S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has a sizeable game update that promises to finally get the game’s A-Life system working as intended. For those just joining us – perhaps because you only popped into existence the second you entered my field of view – A-Life is developer GSC Game World’s noughties-era buzzword for the pervasive simulation of NPCs throughout the open world, leading to unpredictable interactions and conflicts and the general sense that things are happening without your input.
Heart Of Chornobyl struggled to implement this at launch, with supposed “roaming” bands of ragamuffins spawning right under the noses of players who promptly took to the Steam reviews to administer some wasteland justice. Our own James Archer had a few warm words in his otherwise positive Stalker 2 review, calling the game “a captivating survival shooter, even with bits falling off”.
Now GSC Game World say they’ve fixed it. They’ve also added “Water Electric Tornado” anomalies, together with official mod support via Steam Workshop, Mod.io and the Epic Games Store, a couple of new guns, various quality-of-life tweaks, and the ability to loot mutant parts. Catch some of that in this showcase video.
Watch on YouTube
The A-Life overhaul is the star attraction, here. Please find below some bullet points, meticulously scrounged from the pockets of the dead.
– Life in the Zone is now simulated for all characters, not just those in the player’s view.
– Characters continue to live their lives and pursue their goals in the Zone until they meet their end.
– The player can meet the same stalkers after some time.
– Players may encounter more A-Life characters resting or interacting in various locations, adding to the world’s immersion.
– Characters will no longer respawn directly in front of the player. When the player clears the mutants’ lair, for example, those mutants won’t simply reappear moments later.
– A-Life Director will no longer respawn characters at the edge of visualization. Instead, respawn moved further away from the player, while maintaining the Zone’s population.
– Visualization range is slightly increased. Characters now appear in visualization range with relevant animations and equipped weapons. This reduces the “pop-in” effect and contributes to a more seamless character visualization.
Nice balance of tiny tweaks and gargantuan reworkings, there. On the one hand, allowing you to see further to avoid the impression of “pop-in” seems like a matter of moving some decimal places around. Allowing characters “to live their lives and pursue their goals in the Zone until they meet their end”, on the other hand, sounds like it would require the attention of an actual genie. Can my third wish be “add a top-down view and turn the game into Crusader Kings”?
The new guns are the Three-Line Rifle and the Kora handgun. The patch notes don’t go into much detail about the new anomaly, but “Water Electric Tornado” seems fairly self-explanatory. As for the quality-of-life rejiggles, you’ll now be able to see available artifact slots for armour in the upgrade tab, and there’s an unlockable Fix all button in the technician’s upgrade menu, to repair all equipped gear. The player stash window is now larger, and there’s a reload renewal feature for all of the weapons.
Read the full patch notes for more, including many a balancing change and bugfix.
