News Three months later, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is the glorious pain in the ass its makers intended

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When S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was released in November, it was clearly not yet the game its developers, GSC Game World, wanted it to be. Sure, this imagining of the Zone was fabulously moody, a desolate and bleak expanse of bog, scrubland, abandoned warehouses, and pallid vistas. For all the ways it was transportive and evocative, it did not yet feel truly alive. The Zone was, dare I say, a little too quiet, lacking the kind of brilliant emergent moments (like three-way skirmishes between stalkers, more stalkers, and roving packs of mutant dogs) that have previously defined the franchise. I ended my review wondering whether the game would, and indeed could, become the very best “shining” version of itself.Â

Three months on, with two major and five smaller patches under its belt, I’m thrilled to report that the game is close to becoming exactly that. To cut a long story short, the enemy AI in combat situations is vastly improved, A-Life 2.0 (the more expansive AI system that gives the game its thrillingly unpredictable sense of life) is practically purring, and I’m now encountering far fewer of the immersion-breaking bugs (like floating and disembodied heads). …

Read the full story at The Verge.