I just bought this game now I am sceptical that it is balanced. Reviews are saying there is an unfair fight advantage to the ai.
Will the devs be fixing this. Seems like a game breaker
You just bought it and doesnt try it, but listening to reviews and now are worried?
So, you dont even know for real, but ask for a fix?
Sorry, but this is just ridiculous. 
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I started at hard with iron mutant and restarted twice at level 5, before I grap how to silence kill and fight properly.
After that, I had a cake run until currently level 25.
The game is designed to be more stealth than head to head combat. Some key enemies, eg Shaman, should be elimated before or right at combat start. Also, it’s accurately possible to silently kill most of the enemies, except some really tough ones, before combat start.
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Already passed level 40. There were tactics improvements at level 5 and level 25.
Probably the negative reviews came from people want to use the same trick from the beginning till the end.
I suspect it depends upon your skill in this genre. I am a lifelong gamer but still fairly “casual” in my skill level. I earned my bones in the early days of consoles, when all games were a merciless grind, I have no interest in going back to those times. I’m not asking that they make the game easier, in general, just add an easy mode for us filthy casuals, so we are encouraged to buy and enjoy the game, putting more money in the company’s pocket and getting their stuff in front of more eyes. Adding a filthy casual difficulty would harm no one in a single player game like this.
Also, if you read what it says when choosing difficulty, you will see that it says Very Hard is the mode where the developers intend the game to be played. It’s just that they provide the option for those who would be frustrated by the challenge to play at a lower difficulty. No judgment from me on that, though, because if you buy it it’s your game and you should enjoy it however you like.
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This game isn’t about slaughtering everything you see, initially… it is about being smart, picking your battles and positions - being aware of other enemies that could potentially be alerted, and relying heavily on stealth. Being a STALKER is a dangerous job.
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The description of “very hard” is why I had to do it for my first playthrough… in IRON MAN mode.
I enjoy torment, grief and the taste of my own tears… It is glorious.
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Not really, the game is just too simplified and they made the game exploitable. Kinda sad since it destroys the combat because your only true option is stealth combat.
Now…on harder difficutly the game becomes a stealth grindfest with you spending 1 hour extra on each map just to scout and kill stranded enemies.
I have on youtube a guide for stealth combat and another one for killing Brother Bodin wich stronger has better bigger stats than all your team combined. the name of the video is Mutant Year Zero Brother Bodin The Sea Titans first named boss strategy Ep 7
One person’s “stealth grindfest” is another persons enjoyable puzzle. I like tracking down all the guards, watching their paths, making sure knocking them off won’t alert the rest of the crew, etc. It reminds me of other stealth games where it’s not just “Stealth is something we put in there, but it’s optional. Feel free to just mow everyone down.”
Now, it’s not MGS or Hitman or something in terms of depth of gameplay and content, but then it’s a non-AAA game that’s $30-ish on launch. I’d rather see them scale the game down like this and do it well (which I feel they did but everyone is entitled to their own opinion) than to try for something beyond their budget and wind up with a bunch of half-baked stuff.
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I second what Jep wrote. Well written! Bravo!
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This is a puzzle game masquerading as a tactics game. The tools are there to get through every encounter without taking a hit if you want, no RNG. You can even finish the Elder’s mission by level 13. The game is very well balanced and if anything exploitable via save scumming. Now you could possibly screw yourself over by upgrading the wrong weapons but that’s your choice.
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What this guy said, but not only can you beat the Elder’s part at 13, you can beat the game at 18 pretty darn easily too.
Yeah I bet. I stopped after the World Ender because I forgot which enemies drop what mods and I want as few pointless combat encounters as possible. All that really stands in my way is the Polis Bot blocking the path to the Castle of Light, the two before the bridge in the Forbidden City, and the final fight by my count. Does that sound about right to you?
Yeah, you can actually skip the bridge fight two ways, the first is my original SR skip which is out of bounds and much cooler, basically abusing Dux’s Moth wings, the second it literally just climbing to the top floor of the broken building on the right, standing to the edge of them and using Selma’s Frog legs to jump as far up (and on the right side) the bridge as you can, if you do it right you can totally dodge the detection radius of the bots.
From that point on you can literally just sprint north to the exit even if the Z800 spots you.
The bots before the Castle you can just walk past on the right side too.
Edit: My specific route for those parts is shown at 50:40 However I am messing around with picking up the key in the zone and jumping over the fence so I can unlock the door and avoid any fights.
God and thinking about it now, the part where I kill that robot I could probably just Frog jump past both fences, but then I wouldn’t have it for the Bridge.
if its to harrd, play it on easy mode? no?
I never considered Frog Legs. I actually haven’t used it once. I used Chameleon on my first playthrough just to see if it works but that’s unlocked at level 32 earliest. Now that I think of it can’t you unlock Frog Legs on Farrow as soon as you get her? Maybe use hers and Selma’s or her Sneak mutation but the RNG could get you.
I’ve never used sneak, the unreliable nature of it just never appealed to me.
So after jumping on my test save and timing how long it would take me to equip her at the metal fields and to do the thing in comparison to my Very Hard route right now, it looks like it would definitely save some time and even avoid a fight, so that might be something I incorporate into the run.
It’s down to personal choice really, once you beat the game on Hard or Very Hard, Normal will almost be insultingly easy. However you don’t want to hate the game because of it’s difficulty so if that’s what works for you then do it man.
I used Sneak once for a neat little trick I thought up to get Lux’s Key back without an encounter. Otherwise it’s pretty useless. Could be used for a 100% Artifact speed run if that’s ever a thing I guess.
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More like too easy so we challenge ourselves.