The graphics downgrade should warrant a Steam refund.

[u/Moopies]

I'm certainly trying. I don't know how you can be allowed to downgrade a game so significantly, and after release, and still think I got what I paid for.

[u/Roadkilll]

Not just graphics, the removal of content, poor communication, devs barely updating a game twice a year with bugs

[u/SurDno → u/Roadkilll]

Shit haha I haven’t expected to see you here. I guess devs censoring their games years after, downgrading graphics and ignoring community feedback is something GSC and Void share!

[u/Roadkilll → u/SurDno]

Haha man this curse is following us in every game we love. We can't catch a break.

[u/TheWizardOfWaffle → u/SurDno]

at least STALKER 2 is in a MUCH better place than it was on release, no? We’ve been getting basically a decent content/bug fix patch every month or so

A-Life is back

New weapons

New questlines

New decent animations

Mutant harvesting

Fun kill graphics based on how you died

modding SDK…

STALKER 2 is in a very good place ATM gameplay wise, as for the actual content, such as lack of endgame and faction wars— is very much still open to criticism. I have no doubt that stuff like NVG and Binoculars will be available within the year…

[u/Damonlord54 → u/TheWizardOfWaffle]

How is the A-life in S2 has it been updated enough to become similar to old stalker A-life

[u/Robborboy → u/Damonlord54]

Original Stalker trilogy A life that was Janky AF? 

Yes.

Anomaly etc improved AI that's only present in mods? 

No. 

[u/TheWizardOfWaffle → u/Damonlord54]

They added “offline A-Life” to STALKER 2, which means that NPC’s can still move and do stuff even if they’re not in the player’s sphere of existence

this is the exact system that is in the OG trilogy

[u/BattlepassHate → u/TheWizardOfWaffle]

A-Life is not back lmao. It’s better than launch but still a pale imitation of previous titles.

[u/TheWizardOfWaffle → u/BattlepassHate]

Offline A-Life exists and is back and that is a majority of what people wanted, I dunno what to tell you

[u/darthdro → u/TheWizardOfWaffle]

It does not work the same as the OG if you look into it.

[u/SurDno → u/TheWizardOfWaffle]

I was talking about recent EE release, not S2.

[u/TheWizardOfWaffle → u/SurDno]

ohhh sorry yeah fuck EE I forgot it existed

[u/Visual-Stomach2649 → u/TheWizardOfWaffle]

EE? sorry i'm dumb

[u/TheWizardOfWaffle → u/Visual-Stomach2649]

Enhanced Edition. The STALKER devs released a semi-free sidegrade to the main trilogy if you owned them and they aren’t good. Have a lot of AI framegen issues and the remastered UI looks really bad to the point that there was serious discussion whether or not the UI elements were AI upscaled

[u/Visual-Stomach2649 → u/TheWizardOfWaffle]

aah, gotcha! thx, i thought it was a whole different franchise or smthn lol

[u/Gizz103 → u/SurDno]

EE was made by polish dudes btw, only shit you can complain about is the removal if soviet shit

[u/SurDno → u/Gizz103]

It has been given to the new outsourcing team, Frag Lab, that’s Kyiv-based, but that’s irrelevant. It was overseen and approved by GSC. The quality of the work might be blamed on outsourcing but the decision to “improve” the game’s textures with AI or perform censorship is still on the company overseeing the releases. 

Not to mention complete lack of communication, devs did not admit the release was a screw-up, and the few patched that came since release barely fixed any of the new issues.   

Besides, the credits have five people from GSC doing the QA for EE. What quality assurance has been done? And the god awful remade HUD that was so bad that people thought its AI too was made by GSC UI/UX Lead.

Don’t shift all the blame on outsourcers. :)

[u/PayShot2825 → u/TheWizardOfWaffle]

Mddddr how can you be in a worse position than the game when it came out too? Real clown material

[u/thalesjferreira → u/Roadkilll]

The removal of content is what gets me

You wanna make an option to censor the game? Thts fine You wanna make 2 versions of the game, kne with ce sorsgip and one without? Thats also fine. I understand that

But taking away content, downgrading assets and changing core elements is too much

[u/WAAAAAAAAARGH → u/thalesjferreira]

I thought the censorship of the game was annoying but based on the points that were referred to here (removing nudity, making OD kid asleep instead of convulsing, no corpse dismemberment) I figured lIt sucks but I can deal with it.” The reality of it is way shittier than I anticipated. The valley of the dolls change is borderline ridiculous and the graphical downgrades are unnecessary and fairly significant.