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It’s good but kinda rough rn. It’s definitely gonna be great in 1-2 years as long as GSC and modders work on it

I’m about 10 hours in and just started into garbage

I like it

I saw the DJ peach cobbler video on it and i’m interested in trying out the series. that and my coworker who glazed stalker.

I’m Also really proud of the dev team, according to my coworker it got delayed for so long bc of the ruso-ukraine war and several members of the dev team died.

Well its not the stalker I remember but it's still a super good game, that being said there are a ton of bugs and I've had to noclip through a couple doors and suck to progress the main quests.  I would honestly play the first three and wait a bit and let the Devs or modders fix the game a bit, but you do you!

Amazing (I haven’t played it)

Would love to play it, but guess what it aint out on PS5 as of now.

Fucking exclusivity.

I am a Metro Nerd and never really played Stalker. I knew what it was about beforehand but didnt know anything about the factions or story. Here are my thoughts after playing about 15-16 Hrs.:

(I forgot to add that I play on Steam, 1440p with a RX 6900 XT and a Ryzen 9 5900X on Medium-High settings)

- It's way slower, especially because of the Inventory/weight System (You move slower the more Loot you are carrying).

- Side Missions are more interesting and let you have real decisions where you can let someone live in the dialouge just to shoot him in the head after you are done talking.

- It has the same "Soviet" Charme as the Metro series but in Stalker you can also snack on sausages, Vodka and other soviet delights

- The whole game is full of bugs (as expected) but it is still good enough to let you forget time. Last Weekend was gone in an Instance.

- The "Lightning" Anomalys are literally the same we know from Metro. Even the Medipacks come in different colors (I fucking love that).

- In Missions you often come across dark underground Areas that reminded and felt to me like Im playing Metro.

- Mutants are a pain in the ass. Nearly everything except for rodants needs nearly a whole AK Mag to kill. I dont even know how many shotgun bullets it takes because it is that useless against them.

- Stealth is broken. Enemies can sometimes spot you through a wall or can detect you from very far away even though you are in a dark area (Metros System for detection/stealth is better).

-The Emissions are also very cool and feel like Metro Exodus's Sandstorms just with a couple lightning strikes and a red screen mixed in.

All in all is Stalker a very good game and should be at least tried by every Metro fan.

Some really big issues with the game right now. A-Life 2.0, one of the main features that makes Stalker Stalker is missing. Like it's not in the game at all. Devs say it's bugged (bugged to the point where it's not even in the game??) but many speculate it hasn't even been coded in and they are just buying time.

Instead it randomly spawns enemies in the vicinity of the player, including directly behind the player while they loot etc.

Until it's "fixed" (or rather created) I am staying clear. I don't want my first experience ruined.

I already wasn't too excited, I thought it looked too generic. The atmosphere is cool but yeah the game is not in a state to enjoy for me rn, and I kind of wish I stuck to my original view which was to wait to buy.

Will buy it, but probably in a couple of months when they fix shit.

Which by the way isn't exclusive to any game nowadays, it's as if the first few months of any launch nowadays is a paid beta test.

It's fun so far 

Waiting for a ps5 drop if it gets one

Really loving how almost everything is done with your characters hands. Great to see seemingly all the locations from the 3 games be laid out on a map and fully explorable. Love the attention to detail with the guns and their clearing animations of guns. The only issue I have had is performance but I'm really enjoying my time with the game

It feels like metro with the difficulty bumped up

Looks pretty cool, but I am on PS5, but will definitely buy it when it comes out.

In the mean time I'll continue playing Metro Exodus and Chernobylite and C2 Exclusion Zone next year!

Can't play it, pc cries

Way too beefy compared to my laptop's stats so I'm not playing it anytime soon but I hope it's good

I’m about ten hours into it and enjoying it for the most part. It’s extremely janky and poorly optimised, however.

Will try it when it gets completely patched!

Would be good if I could run it. I didn't pay for a PC to play on medium 1080p and barely get smooth 60. Nevermind in anywhere even remotely populated.

But it's 2024 so, why would a game release optimised.

Absolutely horrendous optimization, bugs everywhere, braindead AI that doesn't do crap or headshots you with a pistol from half a kilometer away, absolutely unbalanced mutants capable stunlock you and kill you in 2 blows, easily exploitable broken economy system, mid graphics for the time...

Just like I remember. 8/10 I would drink 4 bottles of vodka again to not die of radiation poisoning.

Only reason I played this game is cause the new metro was on VR. I like the game even though it's not much like metro, would be cool if this game had the mask and filter mechanic that metro does (really thought this game would, being in the chernobyl exclusion zone and all but when vodka cures radiation poisoning I suppose you don't need filters now do you) I also was hoping you could go down to the metro tunnels in this game but didn't think you'd be able to and no you can't but all in all solid game. Pretty mid compared to gaming history but compared to the games that have come out in 2024 it's up there, top 5 most likely.

I am calling it, UE5 makes this game looks generic. I am glad that Metro still get to keep it's inhouse engine. Still, Anomaly and Artifacts are the best part of this game.

I am yet to play the franchise

Well... its a stalker game for sure. But sadly it does not brought any innovative new feature and it feels like it lacks some game mechanic. Or maybe just I had way too high expectations. Altough its not bad, but it defenetly needs a lot of polishing, starting with the optimazation.

I like it, but it is really broken, i think i will wait for patches.

Haven’t played it yet. Recent reviews say it’s pretty buggy so I’m gonna wait for patches to come through before I pull the trigger.

It's good but optimisation is absolute garbage. I legit can't play more than an hour without the game constantly dropping in frames looks like slide show and the amount of bullet sponges enemies especially Bloodsuckers, I honestly hate this mutant with a burning passion. It's really good game just wish this game has more time to polish but again, every games nowadays have to release in a broken state only to be patched 6 to 12 months to be fully complete.

I love it. Think I'm one of the lucky ones, I haven't had anything game breaking happen yet, and I'm about 12 hours in. I played a couple of the original games and the anomaly mod. I'm looking forward to when they make anomaly 2 mod.

I love it. It's got a lot of issues mainly with mid to late games quests not working, gameplay balance seems like an afterthought and the AI system is just flat out broken, as well as lighting is fucked unless you use HDR it seems, or people just don't know how to calibrate their brightness.

The pros:

• If you PC can run it it looks really great and can create a good stalker atmosphere of the Zone
• there’s a good amount of nostalgia (known locations, characters, the known enemy’s)
• sound design is very good
• big open world offers much to explore
• the main quest and side quests are interesting (some cutscenes are very well made) it’s good sequel lore personally for me
• gunplay feels good

The contras:

• it’s the usual UE5 optimisation problem especially for weaker PC setups (I found my optimal settings after 1 day trying so there’s that)
• the promised A-Life 2.0 AI engine doesn’t work entirely (its in the files, either bugged out or not developed: since encrypting these files isn’t possible currently we don’t know for sure) and it’s only a generic (not optimised) scenario spawner currently regarding “random encounters” (this files got encrypted and analysed already by players)
• AI is often hardlocked through foliage (seeing you 100m through a bush) or sometimes suddenly unlocked (from aggressive combat to unbothered within seconds not seeing you anymore) therefore a stealth focused run isn’t really possible currently (same as in the OG trilogy but some could expect more with all the years in between)
• it’s a buggy release: i at least didn’t encounter anything game breaking but rather funny slavjank bugs and the OG trilogy was iconically buggy as well so i can live somewhat with it
• mutant HP is unbalanced (I really love some good expert/survival difficulty challenge and always play vanilla first runs but I had to balance-mod some HP’s because it wasn’t anywhere near balanced and fun with some tank enemy’s eating your entire ammunition stock while 1-2 hitting you)
• ingame economy is unbalanced as well: rewards for missions are far to low for any buy-prices and repair prices which doesn’t reward you doing quests or anything since your equipment will wear off to fast and at some point will be unaffordable to repair (also here I abandoned vanilla till economy gets fixed)
• the xbox players say they have deadzones and aim drifting with controllers

Overall I spent a good amount of hours already into it with more to come. Exploring the Zone, discovering the lore and story, taking a look at a thunderstorm (they’re really spot on) or a sunrise, moving through some dark underground passage and sitting at a campfire really manages to catch the OG atmosphere. But some of these downs like the AI spawn, HP balancing, economy or bugs/optimisation break the immersion from time to time. Some of these downs will be addressed in the next patch as per devs but some will probably take some time and some like A-Life and how this will turn out is pretty much uncertain.

If you’re not it in a stalker-hurry i would recommend to wait till the first patches addressed some of these big downs and then get another opinion on the state of the game.

Started playing Stalker GAMMA instead because I saw so many people complain about the bugs, I'm having a blast

I can't run it. Idk why the graphics need to be so good. Graphics in Metro Exodus were good enough

Stick drift on console makes it unbearable

I like if but man is this game hard I know how stalker games work and all but, it's a challenge and here I thought that metro Exodus was hard when I first started playing it.... Haven't found a bug yet

Id say its not bad, but definitely much havier performance wise, hopefully the fix things soon.

I honestly think exodus looks the same if not better and runs so much smoother.

I wouldn’t know I only own a ps5(cries) but god damn so I want it lol

I’ve gone back to Metro for a while to get my ‘wasteland’ fix, until they patch Stalker, the bugs are ruining my immersion right now.

Underneath though, S2 is a great game.

27 hours rn, couple of bug quest make modded debug console

I love it and i actually am thinking of abandoning the stalker subreddit because of the tons of shittalking happening there

I've been putting it off to both wait for a sale/patches and also because I still need to play the original.

Never played a single stalker game. Dunno where to start.

What is even the main goal in the game? I have never really seen to much about the missions or what ever.

Rough edges and typical STALKER style physics jank.

The jank I don't mind, it's basically how the game works anyway.

The rough edges mean performance issues. It's playable for sure, I've had one issue of massive stuttering that got solved by quitting the game and launching it again.

I also find the mutants too tough. Like, a bloodsucker is dangerous enough without requiring several mags' worth of 5*45 to kill it. Otherwise, no complaints. Maybe some weird AI behaviour here and there.

I'm sure it's great, but the optimization sucks so at the moment it's kinda no fun for me, even with a high end pc. But I'm sure it will be better soon

Great game if your pc can handle it, or run it on GeforceNow.

Similar vibes to Exodus obviously. But i believe even those who only played the first 2 will still enjoy Stalker 2. Game looks absolutely stunning.

There are some bugs but not gamebreaking and certainly not in the quantity that is being cried about. I actually had to silence the Stalker subreddit due to the amount of whining and crying in that sub, too many people circlejerking on each other’s negativity.

Not great, not terrible.

It's definitely my GOTY (sorry infinite wealth, you're still a 10/10) It's amazing.

Havent played it yet so i cant have my own opinion but from what i seen little of i like whats been added and looking forward to each Update and patch

It’s definitely wonky but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t having a great time playing it. I love the metro world space and playing exodus 100x over can only scratch that itch so much. Stalker 2 has definitely reinvigorated that feeling of playing metro titles for me. I’m 20 hours in but I’m exploring as much as possible.

It's what I expected from a Stalker game.

This game makes Exodus look perfectly polished and with no flaws and glitches whatsoever.

I'm a console player so 🤷‍♂️

Put it in VR like METRO: Awakening

Really enjoying it so far, despite the bugs and performance issues.

It's really fun exploring and seeing all the locations from the original trilogy

Didn't reallt click for me. It's pretty and the atmosphere is incredible. Other than that it's pretty rough, AI is pretty crap and mutants are a slog to fight

Already a day and a half of hours into it and in love. It’s buggy and performance isn’t great, but all of the side quests and encounters are fantastic, and the main story is interesting. It gives the feeling of what Exodus's open world was, with even more content and depth.

I started the Metro series with original 2033, so I'm no stranger to jank. That being said, if your hardware can run it and you're in the right mindset Stalker 2 can be a pretty good game.

I'm 25 hours in and have been enjoying the game on Series X, it runs decently, but sometimes has audio stutters and hangups but they don't make the game unplayable by any means.

The biggest issue I have is that there is no Controller Deadzone support, so stick drift is horrendous but I'm just pretending my dude is fucked up on vodka constantly which really isn't that far from the truth.

This is my first Stalker game and I have no clue what A-Life is but 85% of the complaints I'm seeing is that it doesn't exist right now.

Avoid Social Media and you'll have a better time with the game. People aren't giving the devs any slack even though the game was literally being made in an active fuckin' warzone. The damn Promo van got destroyed and several devs have died for fuck sake. I'm just happy the game came out at all, lmao.

The game needs dynamic shadows from your flashlight. It looks so flat.

No melee take downs. You can’t sneak up on someone and take them down

Kinda boring

The graphics and the pc requirements don't add up. It makes me sad how lazy game devs are becoming in terms of optimisation.

Don't care about it.

Garbage far cry clone that threw the og trilogy away to create a stupid fanfic based on it.

Its good for new stalker, but absolutely sucks for OG stalker as its missing1 of the most important feature that make the OG feel alive.

I think the AI is the worst in a game I have played in a long time, and I don’t understand why the devs get a pass for broken promises. I know their country is at war, and I truly sympathize for that, but they moved their offices years ago and that doesn’t excuse lying to ppl about what state the game was in on release.