The New Stalker 2 Trailer Looks Good But There is a Problem... 

Skins, fine. Locked out of Quests or story content? Not acceptable.

Ultimate edition you say? what in the goddamn sidorovich fuckery is going on here ... smells like taking it to the ultimate high seas lol

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. saga is not a Call of Duty, nor a Fallout, nor a Metro, nor is it a Tarcov, it has its own identity, its own setting, its A-Life that makes it unique, it may have flaws and errors, but as fans we will love it. And this message must be clear to new and veterans who have forgotten what Stalker is, even influenced by mods such as anomaly.

Renember: NEVER preorder.

Same. While I am a huge fan of stalker, It's at the moment the most controversial game in terms of its quality on release. We've seen a lot of big AAA titles flop, be it optimization, quality or just monetization. Stalker is being developed midst war, by a rather unrecognized team, and it aims for a game more ambitious than some big AAA game companies... so yeah preordering this, as heartbreaking as it is, is very, VERY risky...

I checked both their page and steam page, from what I saw, only the ultimate edition gives you the extra stories. It probably doesn't matter if you pre-order it or not, however it still is disheartening to me for them to lock story expansions behind a paywall of $110.

I did a video with these concerns a bit more than a year ago but you just says it better and your videos are so high quality. 😄 The production-value of your video is soo good. Keep it up :)

I'll just do what I always do - wait for a bug free gold edition on a 50% to 75% steam discount. Last broken game I've got on launch is dayz standalone. Since then I've learned my lesson well.

There's a 90% chance my pre-order will be canceled. Not just the downgrades, but the talks of streamlining for the modern audience as well. The recently-released trilogy and continuously fixing the bugs as well as the current gen update that is coming makes me satisfied with what I have even if it is a letdown. If they include the mod support like they are saying then it's a pick up for sure because I can add anything that's missing. My biggest concern is if they're going to deliver on the hyper-realistic AI it's supposedly going to have.

CoP allows you to have freeplay, not after the ending, when the helicopters are about take off you are given a choice: Get in the helicopter and end the game, Or Stay in the Zone and end the game later, if this option is chosen the helicopters will take off without you and you will be left alone, when you come back to the Lavandry you will meet Gary and Loners who have taken the place of the Military in Pripyat, you will be able to visit almost (aside X-8) every part of the game and complete your quests, then talk back to Gary so you can evacuate and end the game. I don't know if STALKER 2 will actually have freeplay, i doubt due to plot reasons, but we'd definitely get the chance to mod it into freeplay or have a stystem kind of like in CoP where you also get warned that is the ending of the game.

It is a pretty common practice for games to have single-player content that is originally a pre-order bonus, which becomes widely available later on in some form (free update, DLC, special bundle, etc.) There's plenty of examples I could point to where this has happened, but the main one I like going to is New Vegas with Courier's Stash, where Obsidian combined a bunch of pre-order packs into a single DLC. My theory is GSC will most likely end up taking this approach, but we'll see after the game releases.

Out of curiosity, have you played Clear Sky with ABR?

1:59 WTF is that.

I think you express my thoughts just well enough as if it were my own commentary. Glad to know there are some people still out there with common sense

8:13 shadow of chernobyl allows you to go any area after you have gotten the true ending And finished all the sides quest you may have missed And call for pripyat gives you the option to stay in the zone and go more or less anywhere and also finish any sides quest you may have missed So if two out of the three original games allow you to do that i don't see why stalker 2 would not unless for example that ending you got

you don't need to preorder to have the additional quest! if you preorder you only get campfire content, weapon skin, armor skin, MP badge and that's it. but I do agree that locking a quest behind editions is a bad thing. hope they get rid of that, I preordered long ago just because the game will have 2 expansions but I would love to make that quest available for everyone.

Back 2 days later and I'm going through my first Stalker 1 playthrough... X18? F cking terrifying

Do you have any mod suggestions to make Clear Sky a bit more bearable that doesn't completely overhaul everything?

about the physical releases, I though I saw on the stalker reddit that some time ago that people bought them, but got refunded. cause they weren´t able to supply the demand for it. but that was only for the ultimate edition as far I know. probably because they don´t got enough props, which you would get with ordering this edition. don´t know if anyone commented this. but thought it might help clarify some stuff

"exactly as it was 10 years ago" i swear i have heard that some where, im hoping for the best but we will only know on release

Some solid points... lets hope they stick to the legacy and original things that made STALKER great.

My problem is not only that they are locking down content behind a pay wall, but also, if you want to pay to play that content then you have a version that offers too little for me to care about something more than the base game, specially when I don't even know if I'll like it, and the other one is too expensive for what it offers. The Ultimate Edition is way too expensive. I have my pre-order, but that doesn't mean I'm sold. I can get a refund after the game comes out, after seeing reviews and after playing it for a maximum of two hours.

I'll take your word for it with S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, but Gears of War E-Day looks very promising to me. As for Perfect Dark, avoid that one at all costs, Joanna Dark looks more like Jack Dark Jr.

Thank you for letting me know about the locked quest, that's definietly not good. It's singleplayer content being paywalled from the game. Still not fair. I bought the legends of the zone edition and I have the PC versions of the first 3 games. Might jsut stick with thsoe and mod those until this goes on sale one day.

What mod/gameplay is being shown here when it comes to firefights etc.. looks like a mod for CoP (yes i know some of this video is also the footage from the stalker 2 releases)

Red dead has a pay quest too. But everyone can play it still to this day without preorder.

Love it how we live in times where deves lock ,,additional content" before even realising the game. So it tells me only one thing they make a full game cut 10% of it another 10% here and there and puff guys here is your DLC for 39.99$ LMAO

got into stalker a few months ago only to be put off Stalker 2 by its locked quests and making it feel more arcadey. The xbx showcase trailer was something I enjoyed but the gunfights and action felt really arcadey. I'll stick with anomaly and gamma and see how the game is when it comes out

Trailer did impress me personally but yeah preorder thing you mentioned is indeed concerning, I still think you can buy them later in game through DLCs list but locking quest behind editions is bullshit, if they were access of DLC campaign stuff it would make more sense, single quests however? Nah By the way i grabbed stalker trilogy and generation zero, bot are good but shadow of Chernobyl impressed me almost immediately, also considering this grab chernobylite soon before sale is over

They did push the release so they could fix bugs so i wouldnt be too worried how the game releases

they might do something like they did in call of pripyat where you complete the story and then you can do freeplay

I already pre-ordered years ago. I'm excited for it. I also have a lot of UE5 experience and will be modding the hell out of this. The mods will be epic 😂

If I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt, I think the costumes will be just that. Costumes, not armor. And while the exclusive quest thing is 100% a foot in the wrong direction, I can't imagine they would lock anything actually significant behind a paywall like that. I'm hoping it'll just be a little easter egg type quest, maybe you get some device that speeds up progress in some small way. Either way, as long as the game is stable/functional, I'm excited to finally be able to play this relatively soon

I really hope GSC backs out of this since side quests? yeah sure if they are interesting but EXPANISONS THAT CONTINUE OR EXPANDS THE STORY BEHIND 110 EUROS???? I'm praying to every god i know that they back out of this

Certain on-going events?

Do not forget this game once tried NFTs. That was the moment I realized I will pirate the shit out of this game first, then see if it's even worth buying it.

There is a prize on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 physical release, but it's on the home page if you scroll down and click physical.

I pre-ordered the ultimate edition. I hope pre-order skins are better, that the added mission gives free insane loot,... to have more than those paying less.

What game or mod is @3:17?

Im just gonna wait a month or 2 after release to buy with the first 20% off sale.

Totally agree, I preordered it, but I also preordered Star Field, and I really regretted doing that. So, I canceled my preorder to Stalker 2, Star Field taught me how to lose 100 dollars real quick.

@Broken Circle Real question is: "Is 'You Don't Get All Quests If You Won't Preorder' the same as 'You Get An Extra Quest We Cooked Specially For If You Preorder'?" Because i feel like it won't be "we cut out a part to strap it on for the preorder guys" but rather "we made this silly little quest specifically for our preorder supporters". And i really do expect that it will be some silly little quest, maybe with some fourth wall breaking or something like that, it wouldn't be a first time i see something like this in a game. So, i'd say you're jumping to conclusions too easily AND are waaaay to hard on this part as essentially if you start going this route you can also say "what they're locking skins behind a preorder paywall?" "so they're locking artwork behind a preorder paywall now?" "so there's ANY CONTENT behind a preorder paywall now?" Think about it.

the skins thing is probably just cosmetic changes to already existing suits but the content lock in a huge mistake

i even would love having the original OST from the 3 previous games, hell, even the OST of ANOMALY, i mso used to it that im going to miss it

"bro they will mod the quest in later" implying the game would be moddable first this is grim

I think it's safe to say this is most likely an initiative of Microsoft, not GSC on its own.

I didn't know about the "locked quest' until your video. I understand this video has already fallen out of date (there are prices on the website), but it seems as if the quest is completely extra and not a part of the main storyline. It also seems locked to the deluxe edition and not preordering, unless I am mistaken and there is both (deluxe edition quest and preorder quests). I don't care for the idea, but tbh It has not swayed my excitement nor is going to stop me from ordering one of the non-standard versions. I am a fanboy and I don't care. These games are some of the only ones I have never put away for good.

my biggest problem is the fact that they moved on, from at first, the X-Ray Engine for Unreal Engine 4, then they switched to Unreal Engine 5. Now I am not sure if any work was done on Stalker 2 with the X-Ray Engine, but what I know is that switching engines mid development leads to a lot, and lot of bugs, which tbh gets worse when you keep in mind that this iteration of Stalker 2 have been in development since 2017-2018 and knowing how Stalker SOC's development went (the game for most of the time it was developed on was nothing more than a glorified tech demo), and also knowing that GSC had a bit of struggle in wake of the war in Ukraine, it sets the precedent of "it will be buggy and it will crash a lot, and most bugs won't be fixed by the developers", only for GSC's pre-order plans to drag down the whole situation further TLDR, Stalker 2 will be quite literally a classic stalker experience that fans may not end up enjoying due to expecting improvements

Also if you focus in the trailer, the human NPCs are kinda bad and easy to kill, this means people will get bored of the game quickly unless they add an open world multiplayer with different factions, then it will get interesting

i dont know if i am going to pre order Stalker 2 but i can say it looks amazing , the pre order bonus is scammy imo but eh its done by most AAA companies lately . What i am worried about is that if my pc can run it smoothly and Stalker has a bad track record with that , clear sky when it released melted pcs like crysis did so with how good looking stalker 2 is i am very worried (also considering its got lumin doesnt help at all lol) . Still very excited for the game

Hey nimrod there studio was displaced and probably 10s of workers and there families aswell I’d say a few payed add ons won’t hurt

I’m sure they’ll sell them separately at some point after enough people complain

the exclusive quest are only part of the deluxe edition, and will still be available after, the preorder bonuses are actually very few

After playing a lot of the original trilogy and the Old World add on in Anomaly, I'm starting to see why people don't like base Anomaly and Gamma

Thanks for the critical assessment of Stalker 2. If there are already "exclusive" costumes, I don't think it's that unrealistic if there are microtransactions for skins. In addition there are pre-order bonuses and Seasonpass, I'm also concerned when these skins are offered that have nothing to do with Stalker (imagine when a player runs around with the unicorn costume and the neon-colored AK-74). And sry, my english is not so good.

let me correct you; 10+ years, more like almost 20 years.

Honestly a gamepass monthly on either PC or XBS & RU-vid playthroughs for them paywalled stuff.

Good vid

Finished SoC and started CS and um- pain.

I never preorder any game. You have given me some concerns over a game that i have been looking forward to since it was announced.

Remember that they wanted to do some NFT before cancel it because player where complaining

The side quest is not subject to pre-order bonus. It is available for those that purchas delux edition or higher. The only content you get if you pre-order is extended campfire and some cosmetics. This is what's stated on their website. Please re-review the information.

they delayed it, released ten hours ago on ign, im a bit miffed but i think its for the best

They must learn from 4 a games that created metro series

Not sure why you think the skins/costumes are actual gear. No way they are.

I'm excited, won't buy it day one tho

i stopped preordering games for a long time...then starfield kinds tempted me and i did only to regret it will not preorder it

When I criticized the prices and locking content behind a paywall and compared GSC doing that to Ubisoft and EA, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Reddit crucified me for it and called me entitled. When I then compared the clear greed on display to being the EXACT reason 4A and Metro 2033 existing, people called me a nitpicker. Yeah I'm sorry but 110$ for the bare minimum of what's expected for a game in 2024 is a scam. I don't understand why EA and Ubisoft get rightfully bashed for this but people give GSC a pass. And yes I understand there was a war. I feel empathy there but seeing GSC talk about that and then hiking prices up on each edition leaves a sour taste in my mouth GSC knows fans will buy S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 regardless so why the "editions"? That's practically taking advantage of fans lol

Honestly if it was just stuff that gave an advantage like guns and armor i wouldnt mind so much cause its a single player game but actual missions is a bit too far

I just pre-ordered cuz I know I will buy the game regardless of it's quality. I know, it's not a great attitude to have towards games, but I'm a really big S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fan, so yea... Plus the Ukrainian regional pricing helped, at the time the Ultimate Edition was only ~$40 at the time I bought it

I'm a bit worried for the game, but for other reasons: - The small sequences of gunplays are not very appealing, with the player going straight into the ennemies with complete disregard with his safety. Quite the opposite of the original game fighting gameplay. - No word about the ALife. My favorite memories from the (modded) original game came from the ALife creating unpredictable situations due to emergent gameplay, like a blowout forcing stalkers and mutants alike to fight for a hideout. I'm not sure the new AI engine will be as amazing as the original one.

I wanna know how it's going to perform on a 1650 gpu. I have no problem with high latency, 30fps gameplay. I ll just turn on fsr 3 balanced frame gen on. That's it. If i get 30 fps at lowest setting that way. I might as well buy it. ❤️‍🔥🗿 I'm a big stalker fan. I think it might give me 45 fps at low settings balanced fsr frame gen on. So that's absolutely fine. @_@ i wanna play the main story question. :| i play games at 24 fps with motion blur on. Which is absolutely fine and on low settings. (It's my mobile genshin impact settings) 😅 If it runs. That's enough.

PREORDER BONUS gives: Extended campfire content Exclusive weapon skin Exclusive armor skin 'Early bird' multiplayer badge Special Extra Quest you can get in DELUXE EDITION and ULTIMATE EDITION even after the game comes out.

Physical editions are up where i live. The price too. Has been for over 1.5 years. Ozone bg is our local site. I agree on the Quest part but for the ownership part - the game has no DRM. A game with a Physical edition and DRM cannot be owned. A game without a Physical edition and without DRM can be owned .

If there's microtransactions I will refund my preorder.

Not happening. Reckon I'll just find me a fit girl . . .

I love the stalker francise, but no way in hell would I throw over 100 bucks for this. If they lock story content behind paywall, I'll pirate it or just play Anomaly.

At this point im not Hyped for much but the Eldenring DLC, I know most of these games are gonna be bad at launch so.....why bother?

Never pre-order! Even if I LOVE stalker games!

" Pre order and you get to hear more NPC stories around the campfire and they will play more songs on guitar " LMAO, combine that with paid outfit skins and I'm not buying this. I will pirate it however.

I mostly don't like the gunplay. I don't expect it to be like gamma. But this trailer gives me a Call Of Duty vibe and i don't like it. I want it to be good. But looking at last 2-3 years of AAA gaming i don't have any expectations. Im also worried if game will be bad there would be plenty of morons defending it with argue like " You know they was making the game with war behind window"

The main reason for the bonuses I believe even having to lock certain parts of the story is because of current events in Ukraine. They might need to raise more money for some necessities especially half the development are sent on the frontlines

Agree 100%

This video is, what i like to call healthy skepticism

Same dude, not MUCH gameplay footages so it's REALLY fishy so I ain't pre-ordering just yet. The gameplays they showed seem a bit too weird in a way that makes me feel unsatisfied

I got into Stalker gamma and ngl, I am already worried. I also bought the other Stalker games along with the Metro games since they were on sale. After so many disappointments, I'm keeping my hopes low

i get it... it's scummy but honestly most games have shitty fetch quests anyways. I think only Witcher 3 or Tsushima got me invested in side content.

First game I ever preordered (standard), I hope I dont have to refund this one

*WHAT ABOUT THAT HALO REVEAL THO?* Ah hah.... yea.....

Time for pirating.

It's not even the preorder practices, it's the fundamental facts that I remain skeptical. This game was ROUGH just a year ago and it was just a demo. How's it possible that they've solved everything in a year? It's plausible that many parts were coming together at that moment, and they've been polishing since, but my gut says it's not likely. It can't be understated how disruptive the war in Ukraine was for them. I'm led to believe that they're carefully crafting these trailers and hiding issues.

Like I get it the developers fought in a war during development but like maybe don’t stretch my wallet for a few quests

Tenemos la comunidad moder, aparte de los modos online y el freeplay que tienen pensado aplicar, yo sinceramente no tengo ningun miedo de que pasara despues de pasarme el juego principalmente porque me interesa la historia tambien XD

The moment they announced nfts i cancelled my pre order

The biggest problem the game has is its community, you are not allowed to critic this game what so ever without some sweatty ass dude having a breakdown over it

I'm looking forward to this single quest being really lame. Every game that's done this has never made it a worthwhile experience. Then it becomes a $5 dlc with a horrible steam rating that isn't even worth a purchase. I'll never understand why they do this. The incentive to buy it is weak because we know it's not a core quest with value, and the end result will just be negativity. I'm more concerned about the actual season pass content. The original trilogy I believe is described by the devs as a single game. Considering the world will fully be there with many old locations, and we know the dlc is two story expansions much like the trilogy, I'm wondering if it's *just* gonna be storylines and no new locations or items. Edit: There are definitely 3-4 new locations being added or unlocked with dlc.

Okay, that's fucked up

Game not buggy its premium slav jank 😚👌

You got it wrong then. The only thing you can not have is the PO bonus if you buy post release. The latter only includes extended campfire, early bird tag in multiplayer, and the exclusive skins mentioned in the PO section. The rest are not part of the pre-order. You can actually get whatever under PO bonuses depending on what edition you buy post release. The extra special quest will come with deluxe and ultimate, while the rest will again depend on the edition you purchase. Pre-order bonuses are fair and square, the extra content is not excessive, and all. Extended campfire content, for instance, is basically a token of gratitude for the fans who chose to show their support early on (and the same goes for the exclusive skins, which are 1 for single player, and 1 for multiplayer+ the early bird badge.)

Give Me☆an#ten