The enemies of survival shooter Stalker 2 have a funny habit of appearing right behind you, like a panto villain with an AK-47. Far from being a premeditated ambush by intelligent AI-controlled soldiers, this is merely a consequence of the rules of the game. janky spawns. These failed encounters are unlike previous games, where roving bands of faction assassins would patrol the radioactive wasteland seemingly at their own whim. Previously, this roving bad guys feature was called “A-life” by developers GSC Game World – essentially a slang word for the simulation of enemies that would lead to “emerging” moments of violence and conflict. It was promised as a feature in Stalker 2, but many players have noticed that it seems to be absent. Last weekend, GSC emphasized that the simulation is technically available in the future. It’s just broken.
“Often the game world only exists in the player’s field of view,” the developers said when asked about the feature official FAQ. “A-Life 2.0 is a simulation system for living in the Zone. Factions and mutants fight for living space, migrate, conquer new places or retreat to safer areas. A-Life makes Zone truly alive and unpredictable.”
If that’s currently present in Stalker 2, it’s hard to say. Right now, for example, it seems that enemies spawn in a simple radius around the player, and sometimes you even see them dive into the world. If you don’t see the enemy itself as it appears, you will see the white crosshair marker that abruptly shows that you have been immediately spotted by the villain that has appeared somewhere behind you. It’s not the most intelligent spawn system, but I think it keeps you on your toes. It also doesn’t apply to every type of enemy encounter – some are scripted, while other bandits and soldiers are tied to certain locations, making those clashes seem more naturalistic.
Enemies also fight each other when they come into contact with each other, but this happens more often after a group of bandidos or a group of blind dogs show up near an enemy camp simply because you are there. I have come across roaming groups of Stalkers, but again their appearance is sudden and they are more likely to walk straight into the toxic waste and die from brain-dead trails than to get into emerging trouble with the wildlife. I’ve seen absolutely no (unscripted) examples of factions “conquering new places” or “retreating to safer areas” as the developer’s definition suggests.
After a few players complained about the A-life system are absent (and pointed out that a mention of the position was removed from the Steam page), the developers have responded on Discord and Reddit saying that the system is really there, but bugs are preventing it from working as intended.
“There are several known issues with the A-life 2.0 system that we are aware of and are working on fixes/improvements,” the studio’s community manager said on the Stalker Discord (as noted by PC gamer). “We know this system is very important to the Zone’s immersive atmosphere, and we will do our best to resolve the known issues.”
It doesn’t help that ‘A-life’ is (and always has been) a buzzword, even more vaguely defined than Battlefield’s ‘levolution’ or Call Of Duty’s recent ‘omnimovement’. This leads to confusion and mixed expectations among players about what the feature actually entails. What also complicates things from a developers’ perspective, GSC says, is that two different in-game systems are responsible for creating these theoretically organic shootouts. Presumably both adjustments are necessary to make the world feel inhabited by competing groups wandering around. And for every bug report or complaint they receive, they must figure out which system is responsible for the unintended behavior.
“The Combat AI and A-Life 2.0 are different things,” notes one of the developers a response to a Reddit complaint. “One is basically a ‘brain’ for combat scenarios, while the other is an overall and more complicated system that tries to manage life in the Zone.”
In the meantime, the first patch for the shooter is coming soon, says GSC, who recently posted details about the fixes they’re planning. Many of these will address crashes, softlocks, balance adjustments and other high-priority issues, they say. But at the bottom of the list is “A-Life system bug fixes,” further suggesting that the studio considers this important enough to fix quickly.