completly forgot why i was here in the first place and i'm brownsing the net to find one for myself.

[@BrunoHenrique-gi1wd]

5:40 if there are artifacts about, of couse there will be british people in the zone.... what do you mean

[@noneofyourbuisness2539]

Yep, an IRL zone would be crawling with ex SAS mercs looking to get paid to keep that bloodlust legal

[@dmytrogalan1005]

so people turn the english dub and act surprised it sounds like actual english and not the stereotypical slavic strong man?

[@EnglishInfidel]

That wasn't "British" that was an American/Eastern European accent... he was talking about the fact they're apeaking English at all not the accents, although if they had an English accent rather than American he'd probably be more okay with it.

[@EvilGeniusRANIK]

When the hell in the old games where you getting into combat every few minutes?? I'm at Call of Prikyat and combat only POSSIBLY happens when you reach a mission location and in the middle of the objective.

[@RustyBanner]

Once you've seen a forest irl they literally do all look the same as well.

[@nate654]

Stalker has always been a pain in the ass to get into. But totally worth it.

[@mullet_god]

Just played for about 10 hours and the only bug I experienced was someone half glitching in the ground during dialogue.

[@annielittlee9811]

I don't know..the first Stalker SoC just feels better in so many ways (at least to me) - like the raw sounds, gameplay, overall atmosphere and so on. This definitely needs some polishing, or mods.

[@inoodlesi4459]

Sadly they used Unreal Engine which kills every game's aesthetic nowadays. Every realistic graphics game looks the same which is sad because not a lot of games held a candle to Stalker's atmosphere.

[@stolenname94]

​@@inoodlesi4459honestly its not even that good looking for unreal engine 5. Silent hill 2 remake however looked fantastic most of the time, even on epic it looks just bland with no real dynamics. And the performance is also alil wonky on my 3070 no matter what settings I play in it goes from a nice 60fps to 45fps at times. A 3070 ain't exactly the best gpu but its also not bad either, I expected at least a solid 60fps or more on high and this game is in need of a patch ASAP.

[@kevinfromsales9445]

@@annielittlee9811 2 words. Unreal Engine

[@pastichiorocker]

@@inoodlesi4459 Should've used the CryEngine instead.

[@DjPolo-f2d]

The game is not for everyone and Its a 2007 game in a 2024 shell, so basically GSC have nailed it.

[@tomasjanak4113]

Saying like it's a bad thing. 2007 is the year we got so many GOAT games. Finally immersive shooter with realistic visuals and minimalistic hud.

[@TheVincenzoGaming]

@@tomasjanak4113 'so basically GSC have nailed it' doesn't make it sound like a bad thing.

[@GangsterFrankensteinComputer]

@@tomasjanak4113 looks like a Fallout mod to me. They even have the compass at the top that tells you where to go lmao.

[@gyarik]

@@GangsterFrankensteinComputer the original trilogy, instead of having a compass, has... a minimap with an arrow that tells you where to go. What's the difference?

[@DjPolo-f2d]

@@tomasjanak4113 When I said they have nailed it I meant that's a good thing. That term as far as I know is a phrase meaning a good job, well it is in my country.

[@rH0und]

19:35 I would like to mention that it IS possible to sneak past them. They are sleeping, only 1 around them is awake and walking around…

[@archiemisc]

That's what I did after they killed me for the 4th or 5th time

[@akinamiyamoto4750]

Maybe the real artifact was the British we meet along the way

[@the_yeegineer]

Fr What the fuck are a mass of my countrymen doing in the zone?! Colonising it??

[@Theottselmaster]

I mean this sounds like PEAK voice acting compared to "Chernobylite"

[@thetankhunter100]

Honestly doesnt sound that much different than chernobylite. The russian voice acting in that game was pretty good though.

[@emilv22]

Chernobylite has suchhhhhh cringy voice acting. The game is pretty in terms of graphics but just feels very undercooked overall. Some of the lines from this video did sound a bit familiar to Chernobylite though…

[@MeadeJ67]

@@emilv22 English isn't everyone's native language, get over it.

[@snakeeater337]

Journalist stashes are the gear given by ordering anything above regular edition. That's the reason they're so good

[@annakanna]

janky ragdolls and goofy pathfinding just make it all the more appealing to stalker vets ngl

[@LT-777]

Exactly what i want from it, every game is the same now and it’s the goofy nostalgic feel I want. Bugs? These are simply anomalies

[@Njordin2010]

Yup. These are positives. Really.

[@XmarcX92]

Keep sniffing that copium. I bet you guys loved cyberpunk when it first released

[@LT-777]

@@XmarcX92 cyberpunk was an unplayable mess made by AAA developers, whereas stalker is completely playable with maybe a Ragdoll or two launching or bot getting confused (which is fun if u know what that is), no game breaking bugs that soft lock me or ruin it so what’s the problem? Go sniff your Cheeto dust u grease warrior, bet you role play military games or gta with 100% seriousness cuz it makes you feel like the man, why try bully ppl u don’t know? it’s honestly just sad bro, get help Damn It sucks I had waste a few mins and write all this for some crusty c@m sock who’s just looking for an argument, I need a shower now I’m feeling greasyyyy 😂 so cringy

[@stylishoverdrive]

nah ragdolls are awesome, they feel heavy and verstaile in reactions - and feel not like an empty image - the way it should be and th way most games don't have. All in great amosphere

[@marfg12345]

I absolutely hate how there's a cloud of bright red blood when you shoot an enemy, and it stays in the air for a second or two. It's so unrealistic and just stupid because that's not how bullets work. Blood should spray out of exit wounds, not where the bullet actually hits.

[@kevinfromsales9445]

@@marfg12345 Overal it looks a lot more cartoony then the original games. I was excited when Stalker 2 was announced but as soon as I saw this footage that and a lot of the gameplay seems to be copy pasted to stretch out the length m I'm not that interested anymore. Definitely not worth a full price.

[@tomclanys]

blood clouds/mists are realistic, but mostly when explosives are used, not just the usual bullets.

[@Emays24]

​@@tomclanysbut its so bright makes it so cartoony. Its like playing cheap FPS game.

[@marfg12345]

@@kevinfromsales9445 It reminds me of Dying Light 2. Gritty and realistic E3 gameplay trailers, but the finished game looks more like Far Cry 3 with zombies.

[@Jorge-k1y1v]

​@@Emays24 tbf tho the og trilogy did really being to lean hard into the brown era of games

[@isaacbenzing5686]

Ive gotta say, one of the biggest problems ive noticed about stalker 2 is all the wasted space. The original games made the most of the the limited map sizes they could work with, and many areas were packed to the brim with points of interest, whether its a factory or a small stalker camp with a fire and a couple snacks sitting in a box. Stalker 2 on the other hand has so many spots that feel like theyd have something but dont. In one of the early missions i was in an underground area and there were some boxes stacked up leading to a platform, i went up expecting a stash or a medbox or something, but nope it was a dead end. They made a space and even set up objects to allow you to get there but then made it so there was 0 real reason to do so.

[@SL4PSH0CK]

1:59 thats an anomaly

[@captainblastems3367]

i was expecting to see a funny bug instead nah dude it for real is just an anomaly lol.

[@poison2028]

It's the Zone, everything is just an anomaly.

[@LarryBitsy]

I feel like the huge map is a bit lifeless without the random encounter.

[@ll.7927]

Exactly nothing is going on.

[@pixelcount350]

Yup

[@Wintercide]

There are random encounters, but its nothing like previous games, sadly. Instead they just spawn a random trio of baddies 40 feet away from you or a pack of dogs, or a trio of good guys to help fight in whatever encounter you're in, etc. etc.

[@Nadaters]

I find it's got open world syndrome where everything only happens on the (?) and then sometimes nothing but loot there... and then not even good loot

[@Almmy]

"i get this is similar to what stalker is" *proceeds to cry about stalker 2 being like stalker*

[@Gggmanlives]

It's called a review.

[@6033Kain]

@@Gggmanlives yet you completely forget to talk about the fact that the developers of the game are living under russian fire...

[@ASmileADay379]

@@6033Kainbrother he mentions it in the review. Please tell me you are rage baiting.

[@XmarcX92]

@@ASmileADay379a lot of these mouth breathers didn’t even watch the review. Keep exposing themselves for this broken ass game

[@Fauz-fa20]

@@6033Kain no they dont, I dont remember Prague is in Ukraine? Do they coding with 1 hand and shooting AK with another? Doubt that. Ive seen dozens of this emotional manipulation/guilty tripping argument. F off.

[@ZSTE]

Looking forward to playing this game, but the amount of people excusing bugs and shitty launches is why we get crappy game launches. "Oh the previous ones were buggy too!" Okay cool, they haven't improved I guess.

[@Bloodynine606]

Whatever I’d rather bugs than something boring and soulless like Bethesda’s latest. Could easily say people like you are why we get pretty looking vanilla snorefests like Dragon Age Veilguard.

[@ZSTE]

Pretty sure it is possible to get fun and engaging games that aren't a broken POS dude, but be butthurt someone wants something better I guess?

[@Bloodynine606]

@@ZSTE you’re the one butthurt I’ll happily ignore those games and play this

[@mikzin630]

Don't forget they lost a lot of their staff to the war so polishing was harder. They will surely be patching the game too, and using Unreal engine will make it easier for the community to fix things as well.

[@ZSTE]

@@mikzin630 For sure, development hell sums it up pretty well to say the least, and I know they'll fix it too as the real only issues are bugs and not gameplay. Still wish they delayed it once again or had a beta or something to make the launch better.

[@jonza4534]

Just the quest complete tone alone is music to my ears

[@jafufudean8389]

Okay so the weaker anomaly get you credits and there are artifacts that negate radiation, so hunting is necessary to fix equipment, for example I just recently sold 12 artifacts that where uses to me, I now have 400k credits, as far as bugs go it's unique, in the swamps there is a location you can't get to untill the story gets you there, I thought it was a bug because I kept getting teleported away turns out it was a mechanic. As far as difficulty goes change up your ammo type, armor piercing rounds work great against armored enemy's, and slugs work amazing on mutants, you just have to pay attention slow down and expiremrment. It's fun

[@Eskaroots]

The more game get release with Unreal Engine 5 ... the more I hate it. The sound staging feel cheap, the UI font and scaling is always the same it's so weird.

[@GangsterFrankensteinComputer]

That's more to do with the devs than the engine. They can use any UI fonts and scaling they want, but they're copying Bethesda and Ubisoft lol.

[@jeckek9936]

This. Im done buying games that use this trash engine.

[@defteame]

Sound is not handled by UE, its Wwise - separate middleware specifically for audio, can be integrated in any engine, i.e. Unity etc as well. But yes its also used in alsmot every AAA game nowadays.

[@GangsterFrankensteinComputer]

@@defteame I think the sound in Stalker 2 is great, aside from the awful voice acting, but that's an acting issue.

[@zbyniew]

All the common assets that Unreal uses sucks, every game looks exactly the same. Same shitty hair works with weird AI rendering artifacts, same environments, same stuttering and abysmal 1% fps. Bleh. Unreal is like a colouring in book; bespoke engines are like the Mona Lisa

[@P5kr]

The AI is the perfect point for the "games are evolving, just backwards" argument. And I understand the AI was bad in the original games, but you know what I mean.

[@TheEFedsAreComin]

Stalker AI was never particularly good in combat either.

[@KABLAMMATS]

You thinkin about the modded stalker AI, not the og AI

[@iValeriiPandamic]

But the development studio has been located in the Czech Republic since May 2022, and they were quietly developing in Ukraine until February 2022. What difficult conditions are we talking about in this video?

[@vladimirrodionov5391]

1. Covid, forced fwh can disrupt productivity. 2. Yes, but thery had to excute a quick, unplanned relocation of the entire team complete with economic and legal chellenges, surely to also disrupted productivity for several months.

[@iValeriiPandamic]

@@vladimirrodionov5391 I agree, but I think they were planning on releasing the game in april 2022, I think they said it was ready. It took them 2 years to finish a finished game even with all the complications?

[@Jorge-k1y1v]

​@@iValeriiPandamic welcome to modern game development. Also the stalker development team has always been plauged by genuinely godawful leadership who incentivised personal profit and wealth over making a polished game. It's the whole reason the metro games even exist they are the og stalker devs who were forced out because they wanted better working conditions (they had to work without heating in the winter moths and deal with frequent power outages due to the studio being in a state of disrepair because the high ups kept gobbling up any profits )

[@prettyflanel6326]

5:14 You’re highlighting a crucial point. As a Ukrainian, I feel that a significant part of the game’s perception comes from its voice acting, which loses its authenticity when adapted into other languages.

[@Nadaters]

it's mainly how bad the voice direction is for english. Some sentences have pauses in the wrong spots or weird cadence. In Ukrainian it sounds like natural speech.

[@soulsynthesiscreations]

Next gen, hardly any loading times replaced with 48 hours to download and instal followed by shader cache shiiiiiiiiiiiit

[@chillhour6155]

Unreal 5

[@abstr4cted496]

Since it's a UE game just wait until the patches come. For every patch the game will have to rewrite that 160 GB game size every time regardless the size of the patch.

[@stevepeterson4154]

@@abstr4cted496 thats quite unreal...........high five

[@pious276]

​@@abstr4cted496what the sweeney??? why?

[@MrQwertysystem]

​@@abstr4cted496Not necessarily. It depends how the game files have been packed, it's just unfortunately common for devs to just have one giant .pak file instead of multiple smaller ones which causes the download issue.

[@pastichiorocker]

So why did Postal 4's jank get a pass, but in this game it's a problem?

[@Gggmanlives]

Postal 4 was made by like 10 people and released in early access. Compared to a triple A game made by hundreds of people over a decade that’s being charged a premium price. The difference is obvious to anyone with half a brain.

[@Guts3570]

there's a lot of complaints here about features that are actually just mainstays of the series.

[@Gggmanlives]

It's not 2007 anymore.

[@urgamecshk]

​@@Gggmanlivesgreat, so you had 17 years to learn how radiation and artifacts work...

[@XmarcX92]

@@Gggmanlives I appreciate you being honest. Don’t let these mouth breathers tell you otherwise because no one should accept a half backed game when the predecessors were much better.

[@christiansturm4393]

​@@Gggmanliveswomp womp, 99% of this sounds like obnoxious knit picking and the rest of sounds like you want a brain dead looter shooter........shall i suggest fortnite to you?

[@christiansturm4393]

@XmarcX92 i have no issue with his honesty, my issue lies in the fact that A.) You are led to the conclusion that game is half baked when the team literally went out to pripryat to recreate an entire city and B.) All he did was whine when he titled the video (the good, the bad and the ugly) only highlighting flaws in something expansive. There is nothing wrong with pointing out issues that need attention but there comes a point where this guy is just another throwaway games journalist that only complains. They released a game despite some really harrowing odds.

[@err0rc0degames]

So if I enjoyed past Stalker games, will I enjoy this? Dont need a new to series consideration personally

[@PunishedDad]

yes

[@XmarcX92]

No, the AI is non existent and just spawn around you unlike the first game where they used to patrol and go about their day like real people.

[@marcinagy6468]

I'm always baffled how native english speakers cannot comprehend what "dubbing" is.

[@MeadeJ67]

We are so spoiled that we don't seem to understand that sometimes English isn't going to be the primary language in a game. Non-English speakers constantly deal with poor dubs over to their native language, I think we should be able to handle it once in a while without crying about "terrible voice acting."

[@misfit1422]

Just want to thank you for putting timestamps as I do not really want to be spoiled on the story but I do care about your review

[@ShirleyTimple]

There is no story, silly😅

[@valdzeelis25]

if this game wont crash every 15min its already improvement compared with older games. God damn x-ray engine.

[@bosslevelmovies]

This guy gets it lol people crying about UE5 never experienced xray lol

[@heb2024]

UE 5, as realistic as it is, does not match the charm of good ol' Xray.

[@tomclanys]

oh yeah, the x-ray engine was even more demanding for hardware than this game is right now, and even then just loved to crash every single damn hour or less.

[@Wintercide]

Can confirm firsthand that the crying about performance issues is WAY overblown. It's very minor issues, no game breaking bugs for me so far, and the issues I have run into are completely unintrusive

[@shimashitaa5079]

I believe that the game works on amd GPUs better. Im having time to time stuttering on my RTX card, as well as my friend with another RTX card. My other friend on AMD tells the game works smoothly for him

[@rustle495]

The game was originally scheduled to come out in 2022 even before conflict started. They delayed it like 4 times and people still ate up the technical state with "haha well its Stalker its supposed to be like that", when the reviews for other games like this were scathing. It feels insane to see this. Game is fun but its not polished or optimized, and some of the gameplay elements have huge issues. And mods we dream about already are not even out, nor is there an official mod support.

[@Gggmanlives]

I agree dude. If this was ANY other game people would be roasting it.

[@1GTX1]

It's hard to roast it when we are having so much fun.

[@Gggmanlives]

Good for you.

[@blurred8343]

​@@1GTX1 "Make everyone believe I'm having fun,Make everyone believe I'm having fun,Make everyone believe I'm having fun,Make everyone believe I'm having fun,Make everyone believe I'm having fun." 😂

[@1GTX1]

@@blurred8343 Sorry to hear that you are not having fun.

[@hellashott]

“The good, bad & ugly” Proceeds to just only speak on “The Bad, Ugly, Why I’m bad, Why my gameplay reviews are ugly, More of that, less of the good, lesser than that, this is bad… I’m negative, that’s worse, more bad reviews… maybe I’ll say something good around the corner… nope, more poor takes…”

[@ChosenChicken]

In all honesty, being 6 hours in and I have yet to experience game breaking bugs, I've only seen very small bugs, I dont know if I'm lucky or what but so far it is surprisingly stable and consistent

[@aftertwentea]

He probably played the press version a week or two beforehand. Since then, they got a few patches that overall smoothed out the experience. But there's still a long way to go.

[@ChosenChicken]

@@aftertwentea yeah dont get me wrong there is plenty of room to enhance this game, but the reviews that claim the game is a buggy mess and should be avoided are, imo, simply untrue. 13 hours in game at this point, and the worst I've had are bugs like not being able to upgrade a weapon.

[@ShirleyTimple]

"My experience is YOUR experience"

[@Fauz-fa20]

@@ChosenChicken "I dont know if I'm lucky or what" then proceed to.... "the reviews that claim the game is a buggy mess and should be avoided are, imo, simply untrue", its other experience my guy, that means youre lucky.

[@hipsterdoofus1332]

7:25 voice crack

[@ZeroSystem100]

Got emm

[@willlbill8485]

Shhhied missions

[@themonke8714]

Pack it up fellas, whole channel is done.

[@zetsubo_amvs]

I’ll stick with modded Stalker Anomaly. I have fps issues with a RX 6800XT and a Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

[@XmarcX92]

Try anomaly custom

[@IStareAtGames]

i love how the game is supposed to be realistic is this guy is really yapping about how a couple gun shots shouldn't hurt you as much.

[@AOC96]

True, ive seen a lot of videos of this guy that i liked, but this one missed the mark by a mile. Contradictory points, issues that can be attributed literally to “skill issue”, excessive complaining about issues that aren’t really issues but core concepts of the game. Terrible video.

[@kg_canuck]

Seeing as mod support was immediately mentioned as a big focus, I'm just excited to see where the community takes this game. If Anomaly is an indicator of how passionate the community can be, this game is going to be the basis for something incredibly special (not that it looks bad, mind you, it actually looks really good. But that's just where my mind goes)

[@12345wery]

Honestly I wouldnt be shocked if some of these issue stem from them trying to at least make the game playable for modern audiences, but also probably a lack of being able to get proper QA. EDIT: or also the fact its UE5, UE5 is kinda hot ass lmao

[@lutherheggs451]

How shocking that they would try to appeal to a wider audience to actually sell the game, not just the handful of idiots who think they're all the devs need from a game franchise that EPICALLY BOMBED

[@themetasora1331]

@@lutherheggs451most modded game in existence, even new Vegas was said to be a terrible game when it first came out.

[@WileyCatOFFICIAL]

actually ue5 is very very good you just have to understand what your doing with it you can do quite alot and have it run fairly well to very well this seems like they really just had no experience with the engine and this is their first time using it alot of devs are making ue5 look like shit because its so easy to use anyone can throw a game together but they dont put the effort in to smooth it out and go deep into it it has the whole feature set an entire toolbox and a good base to stand on devs just cant fucking use it properly but indie devs have been kicking absolute ass with it lately

[@dd805100]

​​​​@@themetasora1331yeah that's the problem they are having, anomoly legit probablly out down loaded every single game they have ever made, new Vegas made a bunch of money all there old games didn't I legit only bought this cause ive played the shit out of anomoly and modpacks but never even went near the old games cause they just look trash to me, but I also wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't even run this with my 3060 and my i7 9700f, just downloading the game is making my pc slow

[@sesad5035]

​@@dd805100lmao, you'll be disappointed. This is for the OG enjoyers, not for western goobers like you

[@zoltanlukacs5059]

What is really putting me off the game, is the grenade spam! Like, even the shittiest bandits have grenades without limit, and they just keep lobbing them... hope it gets fixed soon.

[@lecheifton1237]

It probably won’t, it’s like that in every stalker game, just be happy that at least in this game you only get one enemy throwing a nade at a time

[@OperatorMax1993]

​@@lecheifton1237 well in Clear Sky the grenade spam was crazy

[@A7XKoRnRocks1]

My biggest caveat with the game is exactly what Gman said, the game in Unreal Engine makes it look like every other game, doesn't have the same vibe that the original had. This scares me because future games will start looking alike.

[@PimpCatTV]

I think I’ll wait year or two and let a bunch of mods come out and bug fixes to fully push the thing out, and fill all the empty areas of the map, add new dungeons and mechanics and stuff like that from the modding community.

[@Brodaiden]

That "let me sleep" cutaway was hilarious.

[@mr.dakkadakka2845]

I remember in the first games people had a problem with getting into TOO many gunfights. The population in the zone is like a few hundred at most and yet you've killed like thousands by the end of the game.

[@Hughgen]

You can fast travel with the guides at the various bases

[@Gggmanlives]

I know.

[@espio87]

2:00 :"The Zone contains potassium benzoate"

[@C0bblers]

thats bad

[@ZachCanning-i9o]

Can i go now

[@happyhunterfish]

That 3 bloodsucker fight is designed to be sneaked around btw. You enter a room where you see 2 of them sleeping with the last one patrolling further on. CoP had a mission like this in the same region as well.

[@TuriGamer]

Suddenly every fps youtuber uploads a stalker video

[@SPTX.]

Apparently there was an embargo on review copies. So they all had their video ready to go at the appointed date.

[@XmarcX92]

@@SPTX. The embargo being last minute shows how devs themselves knew the game had issue, giving people less time to refund. Thankfully steam let me refund mine

[@lilpunk-_-]

cant wait to watch the casuals cry

[@MeadeJ67]

Almost like it just came out... Weird...

[@TuriGamer]

@@MeadeJ67 and thats why everyone uploads like the same hour? Yeah ok

[@v3nom11065]

Play Stalker 2, get a fix, then go back to gamma to wait for more fixes. Hell, gamma is getting an update soon. Dec 3, I think?

[@megathornax4402]

Yup, new weapon animations and artifact rebalance

[@lilpunk-_-]

gman: talks like he’s a stalker vet also gman: whines about bleeding, carryweight, and item condition

[@lilpunk-_-]

and omg the sh*t take on preferring loading screens over traversal 😭 my guy you are definitely not a part of the core fanbase your opinions are dog water

[@Gggmanlives]

I never said I was a STALKER vet.

[@applesaurusrex8075]

very glad that you can turn off the crosshair, that was literally one of my top hopes

[@sa80slayer85]

All i am hearing is that its a stalker game

[@JoshJr98]

I never played the old stalker games, and I’m loving this new one. I bought all the games now after playing stalker 2 for like 30 hours

[@Quick-Silver206]

Gman: Lauds games for having old school mechanics. Also Gman: hates on games for having old school mechanics. Never change my Aussie friend.

[@Ramonatho]

To be fair to him, it's why Bioshock works so well, and Atomic Heart doesn't. He has a point, albeit an obscure one.

[@MeadeJ67]

@@Ramonatho Not always...

[@ManInAFrogSuit]

14:50 corduroy arteries

[@Maximusbrutus2995]

Excellent review man actually love how you compared the old and new games and spoke about the game itself in all respects rather than just complaining about the bugs and the boring story like most reviews have been.

[@iainbaker6916]

Modders added ledge grab to Anomaly, so hopefully they can add it got his too.

[@XmarcX92]

Modders gave the game life. This is on life support the minute it was released

[@PavelKutakov-nvkz]

The game was promised to be released in April 2022. When the military conflict began, the game should have been ready. And the development studio moved to another country in a few months. They have only two reasons why the game is so buggy. They lied about the readiness of the game and the fact that, according to the head of the studio, they are involved in the development of weapons for war.

[@Dennis-ud2nh]

Eh, I'm pretty sure the moonlight had electrical resistance in Call of Pripyat. And artifacts causing radiation damage was very common in the original series. You had to match them with anti-radiation artifacts.

[@phyrr2]

Bro, artifact hunting is the best way to get cash and upgrades dude. If it wasn't a challenge, what's the point? If it's useless but worth tons of cash, SELL IT.

[@gediminasdeksnys3816]

The man flying in the sky is due anomaly activity

[@Gggmanlives]

No it’s not.

[@SPL1NGYDUDE]

Bugs are an anomaly, stalker! /J

[@supersonic0469]

Yes it is gman damn

[@Gggmanlives]

It’s literally a glitch, there’s no anomalies nearby.

[@Mastakilla91]

@@Gggmanlives It is, but the glitch is that the man is so stiff.

[@Herbit-k4j]

It's not exactly the same sound effects, I've had the PDA sound as my notification sound for the past 10 years. Stalker 2's sounds way less harsh. So they "improved" the audio-processing.

[@army2207]

Everything is improved this dude is just complaining

[@omegadroidzero]

I refuse to pay to beta test a game. I will check it out in 6 months (hopefully) unless it takes as long as Cyberpunk 2077 to be finished and actually good.

[@jeremyterkelsen2518]

I bet most developers would love a fanbase a fanbase this forgiving. Any other game would be torn to shreds by everyone, but nooooo, Stalker fans are here to save the day with “i AcTuALLy LiKe tHE bUgS”.

[@Lebeefio]

I dunno maybe it's because my first exposure to the Stalker franchise being the Anomaly mod pack, then the main games but I'm not a huge fan of this one. I "like" it, but it hasnt blown me away or feel like it added anything cool to the franchise from my experience. It feels just like a buggy unreal engine 5 fan service to a very niche group of people. Not entirely a bad thing but I wish they did more with this very, very anticipated sequel. I'm also on the fence about devs adding modding support and not adding features in themselves. Feels like they're dependent on us fixing the game for them in a sense.