A fan of STALKER 2 took matters into his own hands and improved hundreds of game's elements
A dedicated STALKER 2 fan has developed a major modification, Vanilla 2.0 Overhaul, which thoroughly reworks the game's mechanics and gameplay balance.
It's been four months since the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The game has been generally well received (it has 82% positive reviews on Steam), but some players, especially many series’ veterans, believe there are plenty of aspects that could be improved. One of them decided to do more than just complain and created the Stalker Infinity - Vanilla 2.0 Overhaul modification, which reworks numerous gameplay elements, to make the experience more engaging and simply more fun.
There are a ton of changes, too many to list in this article, but in general, they can be grouped into several categories:
- Economy: The in-game economy has been redesigned so that it no longer revolves around tediously collecting and selling weak weapons. Instead, money is earned primarily by doing interesting things, such as completing quests, hunting for artifacts, exploring the map for hidden stashes, or killing mutants, which now carry loot. Rewards for all these activities have been at least doubled, making them reliable sources of income. Prices have also been appropriately adjusted.
- Combat: Advanced ballistics have been introduced (the creator built this aspect on the foundation of his previous mod called FUBAR), as well as improved realism for armor and ammunition. The power of explosions has been increased, and enemies have become significantly more dangerous. This was done in a balanced way—opponents now behave more intelligently and naturally, but they no longer have superhuman vision allowing them to hit targets flawlessly from long distances, as sometimes happens in the base game. Enemy equipment has also been diversified, making it more varied in terms of both quality and item types.
- Artifacts: Artifacts have undergone a thorough rework because they were quite disappointing in the base game, mainly due to their limited effects. To change this, the mod introduces dozens of new effects, making them far more useful. At the same time, obtaining them has been made more challenging—now, the best ones can only be found using high-quality detectors.
- Other Mechanics: Many other aspects of the game have been adjusted. For example, medkits no longer heal instantly, requiring a short wait before they take effect. Hunger negatively impacts stamina and regeneration rate. Running has been made easier, but radiation effects have been strengthened. Additionally, sleep is now very important. In the base game, its balance was broken, and players could effectively avoid sleeping altogether by using energy drinks.
As you can see, the changes are extensive. They're significant enough that old save files won't work—you'll need to start a new game from scratch for the modded mechanics and loot system to properly integrate. Furthermore, the creator recommends playing on Veteran difficulty, as the modification was designed with this level in mind.
Installation of the modification is simple. Just download the project from our FTP and extract its archive to: ….S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chornobyl\Stalker2\Content\Paks\~mods. If you have other modifications installed, it's worth checking for conflicts using the ZonePaq Toolkit.
- Stalker Infinity: Vanilla 2.0 Overhaul - download the mod from our FTP (the author gives free permissions to mirror this modyfikaction)
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on Steam
