It’s taken a while to get it sorted, but developer GSC Game World has finally managed to fix Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s wonky A-Life system as part of the post-apocalyptic shooter’s latest massive update, meaning players can now expect a bit more life to their wasteland adventure as NPCs pursue their own goals and live their lives. Oh, and official modding tools have arrived too, but you might need to delete a game or two to install them.
Starting with A-Life, it’s been the beating heart (or possibly the brain) of the Stalker series since its debut in 2007, creating a more dynamic, and more emergent, post-apocalyptic landscape by simulating NPCs – including stalkers, bandits, and mutants – that would move around the world, hunt, fight, and interact even when offscreen. Stalker 2’s version of A-Life was supposed to take things even further, but like much of the game at launch, was pretty broken.
GSC previously explained much of Stalker 2’s A-Life weirdness was down to optimisation hurdles, with the studio ultimately having to significantly reduce the size of the area around players that A-Life worked in order improve performance. Some initial fixes arrived shortly after release, but it’s only now, some seven months later, the system is finally working as intended.
As per the studio’s latest patch notes, today’s huge 1.5 update – AKA the Guns & Looting update – now simulates life for all characters, and not just those in the player’s view. NPCs will “continue to live their lives and pursue their goals in the Zone until they meet their end”, and can be encountered resting or interacting in different locations. Additionally, players can also meet the same stalkers after some time.
There’s a lot more besides A-Life, though; patch 1.5 introduces new features – players can now experience the Water Electric Tornado anomaly out in the Zone, for instance, and acquire the Kora handgun and Three-Line Rifle – as well as AI and combat improvements, balance adjustments and bug fixes, plus various quality of life additions. That’s alongside the release of official modding tools for Stalker 2, which are currently available via the Epic Games Store. Interested parties might want to brace themselves, though; you’ll need somewhere in the region of 700GB free harddrive space to install them.
Eurogamer, if you’re wondering, gave Stalker 2 three stars, calling it a “mess of bugs and jank that nonetheless stays faithful to the open world survival shooter of yesteryear.”