STALKER 2 devs detail fixes for crazy launch bugs

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl is out today. As you may have read, it’s on the buggy side. Buggier than a bucketful of locusts. Buggier than Kafka’s Metamorphosis. In our S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl review, wasteland wanderer James called it “easily the most borked FPS I’ve played in years”, detailing such issues as HUD elements disappearing, stuttery performance, flashing textures and character mouths not working properly.

James didn’t encounter any outright game-breaking bugs, and as he noted, a bit of technical scruffiness is to be expected from developers who are weathering the real-life invasion of their country. Still, it’s good to hear that GSC Game World have already addressed a number of issues in “the last few days”, and there are of course patches on the way.

In an email today, GSC Game World claimed that they’d fixed 1125 individual issues since dispatching the review code, ranging from crashing problems to full-on progress blockers.

Some highlights from the changelog: they’ve quashed a softlock dialogue issue that left you unable to leave one conversation, a problem with missing weapon sound effects, and a glitch that made dead bodies behave in unsightly ways, such as striking A-poses. They’ve also stopped the game spawning quest scenarios right under the player’s nose, and nixed an issue whereby players would accidentally change their reputation with one NPC faction.

As for cosmetic enhancements, GSC Game World say they’ve cleaned up the UI and animations during dialogue and tweaked the lighting. They’ve also addressed some performance issues, including a freezing problem during busier cutscenes or when exploring crowded areas, while working to improve the overall frame rate and loading times.

Going by James’s review and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 reviews in general, all this is just scratching the surface. GSC Game World sending us a list of things they’ve already fixed right before the embargo lift feels a bit cheeky – they’re trying to head off criticism at the pass. But I can’t blame them for wanting players to get a sense of the game’s current status as it lands on Steam.

Here are a few wasteland gremlins GSC Game World hope to corner and slaughter in the first few patches – there’s one coming “shortly after release”, to be followed by a series of hotfixes:

– Just Like the Good Old Days: Emitter in Faust’s Cell is indistinguishable from regular mesh and surroundings making it difficult for the player to notice important quest item while progressing through” quest.

– The Freedom Colosseum: Player unable to take a part in the fourth round on the arena despite having all preconditions met

– Game Settings & Controls: Keybinding for flashlight activation can not be changed upon entering keyboard settings

– Title stability: On some rare occasions title may close unexpectedly right after choosing difficulty setting

– Memory Leak caused issues with facials: a memory leak and a visual bug that occurred when the tick of montage instances was disabled while the Face was not rendered.

I personally enjoy roving around in very buggy gameworlds, especially post-apocalyptic landscapes that are subject to reality distortions, where the dipping of the frame rate and the deranging of the textures just feels like scene-setting. But that comes with the important caveat that I am generally being paid to play them.

Thankfully, Heart Of Chornobyl appears to be an engrossing shooter for all its programming warts and bunions. Here’s a closing excerpt from James’s review:

“I’ve been battered and sometimes frustrated by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but ultimately there is something admirable about its commitment to challenging you – especially when it simultaneously provides just enough tools to avoid becoming unfair. Between that, its punchy shooting, and some properly superb atmosphere-building, it’s done enough to earn the mantle of Good Game.”