STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review

Born in 2007 with Shadow of Chernobyl, the STALKER license has quickly become a benchmark for open-world survival shooters. Blending exploration, tension, and mystery in a Chernobyl-inspired irradiated zone, the series made its mark with its unique atmosphere and brutal realism. After over a decade’s wait, GSC Game World picks up the torch with STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, promising to reinvent the experience with modern graphics, immersive storytelling, and an even more unforgiving dynamic world. Overall, it’s a successful outcome, despite a few notable anomalies.

Heart of Chornobyl

The Stalker series represents a unique vision of video games, deeply rooted in the culture and aesthetics of Eastern Europe. Unlike other major open-world productions, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl favors a dark, gloomy atmosphere, set in a unique post-apocalyptic universe shaped by the region’s history and traumas. The aesthetics of the devastated landscapes, the ruined Soviet buildings, and the dark soundtrack evoke an era marked by uncertainty and past tragedies.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl takes us to the legendary Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, an area devastated by a second fictional nuclear explosion in 2006. This disaster transformed the region into a mysterious and hostile place, populated by anomalies, mutant creatures, and rival factions. The game features Skif, a stalker who explores the Zone to survive, unravel its mysteries, and complete challenging missions.

The story begins as you help Dr. Hermann recharge a mysterious artifact, found outside the Zone and now in your possession. It soon becomes clear that Skif has lost his home due to mysterious events in the Zone. However, even for veterans of the Stalker universe, the narrative can be confusing. While the story itself isn’t very original, it does enrich the franchise’s lore significantly, much to please hardcore fans. The main problem lies in the first part of the game, which is rather sluggish.

It attempts to introduce characters and events, while familiarizing newcomers with the universe. This compromise confuses progress, and the first few hours are often spent wandering around looking for a device or a person, before things really start to get serious. STALKER 2 also struggles to make its characters stand out, or to develop them sufficiently to create a real sense of attachment. This can be explained by the “Eastern European” style, which is often more minimalist in this aspect. On the other hand, the game does manage to leave its mark regularly, thanks to its system of decisions. These decisions (which are numerous) provide real diversions in the side events, and also influence the course of the main plot.

A Brutal and Beautiful Post-apocalyptic World

While the open world may lack truly original random events, every corner of the Zone tells a story, often a tragic one. Searching an underground passage for a stalker’s cache can lead to a bloody scene littered with corpses, before you find yourself overwhelmed by an army of rats or a powerful mutant. True to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s philosophy, which introduces a brutal realism combining resource management, realistic weapon handling, omnipresent dangers, day/night cycles, and unpredictable weather, this type of open world will delight challenge-lovers, but may not suit those who aren’t prepared to be beaten up and frustrated.

Every mission can turn into a real struggle. Going on a quest with a complete pack (weapons, ammunition, healing items, etc.) can quickly turn into a catastrophe if you accidentally run into a mutant that consumes a large part of your ammunition. Although weapons and armor durability are a little too punitive, mainly due to the expensive cost of the repair system, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has a talent for forcing us to play cleverly. For example, we can lure a mutant to a group of enemies, leaving them to kill each other and save our resources, or use the Zone’s many anomalies to our advantage.

The other dimension of its incredible ambience lies in moments worthy of the best horror games. Every time we descend into an underground passage or explore a cave, the tension is real. The soundscape plays a key role in this feeling: the sound of the wind, the crackle of the anomaly detector, and the distant howls of mutant creatures increase immersion without ever overloading the acoustic experience. We also welcome the Slavic songs played on the radio in the shelters, and the moments when we play guitar by the fire. To take full advantage of this unique Eastern European-inspired atmosphere, we recommend you opt for the Ukrainian voices.

A Beautiful Vision with a Technical Mess

Before its official release, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl was a true festival of all kinds of bugs. However, after the big Day One patch, the game is much less of a headache. Nevertheless, there’s no denying that many bugs are still present. Some are simply annoying and disappear after a save reload, like this bug where a locknut blocked the view when aiming a weapon. Others, however, are far more problematic. After the patch, we didn’t encounter any bugs that really blocked progress in the story, except for a dialog that was impossible to leave in front of a military base (fortunately, taking another entrance solved the problem).

The problem of bugs is far more worrying in the side quests, For example, a door that refuses to open to validate a quest, or enemies stuck in a safe zone and impossible to kill… There are also sound bugs, where radio communications turn into voices, giving the impression that the NPC is standing right next to you. Artificial intelligence also has its shortcomings, particularly when trying to make a discreet approach. Enemies, especially mutants, can spot you from a distance and all too easily. Last but not least, optimization is still in need of revision, with frequent FPS drops, particularly during cinematics and in certain specific locations.

As good as STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is, it’s disappointing to find it in this state. A few more weeks would probably have corrected most of the most annoying bugs. Some might joke that a STALKER game that isn’t “broken” isn’t a real STALKER. But jokes aside, it’s hard to fully blame the Ukrainian studio GSC Game World, which had to work under particularly difficult circumstances following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While we must evaluate the game professionally and honestly, without giving in to emotion, there’s no denying that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is something of a minor miracle, because overall it’s a very good game. Plus, it’s one of those big productions that stands out from other AAA thanks to its unique approach. This year, the only other game I can think of that fits into this category is Dragon’s Dogma 2. In short, if this is your first encounter with the franchise, we advise you to wait for the game to improve with a few updates and patches. If you’re a PC gamer, however, you’ve got a bigger advantage over Xbox players, because if previous installments are anything to go by, you can expect the modding community to make enormous use of the game over time.

Conclusion

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a worthy successor to its predecessors. It offers a unique open world, driven by a crazy atmosphere and a setting both brutal and fascinating. Although we advise you to wait for a few patches to stabilize bugs and improve optimization, this game remains an essential experience for those who aren’t afraid of living rough. Despite the inconsistent storytelling and failed stealth approach, we deeply enjoyed exploring the Zone and surviving its countless dangers. Even with its imperfections, STALKER 2 manages to capture the essence of the series, modernizing it as it should be.