S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

I'm a big STALKER fan, the original was my first single-player computer game back when I was playing on my parents' machine and as such I was very excited to finally play the sequel after all these years. And, after over 300 hours played across Steam and Gamepass, I'm pleased to say that... it is a mixed bag. Gameplay-wise, STALKER 2 is probably the best feeling first-person shooter I've ever played. The guns all handle phenomenaly, with great sound and animation design. The core loop of exploring Zone, finding cool loot and upgrading your equipement is very satifying. The Zone itself is huge and looks beautiful and technical performance and stability is a lot better then it was at launch. All that being said, there is a LOT of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ as well (not unlike the original games, but I feel like it is worse here). You will die a lot, for many stupid reasons, especially early on in the game. Human enemies will shoot you with pinpoint accuracy from 100 meters across foliage, even in pitch darkness. Mutants will stunlock you to death out of nowhere. Fall damage is the most ridiculous of any game I've played, outright killing you after falling just a few meters. The boss fights, which have no reason to exist in a slow and gritty shooter like this, are absolutely terrible. Lastly, I'd like to talk about the story, and that's because it was, for me, a massive disapointment. It is, in a word, a mess. While it has incredible production value compared to the previous games, with a lot of amazingly detailed cutscenes, it is all style and no substance (or rather the substance is kinda there, but all jumbled, confusing and unclear). There are so many characters and concepts constantly introduced to the player, just for them to immediately be forgotten and not be mentionned for hours, if they actually come back at all. Your player character, Skif, is the blankest of blank slates, having the most tenuous and thin motivation for being in the Zone and working with the factions. All we know is that he was in the army, then his appartment was destroyed by an anomaly so he decided to go to the Zone to get reparation. Which begs the question... why? Why did he have to go to litteraly the most dangerous place on Earth when he could have just had his insurance pay for the damage or something? And the whole narrative is like that. People do what they do with the most surface-level of motivations, there are no relationships between the characters, none of them have real personnal reasons for their actions, they all are just empty vessels giving Skif his tasks so that the messy, confusing plot can go forward. It's a shame considering that Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky both had great storylines, and I'm just sad Heart of Chronobyl couldn't also deliver on that front. All that being said, even if the game is in my opinion very flawed, I think that if you can get pass its shortcomings, STALKER 2 is worth it as a great shooter with amazing gunplay, exploration and atmosphere, even if the rest of the package is a little bit scuffed.

↑ 2 found helpful

excellent graphics, world feels alive and very nice representation of Chernobyl, worth the money. also great story btw.

↑ 1 found helpful

this is very accurate to life in eastern europe

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looks insane, runs well, i just started but i can already feel that i'll put quite some time in this game

↑ 1 found helpful

Game freezing and crashing constantly every 30 minutes or so. Not playable.