Despite growing up in Eastern Europe, I was a late bloomer in theSTALKERseries and ended up here after one too many replays of theMetrotrilogy.
This review comes after years of toiling inMetro,Escape From Tarkov, the originalSTALKERtrilogy, and thousands of hours poured into STALKER Anomaly, with and without the GAMMA mod pack.
In many ways, theMetrotrilogy is a closer spiritual successor toSTALKER: Shadow of ChernobylthanSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylcould ever be.The core team behind the original game left to form 4A Games, while GSC closed its doors in 2011.
The game I played for 25 hours is calledSTALKER 2,but it shares nothing with the original apart from the name.
GSC rose from the dead in 2014 under new leadership and planned to releaseSTALKER 2in April 2022.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 changed everything for GSC, andwe covered that in detailduring the game’s development cycle.
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Not catching your train in these tunnels is the least of your problems.
It is hard not to root forSTALKER 2once you knowhow much it went through, but there is a lingering feeling that there is more to it than just the war getting in its way.
The game received a two-and-a-half-year development extension, and most of the team worked safely outside of Ukraine thanks to a relocation plan, but very little aboutSTALKER 2feelspolished.
This is not the idiosyncratic game design (AKA slav-jank) that made the original games endearing, but rather an overall feeling thatSTALKER 2exists as an early preview or proof of concept rather than a finished game.
The entire experience was marred by stutters, especially during cutscenes, andheavy use of upscaling techthat doesn’t run anywhere close to acceptable.
This might be fixed after release, but for now,it is a disappointing start from a studio that previously made games that could run on any potato rig.
Here, fellow stalker, is my diary through the first days in the Zone.
Back To The Zone
GSC knows how to tap into nostalgia, andthe opening sequence ofSTALKER 2mimics that ofShadow of Chernobyl.
A truck charges through a storm with an anxious driver and a stalker lying in the bed. Unlike the Marked One though, I am fully conscious and here voluntarily.
At the wheel is Professor Hermann, an old Ecologist acquaintance of Major Degtyarev who used to spend his days holed up at the scientist’s bunker by Jupiter station.
Skif also has a military past, but while Degtyarev was here on business, Skif is looking for answers after an artifact blew up his apartment in Kyiv.
This is the first time in theSTALKERseries that we get to go into the Zonerather than magically spawn inside it.
Your equipment is the stalker starter standard:a Makarov pistol, a woefully inadequate outfit, and a headlamp.
The intro chapter gives you a taste of surviving anomalies, hunting artifacts, fighting bandits, and encounters with two of the Zone’s most feared mutants.
STALKER 2lured me into a false sense of security with how many guns and ammunition I found right away, but the game takes that away from you soon enough.
The Music of the Zone
The thing that stands out the most early on is the sound design, for better or worse.
STALKER 2’s soundtrack is not as sinisterly present asShadow of Chernobyl, opting for a subtle approach that sets the tone while not imposing itself much.
Some areas have radios blasting Ukrainian rock bands, which is a nice touch, and has helped me create a cool Spotify playlist of Zone vibes.
The environmental audio is breathtaking, and arguably the best I have seen in years, if not ever.
Mutants, anomalies, wind, trees rustling, your own labored breath:everything in the Zone that should make noise does so.
The result is a Zone that feels alive and dynamic, especially once you experience an emission (from a shelter, I hope).
Unfortunately, the immersion from the environmental sounds falls apart quickly as you move through the story due to the voice acting.
It would be unfair to label all of the voice acting in STALKER 2 as terrible, butthere is a puzzling lack of consistency in both the voice readings and the sound mixing.
Some interactions, especially those in Zalissiya, feel straight out of a decade-old third-rate mod for a game everyone forgot about.
Other times, the voices blend seamlessly and are full of emotion, such as Korshunov’s homage to Lee Ermey inFull Metal Jacket.
Most of the shoddy voice work is concentrated on traders and other stalkers,which ruins new cool features like the ability to sit around the campfire with other stalkers, as well as old habits like asking everyone what’s new in the Zone.
It is worth noting that, sometime after the war began, GSC’s leadership decided to scrapthe Russian voiceover, previously the native option in all previousSTALKERgames, and the default forSTALKER 2based on the E3 2021 trailer.
The discussion over that decision exceeds the scope of this review, but it made me wonder how much of the voicing problems were due to having to adapt the game.
Although my Ukrainian is a little worse than my Russian and English, I switched the language to see if that made it better since Ukrainian localization had been planned even before the war and could be done locally.
Unfortunately, the problem remained. While I recognized a voice or two from the old games around the bonfire,many characters still sounded awful in Ukrainian, sometimes more so than in the English version.
Skif’s English voiceover, by Alex Montyro, grew on me as I played.Montyro’s soft and occasionally hesitant approach matched how I felt as I signed up for jobs that were increasingly way over my head, unlike the robotic Ukrainian one or the cartoonish tough guy in the removed Russian voiceover.
The only time Skif annoys me is during radio transmissions. For reasons that defy logic, they made Skif’s voice lines covered in static. I am transmitting here, not listening to myself!
Bandit Hunting
Fighting bandits for the first time was both familiar and new. Armed witha Kalashnikov carbineI’d picked up from a bloodsucker’s victim, I traded shots with a band while moving from cover to cover.
The human AI inSTALKER 2is fantastic for the most part, though far from perfect.Stalkers, friendly or foe, tend to move in groups, so you rarely get a 1-vs-1 fight.
Enemies usebasic infantry tacticsto try and beat you. This normally meansone part of the group will put down fire at your position while another moves to flank you.
Alternatively, they will throw grenades at your position to force you to leave cover, then fire once you expose yourself.
The grenade rain is constant inSTALKER 2, but they are not the pinpoint throws with no fuze timer that gaveSTALKER: Clear Skyplayersa headache.
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If you go behind cover and move somewhere discreetly, enemies will still put suppressive fire at your last known position.
A major downside of the AI is that it has the object permanence of a baby, especially if you and the enemy are on different floors.
you’re able to empty a shotgun magazine at a guy while sitting in a room with one exit, butif you stay still for a few seconds, the AI one floor below will say it’s all clearand proceed as if nothing happened.
Still, fighting humans is the most fun I have had inSTALKER 2, largely because shooting is a hoot in this game.
Excellent Gunnery
Despite being more of an action game than a bona fide tactical shooter,STALKER 2is the closest I have seen to Squad’s new gunnerymechanics.
Skif takes some time to shoulder heavier guns, and recoil while aiming down sights feels like authentic recoil.
This is one of the few games whereyou can feel why holographic sights are preferred over iron sights, as keeping the latter aligned during rapid fire is not as easy as it sounds.
The gun sounds are excellent for the most part, though when using suppressors, some weapons are either too loud (like the 9x39mm special carbines) or too quiet (5.45x39mm Kalashnikov variants with PBS-1 pattern suppressors).
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Ready, Aim, FIRE!
You can hear the spent casings falling on the floor, especially if fighting indoors or standing on metal. WhileSTALKER 2uses standard ammo pool mechanics rather than individual mags, you see a magazine on the floor after reloading.
TarkovandSTALKER Anomalyfans will feel at home as enemy weapons drop in a putrid state for the most part, so using them without an expensive visit to a technician is a gamble.
In most situations, you can choose whether to sneak around or go loud, butyou never have those awful mandatory stealth segmentsmostAAA titles love to shoehornin.
Cleaning up after a fight is made easier by a key to pick up the ammo from a gun rather than having to loot the gun, unload it, and then chuck it aside.
The visual damage on bodies is a nice touch: you can see bullet holes and cuts on anything that is dead, which helps you do a little post-mortem to find out how you killed that one mutant.
Almost Immersive
After my little bandit encounter, I picked up some loose loot and pressed on.
As I forded a river through the night, anxious about nocturnal mutants, radiation, and my low ammo state, I saw a half-sunken barge with music coming from inside.
“It must be the Skadovsk,” I thought to myself as I sprinted towards the music, hoping to buy some provisions and enjoy a drink before continuing on my quest.
The second I stepped on the barge, I realized what I had gotten myself into. There were no lights from the cabin, the music felt distorted, and an empty oil drum flew past my head.
I caught a glimpse of a cave on the other shore:I had fallen into a Burer trap, like that of the infamous crying child in theCall of Pripyatcafeteria.
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With only half a magazine in my AK, all I could do was run away, hoping to never see that thing again.
Situations like that are plentiful inHeart of Chornobyl, but many missed design opportunities keep it from being a fully immersive experience.
After finding a gas mask, I was gutted to see that it had no visual elementoutside the inventory page.
Metro Exodusset the gold standard for immersion here, with animations for equipping it, cleaning the visor, humidity building up as you breathe, and damage.
Sure, the variety of gas mask models inSTALKERcould pose a challenge, but it did not keep them from making you able to look down and see the dozens of outfits you have equipped.
Why not extend that to masks and helmets, or at the very least, add a heavier breathing sound with fogging glasses?
Nature Is Beautiful, But Not Perfect
The anxiety of being alone in the Zone at night also faded quickly, asSTALKER 2has a comically short day-night cycle.
In previous installments, especiallyCall of Pripyat, being caught in the Zone at nightfall made you regret your life choices.
Here, apart from running into one bloodsucker northeast of Wild Island,I did not see an appreciable difference in danger levels.
While nights are underwhelming,the weather model inSTALKER 2stands out. The raging wind, dust, and thunder confuse navigation, and it is easy for an otherwise loud mutant to sneak up on you.
Lightning deals damage to any living thing it hits, and it can also scorch trees, which is an awesome (andoccasionally terrifying) touch.
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Although they are the same old jerks from previous games, the mutants inSTALKER 2feel very different in how they fight.
It is annoyingly hard to find mutants, but this is balanced by creatures feeling significantly harder to kill. A pack of flesh, previously not even worth the bullets, can send a lone stalker running for high ground.
Controllers are literal tanks to a point that is frustrating, which is saying a lot considering how they were already tough to kill before. Their 3D model falls very short of the other creatures in the game, though.
The visual inconsistencies extend beyond mutants.Some characters often stand around in stiff default poses when lounging, while others feel extremely human.
Walking around the Zone will show you different types of mushrooms growing, with foliage that you brush past as you walk, and then you run into a texture set straight out of the 2007 STALKER.
Anomalies follow the same pattern: some are hypnotically beautiful, like the cluster of floating shards that give you a thousand cuts with next to no warning. Others would not look out of place in a PlayStation 2 title.
Meaningless Survival Mechanics
In keeping with the de-Russification of the series, GSC replaced the rouble with coupons inSTALKER 2. This digital currency makes more sense in-universe, as payments are transferred from virtual wallets linked to the user’s PDA.
There is no straightforward way to get rich early in the game, but you have very little worth spending your money on besides repair services for weapons and armor.
Your suit is not good enough for artifact hunting, the first few regions do not have major anomaly formations to do that in, andthe Echo detector is only marginally better than poking an anomaly with a stick.
Fortunately for you,STALKER 2decided to take a hard look at the series' survival mechanics of old and decided, “Nope, don’t need them.”
Food, drinks, and medicine are everywhere, which tracks considering the world ofSTALKERhas a line to the outer world, but it feels way too overdone.
Ambushing a group of bandits chilling in a garage should not net you enough food for a week.
STALKER 2decided to take a hard look at the series' survival mechanics of old and decided, “Nope, don’t need them.”
Similarly, although sleep is a mechanic in the game, and you have energy drinks,all that sleep does is set the clock to your desired time(which is pointless since the days are so short). Energy drinks, meanwhile, are there to increase stamina only.
The practical implication here is thatyou can just sell off your infinite supply of things to vendors(at ridiculously low prices) without worrying about how that affects your long-term prospects.
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If you like side quests and want to pick up some nice guns to repair in the process, some dodgy chaps at the Scrap Heap have plenty of side gigs you can pick up, some more savory than others.
It was at this point that my experience withSTALKER 2started to improve markedly.
Running errands for characters of questionable repute allowed me more freedom to explorethe open world, and find my own solution to the problems posed by the Zone.
When you are retrieving a package for a trader you do not care for, you can ignore the hamfisted voice lines or the artificial sense of urgency in the plot, because you are just there to earn some money and shoot some people.
This little “gig simulator” makesSTALKER 2a gift from the heavensfor players who, like me, had spent way too much time in the sandbox ofSTALKER Anomaly.
Where To, Stalker?
STALKER 2is no longer a survival-horror game, but an action title set in a grim world.As much as it can be fun to play because of its combat mechanics and visuals, it decidedly fails to offer a worthy sequel to theSTALKERseries.
It is a shame that this is the case, asthere are certainly moments when you feel the same pull you used to get from walking into the 100 Rads barfor the first time.
GSC has been transparent aboutSTALKER 2having strong mod support, and if theAnomalymodding scene is of any indication, this game has a bright future.The present, however, falls short.
Closing Comments:
As it stands now, STALKER 2 is fun and has a lot of potential, but it would be unfair to call it good. You can easily sink 100 hours into it without noticing, especially if you have a deep love for previous iterations. However, the performance issues, overall inconsistency in many areas, and clumsy presentation will hold this game back until a major overhaul comes.
