Stalker 2 Xbox performance ravaged by A-Life fixes, but the trade-off is worth it

On launch, Stalker 2: Coronary heart of Chornobyl was a recreation that ran fairly rattling effectively on Xbox Sequence consoles, however the launch suffered from a devastated A-Life system. Now, a brand new patch fixes the sport’s A-Life AI simulation, making the world really feel extra alive, however efficiency has suffered.

In an interview shortly after launch, developer GSC Recreation World revealed that the sport’s busted A-Life system was butchered by aggressive optimisation. Now that the system has been reasonably mounted, though there’s nonetheless a protracted option to go, the Xbox model of the sport isn’t operating so scorching.

Stalker 2 A-Life kneecaps Xbox efficiency

Following the discharge of the Stalker 2 Patch 1.1 update, gamers instantly observed an enormous lower to efficiency on Xbox Sequence X and Sequence S. Previous to the replace, the sport was principally secure, exterior of key areas stuffed with NPCs and interactive parts.

Nonetheless, now, Stalker 2 runs at a considerably decrease stage of efficiency with even regular traversal by means of the sport’s lush open world leading to noticeable drops in framerate. What was as soon as a clean expertise on console, regardless of the variety of different technical points, is buckling beneath the improved techniques. However is it that unhealthy?

In our testing, Stalker 2: Coronary heart of Chornobyl on Xbox appears principally secure when transferring internationally. Nonetheless, when A-Life actions begin happening—similar to two factions preventing one another from afar—the framerate does noticably drop. Whereas we don’t have the bespoke framerate measuring instruments of, say, Digital Foundry, my TV’s VRR tracker observed a drop all the way down to 42fps, simply barely hitting the VRR window.

For gamers with VRR shows, because of this you’ll discover the sport going out and in of that particular window that makes video games with uneven framerates really feel higher to play. For these with out, the massive variance in efficiency could also be very noticeable.

Gamers on the official Xbox subreddit have observed the numerous lower in efficiency with one participant saying: “ this patch has made efficiency a lot worse on XBSX. I used to be so excited to proceed my playthrough over the vacations however now that there are extra NPCs and mutants the framerate tanks all the way down to 40fps or much less when there’s motion taking place.”

Nonetheless, in our expertise, which is barely a few hours with this patch, the efficiency drop is well worth the profit. Even throughout simply two hours of play, the world of Stalker 2 feels a lot nearer to its predecessors. This world is now really alive, and we already adored the unique launch. That doesn’t imply every thing is mounted. For instance, enemies nonetheless see you thru partitions and the like, nevertheless it’s a lot improved.

In the event you can deal with uneven efficiency—though it has but to drop beneath 30fps for us—then this replace is totally balling.