GSC Game World finally let players loose on the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone again earlier this week with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The game has seen a massive launch across PC and Xbox platforms, but there have been quite a few reports regarding buggy behavior and performance issues with the release. To remedy at least some of those problems, the studio today announced that the game's first update is coming next week.
The update will be focused on fixing critical crashes related to memory allocation failures. Fixes for main quest progression issues, balance, cutscene and graphics problems, UI quirks, and more are incoming with it too.
Here's what the developer detailed today as landing next week:
- Crash Fixes, including:
- Issues and memory allocation failures, which previously caused the game to exit unexpectedly, particularly around rendering, skeletal meshes, and quest-related cutscenes.
- Main Quest Progression Fixes, including:
- Several bugs blocking the main quest progression, NPCs getting stuck in objects, incorrect quest markers, and issues with quest cutscenes.
- Revision of the main quests (like Visions of Truth or A Minor Incident) to ensure smooth transitions, avoiding rare cases of players not being able to proceed further.
- Gameplay & Balance Adjustments, including:
- Fixing the price of the weapons with upgrades installed compared to their value without attachments.
- NPCs behavior, including the way they act when lacking a shelter during the Emissions.
- Cutscenes & Visual Fixes, including:
- Rarely missing facial animations, misplaced NPCs, and visual inconsistencies like detached heads and clothes clipping.
- Quality and stability improvements of the visual effects.
- Softlock Fixes, including:
- Issue where players were unable to close the trade screen after putting ammo in a wrong slot while playing on a gamepad.
- User Interface Improvements, including:
- Quest notifications now showed correctly during dialogues.
- Corrected texts and missing interaction prompts.
Looking towards the future, GSC Game World said it will be addressing the issues surrounding the A-Life simulation system, that seems to be quite broken at launch, in a later update. A prominent analog stick dead zone issue will also be fixed later.
For those looking towards what the studio has planned for 2025 in the new content side of things, a roadmap will be landing sometime in December.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is available on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, and GOG) and Xbox Series X|S platforms as well as Game Pass. Nvidia GeForce NOW members can play the game via the cloud if they have the PC version it as well. The title has already passed one million copies sold just two days into launch.
11 Comments - Add comment