GSC Game World has released the first major patch for Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which addresses over 1800 issues and fixes to the game’s A-Life.
What’s more, the game has now recouped its investment and has turned a profit, according to the studio’s owner Maxim Krippa in an interview with Forbes. Krippa also confirmed at least two expansions and multiplayer are planned, with no further details provided.
The developer notes Patch 1.1 is “huge” so will take some time to download. It includes A-Life fixes and AI improvements, balance adjustments, crash fixes and performance optimisations, issues with specific story missions, and more.
A-Life is the game’s system to ensure NPCs appear natural. An FAQ from the studio reads: “The A-Life 2.0 system is responsible for ensuring that the Zone lives its own life regardless of your actions. The game world around you is changing all the time. Mutants, stalkers, bandits, and other inhabitants of the Zone move around, hunt, fight among themselves for lairs and territories, or join groups.”
The system was criticised by players for feeling too scripted and not organic enough. A number of fixes have now been implemented, increasing the rate players will encounter roaming NPCs, improving the navigation of NPCs, enhancing their motivation to expand territory and actively attack, and other changes.
Further small AI improvements have been made to both NPCs and enemies.
Elsewhere, several missions have received increased rewards, an infinite money exploit has been fixed, performance has been improved in largely populated areas, and plenty more.
Check out a Steam notice for the full patch notes.
“Thank you very much for your support and feedback,” the notes read. “We will continue working on the game, listening to your comments and reviews to investigate all possible issues and solve them as soon as possible.”
At its launch in November, Stalker 2 was criticised for its performance issues.
However, in an interview with Eurogamer, GSC Game World’s CEO Ievgen Grygorovych said delaying the game was not an option.
“You’re so tired that you would just die if you say let’s run an additional marathon,” said Grygorovych. “We didn’t have a chance to say let’s do it more. We just had a chance of ‘let’s do until this moment – the release date – as much as we can’.”
Creative director Mariia Grygorovych also acknowledged issues with the game at launch. “It’s not perfect, we need to fix everything, it has some problems,” she said. “But it’s a game! It’s a game with soul, with feelings there, with love there. Even the problems, you can’t fix them if you don’t have a game.”