GSC Game World has released Stalker 2 Patch 1.4, and it’s bringing tons of improvements to the game’s combat mechanics, plus more changes to the much-vaunted A-Life AI system and lots of other tweaks.
Much like the last few major Stalker 2 updates, there’s no single star of the show here; it’s all about the minor adjustments that all come together to create what will hopefully be a slightly less janky game.
Combat changes include mutants now being able to eat corpses using an animation if they’re nearby, as well as entering an “alert” state if something happens near them. You’ll have to be on your toes if you don’t want to fall foul of mutants now.
Humans are also much smarter now thanks to this update; they’ll seek cover more often, “always try to hide before shooting”, and won’t rush forward if you don’t need them. They’ll also use trees as cover now, which is a nice addition.
Plenty of other big improvements have been made to the way humans do battle in Stalker 2 as well; they’ll throw grenades only when flushing out targets (rather than on cooldown), flank more often, and use tougher close combat measures in Veteran and Stalker difficulty modes.
Stalker 2‘s A-Life system, which has been the subject of some controversy in the past, has also received a few tweaks, although they’re much less extensive than they have been in previous patches.
A-Life NPCs will now behave less erratically when attacking enemy lairs, and an issue involving A-Life NPCs not moving when “transitioning to offline” has also been fixed. It’s not much, but it’s useful nonetheless.
If you want to read the full list of Stalker 2 Patch 1.4 changes, you can do so via the patch notes here. Be aware that while it’s not quite as long as previous updates, it’s still a pretty long list.
This patch comes just a day after GSC Game World announced the release date for the upcoming Enhanced Edition upgrade for the Stalker: Legends of the Zone trilogy, which is bringing visual and gameplay improvements to the classic shooters next week.
You can check out Stalker 2 right now on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and the game is also available as part of certain Game Pass tier subscriptions. Be sure to check out our very own Robert’s review of the game here to find out what he thought of it.
