Summary
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s A-Life 2.0 system currently isn’t working due to performance issues, senior GSC Game World officials have said. This revelation was shared as part of a recent interview that also saw GSC developers address allegations of misleading fans about the state of A-Life inSTALKER 2ahead of the game’s release.
A-Life is an immersive life simulation system that’s widely seen as the defining characteristic of theoriginalSTALKERtrilogy.Heart of Chornobylinitially promised an improved version of this feature, dubbed A-Life 2.0 by GSC. However, its mention was removed from the game’s Steam page just days before its November 20 release. Moreover, the day-one version ofHeart of Chornobylseemingly lacked the simulation aspects of its predecessors—let alone any improved simulation features—prompting some players to question whether A-Life was even in the game.
GSC CEO Ievgen Grygorovych and Creative Director Maria Grygorovych have responded to these concerns as part of a recent interview withIGN, stating that the system is indeed in the game but currently not working like it’s supposed to. I. Grygorovych said the developers made some temporary sacrifices while optimizing the game ahead of its release in order to ensure that its level of performance was acceptable. The CEO explained that retainingSTALKER 2’s A-Life 2.0as originally envisioned was too demanding on performance. As a result, the NPC spawn radius was significantly reduced while the team explores other optimization methods.
GSC Vows To Get STALKER 2’s A-Life 2.0 Working as Intended
I. Grygorovych confirmed that GSC is adamant to address the current situation. “We committed to players to make [A-Life 2.0] work,” he said. However, there is currently no timeline for when thislong-promisedSTALKER 2featurewill be fixed. The optimization efforts aiming to free up more resources for the system are currently underway without GSC Lead Programmer Dmitriy Iassenev, the creator of A-Life 1.0, who is presently deployed in the Ukrainian military due to the ongoing Russian invasion.
We committed to players to make [A-Life 2.0] work.
Reflecting on the recent removal of the A-Life 2.0 mention from the game’s Steam page, M. Grygorovych insisted that this wasn’t done in a bid to mislead players. Instead, someone from the GSC marketing department opted to change the promise of A-Life 2.0 to that of “advanced artificial intelligence systems that will keep engaged even the most hard-boiled players” because they believed newcomers to theSTALKERfranchisewouldn’t have any idea what A-Life is.
M. Grygorovych only noticed this because of Reddit complaints about the change, noting the description was reworded without her approval. “I was shocked, honestly,” she told IGN Editor Wesley Yin-Poole, while also reportedly showing him a screenshot of some internal company communications validating her story, which she thinks would’ve been hard to believe otherwise. Be that as it may, GSC won’t add the mention of A-Life 2.0 back to the game’s Steam page until the feature itself is fixed, M. Grygorovych said.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
WHERE TO PLAY
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a sequel to the award-winning game franchise developed by GSC Game World. Experience one-of-a-kind gameplay, featuring the elements of a first-person shooter, immersive sim, and horror. The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is a unique, dangerous and ever-changing environment. It promises a lot — the artifacts of unbelievable value can be yours if you dare to claim them. The price you may pay, on the other hand, is no less than your own life. One of the biggest open-worlds to date, filled with radiation, mutants and anomalies, is yours to explore. All the choices across the way not only define your own epic story, but influence the future itself. Be mindful about what you see, do and plan, as you will have to find your way through the Zone or be forever lost to it.
