Blood and Gore mods for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2
- Valentin The Mad
- Jan 10
- 3 min read
When the game came out, as you could see on the channel, the response side of it was severely lacking. And when Cazanu started posting previews of his mod on the channel's Discord (which also became a collaboration with Shay for a full overhaul of the response side) I got really excited. The improvements were massive, and having it released now - it does indeed deliver. Before we begin, here are the links to the mods:
As for the latter - as the titles suggests, death animation improvements are a factor there too. There will be more coverage on the channel when more animations are added.
And do note that the mods are still being worked on and there will be more coverage as major improvements happen.
Dismemberment
The response for explosives now is going to be body parts coming off. You'll have 3 points of amputation per limb and there is a cut in half variation with the legs obliterated. Haven't seen heads come off.
The stumps look nicer than in some paid titles I covered on the channel, but as you can imagine, with it being a mod it will look kind of rough. It is a good example for the importance of blood around the point of amputation. Not sure if that is something they'll be able to add.
Now as I mentioned, at the moment I'm writing it, you'll have it activated only for explosives. They are looking for a way to add it for certain weapons as well, but the issue now is getting the game to activate it only for specific calibers. No one wants a 9mm easily taking limbs off, or cutting someone in half.
Where this function shines the most though is the mess on the environment. You'll have a massive stain appear below the spot where the character was initially blown up (in the vein of The Last of Us), there will be a lot of splats staining the surroundings, and there will be a blood pool below the character too. I think a separate puddle for each stump, if multiple limbs were taken off.
Gibs will be a part of it too. Severed limbs will be spawned (appropriately based on what was removed) and you'll have plenty of smaller chunks as well. They could be perhaps spread out some more, but you'll still find chunks of meat in funny places after an explosion.
Blood spilling
This is the big one for me here, the blood spilling side of the game has been completely overhauled. There will be stains on impacts regardless of whether there's a wall behind the character (though in the case of the latter, some of them will be dripping down). I have seen small droplets spawned too for the impacts.
There will be blood trails. I saw them on headshots (particularly satisfying if there's a drop) and on stealth finishers. They should work for heavily injured characters too but I haven't seen that when testing. Could be a narrow range of HP for that.
On headshots I've also seen a stain pop up where the character falls below the head, which is a nice touch. And to top it off, there are blood pools too. In the case of the latter sprites are used due to the limitations of the current version of UE5 used by the game. That means that at times you will see them go beyond the surface (can be seen in the blood demonstration video), or just not show on certain specific surfaces.
If you're familiar with Cazanu's work (his Ready or Not mod is one great example) the looks of the stains are exceptional. Very nice and nasty and will deliver brutal aftermaths.
And as for the aftermaths, the small droplets will last for about 2 minutes, the splats and gibs for 4 and the blood pools will stick around for longer. Enough to see the full aftermath of a smaller fight, but not for clearing out a large location.
Conclusion
As I mentioned in the beginning - it is a massive improvement. From next to nothing we get to exceptional blood spilling, a fun response for grenades and as I mentioned, they will keep working on it and I will be covering major improvements on the channel. So I highly recommend these mods.
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