If you thought all post-apocalyptic FPS games were the same as old cat cage models, get ready for STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl – a game that forces you to reconsider everything you know about survival... and your patience.
I remember as a kid when I first started reading news about the first Stalker around 2001 and how it would change gaming. No one expected that I would only experience that moment in 2007 when I first downloaded Stalker completely legally and not from any shady sites.
Holy crap, wait, I didn't even have ADSL at home back then, but I brought it home on a completely legal DVD copy from my friend who was selling them completely legally!
The only one I didn't play was Clear Sky, which I still don't understand why, but
Death from mutants, anomalies, and bugs
STALKER 2 is not a game for the faint of heart. Imagine being in a dangerous area full of anomalies, mutated animals, and fanatical factions that look at you like the last slice of pizza in the matrix of the world.
You have to make tough decisions, like whether to hide your only excellent ammo pack or use it to get rid of those annoying anomalies that keep bothering you in the game. In a world where one wrong decision or a random encounter with an anomaly can kill you every few minutes, STALKER 2 not only tests you but also forces you to become a true survivor.
If you thought bugs were just a legendary thing in old games, STALKER 2 will show you that they have merely evolved.
NPCs pass through walls like a knife through butter, while UI elements decide to spontaneously dance across the screen, and on my XBOX, they loved to disappear.
Yes, I love having a HUD, kill me.
But hey, at least you have the chance to witness enemies performing acrobatics you would expect only at the Olympics – or maybe to be performed by Raygun. Although bugs are common, they add a dose of unexpected humor to the seriously themed world of the game, turning every glitch into a potential funny anecdote for later.
Graphical experience
The graphics are so impressive that you'll often forget the game is running at 30fps.
Just kidding, the team really messed us up with the trailers, but hey, we're used to it.
To be clear, the game looks top-notch, sometimes perfect, but it's not what we expected. Maybe it's better on PC, but from what I've seen, it's not great.
Radioactive storms that paint the sky in hellish reds and toxic greens provide a visual spectacle, even when your console decides to take a coffee break with frame drops.
Every drop of rain, every flash of lightning in the radioactive storm contributes to the feeling of real danger and mystery, creating an atmosphere that is both beautiful and terrifying.
A story that teaches you how to afford real estate
The main story is classic fantastic.
Skif – our character – is set up and released in the introductory mission, leading him on a mysterious quest for a man who knows where another man is, which turns into an unending chain of finding more people in hopes of finally locating the one you're looking for.
In fact, it's literally the plot twist of the game on how to buy an apartment in 2025. Obviously, the only way is to risk your life, kill a couple of hundred people, and smuggle illegal artifacts.
However, when the story starts to involve the scientific organization SIRCAA and a new version of a paramilitary group known as The Ward, STALKER 2 begins to show what is truly at stake.
The story masterfully intertwines familiar themes seen in previous games, such as the dangers of pursuing the truth about psychic emissions that distort the mind, the deadly risks of research in the Zone, and the futility of conflicts between cult groups and government organizations fighting for control.
While it's not necessary to be familiar with the originals to understand this new story, it was appealing to see all the ways the old STALKERs are connected and referenced, providing fans of the series with additional depth and satisfaction.
With every step deeper into the Zone, you uncover more secrets and connections between different factions, creating a complex web of intrigue and conflict. Although the story may seem like an endless series of tasks, its depth and complexity provide a sense of immersion in a world rich with details and historical references.
Mechanics
STALKER 2 heavily relies on survival mechanics that have become standard in modern hardcore survival games.
Gear wear that can cause malfunctions, high damage levels in combat where just a few wrong hits can kill you, bleeding that forces you to heal if you survive, hunger that constantly compels you to search for food, radioactive levels that you must keep under control, limited inventory weight that you must manage carefully, and constant looting to survive – all these elements make the game challenging, but also extremely satisfying when you manage to overcome all obstacles.
One of the favorite aspects of this game is learning how to prepare for missions in advance. Finding the balance between enough healing items and specific ammunition, while still leaving room for loot you might find without overburdening yourself, provides a sense of strategic planning that is rarely seen in modern FPS games.
Technical Challenges
When facing STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, expectations are high, especially considering the power of modern hardware like the RTX 4090 and DLSS Performance technology. However, the reality of the game quickly reveals that performance leaves a lot of room for improvement.
Despite the powerful graphics card, the game often stutters, and the frame rate slowly sinks under the weight of detailed environments and complex scenes. Textures appear irregularly, often "pop-in" from a distance or warp in ways that completely disrupt immersion.
Lighting effects are regularly broken; many parts of the map that should be well-lit remain gloomy, as if there is no light source at all. Reflections on surfaces are often glitched, creating an uncomfortable sense of unreality in the game world.
Light sources often do not function correctly, and many areas that were clearly meant to be properly illuminated appear completely black, as if light simply does not exist. NPCs and objects often glitch and float in the air, further undermining the game's credibility.
UI elements flicker and disappear for no apparent reason, disrupting the player's ability to focus on the game. During cutscenes, NPCs regularly find themselves on top of each other, creating funny but irritating scenes that distract from the story.
The sound of weapons often disappears or simply does not work, which is particularly frustrating during battles when sound is crucial for complete immersion. Positional audio is completely inaccurate, so sounds of enemies or the environment are often heard in the wrong places, which can lead to confusion and reduced survival tactics.
The AI of enemies is extremely poor, often behaving unpredictably and inefficiently, which reduces the challenge and intensity of battles. When you complete a specific objective, that progress often does not update in the user interface, leaving you uncertain whether you have truly completed the mission or not.
The cover mechanics are completely non-functional; enemies can see you through walls, which destroys the fundamental principle of strategic hiding and increases frustration instead of adding an extra layer of challenge.
These technical issues significantly affect the overall gaming experience, turning what should be an immersive and intense survival into a series of frustrations. Although STALKER 2 offers a rich and detailed world full of mysteries and dangers, the technical shortcomings are hard to ignore. Graphical glitches, poor optimization, glitched game elements, and inaccurate sound create an environment that is often more a source of laughter and frustration than actual enjoyment.
While GSC Game World clearly has the ambition to create an impressive sequel to the series, the current state of the game shows that there is still a lot of work ahead of them to realize their vision without the technical flaws that hinder the gaming experience.
Atmosphere – Undoubtedly, pure art
Despite the technical problems, STALKER 2 retains an incredible ability to create an atmosphere that completely immerses you in the mysterious and brutal world of the Zone.
Dynamic weather, nights so dark that you could get stuck in them without light, and radioactive storms that color the sky in hellish reds or toxic greens are visually stunning as well as petrifying.
From panoramic views of the vast desert to long, foot-driven tours between missions to the dark corridors of abandoned facilities, the designers at GSC Game World create a distinct sense of place with great attention to detail.
Even small details like the sound of rain inside the hull of a dilapidated ship or the sound of a guitar while sitting around a campfire can easily pull you into the life of a Stalker. All of this should be familiar to anyone who has played the original STALKER games (Shadow of Chornobyl from 2007, Clear Sky from 2009, and Call of Pripyat from 2010), and as a veteran of those games, it feels strange to be back in the Zone and see how much it has changed over the years.
This nostalgia is perfectly balanced with new elements that add freshness and depth to the game world, creating a perfect balance between old and new.
STALKER 2 is a game that lasts – and can sometimes be exhausting as you constantly fight for your life.
It took me 45 hours to complete the main story, along with quite a few side missions and free exploration. Side missions can bring in necessary money or rare loot, or they may not yield any tangible results at all.
However, sometimes there is intrinsic value in seeing where they lead you or learning more about the world and the people inhabiting it. Just as most of the time in Red Dead Redemption 2 is spent riding a horse while soaking in its world, the long walks through the Zone in STALKER 2 evoke a similar feeling due to the game's lengthy duration.
Within the main story, there are critical choices that affect the path you will take, mainly moments when I decided to share or withhold important information at certain crossroads, or simply choose a side when my back was against the wall.
Although they mostly lead to the same destination, the way the story context and mission objectives change makes those choices feel significant, especially since they occur very naturally.
However, this is mostly because Stalker does not offer cheap fast travel.
If you want to quickly move from one place to another, you have to find the right NPC and pay. If you go on foot, prepare for a long trek full of hostile bandits, anomalies, and mutants that can stop you along the way (I won't lie: save scumming will prevent some of those potential frustrations).
Instant classic without a flaw
When STALKER 2 runs flawlessly, it presents a rare pleasure that satisfies the craving left by older PC titles, where the burden was on you to figure out how to survive and succeed in an unforgiving place that didn't care whether you lived or died.
Refreshing, brutal, and masterful in creating a grim atmosphere that I enjoyed, bringing new life to a place as tragically desolate as the Zone. Once the main mission gained momentum, the choices I made and the effort required to reach the end made me invested in a tense story that builds on the ambitions of its predecessors.
However, there are fundamental issues that are hard to ignore, such as bizarre enemy behaviors in combat and numerous bugs and performance problems that persist even after launch. But for those with enough patience and determination needed for a massive, chaotic RPG shooter, this is a minor issue.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl offers a unique, challenging, and immersive experience that is both enchanting and frustrating. Despite technical imperfections and bugs, the game manages to retain the spirit and ambition of its predecessors, providing a world rich in detail, atmosphere, and complexity.
For those willing to embrace the challenges and enjoy the dark, mysterious world of the Zone, STALKER 2 is an unmissable experience that will keep you immersed for hours – or days – exploring its secrets and facing the dangers that lie in every corner.
