Microsoft S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (PC/Xbox Series | 20 November 2024) - Information Thread, update (10/16): hands-on previews

[tgo]

Sucks.  Damn.  Might just try the old games.  Where should I start?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

13 hours ago, tgo said:

Sucks.  Damn.  Might just try the old games.  Where should I start?

 

Probably the original with the STALKER Complete mod.

[Keyser_Soze]

20 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

Probably the original with the STALKER Complete mod.

 

And if no PC they recently got ported to the Xbox!

[tgo]

I guess I’m not playing them.  No controller support.  I play on my tv through gfn.  

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

tl;dw cliff notes by me (If you want to know more WTDV as @skillzdadirecta says)

 

• 20 zones that are so unique they could be their own game
• Go where you want do what you want
• You might not be able to see all the content in one playthrough based on your decisions
• You need to eat and sleep
• Areas from the first games that were unavailable (closed off) are available in the sequel
• The AI has two modes peaceful and alert. They don't give the AI hints of where the player is at. If the AI sees you it knows where you are. If the AI doesn't know where you are it will hypothesize where you are, once it guesses where you might be it heads there.
• 35 weapons and a lot of attachments
• Factions can splinter off and create new groups and ideologies
• They didn't want to make the game easy because it would change the grip on reality, not a true STALKER experience
• No leveling system, progress is marked by familiarity with the environment
• Motion capture studio for cutscenes. 3 hours of cutscenes!

 

Also, just from watching the video it looks very nice.

[SoberChef]

Having not played the first, but also being in awe of the setting/gameplay, I'm stoked to try this new one out later this year.

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[SoberChef]

I really need to play this game!

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Слава Україні!

Героям слава!

[SoberChef]

On 10/3/2024 at 11:41 AM, Keyser_Soze said:

 

 

Had the time to watch this in its entirety earlier today, just doubles down upon why I NEED to experience this title!

[Spork3245]

 

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl - The Final Preview - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

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Two hours isn't enough time to see all the branching stories, admire all the beautiful graphics, and discover all the secrets within the world of STALKER 2. But it is enough to be left impressed. When I wasn't taking stock of my paltry ammunition levels and hunger gauge, I was looking out at beautiful fields of red poppy flowers. When I wasn’t getting distracted by an interesting side quest I was doing my best to lure the mutants into an anomaly trap. And...

 

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Two hours isn't enough time to see all the branching stories, admire all the beautiful graphics, and discover all the secrets within the world of STALKER 2. But it is enough to be left impressed. When I wasn't taking stock of my paltry ammunition levels and hunger gauge, I was looking out at beautiful fields of red poppy flowers. When I wasn’t getting distracted by an interesting side quest I was doing my best to lure the mutants into an anomaly trap. And while it was over just when it felt like it was getting extra good, it had still left its impression. The impression that the team at GSC Game World has created something special with STALKER 2.

 

[Spork3245]

 

 

@Best these graphics look up your alley  

[Best]

21 minutes ago, Spork3245 said:

 

 

@Best these graphics look up your alley  

 

Yea it's definitely impressive. I never played a Stalker game but from everything I have read and watched it's up my alley.

 

On PC it will be extremely impressive visually. 

[Spork3245]

8 minutes ago, Best said:

 

Yea it's definitely impressive. I never played a Stalker game but from everything I have read and watched it's up my alley.

 

On PC it will be extremely impressive visually. 

 

It's gamepass too

[Keyser_Soze]

 

Stalker 2 Is A Frightening But Strangely Alluring Return To The Zone - GameSpot

WWW.GAMESPOT.COM

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Weird anomalies, spooky mutants, and humans likely to gun you down repeatedly await in Stalker 2, and it all works to make the Zone an oppressive but fascinating place.

 

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Navigating anomalies, navigating the open world and its mysteries, and navigating the politics of different competing factions all have me excited for Stalker 2. Its atmosphere of deadly, mysterious strangeness makes wandering its open world both alluring and frightening. Stalker 2 perfectly balances the desire to discover what's hidden out there, like a field full of whispering poppies, with the unnerving knowledge that the Zone is also full of things that can and likely will kill you. Though it can sometimes feel like a throwback to older games, especially in elements like its combat, it's that feeling that also helps make Stalker 2 both frightening and compelling.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

'STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl' exclusive interview: Xbox Game Pass benefits, Xbox Series S woes, future DLC and expansions, and more about this game of the year contender | Windows Central

WWW.WINDOWSCENTRAL.COM

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Recently I clocked in three hours in a near-final build of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and I came away feeling like I'd played a clear game of the year contender.

 

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I see a lot of cynicism towards gaming on social media these days. Perhaps it's just my algorithm defaulting to negativity, but every now and then a game like Stalker 2 comes along and cuts through the gloom. This was a game that spoke straight to my core, as a fan of immersive sims, challenging, absorbing gameplay, apocalyptic mythology, and high-concept sci-fi. My time with Stalker 2 reminded me what video games ultimately represent at their best — that singularity of art, music, technology, and interactive storytelling — that whole that no other medium really encapsulates. I had an absolutely fantastic time with the small slice I experienced, and reckon fans will be well-served, if it sticks the full landing.

 

I'll say it again — if the full game comes anywhere near to what I experienced in my brief time with it, it will make Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl a clear game-of-the-year contender, in a year where so many other greats exist. November 20 can't come fast enough.

 

 

 

 

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an open world shooter with the guardrails removed

WWW.EUROGAMER.NET

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There's a case to be made that Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has endured the most turbulent development of any video ga…

 

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Yet while Stalker's 2 extra narrative heft is surprising, this is a series that has always thrived on its systems; how the Zone and its inhabitants interrelate with the player and each other. In my short time in the Zone, I saw these systems at play frequently. In one example, I was sneaking around the wall of a compound when a mutant rushed me from the side, only to trigger a fire anomaly just before it attacked me, causing it to run squealing off into the Zone. I also saw bandits fighting mutants, NPC Stalkers fighting bandits, and one stalker, who I'd just finished talking to for a quest, intervened in a bandit skirmish I was having as he wandered back to the village.

 

While I can't speak to Stalker 2 as a whole, the chunk I saw seemed highly dynamic and laced with emergent potential. Such flexibility isn't exclusive to the open world either. It's also weaved into quests and the campaign. To find Squint, for example, you can complete a couple of sub-objectives the game points you toward, or you can do what I did, which is just... find him. A landmark caught my eye and I decided to explore it (I won’t say which landmark for risk of spoiling the experience) and it just so happened to be where Squint was holed up. The narrative smoothly adapted to this, moving on to the next phase of the mission, where you can choose to kill Squint on General Zotov's behalf, or help him escape the Zone by retrieving an artefact from a nearby anomaly.

 

This kind of reactivity is what GSC hopes will mark Stalker 2 out from other open world games. "A lot of games provide you a lot of freedom of movement, where you move, but not so much branching in how your story would develop next," Grygorovych says. "When we are developing the experience we want to provide for the player, we never look to how they did it in this game or [that] open world game, because we know that we are very different game from the beginning."

 

 

 

Stalker 2 feels like a winning return for the franchise in impossible real-world circumstances | VGC

WWW.VIDEOGAMESCHRONICLE.COM

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War, moving across Europe, and an office fire can’t stop GSC Game World’s survival epic…

 

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Here, Stalker 2 becomes a much more modern, first-person RPG. Early quests introduce us to the various threats present in the world. Not only are we competing with human enemies that will shred us before we even notice them, but otherworldly anomalies lurk in the fields around the exclusion zone. The game quickly establishes that you’re in virtually constant danger. While taking the marked roads rather than as-the-crow-flies will probably reduce the hell you run into, nowhere is truly safe.

 

The game has the mentality of a hardcore PC game, but it’s also being advertised to a modern audience with far different expectations than Stalker fans who have waited for so long. Lukyanenka explains that the push and pull between making a modern game with modern trappings, and retaining that hostile tone in the world is something the team constantly struggles with.

 

 

 

 

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl hands-on preview | GamesRadar+

WWW.GAMESRADAR.COM

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Preview | The Zone is big, beautiful, and brutal – but if you can stomach the difficulty, it offers one of the most immersive survival experiences around

 

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If there is a game series as defined by its brutality as Stalker, I'm yet to die in it. Its setting, the overgrown exclusion zone surrounding Chornobyl's power plant, is deceptively beautiful. But its lush green fields are pock-marked with radiation and deadly phenomenons called anomalies, which range from pillars of fire spewing from cracked tarmac to invisible whirlwinds that can tear you from the ground at a moment's notice. Bandits, lured to The Zone by supernatural riches created by the disaster, lie ready to kill visitors at a moments notice; while vibrant poppy fields hide mutated wildlife who aren't fussy about what they eat

 

 

 

Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl Preview - All Is Not Right In The Zone

WWW.THEGAMER.COM

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We spent three hours in the Zone and cannot wait to go back.

 

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Your guns will jam, you’ll run out of healing items, allies will turn against you, and the zone will threaten to swallow you whole at every opportunity. But it is this cadence that Stalker has built its reputation on, and there is something magical about the series sticking bravely to its guns even when the gaming world changes around it. I expected Stalker 2 to transform into an open world blockbuster without the rough edges that once defined it, but after three hours in the zone I’m bowled over by how much it kicked my ass, and how I just can’t wait to jump back in and punish myself all over again.

 

 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl's world is fraught with danger and anomalies

WWW.SHACKNEWS.COM

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GSC Game World is finally hitting the finish line with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and it looks to build on the cult hit of 15 years ago.

 

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Heart of Chornobyl expects players to die and expects them to die a lot. The game will keep an active death counter. Is that to taunt the player? Maybe a little bit, but it's more about motivating the player to try different approaches. After getting mauled by the dogs nearly a dozen times, I finally tried something else, going around and scaling one of the camp's outside walls. This allowed me to finally enter one of the empty buildings to find the person I needed to find. It turns out this person has information on Squint, but also isn't about to let me leave alive. There's an option to pay to walk away peacefully, but I was flat broke, thus necessitating violence. With the few rifle bullets available to me, I was narrowly able to survive 1-on-3 against these hostiles. I was about to fist pump triumphantly until I saw that the noise attracted the attention of the dogs outside, who proceeded to run inside and maul me yet again.

 

That's the essence of what's going to make S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl so much fun. The potential for water cooler stories is high and with so many possibilities for who to help, who to talk to, who to anger, who to befriend, and such a high number of ways for side quests and missions to go south, it makes Heart of Chornobyl the best kind of video game experience. It's the kind of experience that can be shared with friends and where nearly every story will be different. This is before even discussing aspects of the game I haven't experienced, like the possible weapon combinations and the different varieties of mutants.

 

 

 

Stalker 2 is just as tough and even more terrifying than the original trilogy

WWW.PCGAMESN.COM

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After three hours of going to hell and back in my Stalker 2 preview, I’m hooked on GSC Game World’s spine-tingling horror landscape.

 

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A pale moon illuminates the field. I get lulled into a false sense of security, and soon enough my character starts feeling woozy. Echoes of violence float through the air, enhanced by supreme sound design that ripples through my headset. The grim display calls back to the grotesque splatters of horror legends like Lucio Fulci, while the twisted ambiance nestles under my skin like the best of John Carpenter’s works. This sequence is excellent, and if this is only a fraction of what GSC Game World has cooked up for the early locales, then Stalker 2 will be the studio’s most horrifying game yet.

 

In the end, despite all the abhorrent things I’d seen and tackled, the real enemy was still standing. Stalker 2 successfully walks the line between making me feel competent in battle while also cultivating the sort of fear and uncertainty that makes me a true danger to myself. This world doesn’t care about me, and if I’m not careful, it’ll leave me bleeding in the dark.

 

 

 

Stalker 2 hands-on: Xbox Game Pass might finally give this buggy-but-ambitious series the breakout success it deserves

WWW.VG247.COM

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Stalker 2 preview: A promising if buggy scavenger hunt I was utterly engrossed in

 

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Stalker 2 is not without its problems. The preview build is buggy, with glitches ranging from Bethesda-level quirkiness to more serious momentum killers. I had a quest giver get stuck in combat mode, even after I killed the lads shooting at him. I managed to make the game crash by selling spare guns too fast. I was told the devs are working on this. Considering half the team is working remote from Ukraine right now, whilst a war is going on around them, I have sympathy and I can forgive these glitches - but it might be worth keeping in mind as the full release approaches.

 

Stalker fans will know what they're getting into here, but for laypeople not familiar with the series, I struggle to explain what you're getting into here. I guess you could explain it like this: Fallout 3 or Fallout 4 is a 'quirky' bomber jacket covered in patches and enamel pins, and Stalker 2 more a weathered leather jacket, sewn up where it's ripped, sporting miscellaneous stains, and hiding a well-used hip flask.

 

Stalker 2 has got some scars on it, it's not the prettiest thing in the world, and sometimes you think it's barely managing to stay patched together, but, goddamnm, it's damn cool.

 

Gun-toting, survival-driven, hardcore gamers, this is one to keep an eye out for, without a doubt.

 

 

[Brick]

So wait two years for the mod STALKER Complete 2026? 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

So in the Xbox store the Ultimate Edition claims

to include “Multiplayer costume and weapon skins”, but everything I am seeing is this is a single player only game. the fu??

[Dexterryu]

19 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

 

It's gamepass too

I'm normally all about buy & playing games on gamepass but after what these devs went through just to get the game done deserves a full priced purchase for me.

[AbsolutSurgen]

9 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

So in the Xbox store the Ultimate Edition claims

to include “Multiplayer costume and weapon skins”, but everything I am seeing is this is a single player only game. the fu??

It has a multiplayer mode that is coming out after launch as a "free update".

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Is this going to Game Pass? It’s not listed in the store the way Game Pass games normally are. It made me assume that MS had a limited exclusive due to covering some publishing costs and all marketing. Hence the documentary by MS. 

[Best]

3 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Is this going to Game Pass? It’s not listed in the store the way Game Pass games normally are. It made me assume that MS had a limited exclusive due to covering some publishing costs and all marketing. Hence the documentary by MS. 

 

Yea it's still coming to gamepass. 

[AbsolutSurgen]

4 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Is this going to Game Pass? It’s not listed in the store the way Game Pass games normally are. It made me assume that MS had a limited exclusive due to covering some publishing costs and all marketing. Hence the documentary by MS. 

I think so:

[Keyser_Soze]

Not only is it on every trailer but here it is in the Xbox app

 

[Best]

Tbh I'm looking forward to Indy more than Stalker. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Alright! so here’s what I will do. Since I am not sure if I will care for the difficulty and style of game I will use Game Pass as an extended demo. If I like it I will then support the devs and buy it on Steam. 

[Best]

Just now, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Alright! so here’s what I will do. Since I am not sure if I will care for the difficulty and style of game I will use Game Pass as an extended demo. If I like it I will then support the devs and buy it on Steam. 

 

Such a great guy 

[AbsolutSurgen]

12 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Alright! so here’s what I will do. Since I am not sure if I will care for the difficulty and style of game I will use Game Pass as an extended demo. If I like it I will then support the devs and buy it on Steam. 

My strategy was to buy the original Stalker bundle for $5 on CDKeys.  I assume if I like the first game, I'll like the second.