S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review – Anomaly Sighted

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s very existence almost defies logic. Starting with the first efforts to develop the game a decade and a half ago, the project has been cancelled, GSC Game World has been through a closure, the game’s current iteration has seen numerous delays, and more recently, its developer, based in Ukraine, has had to deal with war and Russia’s invasion of its home country. That has brought an entirely new set of complexities of its own, with GSC Game World attempting to somehow figure out how to finish developing a massive AAA game – a dauntingly complex and difficult task as is – under unprecedented and extraordinary circumstances.

They say the fact that any game gets made is nothing short of a miracle even at the best of times, which makes S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl a miracle among miracles. What makes it somehow even more remarkable, however, is the fact that it is legitimately a stellar game. GSC Game World’s genre-bending shooter liberally plucks elements from survival horror games and immersive sims, and what emerges the other end is a unique and singular open world experience with incredibly strong emergent gameplay, spectacularly spooky atmosphere, and what feels like a limitless supply of captivating content.

"S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a unique and singular open world experience with incredibly strong emergent gameplay, spectacularly spooky atmosphere, and what feels like a limitless supply of captivating content."

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 puts players in the shoes of a new protagonist named Skif, a man who ventures into the notorious Chornobyl Exclusion Zone on a personal mission after losing everything in a mysterious accident involving an artifact that destroyed his home. As ever, however, things are never simple in the Zone, and Skif’s quest quickly grows complicated, bringing him into contact and conflict with a number of different people and factions. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 tells an engrossing story and tells it very well, and it’s made better by the implementation of choice and consequence mechanics, with the player regularly being asked to make decisions at crucial junctures that actually do make you pause and ponder things. Witnessing the consequences that your actions lead to, both in the short term and down the road, always remains a highlight of the experience.

The game does stumble narratively at times, whether that’s with inconsistent voice acting across its large cast of secondary characters, or even with Skif himself taking a while to really come into his own as a character. The writing, however, generally remains solid across the board, while the game also benefits from the slick direction of its ample cinematics. Meanwhile, though S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a fairly newcomer-friendly experience in terms of how familiar it needs you to be with its predecessors to understand and enjoy the story, your experience definitely will be enriched notably if you do come in with prior knowledge, thanks to several key characters, factions, and plot threads re-entering the fray.

What really makes S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 tick, however, is not the story that GSC Game World wrote down on paper, but the one that the game allows you to craft yourself. I’m an absolute sucker for open world games built around systems-driven emergent gameplay, and this is one of the best I’ve played in some time. The Zone is absolutely massive, but what makes it much more impressive is how dense, alive, and uncreditable it always feels. Things are always happening in the Zone whether you’re around to witness them or not, whether that’s something as simple as NPCs following different schedules or something more dramatic like conflicts between factions, and that lends an unbelievable level of authenticity to the world. It feels like Elder Scrolls, Radiant AI and all, amped up to 11.

"Things are always happening in the Zone whether you’re around to witness them or not, whether that’s something as simple as NPCs following different schedules or something more dramatic like conflicts between factions, and that lends an unbelievable level of authenticity to the world."

One mission that stood out to me in my early hours with the game saw me sneaking into a heavily guarded complex with nothing but a silenced pistol and a handful of bullets, and what should have been a fairly straightforward infiltration turned into a chaotic firefight involving three different sides (including myself, as well as a different group that happened to be attacking at the same time), with things eventually growing even more hectic when an incoming emission saw everyone rushing indoors in a panic to urgently find shelter. The vast majority of what made that mission stand out to be was because of things that were entirely unscripted- and such instances are blessedly common in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. It’s a game that feels constantly alive and electric in a way that is hard to replicate- certainly on this scale.

It is, however, also decidedly not going to appeal to everyone. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is brimming with its own unique eccentricities and quirks, chief among them being an utter refusal to hold the player’s hand, and an uncompromising level of difficulty, even on Normal (or hell, even on Easy, if I’m being honest). This is a game that prides itself on being punishingly hard even at the best of times, and I don’t doubt that there will be a number of people who will be turned off by that, especially since S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s earliest hours are some of its most challenging (with things growing slightly and relatively easier as you find better gear and weapons, and grow more comfortable with the game yourself).

Not only can you easily die in the vast majority of combat encounters – even against the lowliest of grunts – you also have to contend with radiation, hunger, the possibility of bleeding out, inventory management, resource conservation, weapon and armour degradation, and much, much more. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is constantly pushing back against the player, to the extent where creating friction is almost the whole point. Much like fellow open world game Dragon’s Dogma 2 earlier this year, this is a game that knows what it wants to be, knows exactly how to achieve that vision, and doesn’t care whether or not you’re going to like any of it. And just like with that game, that is exactly why I’ve been completely taken with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.

"This is a game that knows what it wants to be, knows exactly how to achieve that vision, and doesn’t care whether or not you’re going to like any of it."

There’s danger around every corner in the Exclusion Zone. From mutants to rival factions, from drastic weather changes to anomalies, from emissions to simply succumbing to the elements, there’s no shortage of things that can kill you- and they will. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 proudly displays a counter of how many times you have died on every single restart screen, and you can take it to the bank that you’ll be seeing that number climb steadily and consistently throughout your time with the game. I’m only somewhat ashamed to admit that the pace at which it climbed for me was a little higher than I’d have liked.

That constant feeling of danger works very well with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s survival horror side, which is a significant part of the game. Whether you’re walking through dilapidated woods while rain patters down on the trees around you or slowly slinking through a dark and cramped underground cave, the game boasts incredible atmosphere throughout. I’ve played a lot of horror games, but I’m telling you, few darknesses feel darker and more suffocating than what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 frequently throws you in the midst of. It delivers a truly potent brand of horror, one that elevates the experience in significant ways.

The constant tension and fear that the game builds at all times also allow exploration to be one of its strongest aspects, because going out into the wilds of the Zone always feels simultaneously terrifying and yet potentially worth the many risks. You always know that going off the beaten path will always bring a host of threats and potential ways to die- but you’ll also need those bullets that you’ll find. You’ll need that food, those weapons, those mods, that gear. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 balances its economy deftly- it’s never too liberal with the rewards that it doles out, often to the point where you feel like you’re always running low on either bullets, or cash, or something else you might (like healing items), especially in the game’s early hours. That is exactly why engaging in optional content and exploration feels worthwhile, however- not only because that content is well-designed, or because the world is a thrilling one to explore thanks to its emergent systems (all of that is true, of course), but also because the rewards that you earn and the pickups that you find along the way do feel valuable.

"The constant tension and fear that the game builds at all times also allow exploration to be one of its strongest aspects, because going out into the wilds of the Zone always feels simultaneously terrifying and yet potentially worth the many risks."

Progression is also a strong point. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is not an RPG, which means you’re not leveling anything up, earning any skill points, or unlocking any abilities on a skill tree. No, instead, the progression loop revolves around going out and exploring so you can earn or purchase better weapons, better mods for your weapons, more weapon upgrades, better armour, or other things that can help out, such as artifacts or stockpiling useful items like medpacks or grenades. It feels much more organic, and the game does genuinely make you feel like you’re growing stronger and more prepared to deal with the Zone’s many dangers.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is also an absolutely gorgeous game, to the extent that it may very well be one of the best-looking games to have been released on this current generation of consoles. As beautiful as it looks, however – and it does look really, really astoundingly beautiful – it’s also got a lot of technical rough edges. Some of the more minor infractions – like occasionally wonky lip syncing or the odd instance of texture pop-in – can be easy to forgive, especially given the colossal scale of this game, but some of its issues are much more egregious. On Quality Mode on Xbox Series X, for instance, the performance leaves much to be desired (though Performance Mode has been mostly fine in my experience), while I have also run into quite a few progress-blocking bugs, hard crashes, and what-have-yous. Even after a gargantuan pre-release 139 GB patch, I ran into a particularly nasty bug that ruined about ten minutes of gameplay before causing the game to freeze and crash, and forcing me to restart. GSC Game World says it intends to keep fixing and polishing the game following release, so hopefully it will be in a much better condition not long from now- because right now it is a little rougher than I’d like.

Under those technical issues, however, lies a singular game, an experience unlike any other. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl isn’t just one of the best games of the year, it is one of the best games in any of the many genres that intersect in GSC Game World’s open world epic. If you are a fan of open world games, horror games, immersive sims, or games with great world-building and player driven storytelling, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is an instant classic, and will continue to find fans for years to come.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.