STALKER 2’s update 1.2 shows GSC’s dedication, and is a good sign of things to come

I’ll be honest: I was surprised to discover it had been months since we last received a substantial STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl update. Granted, I only realized this was the case when I saw that the game’s patch 1.2 had just been released, bringing with it over 1,700 improvements.

It’s a massive showpiece, that’s for sure. Patch 1.2 came out more or less out of the blue, though the community has been expecting one such update for the last couple of weeks now. The fact of the matter is that STALKER 2 released in a bit of a sorry state. The developer GSC Game World has thankfully been sticking with the game since its release, delivering one massive update after another, though it speaks to the game’s quality that even Raphael Colantonio made STALKER 2 his personal game of the year. As for myself, I was quite conflicted. Heck, I still am, but patch 1.2 finally makes me fully believe GSC will be at it for as long as it takes.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl Update 1.2 is now available, and it’s massive

Though it’s still lacking in some key areas (A-Life, for one, remains shoddy), STALKER 2 was in a reasonably solid state before update 1.2 released. The game wasn’t actively in the midst of breaking after about halfway through its story, for one, and there was the faintest semblance of A-Life present in NPC groups. GSC Game World could very well have pushed out one or two minor updates to the project before focusing primarily on DLC and calling it quits.

The availability of an update as ridiculously massive as patch 1.2 throws a wrench into this idea, however. Here are just a couple of notable highlights from the humongous patch notes:

• Flashlight now casts proper real-time shadows.
• NPCs can now properly loot corpses (excl. body armor and helmets) and equip better weapons and gear if they find it.
• NPC fire accuracy has been revised with randomized spray patterns in mind, with a further reduction in wall penetration capabilities.
• NPCs can now heal other friendly NPCs.
• Reduced the spawn rates for exoskeleton-clad NPCs, with further improvements to armor rarity configuration (low and mid-tier armor has been made more common, and top-tier armor is rarer).
• Improved mutant behavior across the board, allowing the Controller mutants to use a new “Roar” ability.
• Reduced Bloodsucker spawn rates before the “Behind Seven Seals” mission is completed.
• Pistols have been rebalanced.
• Fixed a variety of performance-bound crashes as memory leaks.
• Added crouch movement parkour animations.
• Added a variety of NPC death animations for various anomalies.
• Improved the appearance of polished glass and stucco materials, among a number of other visual improvements.

This is a fairly interesting list in its own right, but it barely scratches the surface of the full patch notes. The gist of it is that virtually every aspect of STALKER 2 has been meaningfully improved with this update. Sure, it’s going to break mods left and right, but boy, am I glad that GSC is still at it.

It’s important to keep in mind that both Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky still had a bunch of potentially game-breaking bugs in place before GSC released the kinda-sorta remastered Legends of the Zone trilogy. It would’ve been all too easy for STALKER 2 to fall into this same trap, and I’m absolutely thrilled that this seemingly won’t be the case. So, good stuff, especially for the first update of the year!