STALKER 2 is brought you by UE5 - things are looking good in The Zone! For the most part. Even with all settings set to max (Epic) you will experience a lot of pop-ins when it comes to vegetation and trees. If you didn't know this already, all NPCs have different teeth. That's right, I said teeth.
Honestly, I can't really tell the difference between most NPC's teeth. They all just look yellowish and sometimes you see a few that are capped. A lot of hub-bub about teeth....was that one of the reasons the game was pushed back for so long?
Enough with the nitpicking. Character models look great, the atmosphere is amazing and the environments - when you're not running full speed through them - look great, too. Sadly, a pretty looking environment and creepy atmosphere doesn't make up for the issues I've come across. Most are not game breaking, but they are noticeable and more frequent than I'd like to admit.
My current run through in STALKER 2 has lasted me, so far, 32 hours. I did a lot of exploring in the first few zones you start making your way through and I spent a lot of time finding side missions to complete. I don't know if I was more interested in the side missions to make coupons (what currency in STALKER 2 is called) or if I was just excited to explore and see what I could find. I didn't really pursue the main storyline until I probably hit the 20 hour mark of playing. Sadly, even after the first two patches for the game having been released I've hit a game breaking bug for the main mission. I don't want to put any spoilers into the review, but there comes a time when you need to move, move, move! Because you're needed in multiple spots and time is short. I choose to not intervene in a few spots and focused my attention in one area and that caused a lot of places to fall and NPCs were now stuck behind locked doors I couldn't get through so I couldn't progress the missions.
The game has a lot of potential. The slight tweaking of mission payouts (increased coupons), the adjustment to equipment repair cost (was lowered a bit) and other bug fixing issues from the first patch certainly helps out in some areas of the game. However, I'd suggest waiting to pick up the game for a couple more months so more bugs can be hammered out.
