S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 | REVIEW

“A brutal, No Fucks Given punishing game" 

PC | XBOX SERIES

HOW I PLAYED: I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 via Xbox GamePass PC on my R7 7800X3D, RTX 3080 Gaming PC. I played at 1440p ultra settings with DLSS set to balanced and was hitting 80fps and above.

STORY — 14/20 

INTRO 3

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's intro does a solid job of setting the stage for the game's narrative, introducing us to Skif, a STALKER tasked with a mission alongside a scientist, scanning for artifacts within the mysterious ZONE. As a newcomer to the series, I find the story fresh and intriguing, though the tutorial aspect could have been a tad more comprehensive to ease players into the controls. Nonetheless, it effectively sets up the world and the central conflict, giving a taste of what's to come in this unforgiving environment.

CUTSCENES 3

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's cutscenes are kind of dated. A lot of the cutscenes are just dialogue moments with different NPCs, some are pre-rendered and sprinkled throughout the campaign (mostly at the beginning and end of the game). The dialogue sometimes veers into the territory of being a bit corny, potentially due to translation from Ukrainian to English. I bet the native Ukrainian sounds a lot better than the English performances. I would compare these cutscenes to the quality of a Call Of Duty game from 2017 but with some of the NPC jankyness of a Bethesda game.

WORLD BUILDING 4

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's world is discovered through interactions with NPCs and general exploration. As you navigate the ZONE, conversations with other STALKERS, merchants, and various characters in safe zones or camps reveal layers of lore and detail about its environment. The world-building is further enhanced by side quests, where you can delve deeper into the game's universe, gaining currency or enhanced items. Again, never playing the first game I did feel like I was missing out on some information in the game. 

 

OVERALL STORY4

The narrative of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was thought-provoking, leaving me with lingering contemplation post-campaign. Despite some clunky dialogue likely stemming from translation issues, the essence of what GSC Game World aimed to convey was clear. The story, while not revolutionary, was sufficiently engaging and serviceable. I could see what the devs were going for with the story and that translated beyond the clunky sometimes "silly' dialogue. 

 

 The dialogue sometimes veers into the territory of being a bit corny, potentially due to translation from Ukrainian to English.

GRAPHICS — 10/15

 

CHARACTER MODELS 3

The character models in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 range from decent to hilariously bad. I kept thinking that this game made me feel like I was playing an old Call Of Duty game from the PS3 era. But I still think the models are decent enough not to impede gameplay. They are adequate and fit the function of the overall game. But don't go into S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 expecting any eye candy 😬.

ENVIRONMENTS 4

There are some genuine moments in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 where I felt "Wow! This is a great scene". But a lot of the "The Zone" is very bland, which makes sense as it all fits inside a specific biome. I know that a lot of the landscapes and areas are meant to mimic real-life locations. Some people were touting S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 as having some of the best graphics of this generation... but I didn't see that personally. 

SPECIAL FX 3

The SFX were nothing amazing or memorable, being built in UE5 I could see some of the typical UE5 tropes. I have said repeatedly and I think this comparison is accurate, I think S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 looks and feels like a COD game of years past. Nothing wrong with this, but it's nothing super noteworthy. 

AUDIO — 9/15 

AMBIENCE 4

The ambiance is incredible in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2. I constantly feel the bleakness of the Zone and the incoming DREAD of possible death. The subtle tones and atmosphere help to amplify the feeling of "survival" in the game.

BOSS MUSIC 2

There is basically none, it's just very basic intense tones. I understand that this is a small studio, but I find it a big letdown that games opt out of having epic boss tracks.

SOUND DESIGN 3

The sound mixes dialogue and ominous tones with the mix of steps walking nearby in the bushes. I felt the sound design was decent but what brought it down for me was the voice acting. Again this is a small studio and I bet the native language voice acting is far superior but the English voice acting was laughably bad at points. At times it even completely destroys the mood the game is trying to portray.

PERFORMANCE — 6/10

FRAME RATE  3

I was able to get the game running at above 60fps, but for the graphic fidelity of this game, I should easily be in the 100+fps range. Black Ops 6 is a much better-looking game and runs far superior to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2. There have been multiple patches to the game to improve performance and I played after the first major patch. I still think UE5 optimization is a struggle for most studios.

STABILITY 3

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 is rough around the edges. There is a lot of JANK in this game, and I know the first game was known for its jankyness as well. I am tired of this excuse of "lovable quirks" with game releases, we should not be praising games that release with so many bugs and cosmetic glitches. Throughout my play-through I had multiple crashes, I had lots of NPC bugs, and many odd animation quirks. I also had a weird glitch where my character would just randomly pick up weapons without my prompting.

GAMEPLAY — 26/40 

CONTROLS 4

The controls felt good, pretty standard FPS controls. I did find some things confusing like switching my lamp on and off. I felt like there could have been a button layout image in the game menu or something.

MECHANICS 4

This game is BRUTAL, it is a true survival game and you will be punished. I did feel some of the game mechanics might be a bit much for the average player but I felt like they went for their niche audience which I can respect. I felt like the weight limit could have been a bit more generous but I am admittedly terrible at these types of games so I was always running overloaded. I was really upset that I did not know until almost the end of the game how fast travel worked. Each camp has a "tracker" and I thought they were just for directions or maybe they would put a plot point on your map, but this NPC is who you talk to for fast travel between different camps in the game. Could have saved me TONS of manual walking hours.

PACING 3

Terrible, but this could have been my fault. But this game is GUILTY of forcing the player to walk from one side of the map to the other for fetch quests and natural story missions. And to keep enough adequate ammo to handle the random mutant encounter or STALKER invasion I always felt like I was overburdened. Because the fast travel mechanic was not obvious to me I would find myself doing the long walk between areas and purposely going the outside routes to limit my encounters so I didn't break any of my equipment.

UI/UE 4

I thought the UI/UE was pretty good. Pretty standard for an FPS game and it was minimal on screen. My personal small gripe is there was no way to completely disable the HUD in the options. I like being able to disable the in-game HUD so I can capture some scenic shots, but I wasn't able to do that. Navigating the menus was pretty straightforward, I think there could be some quality-of-life improvements made in the future for moving/sorting inventory.

***CORRECTION***
I found you can completely disable the HUD in settings!

 

BOSS QUALITY 3

There weren't any standard bosses but some of the mutant encounters felt like boss battles to me. And I know this game is supposed to be punishing, but going up against a Pseudogiant that has like 1,000,000 HP and just empties your entire ammo cache is not a fun or engaging experience for me. Most of the mutant encounters I would just run away from as they never dropped anything of use and just expelled all my resources. The weakest area in this game.

ENEMY VARIETY 3

It makes sense in the game but it does start to get fatiguing to be constantly taking on the same enemy mobs. Either the human Stalker mobs or the armoured-up soldiers. Every now and then they would throw in a Psi mutant or some rats in different areas. 

GAMEPLAY VARIETY 3

There is some variety in gameplay but the most important thing is to SURVIVE. If you get tired of doing the main campaign you can hang out in a camp and do small side missions for some extra money. Or you can look at your map and find weapon caches to go loot. Each weapon has a lot of upgrade potential and you can upgrade your armor sets with vendors. There is also searching for relics that add different buffs to your character. 

REPLAYABILITY 2

Unless you really enjoy this type of survival gameplay I don't see any reason to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 ever again. After a first play-through, you may be able to go a 2nd more proficiently but I think with the long treks across the map and even with the tracker fast travel, I can't see myself ever wanting to play through this game again. 

 

I know this game is supposed to be punishing, but going up against a Pseudogiant that has like 1,000,000 HP and just empties your entire ammo cache is not a fun or engaging experience for me.

BONUS — 1/4 

There are colorblind options in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2! There is some controller customization but not complete customization so it only gets a single point. 

OVERALL — 66/100 

FAIR

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 HEART OF CHORNOBYL
Is a brutal, No Fucks Given punishing game. This is a game for those who love FPS survival games like Tarkov or RUST, which is a genre I am completely foreign to. I don't understand the copium people have been spreading about this game's graphics being the best in class... But I do feel like this is a very competent game and I think the gaming niche this is aimed at will LOVE everything S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 has to offer. The gameplay is definitely the strength of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.2 and there are moments where the graphics shined, but I did feel overall the game feels like a mid 2010's Call Of Duty title. If you love the FPS genre and have been looking for a challenging survival game, definitely pick up STALKER 2 or just subscribe to Xbox GamePass for a month and play it there, as I think this game is a great experience even if it's just for a single playthrough.

 

PROS

✅ Immersive Gameplay
✅ Great atmosphere
✅ Interesting story
✅ Enjoyable gun-play

 

CONS

❌ Inventory management is overly punishing
❌ Quest items have weight
❌ Mutants have too high HP 
❌ Fast travel needs to be more obvious / cost less

TLDR: 66/100 (FAIR) S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl delivers a brutal and immersive FPS survival experience, with punishing mechanics, an atmospheric world, and engaging gunplay that will appeal to hardcore fans of the genre. While the story intrigues and the ambience shines, the game struggles with janky cutscenes, dated visuals, frustrating inventory management, and poorly balanced mutant encounters. Despite its flaws, it's a worthwhile playthrough—especially via Game Pass—for those seeking a challenging survival adventure.

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