Today, GSC Game World released the latest update for its hit survival FPS, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl update 1.7, Expedition, introduces a slew of new features to the Zone, including a new difficulty setting, A-Life improvements, and more realistic NPC vision. Plenty of important bug fixes and quality of life changes have also been implemented based on user feedback.
For those players who thought The Zone wasn’t challenging enough, Master Difficulty offers the ultimate survival challenge with harsher conditions and limited saves, and Expedition Mode keeps those hardcore save rules on any difficulty.
The A-Life System is also getting plenty of fixes and updates in 1.7, including the ability for factions to expand control over new territories, meaning that they may also lose control over their lands if they fail to defend them. Players will notice various points of interest, checkpoints, locations (but not hubs) in contest between different NPCs and mutants, all of which will also defend lairs and territories from Stalkers.
Speaking of NPCs, AI vision and combat tactics have improved dramatically in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl Expedition. Enemy vision behaves more realistically, with NPCs having real problems detecting you in tall grass or reeds, and are much less accurate when shooting through the bushes. The stamina system is also reworked, along with a new running mode, and two new anomalies await discovery.
The inventory now features detailed protection stats, artifact info, and a radiation balance bar. Also, many more improvements and optimization fixes, including ones for main and side quests and open world encounters. You can see the full list of changes in the Steam patch post here.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC (including Game Pass), starting at $59.99. The game was announced for PS5 a few months ago, but no exact release date or window has been provided. The original Stalker Trilogy is also set to get a next-gen update at some point, so be sure to keep your eye out for more news on that.
For more information on all of this, including the upcoming roadmap for the title, be sure to check back to Simulation Daily.