S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

New? Not much really. As someone who’s been waiting for the better part of a decade and played countless mods; I’m loving it. It’s essentially the modern stalker a lot of mods have been bridging the gap for. As you’ve said, they’ve largely iterated on what is already a successful game design, so no really revolutionary changes.

There are new anomalies, factions and newish mutants. However if you’re hoping for wildly newer things I don’t think you’ll find it. The typical mechanic are more polished, gun/gear wear, inventory management, PDA (anomaly’s 3D PDA was huge; stalker 2 is better), emissions (although someone need to mod GAMMAs sirens in). Despite the performance issues, which aren’t as frequent for me as others; it is a beautiful game. The lightening strikes, weather and just environment in general. X-ray (especially modded) was awesome but man, unreal is looking pretty.

I feel like the loot tables are better. Unlike modded stalker where practically everyone is rocking a gun that is essentially broken when you loot it off them. Slightly more variety weapon and armour wise. Modding weapons is better imo. Gamma for example, maintaining and modding guns was a PITA (which made sense in the setting but still). Way less fucking around and arguably slightly less depth as a result.

It still needs work imo. The obvious one is A life. It’s kinda fucked atm (which the devs have acknowledged. Even on veteran the human AI feels kinda easy at times. Shotguns need a boost for mutant damage (thought the patch addressed some of the health pools for enemies). Idk give it a go when you can; if you’re not satisfied refund it and try again later. I’ll probably amend this later but I’m about to pass out so it’ll do for now.

The gunplay is actually good now. Enemies don't take too many rounds to kill, and your guns aren't just spitting lead anywhere but where you're aiming. Mutants are still tanky, but they are meant to be. A dude wearing a sweater goes down quick. Guys in exoskeletons also don't need 3 magazines of ammo to take down anymore.

And it's entirely open, with the biggest map in the series so far. No more loading between levels and being forced to transition at specific points.

Weapon modding is a bit more fleshed out than the previous 3 games. There's the usual tech upgrades, but then there are more attachments for more weapons, and even unique attachments for many (maybe even all) the weapons. There are also unique weapon variants that are more than just a named gun that looks and operates the same as all the others. They may have a special skin, or even unique modifications.

Emissions actually alter the zone in a real way now. There are also new kinds of anomalies. They will shift around after emissions. I had run into a building to avoid one, and upon exiting, a Glass Shard field was right outside the damn door.

The mutant AI is different, too. I only ever really worried about bloodsuckers and controllers in the originals; but now everything actually will fuck you up and seems somewhat intelligent. The animals circle you and stay on the move while you're aiming at them, really only coming at you from behind, dwarves are hella nasty now with the ability to take you gun and use it against you, and even bloodsuckers are more vicious always trying to get you from the sides or behind. Some of them also have a poison attack.

Overall it feels like what the first game was really wanting to be, but was limited by what they could do back in 2006.

I haven't played much, since the game runs like crap on my PC. Just out of the first area, so, I don't have the full picture. I'm... Iffy on Stalker 2 honestly. I played the first three to death, and have played some version or another of CoC, Anomaly, and now GAMMA over the years. I don't go back to Skyrim, I go back to Stalker, basically.

It doesn't feel like an upgrade. Maybe I've been spoiled by mods for Anomaly, but it just feels like the previous games but with stuff missing.

I don't care for graphics, in fact these days when I see a trailer with pretty graphics I'm thinking if those resources and time could've been put to use in other places, so the graphical upgrade (regardless of whether or not it choke slams my PC) just doesn't do anything for me. I'm just seeing gameplay and level design that feels inferior to the first three. I dunno, maybe I'm a morrowboomer but for stalker. I'm not impressed.

And that they had a guy from the azov battalion in the game does not improve my opinion one bit.