What you need to know
- GSC Game World's highly anticipated open-world survival shooter STALKER 2 has finally come out on Xbox and Windows PC, but it's got its fair share of issues.
- Some of the game's bugs are more serious in nature, though many are relatively inconsequential and quite funny.
- One of the latter glitches is a bug in which NPCs can get stuck in doorways permanently, preventing players from moving through. One such issue has affected the military game YouTuber OperatorDrewski, who's uploaded screenshots and clips of it on social media.
- In them, a Freedom stalker named Mark Joint is seen standing in a door for days on end, refusing to budge no matter what OperatorDrewski does. Thankfully, there's another door he can use nearby to get in and out of the building he's in.
While GSC Game World's recently released STALKER 2 is hardly as broken as the original STALKER games were when they launched, the new Xbox and Windows PC sequel does have its fair share of glitches and issues. Some of them, such as the dynamic AI simulation system A-Life not working properly or the lack of controller deadzones on Xbox, are major problems the developer is working hard to fix ASAP. Others, though, are relatively inconsequential and downright silly bugs that add some appreciated — albeit unintended — comedic relief to expeditions in The Zone.
One of the latter mishaps has been encountered by the military game YouTuber OperatorDrewski, who's recently shared a few clips and screenshots of an NPC from STALKER 2's Freedom faction blocking a doorway and refusing to budge — even after days of waiting. You can watch one of them in the embedded social media post below, in which the stalker comically stands vigil for days on end as hardbass EDM music plays. Cue the "DOOR STUCK! DOOR STUCK!" jokes.
"After my critique of the A-Life system issues in STALKER 2, GSC has sabotaged my save with a Freedomer that will not move from blocking this door," OperatorDrewski wrote in a post on X (Twitter). "I can't push him. It's been days. He doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep. He holds. I love this game." In a follow-up video, captioned with an exasperated "HELP," the content creator is seen desperately trying to jump over and around the man to no avail.
Skif: Hey man can you moveSkif: Hey Skif: I have to save the zone manSkif: Can you hear meFreedomer: https://t.co/8ZCWMa3BQI pic.twitter.com/8MhMrET4rUNovember 23, 2024
As you can see, nobody blocks a door quite as effectively as the legendary Mark Joint, and at first, I thought OperatorDrewski was softlocked by the human barricade — doomed to an eternity of waiting for the man to get out of the way with the knowledge that gunning him down would instantly make the countless nearby NPCs hostile. One of the clips, though, shows that thankfully, there's a second unobstructed door nearby that leads out of the structure he's in. And even if there wasn't, he could have just reloaded a save.
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Still, it's probably a little annoying to have to take the long way into the building every time you want to go chat with the NPCs inside, but if you ask me, it's worth it for the comedy. I distinctly remember having similar issues in 2007's STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl when squads of Duty stalkers would clump up in an open shipping container that served as the sole path through the wall that separated the Rostok base from the Wild Territory area, so to see something like that happen in 2024's STALKER 2 is charming.
Another classic bug that's manifested again in the sequel is stalkers not being able to lay in beds properly, which is something that happened all the time in 2009's Call of Pripyat. It's far less common in Heart of Chornobyl, it seems, but still: don't be too surprised if you see an NPC ominously levitating over their mattress or clipping into the bedframe it's on top of.
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Personally, I wouldn't mind if small amusing glitches like this one remained in STALKER 2 forever, but they may not be around for long. GSC Game World is planning to release the game's first patch this week to address a myriad of issues, with the studio promising to develop additional updates moving forward to resolve any that remain.
In the meantime, you can also keep an eye on STALKER 2 mods, which have started to come out exponentially quickly after the game's launch. There are already several that address performance issues, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few get made that include bugfixes, too. One that would let you get past problems like NPCs blocking doorways is UETools, as it includes a console command for phasing through walls and characters ("noclipping").
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has arrived on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, and is one of this year's best Xbox games and best PC games. It has a $59.99 MSRP, but notably, you can get it for a discount at CDKeys right now. You can also play it through Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
