Stalker 2 has already acquired quite a few main updates since releasing in November final 12 months. Up so far, although, most of these code transfusions have focussed on fixing the sequel’s many bugs or elaborating upon its mechanics, corresponding to bettering its A-life system or including dynamic faction wars. However its newest replace—Tales Untold—expands the Zone itself, including new areas and new quests to offer veteran Stalkers one thing additional to do over the vacation season.
The replace revolves round a brand new thriller within the Zone, particularly a wierd transmission giving stalkers “complications, nosebleeds and even hallucinations”. The storyline turns into out there after gamers go away the Zalissya area throughout the early sport, within the type of a PDA message that may arrive anyplace on the map however is especially prone to flip up across the Burnt Forest area.
Alongside the brand new missions and areas, the replace provides a brand new weapon—the GP37V2. This can be a modified model of the prevailing GP37 that features a preinstalled suppressor and a scope. The patch additionally introduces a simplified save choice for grasp problem and expedition mode, permitting you to allow guide saving at any level throughout play. However you’ll be able to solely allow it as soon as, and the choice is everlasting.
Lastly, the replace squashes just a few extra irradiated cockroaches gnawing on Stalker 2’s code. These fixes cease a number of artifacts from spawning in a single place, optimise mutant fashions, and handle “a difficulty that would trigger large mutant hordes to spawn on the Plant location of the Rubbish area.”
Protected to say, Stalker 2 has come a good distance since its preliminary launch final 12 months. PC Gamer’s Joshua Wolens was already impressed with the sequel when he forged his important eye over it. “It is nearly uncanny to play one thing with such unsentimental, old-school design sensibilities that appears pretty much as good and feels as fashionable as Stalker 2 does,” he wrote in his Stalker 2 evaluation. “It is a welcome return for one among PC gaming’s best and most eccentric collection.”
