S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's irradiated world is dreadfully peaceful, if a bit confusing at the moment

rockpapershotgun.com:

Devs GSC Game World are going through an unimaginably difficult time right now on top of leaks and hacker attacks. That has to be taken into account when we think about the development of the game, and it could be why, after 20-minutes spent exploring a bit of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl's irradiated world, I'm unsure what to make of it.

Maybe I played a very early build, but while the world itself looks every bit the eerie post apocalyptic survival wasteland you hope, NPC interactions aren't in as great shape. Chats with friendlies are unclear, and in firefights the enemy AI is shonky - to the extent that I think it'll be more useful as a preview to just tell you exactly what happened to me as I played.

My time with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 started with a blistered dog biting at my ankles. A friend shot it off me, and I watched it fall backwards into a rippling, see-through blob, where it exploded into bits. I'm then told by ol' matey to - now, I'm not 100% sure this is the case - chuck the screw in my hand into these killer bubbles and then leg it. So, I do what he says and then nothing really happens to said bubble. I run, but it turns out there are loads of bubbles surrounding me, so I end up leaping into one, which then propels me into another. I die. These, then, are S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s famous anomalies, weird energy pockets that frequently pop up in the Zone. They're one of, if not the, main environmental hazards in the series, and this first meeting with them in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was confusing, especially if you're not a series veteran.

I awake unscathed from my encounter with them, which confuses me further. Either way, I'm now prompted to explore the world, so I clock a hole in a nearby wall and make my way