They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and when it comes to video games remakes, remasters and long awaited sequels all capitalize on that to the highest degree. In your head you have visions of crystal clear graphics, rather than 2 rectangles balancing a sphere. You end up with core moments that just stick with you. The original WoW trailer music tickles my happy brain anytime I hear it. Certain games just were in the right place at the right time for you, so when you get more of that world, it’s easy to jump in with both feet ready enjoy every moment. Sometimes though, you need to be a bit more pragmatic, nostalgia is great, but it can make it hard when you finally get a long, long overdue sequel, to one of your favourite games, and you’re tasked with addressing the good, and the bad. I can’t believe I finally get to say this… Because This… Is S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
It’s been 14 years since we’ve had a S.T.A.L.K.E.R game, with Call of Pripyat coming out back in 2010. S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl came out back in 2007, which is a long time. Back then Halloween was being remade by Rob Zombie, as opposed to these days where Halloween is being remade by Danny McBride. It could be incredibly easy to get sucked up into the nostalgia machine of returning to the Zone to all of that FPS, Immersive Horror goodness, shooting snorks and grabbing artifacts. Just living that zone life and loving every minute of it. In fact, I want to sit here and do nothing but gush about every aspect of this game, and I could. But this road has two paths, good and bad, and it’s only right that we discuss them both. So this review is split. The game that is, and the experience that might be. Let’s jump into this together.
The Game That Is:
Let’s start with the game that is. A game I’ve wanted to play for years. S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chornobyl was a long time coming. Originally announced as far back as 2010, before GSC shuttered, was then revived, and announced again back in 2018. 6 years later, we’re here. To say that the road to get here has been rocky would be an understatement. We’re talking about a studio that had to endure cyberattacks, office fires, relocation due to a war, and saw some of its developers sign up not only to defend their country, but some of them giving their lives for it too. I’m honestly impressed that S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 exists if I’m being frank. If they had shut up shop I wouldn’t have blamed them for one second. Yet instead, after everything that happened, the game is finally here and it’s good… Really good. Yet, not without its flaws, but we’re going to discuss those on the other path. For now, let’s embrace that nostalgia.
Right out the gate S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 knows what you want, wrapping up the initial story cutscene and then dropping you right over the wall into a zone filled with untold horrors and treasures to be found and find you. Darkness, isolation, weirdness. It’s all right here. The atmosphere of what to expect over the next many hours you’re going to be spending here, might seem like it’s on full display, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, the tutorial serving as an amuse-bouche, a single bite of several aspects of the game. You’re introduced to mutants, anomalies, artifacts, and of course the hostility of man. Each aspect requires you to keep your head on a swivel. The zone can be a beautiful place in those moments where you’re able to catch your breath but let your guard down even for a second and you’ll end up on your back.
I loved the original trilogy, yes… Even you Clear Sky. Shadow of Chernobyl came along in those formative years when I had my own PC for the first time, and was exploring what games could offer. A sandbox to play in, how I wanted to. Giving options on how to approach combat in your own style, doing it in an environment and setting that was truly fascinating to me. This sealed off area of the world, changed by radiation, was a great hook. A world filled with dangers seen and unseen. I still remember the first time I walked backwards into a whirly-gig while in combat, the no no no no *splat*. But the thing that stood out from everything on display though outside of just how terrifying it could be in places, was the conflict of humanity. It wasn’t until years later that I’d learn about the smaller details, which factions spoke what language, ideas behind their designs, and more. Those conflicts, are a theme that runs through all of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R games, and is front and center. The zone is filled with dangerous anomalies, mutants intent on turning you into a red mist, and yet your fellow man is the thing to be most wary of. S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 just like its predecessors puts territorial conflict under the spotlight. The zone is just a canvas to watch this all play out, how do different people react under such circumstances. Old favorites such as Monolith, Duty, Freedom, make a return, joined by new forces such as Wardens or Ward. An unwelcome military entity that has arrived in the zone and upset pretty much everyone I interacted with. There were few NPCs that had positive things to say about the Ward. You’re introduced to the factions and choices you’ll be making up front, who to side with, and how they play out will shift the path you end up taking, towards one of the several endings the game ends up putting in front of you.
That journey is a long one though. You could rush through S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, and reach that ending a lot sooner if you want, but that runs counter to what a game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 is trying to provide you, a world to explore. The zones in S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 are stunning and fascinating to walk through. There’s a haunting beauty to the concept of nature reclaiming what once belonged to it. From the open fields to the enclosed tunnels the world design brings together a world of beauty and horror. It takes something special to feel safer when you’re crammed in a sewer tunnel in the pitch black, than when you’re standing above ground in an open area. Not losing a step in those years is apparent when you just take a moment to breathe in the world around you. That horror aspect of the series just permeates through the design when it comes to visuals and audio design, howls in the distance, gunshots and the sound of combat just out of sight lead your mind to dream up a host of awaiting possibilities.
The world design in S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 screams of areas just waiting to be explored and warning of the dangers that lie within all in one breath. There’s a temptation that arises from some deep reckless part of the psyche when you watch an anomaly breathing with the world, crushing cars with each inhale, and restoring them with every exhale and thinking to yourself, yeah. I could survive that. Treasure in exchange for potentially being converted into a compact can of tuna? Who wouldn’t be tempted.
Self preservation is going to be in full sprint trying to catch up to your greed and stupidity as wits and sensibilities are going to keep you alive a lot longer than the bullets you’re carrying. You are given an enjoyable selection of guns to help you survive, along with attachments and modifications you can make to them. A veritable selection of firearms to personalize and make your own projectile partner to keep you from feeling totally isolated, but not every enemy in the zone can be put down simply by bullets.
And there’s a nostalgia you get if you’ve played the previous entries, when you see familiar faces and areas updated with a new coat of paint. It’s an indescribable feeling that warms you, as those memories of wait, I know this place, wash over you. You remember your first time through the zone, and the troubles you faced, but sometimes the game itself was as much a problem.
I could sit here all day and sing the praises of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2. It’s basically everything I want from a sequel, but if you remember I said there were two paths here, the game that is, which we’ve covered, and the experience that might be. Sadly, we need to discuss that path, and there’s a lot of speed bumps waiting down this road.
The Experience that might be:
I’m going to get this out of the way now. There is no score waiting at the end of this review, a decision that was incredibly tough to make, but I felt it was the right one, and I need to be able to stand by every score we hand out. If I could, I’d be giving this game at least a 4.5 but that’s not something I can do for a few reasons. I’m only comfortable with scores being given to games after certain markers have been crossed off. For a game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 that means the main story finished, having some fun with the available areas, and checking out the quality of the side content. This isn’t a level that was able to be reached in the version we were given for review simply due to performance issues and quests becoming hardlocked and requiring a new playthrough.
When you are given a review copy, you’re informed if there are any key bugs that are scheduled to be fixed, or if there’s a release day patch scheduled, and you’re asked to take those bugs in stride. Normally as you’ve seen in the past, I’ll mention any severe ones, or if we’ve been informed of an upcoming patch. Most of the time though, we gloss over them and don’t let them impact the final result. The problem with S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 arises in that, in the 3 playthroughs I attempted, each one was hit with different bugs, that ranged from severe, blocking main quest progress, to middle, blocking side quests or conversations, and minor, the usual fun jank you would hope for in a S.T.A.L.K.E.R game. It was a goldilocks situation, every bed having a problem, and hoping you find the right one. Even if we had seen the end of this journey, I still wouldn’t be comfortable giving you a score knowing that it’s a coin flip if you’ll have a good or bad experience.
I can’t reliably say what kind of experience you’ll have, we were given a PC review copy, so I’m not even sure how the console version compares at this point. You could flip that coin and walk through unscathed, having a brilliant time, you might flip it and get locked out near the start, or near the end. It’s a degree of uncertainty and makes it hard to be able to put your conviction behind something, like Schrodinger’s cat. If the box was filled with untold horrors beyond human comprehension, and shiny rocks you could sell.
If you’ve walked the zone before, you’ll be accustomed to jank, hell some of my friends were not only expecting it, but joking that it won’t be S.T.A.L.K.E.R without it. That was true, it was hilarious to occasionally find a pair of legs sticking up out of the ground from a corpse, or getting into a firefight only to see one of the bodies fly off upwards, no longer tethered to this mortal realm or dealing with whatever this accent is supposed to be. Those are great moments, but the ones I’m talking about are more problematic than that. The good news here is that all of the issues that I faced were patchable. GSC Game World patched the game three four times (they patched it while writing this) during our review, and they have a day zero patch coming out. That’s a great sign for the future, but, the future isn’t now, and so here we are.
I’m not going to be surprised if you see review scores take a hit from this, some might remain positive, or give GSC a pass. You’re definitely going to see angry people on Steam clashing heads with defenders. And I get it, I mean look, if you’re nostalgic for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R franchise I can sell you this game with just a simple 30 second clip… Ready?
I would love to be proven wrong, for that day zero patch to crush all of the bigger issues. For us reviewers to be laughed at for having all of these problems, and then come launch everything is perfect. And if those issues do persist beyond launch, for everyone to behave normally to understand that bugs happen, and wait. But I feel like normal responses just don’t happen as much as they should anymore. I mentioned at the start that S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 was an incredible testament to the human spirit and determination. GSC Game World faced their own horrors, and pushed on through it to give us this game, and underneath all of those bugs and issues there is a simply stunning game. I’m cutting them some slack on this one, and honestly, I’d probably do the same for any other developer that has to work through the conditions that they have, and still manage to generate a game of this caliber. It’s impressive that through all of the issues I faced, I still want to keep playing it. So what happens next? Well, the plan from us is to advise you as follows, regardless of if you’re a fan of the franchise or a newcomer, if you’re planning a trip to the zone, tread carefully as you won’t see the… anomalies that could come up. As for our plans, we’re going to revisit S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 when the first story DLC is due to drop, do a retrospective at that point to see how it’s improved, and score it accordingly at that time.
Until then, can we all just take a moment and be impressed with how a game like this can end up being canceled, resurrected, and end up with such a devoted community, and development team, that it survives all of the conditions, the hardships, and come out the other side with a solid core, and a stunning world, that just at this moment has a few too many bugs to let it shine through.
Slava Ukraine.
