Stalker 2's First Big Patch Addresses Game Crashes, Memory Leaks And Over 650 Fixes

Even after several delays, the launch of one of Xbox’s big Fall titles, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, was less than ideal, and as a result, review scores were a mixed bag due to the various issues encountered by reviewers. However, the game’s developer, GSC Game World, has released a new patch that tackles a lot of these problems and builds on the work the team put into the game’s day one patch.

The most consequential fixes address the issues that were preventing players from continuing the game’s story, which “resolved numerous mission blockers and bugs encountered under specific conditions.” These include fixing broken objectives, correcting mission markers for NPC locations, and missing interactions alongside stuck cutscenes. Additionally, the developers also cleaned up “approximately 120 other issues within the main line, side missions, and encounters.”


Moreover, this patch addresses some quality of life issues that might not be as important as progression blockers, but still have a big effect on a player’s experience. This includes combat music that continues even after leaving combat, improving the readability of text at the shader compilation screen, increasing dead zones for gamepads, various improvements to NPCs, and adjustments to the volume balance when characters are speaking during stormy weather.

It's great to see that the developer is putting in this much effort, and that Xbox is giving them the time and resources, to get the game into a much more playable state. It also seems as if this won’t be the last update, either, as the developers state that “the work on the game and future patches continues. We are working on fixing the A-Life bugs, which will be addressed in future patches.”