STALKER 2 Heart of Chernobyl review: Get into the zone

STALKER 2: The Heart of Chernobyl Review

Note: Part of this review was written before the day 1 patch addressed over 1,100 bugs and issues. The patch was over 138 gigs, almost as big as the base game. While the pre-patch hotfix version wasn't completely unplayable, it could be very frustrating. Of course, while probably not all of the issues have been fixed, the experience is now vastly improved and closer to what STALKER 2 is trying to be.

I appreciate the ambition. Whether it's game design, art, or technology, I like when creators think big and outside their limits. Jumping fences can be exciting even when the final product falls short. On the other hand, no matter how ambitious the product, consumers should expect value and competition for their money. STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a much more ambitious game than its predecessors in the franchise, but technically crude. This is not unexpected. In fact, there will be legions of fans willing to enjoy the game. For some, it's part of the charm and potential.

Miracle of miracles

Given the difficult road to getting the game out there, it's a small miracle that STALKER 2 exists. The game was first announced in 2011, but stalled shortly after due to financial and personnel issues. In 2019, GSC Game World was reformed. It was announced that STALKER 2 would be back on track using the Unreal 5 engine. A trailer revealed the game in 2021. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and GSC Game World had to move its studio to the Czech Republic and redo much of the game capture. game movement and other assets. It's hard not to acknowledge the tremendous personal and professional struggles the developer endured over the past few years. Ultimately, of course, that backstory is less important than whether the game is fun.

The STALKER games have a very large and passionate fan base who love the setting, characters, and mechanics. The games are based on an alternate history. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown (and a second subsequent event in 2006) created an exclusion zone filled with irradiated landscapes, mutated animals, and space-time anomalies filled with powerful artifacts. You play as a STALKER, a survivor who gets by by scavenging, raiding, adventuring, looting, killing, exploring and stealing (hence the acronym). In other words, whatever needs to be done, you can do it.

and then you die

Unlike previous games, STALKER 2 takes place in an open world of more than 60 km². It is a haunted and deadly landscape filled with abandoned buildings, camps of survivors, various warring factions, supernatural entities, monsters and mutants. Largely geographically authentic to the current Exclusion Zone, GSC Game World has built an impressively large, detailed and extremely dynamic world. The cycle of day and night, changing weather, and supernatural storms create a landscape that is truly interesting and terrifying to explore. Much of it is interactive.

You play as Skif, a STALKER who is initially sent to collect shiny, deadly anomaly artifacts. From that first task, the main story mission follows a broad set of main objectives that lead you to the Scientific Institute for Anomalous Area Research. As the story progresses, intrigue, narrative complications, and ethical dilemmas begin to accumulate. The story isn't bad, but like many open-world RPGs, free exploration offers a lot of fun.

Like previous games, STALKER 2's basic gameplay loop consists of scavenging for supplies, exploring the world, and completing the main narrative missions and dozens of optional side missions. Of course, all of these elements are based on simply surviving time in the Zone. STALKER 2 is both an intense survival game and a first-person shooter. There is no elaboration. All weapon repairs and upgrades need a technician, and you're not cobbling together IEDs or consumables out of dog bones and radioactive apples. In addition to weapons, players search for supernatural artifacts. These add buffs or passive abilities, but they also always have a negative effect. The Zone gives and takes away.

Seeking Quality of Life

Except on the easiest difficulty, STALKER 2 is a brutally difficult game, which I suspect is exactly what fans want. But for many players, this is where we go from describing an impressively designed world, full of dangers and interesting NPCs, to feeling frustrated with a series of intentional design decisions. Most of them are there to add immersion or challenge, like weapons that get stuck or need constant repair. Add to the list limited ammo and healing items, near-constant attention to hunger, bleeding from even minor wounds, exposure to radiation, and instant death that can come from unseen enemies, packs of dogs, mutated monsters, or falls. STALKER 2 does not hold the player's hand. In fact, every time the player extends a hand for help, the game happily pushes it away.

The STALKER 2 map is very large. There are no drivable vehicles and only an expensive, guided version of fast travel. That is, you will travel long distances on foot most of the time. That's great for exploring and potentially stumbling into side quests, but it eats up resources and time if all you want to do is advance the story. The game doesn't pause when you open the minimap on your tablet, leaving you open to attack. The UI compass is a combination of necessity and poor implementation.

Kudos to GDC Game World for creating an impressively realized environment, but the visuals are undermined by somewhat anemic audio and gun sounds. The voice acting, character animations, and writing range from passable to awkward, at least in English. The sounds of the world (wind, thunderstorms, rain, etc.) often obscure important audio cues in combat. Although the megapatch has fixed some issues, other issues with the sound design remain.

Out of balance

I enjoy difficult games, but there are times when STALKER 2 doesn't play fair. Death came many times through dogs or mutants that literally appeared out of nowhere, with no visual or auditory signals to alert me. I was shot from the middle of the map or killed by enemies with the ability to see through walls. Most of the enemies were bullet sponges, while I was not at all. There were more than a few dialogue sequences that had no other way out than to die. Do I want a challenge level in story mode? No, just a little more balance and fairness.

But I will give credit where credit is due. GSC Game World released this great and ambitious game despite many major challenges. And while the experience can be bumpy, there are plenty of options to adjust the difficulty and graphics settings to help improve performance. A few more patches and mods in the future and STALKER 2 still won't be for everyone, but it will be the best at what it does.

Fans of the STALKER franchise expect uncompromising action and are largely immune to the series' rough edges. For them, STALKER 2 delivers, adding a vast open world full of danger and discovery. The launch day patch fixed many major issues, but the game still needs some major additional polish. Some casual shooter fans may be put off by STALKER 2's difficulty and opacity, but gamers who have waited patiently for STALKER 2 will be pleased.