If the world of Stalker feels more alive than some of its contemporaries, like Fallout, Starfield, or even GTA, it’s because of the A-life system. A mainstay of GSC’s apocalyptic shooter, in short, A-life governs the off-screen, ambient behaviour of NPCs and The Zone itself. If you were ever plodding through the elder Stalker games, and suddenly came upon two factions of survivors in a big gunfight with one another, it was because of A-life. If you’ve left a settlement, finished a mission, come back, and found your favorite character tragically dead, it was A-life. But so far, Stalker 2’s version of the system has been malfunctioning, and it ruins the atmosphere and tension of an otherwise great FPS. Responding to players’ observations, GSC now promises a fix.
In our own Stalker 2 review, Paul Kelly puts it best, calling the FPS game “extremely rewarding,” if you can put the technical issues aside. The world of Stalker 2 is still rich and convincing, and the combat is still suitably white knuckle, but problems with the A-life system and how it simulates off-screen behavior have caused some annoying anomalies, if you’ll excuse the pun.
The new version of A-life, dubbed A-life 2.0, is supposed to make The Zone feel more alive and organic. The idea is to give the impression that NPCs have their own rich inner lives and routines, but often, at the moment, the effect is the opposite. Enemies spawn suddenly in front of you. When you walk far enough away, NPCs involved in random events will stop what they’re doing and disappear. Rather than making the world of Stalker 2 more convincing, with the current version of A-life, you can see the cogs turning. But GSC is on the case.
Responding to player feedback, GSC community manager ‘Mol1t’ says the studio “will fix” A-life 2.0. “A-life is supposed to make the Zone feel alive and real,” Mol1t explains “It is clear that at the moment it isn’t working. There are several known issues with the A-life 2.0 system that we are aware of and are working on fixes and improvements. We know that this system is very important to the Zone having an immersive atmosphere, and we will do our best to fix the known issues. We are fixing it and we will fix it.”
It’s early days for Stalker 2, and it’s likely that a lot of the game’s most severe technical problems will be remedied through upcoming patches. And even though there are some big glitches and bugs, the apocalypse game is doing tremendously well – of the 18,000 Stalker 2 user reviews posted on Steam, 80% are positive, and it just hit a concurrent player count high of 117,000.
Check the full Stalker 2 mission list, so you’re fully prepared before entering The Zone. Likewise, get tooled up with the best Stalker 2 weapons. You’re going to need them.
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