GSC Game World has released the first major patch for Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, fixing over 1,800 issues and fixing the game's A-Life.
Furthermore, the game has already recovered its investment and made a profit, according to studio owner Maxim Krippa in an interview with Forbes. Krippa also confirmed that at least two expansions and a multiplayer mode are planned, without providing further details.
The developer notes that patch 1.1 is “huge,” so it will take some time to download. Includes A-Life fixes and AI improvements, balance adjustments, crash fixes and performance optimizations, issues with specific story missions, and more.
A-Life is the game's system for ensuring that NPCs appear natural. A 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 changes all the time. Mutants, stalkers, bandits and other inhabitants from the Zone they move, hunt, fight among themselves for lairs and territories, or join groups.”
Players criticized the system for seeming too scripted and not organic enough. A number of fixes have now been implemented, increasing the frequency with which players will encounter roaming NPCs, improving NPC navigation, improving their motivation to expand territory and actively attack, and other changes.
Minor improvements have been made to the AI for both NPCs and enemies.
Elsewhere, several missions received increased rewards, an infinite money exploit was fixed, performance in highly populated areas was improved, and much more.
See a Steam advisory for full patch notes.
“Thank you very much for your support and comments,” the notes said. “We will continue working on the game, listening to your comments and reviews to investigate all possible problems and fix them as soon as possible.”
Upon its release in November, Stalker 2 was criticized for its performance issues.
However, in an interview with Eurogamer, GSC Game World CEO Ievgen Grygorovych said delaying the game was not an option.
“You're so tired you'd die if you said let's run an extra marathon,” Grygorovych said. “We didn't have the opportunity to say 'let's do it more'. We just had the opportunity to 'let's do up to this point – the release date – as much as we can.'”
Creative director Mariia Grygorovych also acknowledged problems with the game at launch. “It's not perfect, we have to fix everything, it has some problems,” he said. “But it's a game! It's a game with soul, with feelings, with love. Even problems, you can't solve them if you don't have a game.”