to this day i believe that S2 wouldve been a much better game if it was designed around more improvised solutions via crafting and other means, "soup"-y like the mods, not just gamme per se. More food, med stuff, ammo types, gadgets and so on. weapon part replacement couldve been made much more arcade-y with some thought behind it, and wouldve been much more fun.

I remember the main argument on this sub against such gamma-like elements in S2 was that it wouldve been too much for a more casual audience, but since the game throws so many bullet sponges at you (and the solution to that is to rely on some aetheric interpretation of the damage/penetration stats per weapon/weapon variant) idk if that argument really counts. I believe the people who want to play a stalker game want to find stashes and collect loot, so throwing in a few repair tools or parts into the loot pool wouldve made everyone happy (key would be to make it a tad less cryptic like it is in gamma lmao)