We've had our issues with the launch version of Stalker 2, as our recent 4/10 review made clear. However, we know the long-term way of things with these games, and are in no doubt that GSC Game World has got big plans for the future of this enormous and atmospheric experience.
For now though, the PC version — available via PC Game Pass — is already seeing some much-needed TLC from modders, and it's got us intrigued for what could be. From 'Roadside Panic', an overhaul that attempts to address the zone's severely lacking version of 'A-Life', to some nips and tucks that just make life easier in general, let's take a look at the Stalker 2 mods that we'd love to see come to Xbox:
Best Stalker 2 PC Mods We'd Love To See On Xbox
Roadside Panic
We're keen to see the game's A-Life mechanic improved, as we've mentioned, and with Roadside Panic, there are tweaks and adjustments that seek to bring back the chaos that makes Stalker such an amazing game.
According to its maker, the mod:
"Restores most online A-Life functionality. This mod brings back the chaos of the a-life in the old trilogy and also prevents spawns close to the player - consider it a stopgap measure until GSC fixes issues with their present a-life system."
Unfortunately, for PC gamers, this mod does seem to be causing some serious issues with framerates at the moment, so it's not all gravy for those fancy, elite PC gamers either. Luckily, A-Life is due to be addressed in a patch that's due anytime now on console, so let's hope it can live up to this first pass from the modding community.
Grok's Economy and Difficulty Fix
We can see this stuff being sorted within the first handful of patches, but for now, the economy and difficulty in the base game are fairly farcical.
This mod from Grok (who also has a health mod for the game online already) is packed with changes that completely transform the base experience of looting and grinding the economy - lifting the entire core gameplay loop as it does so!
Here, look at all of these changes:
- Less items everywhere (stashes, corpses, crates, etc, no more 45 medkits and 50 bandages) > This seem to only work on new saves sadly or on unvisited areas.
- Much more durable armors and guns (once repaired, it won't decrease much).
- Much more expensive repairs (this is to ensure that you better buy / find guns than repairing ones found on the ground, thus ensuring questing and exploration, using your guns and armors once repaired won't decrease much anyway).
- Less expensive upgrades.
- Less expensive ammo (so that you can choose which ammo you buy / what kind of weapon you play).
- Slightly more expensive consumables (you can make money if you save them, if you lack them, your money will be used to resupply).
- Much more squishy enemies, including humans: full auto-ing the torso is viable, no more sponges. Damages to human limbs was however decreased a lot while torso damage was doubled (if you full auto, aim for the chest, not the arms).
- Increased Bleeding effect.
- Decreased food HP regen.
- More deadly NPCs (their guns deal more damage, however current armor system is fucked so if you have a good armor and they have shit guns, you won't receive much damage as you are a bloodsucker to them).
- More deadly explosives for the player.
- NPCs throw less grenades.
- Increased missions money rewards.
- Increased Bleeding damages.
Axxii's Stealth Mod
The stealth in Stalker 2 needs some work right now, as anyone who's ever tried to sneak up on an enemy will already know. This mod sorts that somewhat by tinkering thusly:
- Improves the spotting by NPCs based on the weather (for example easier to spot you on a clear day than during a foggy day)
- Fooliage translucency is reduced too by a bit (this should nerf NPCs spotting through grass or bushes)
- NPC perception of low crouch and crouch sound reduced
- Cover height and width
- NPCs now should search for you instead of instantly spotting you, this improves immersion (unless you shoot them they'll spot you)
- The minimum distance NPCs should take to completely spot has been increased a bit (from 4,5 meters to 10 meters)
Ledge Grabbing!
It's madness that Skif can't hop over small obstacles and waist-height barriers unless the game says so, and this mod agrees!
As the creator puts it:
"Ever wonder why Skif an ex-soldier can't even pull himself over a 3 feet tall fence or ledge? This mod allows you to mantle onto anything just above head height. the behavior of this modded mantling system improves functionality and QOL allowing for more vertical gameplay opportunities and environment traversal. No more crouch jumping like it's a 2004 source game."
No (Or Reduced) Weight For Ammo, Nades, Meds and Food
We are ALWAYS over-encumbered in Stalker 2. Everything weighs something, there's no vendors nearby, and we will die if we try too hard to find one, bish. This mod sorts all of those weight issues, with stuff like cancelling out the penalty for carrying certain forms of ammo.
Here's the mod's overview:
"Sick of always being encumbered? Want to be able to carry more than 100 rounds with you at a time? Find it annoying to have to go back to base because you need more meds? Then this one's for you!"
Now with extra options:
- no weight and separated into ammo, consumables and grenades paks
- 10% weight and separated into ammo, consumables and grenades paks
- 50% weight and separated into ammo, consumables and grenades paks
Reasonable Weapon Degradation
This mod decreases the rate of weapon degradation, and again, this is one fix we'd reckon is gonna hit the console game fairly soon via an official patch. We can feel it in our irradiated waters.
But for now, here's the mod we want to see on Xbox:
"This mod makes it so the Degradation is half of the vanilla stats. So instead of using a mod where there is zero wear and tear, now you have it last a bit longer, while still having to maintain it. Sounds...Reasonable doesn't it?"
Yes, yes it does.
And those are our picks so far. There aren't too many mods around just yet, but even this handful should make improvements to some of the more irksome areas of the game as it stands right now. Honorable mentions also go to aiming fixes, some early attempts at physics improvements, and mods that turn off the constant radiation beeping. Y'know, just good, nice things, that help keep you chilled and playing.