You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here
It’s been 15 years since the last entry in the franchise and Stalker 2 has not evolved all that much. Outside of a massive shift towards the modern visuals, developer GSC Game World has pulled straight from its mid-2000s predecessors to deliver exactly what fans expect – for better and for worse.
It’s impossible to talk about Stalker 2 without discussing the game’s incredible journey. Despite the invasion of Ukraine, developer GSC Game World has still committed to shipping a massive open-world survival game across multiple platforms. Shipping any game is always a momentous task, and GSC’s new release even manages to be substantially more polished than some, but the conditions of the game’s creation won’t affect our score.
Stalker 2 puts you in the role of Skif, a new Stalker exploring the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. After being left for dead by a group of soldiers, you pick yourself up and investigate a curious artifact. For those that want it, there is a story to keep track of throughout your adventure in this bizarre Slavic post-apocalyptic land, but oftentimes the main narrative isn’t the one that pulls you along – especially with the game’s bland voiced protagonist.
As you explore a world riddled with mutants, irradiated lakes, and environment-shifting anomalies, you’ll realise that this world is a treacherous one. Some areas are weirder than others as reality breaks down and you’re forced to rely on new tactics. For example, one side mission early on sends you through the Poppy Field, a gorgeous expanse of red flowers that curiously causes you to hear things, sends you to sleep, and forces you to wake up atop a roof.
The world around you is by far the most interesting and engaging part of the game, especially as you’re forced to manually make your way across large expanses of land, keeping yourself going with the occasional scrap of bread and a quick chug of unbranded energy drink. Apocalyptic Chornobyl has an undeniably intense atmosphere, especially as you encounter heavy rains and huge storms while you trundle alone through the wilderness.
Captured by VideoGamer
Captured by VideoGamer
Captured by VideoGamer
Captured by VideoGamer
Most of the side missions you’ll find are also more engaging than the main quest, although many of them lack the cinematic quality of the game’s more blockbuster locations. Some of these quests also offer interesting choices, allowing you to betray your quest giver for unique, powerful loot, or do the right thing. When you think about it, how many other survivors are doing the latter?
A fight for survival
Unfortunately, as fantastic as Stalker 2’s world can be, it’s not backed up in its combat. There’s little more satisfying than taking out a group of human soldiers inside a multi-story building, picking off foes as you lean around corners, and looting them for their gear, even if their AI is far from the smartest. On the other hand, there’s little more annoying than being trapped in a cave with a mutant as it turns invisible and runs away at a breakneck pace.
As brilliant as exploration and human combat can be, fighting anything else is simply annoying. If you encounter a pack of mutated dogs in an open field, you’ll be taking a heavy amount of damage and walking away bleeding out. Animals are rapid and very easily outnumber you. Fighting them just isn’t satisfying.
Of course, everything gets easier the further you get in the game. While still annoying to fight as they run around you at mach speed, dogs become less of an issue as you find better armor and more powerful guns, but they never become fun to fight. You can scamper up on top of a building to take them out from above without taking damage, but that’s still not fun, unless you really enjoy shooting dogs.
Just like its more than 15-year-old predecessors, Stalker 2 is a mixed bag. It has some incredible highs and some infuriating lows, but if you’re already a fan of the series you’re well aware. However, as a complete package, GSC Game World’s long-awaited sequel does fall short in a number of key areas, but it is undeniably the perfect follow-up and a modern cult-classic in the making.
Reviewed on PC. Code provided by the publisher.
About the Author
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
- Platform(s): PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series S/X, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s): Action, Adventure, RPG, Shooter, Survival Horror
