STALKER 2 Review | The Heart of Chornobyl Beats Stronger Than Ever

Update: I promised to update this review post-launch to confirm whether the bugs I experienced on my pre-release version of the game had been eradicated. I’m happy to say that the full release is much better and much more stable than my pre-release copy.

I’ve not suffered from a single crash in 15~ hours of gameplay, and most of the bugs I experienced (flying bodies, audio drops, UI disappearing) are things of the past. I promised all along that the team was working hard on fixing the game, and they continue to do so.

Have faith.

Now, onto the full STALKER 2 review.

There’s a new contender in the Game of the Year debate, and it’s called STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. I was fortunate to pour many hours into STALKER 2 before it hit the shelves. During my time with the game, I came to be immersed in a gorgeous and harrowing open-world environment that pulled me in harder than a gravitational anomaly.

In a line, STALKER 2 is nothing short of phenomenal, and every minute I spent exploring The Zone made me thankful that GSC Game World never gave up on this project over the ten-plus years it took to piece it together. It’s technically impressive and deeply authentic, and it’s guaranteed to hit you like a hearty dose of radiation.

It’s finally here, and my STALKER 2 review will tell you everything you need to know about this game.

If you’d rather check out the video version of this review, simply click here to head to YouTube.

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Enter The Zone

I’m sorry to say that I never played a STALKER game to any decent length before I picked up STALKER 2. However, I’m a huge fan of games like Fallout, Metro, and Escape from Tarkov, so the base concept of STALKER fits nicely within my wheelhouse.

That meant that I had almost no expectations going in, but from what I’ve come to experience in The Zone, I get the impression that it’s an authentic and remarkable representation of the series thus far. I’m not dim – I know what STALKER is and I’ve long heard about the game’s elements, factions, story, and mutants, and so much of STALKER 2 was at the least recognisable for me.

Even I was able to spot Rookie Village in Cordon when I came across it later in the game.

From the moment I was plunged into The Zone, I was marvelling at STALKER 2’s visuals. The transition to Unreal Engine has paid off nicely, and everything from the game’s foliage to the small details littered around building interiors is intricate and – most importantly – realistic.

I constantly found myself wandering across the enormous open world just taking in the ambience. The game’s sound engine and weather systems are second to none, and from the birds singing in the trees of a windswept forest to the booming power of a lightning strike landing mere feet from me amid a screaming storm, everything kept me in awe as I played STALKER 2.

Seriously, the game’s audio is impeccable. For instance, I stood next to a truck while it was raining, and the sound of drops landing on a rusted metal surface was so accurate, that I had no choice but to marvel at it. I moved through an old, decrepit compound and my feet brushed glass bottles across the floor, and with a surround-sound headset, it was flawless.

The Zone can be terrifying, and at times I was jumpscared heading into a dark bunker and running into a Burer or a group of Bloodsuckers, but it’s also a beautiful and unique environment that I never got tired of exploring.

GSC built every inch of this map by hand, without any procedural generation, and it shows. The sheer depth of miscellaneous events, secret locations, and hidden stashes that you’ll uncover as you explore STALKER 2 is mind-blowing, and as you walk around the world, you’ll constantly find neat little spots off the beaten track that you’ll want to just look at.

If I have one complaint about all this, STALKER 2 doesn’t have a photomode, and I could snap thousands of images.

Related: How to Repair Weapons in STALKER 2

Into The Adventure

STALKER 2’s story is one of the game’s shining gems. It’s intriguing, pitted with twists and turns, and from what I’ve learned, it’s very well connected to the rest of the series. It is loaded with enough mysteries to keep players guessing, and there are many opportunities to explore various playstyles as you run through the campaign.

I’ll admit that stealth in STALKER 2 feels a little tricky, but I much prefer going into any engagement guns blazing, and STALKER 2 accommodates that playstyle very nicely.

STALKER 2 isn’t a hold-your-hand game – to any real extent. It’s much more accessible than the other games in the series, but that’s because GSC wants to appeal to a more widespread audience. To that end, it’s mostly obvious where you need to go and what you need to do, and the game is light on puzzles, but even on the easiest difficulty, I died a few dozen times.

On several occasions, I found myself reloading earlier saves just to see what would happen if I picked a different choice at a critical point in the story.

I’ll be honest, though – I was looped into the development side of things and the team patched out more than 1000 bugs, ranging from game-breaking to minor, in the days before STALKER 2 was released.

As I played, I took these issues in my stride, determined to work around bugs rather than admit defeat in the face of them. I also recognised that I had a beta build, and I was appreciative that it was a work in progress at that point.

As I dove deeper into the story, I found myself fully invested and desperate to reach the next chapter or accomplishment. As a completionist, I felt compelled to tackle every side objective and hidden location I came across, and I never got bored of doing so.

Related: How to Fast Travel in STALKER 2

Sheer Energy

In my opinion, it’s not fair to take points away from STALKER 2 because of the bugs I experienced – that’s because of the build I was playing on — I hope.

If I look past those issues, I see a game that I cannot fault in one major way. From the combat sequences to the direct and fully-acted cutscenes, and the survival mechanics to the random encounters that make the world feel so alive, I couldn’t find one serious flaw in STALKER 2.

Minor flaws? Sure.

Killed enemies ragdoll more than you’d like, the AI of human enemies isn’t as advanced as you might prefer, and I’d like to see more loot scattered around the place to add a little variation, but it’s all very livable.

The voice acting is superb and very diverse, and even the piecemeal characters have some great lines, which only adds to that ‘alive’ sensation of the world you’re exposed to.

For instance, I left a fellow Stalker stranded in a field of electric anomalies because I was in a rush, and was subjected to abuse being hurled over the radio as I walked off, with the Stalker branding me a ‘rotten Flesh fucker’ in his dying moments.

The effects of the anomalies feel stellar, and the handiwork applied to bringing mutants to life is awe-inspiring. They’re genuinely terrifying and more than once I found myself killing an enemy and getting up close to them just to study the character model. In some ways, it was like the game was adjusting to my preferences as I played, too

Let me explain that. Early on, I had a concern that packs of dogs were far too common and irritating, and then as the hours unravelled, I found that I was brushing up against them much less. Perhaps the spawn rate was tweaked by GSC or something, but it felt as though the game heard me and responded to my worries.

Even without a photomode, I found myself snapping countless images of the world of STALKER 2. There wasn’t one location that failed to snatch my attention, and even a random truck stranded in a field felt like it had a point in being there and a presence.

I came to attach myself to the game’s characters very quickly, and when a quest led to an untimely death being revealed, I felt it. I became a character hellbent on helping as many people as I could, and pleasing factions became a mission of mine rather than a chore.

There’s enough meat on the bones already for me to declare this: STALKER 2 is the best game I have played in years.

Being a fan of a post-apocalyptic adventure, STALKER 2 speaks to me on an intimate level, and every moment I spent in The Zone was sheer bliss. Every time I turned the game off, I had an itch to get back to it, and I’ve not felt like that about a game for a very long time.

Related: How to Use Artifacts in STALKER 2

Verdict: Buy

Even the simple things, like the game’s intuitive UI and satellite-style map screen, won me over. The game’s visual palette is diverse and sumptuous, customising and using weapons feels satisfying and energetic, and every mission feels like it has a point.

Believe me when I say you will be blown away by the depth and detail in STALKER 2. The sheer level of attention and painstaking effort poured into the creation of STALKER 2 by GSC Game World is nothing short of utterly incredible, and I am so happy that this game was finally delivered after all these years.

I cannot dredge up a single reason why you shouldn’t invest in STALKER 2. This enormous, immersive survival FPS is the cream of the crop, and it’s a bar to which every developer in the genre should aspire to reach. Every minute you pour into this epic adventure will be well spent, and despite the horrors lurking within, The Zone will become your second home.

For a numerical rating, I give STALKER 2 a 9 out of 10. When the mods start flowing and the game’s core issues are addressed, perhaps with modders adding in some more immersion or customisation mechanics, I could see this being pushed to a 10 out of 10.

Insider Gaming was provided a review copy of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl on PC by GSC Game World.

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If you want more STALKER 2 content, check out our guide on how to upgrade weapons in the game