so satisfying

(BloodFX Gore Overhaul + Shay's Audio-Visual Combat Rework)

Just finished CoH and I want to take a moment to thank GSC for making one of the most brilliant and engaging games I've played in years.

Despite all the challenges they've been facing in Ukraine over the last 4 years, they managed to release and polish this game beyond all expectations.

Keep up the great work. I'll be patiently waiting for the next DLC or game!

I'm trying to translate the different writings I find throught the game using picture-to-text translators Apps ecc but sometimes they don't work due to Fonts be wierd or writing consumed ecc. This one is on the wall of the Hamster's shop in Zalyssia, where the beds are.

I believe it says something like "Hamster is worse than a bandit!" but I'm not sure? Can someone help?

Strelok🤣🤣😭

Was gunned down by a ward squad afterwards plus i forgot to quicksave

Hi,

I have just got out of the spatial bubble and instantly I took to reddit to read some discussion about it. Yet I found nothing? This area is fantastic imo with great horror aspects, especially the earlier sections through the apartments. Unravelling the mystery surrounding the Duty group was engaging, as were the highly memorable mutant battles. I personally really appreciated the linearity of the section - a welcome change of pace from the rest of the game. It has a very similar vibe to the Ravenholm section of Half-Life 2 which I thought was fantastic.

The town changing itself around you makes me think back to the 1979 Stalker movie, with the whole notion that you never go back the same way you went in, with the zone itself constantly shifting around you.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this section? I think the devs absolutely nailed it and has been possibly my favourite section of the entire game overall.

I’d love to see a storyline or DLC where we work closely with scientists and take an active part in understanding the Zone.
Not just bringing back flash drives or fetching another artifact, but participating in actual research. Scientists propose a hypothesis, we test it in the field, and then we return to the lab to discuss what the results might mean.
That could involve installing sensors, collecting samples, observing how anomalies change after emissions, studying mutant behaviour, or investigating how psi-fields affect memory and perception. Sometimes an experiment would support a theory. Sometimes it would reveal something nobody expected.
There are so many questions that could become interesting quest lines:
• How do artifacts form, and could their appearance be predicted?
• Why do some anomalies remain stable while others change after emissions?
• How do mutants adapt to the Zone?
• Could artifact properties be used safely in medicine?
• Is it possible to study the noosphere without repeating the mistakes of C-Consciousness?
The scientists themselves wouldn’t have to agree. One researcher sees a chance to treat serious diseases. Another believes the experiments are too dangerous because nobody understands the mechanism. A third hides inconvenient findings to protect their reputation or funding.
The player could face choices with lasting consequences. Help carry out a dangerous experiment and gain valuable knowledge, but accidentally create a new anomaly. Cancel it to protect the nearby stalkers, knowing that you may have lost a unique opportunity to understand something.
Military forces, factions, governments and corporations could still put pressure on the research teams. There would still be danger, combat and difficult decisions, but the investigations would drive the story.
And it wouldn’t need to explain every mystery. Discovering that your theory was wrong—or that the Zone behaves differently when you try to measure it—could make it even more unsettling.
For me, a very S.T.A.L.K.E.R. moment would be walking through a swamp at night with a detector because a remote sensor has picked up something strange. You don’t know what you’ll find, and the scientists listening over the radio don’t know either.
I’d happily play an entire expansion built around expeditions, laboratories and that sense of discovery.
Would anyone else enjoy this kind of science-focused storyline? What part of the Zone would you want to investigate?

I had to reload a save to do it but if you find an artifact spawning inside inaccessible geometry, you may still actually get a prompt to grab it for a split second after it blinks, allowing you to spam use and grab it. This is at the Scientist Helicopter POI in Rostok.

Promised me the Shining Zone. Got zombified worst than a Monolithian instead. That's what happens when you trust lunatics.

I knew there was something fishy going on, I could feel it! But when the first part of the ending started rolling for a moment I thought: "Oh, so there was a Shining Zone after all! The madman was right!" and then BAM! reality was revelead. Zonedammit.

Finished my first run. Stalker Difficulty, 180+ hours. Spark Ending. I sided with Zulu in the DLC.

I'm gonna start a new run at Veteran and gonna side with the Ward and Mavka this time.

We've been playing stalker anomaly for a couple of days now and it's great so far, takes a minute to setup and to get everyone onboard, but when it starts rolling it's just so fun.

Start can be a pain with how squishy you are, so I played alone for a bit and after I got some half decent gear I got my buddies to join

"Rookies get the main rule quickly: if the sky seems weird, leg it" - quote from The Art of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

Original processed photography by Hearsglow without generative AI. Make your choice...

Today I started my second run and in the prologue-tutorial section, when you go around with the Scanner, I've noticed that in the sky there are aurora effects but I'm pretty sure I've never seen them in the Zone. Am I blind or they are actually present only in the prologue?

After playing the game, I've noticed that I'm missing stuff from the older games or some optional lore-friendly items that would fit nicely in Stalker 2 setting. I also realized that I can't get back to playing Gamma after experiencing the open world of Stalker 2. So I've decided to use the Zone Kit, and build the stuff for myself. I don't want to build the Gamma/Anomaly-type of mode, but rather something that would fit nicely and won't disrupt the flow of the game. What items you'd like to see in the game after playing Stalker 2?

My current backlog:
- Unique Vintorez "Tide" from CoP, I'm simply missing my main gun that I used to beat the game. Yes S2 has the Veteran, and the Clusterfuck is a nice alternative, but I'm missing the punch I used to get from "Tide".
- Non-exo alternative to Corundum Armor, I play as a Military Stalker/Ward so I don't want to walk around in a Monolith armor. Bulat is a Freedom armor now, but I want to use it in order to build a prototype armor that was used by pre-IPSF military stalkers from the OG trilogy. I want to use this armor from LA as an example: https://lost-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/SKAT-10M
- Unique Dnipro that's not "Sotnyk'', I want to make a 7.62 chambered Dnipro (uses the existing upgrade tree) with an extended mag. I think it would fill the "light machinegun" niche, something that's punchy but not as heavy as the RP-74.
- Anabiotic drug from CoP: allows to survive the Blowout. Would be cool to have as well.