S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review - Mind Games In The Zone
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is here.
Despite everything it had stacked against it, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is here. That it made it to release is nothing short of amazing. I won’t say a miracle, because had the team waited for outside intervention, it never would have been released. No the fact that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has made it to release is due to commitment, care, dedication and drive from a group of developers whose resilience, strength and skill can never be questioned. This is a team that didn’t let a hostile invasion of their home country halt their dream. Staff members left to fight in the war, lost homes and families, and were forced to flee from Russia’s hostile actions. Yet S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is here.
The thing is, not only is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 here, but it is pretty darn good to boot.
It is almost impossible to separate the story behind the making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 from the game itself. They are so intertwined in my mind that making a judgement on the game, without thinking about what the developers had to go through to release it is a significant challenge. But I am going to try. Not because of some sort of moral stance about review ethics, because all reviews are just opinions anyway. No, I am going to try and split the two because I think the team at G.S.C Gameworlds wouldn’t want the judgement of their project to be tainted by sympathy for their plight. I feel like a team this dedicated, and this committed would want their game judged on its own merits. So that is what I am going to endeavour to do.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, despite its name, is actually the fourth entry in the franchise. It is once again set in “the Zone” a colloquial term for the area surrounding Chornobyl. As a little backstory, The Zone came about when government research in the Chornobyl exclusion zone caused a second disaster, irradiating the land, mutating animals and creating unexplained phenomena called anomalies in the process. In the years since the land has been settled by various groups looking to use the zone and its irradiated anomalies for scientific breakthroughs, power sources and even just to escape the world. This last group of people became known as Stalkers, folks who roam the Zone, scavenging, selling and securing irradiated artifacts. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 starts with a new person, Skif, coming to the Zone to choose this life. Little is known about him except something happened to his home and he is now Zone bound to try and make sense of his circumstance. This is who the players take control of.
I am not going to explain the story anymore as it is a real highlight of the game. Giving it away would be a crime. That said, I will say that players new to the franchise would do well in watching a story catchup video on YouTube before diving in. It is a new story, but it does reference quite a few events from the past games so some of that will undoubtedly be lost on new players. I will also say that it is the sort of story that seems disjointed and sporadic at first, but as the game reaches its climax, it all comes together in a satisfying and surprising manner. All those notes, tapes and encounters form a clear picture in the end, something the writers should be immensely proud of. The game, like its predecessors, has multiple endings so I can’t say with any certainty about how they all finish, but the ending I reached was a fitting conclusion to my adventure and not a letdown at all.
On the gameplay side of things, it is hard to nail down a specific genre for which S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 fits. The closest I can come up with is a first-person survival adventure. It is a game where you never feel safe, you are always slightly on edge. Resources are scarce, players need to scavenge to survive and eating, drinking and rest must be taken into consideration. The environment is littered with anomalies, all of which offer slight visual clues to their location, so being observant at all times is a must and if the anomaly cannot be avoided, it needs to be triggered with a piece of metal and then run through before it can reset. This is an unforgiving, brutal landscape where outside of a few safe zones, anything moving (and quite a few things that aren’t) is trying to kill you and most are better equipped, faster and frankly, scarier than you. To put it simply, this is one tough game. There is no hand-holding, no easing into things. From the opening scene through to the very end, this game never lets up. To top it all off, large areas of the map are irradiated, forcing players to use rare radiation medication or drink large quantities of Vodka (yes in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Vodka reduces radiation exposure, just go with it) to survive.
I am not ashamed to admit that it was almost too much to be played in the way I typically review games, i.e. in long sessions trying to get it all done before the embargo. On a number of occasions, before going to bed I had to lower my heart rate by playing something silly or lighthearted, just to relieve the stress and anxiety I was feeling. As a result, I think this is a game that will reward people who take their time with it, especially those who find themselves uncomfortable in this uncomfortable world. It is also probably not a game for people with anxiety issues, let me say that for sure. All that said, this tension is exactly what the developers were aiming for and they have nailed the brief. I can’t think of a game I have played where I felt as fragile or as tense as I did while playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
Where this leads me to worry is with the marketing. This is not the flashy AAA shooter that Xbox has been selling on their Gamepass ads. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is not a game that is for everyone. It is not along the lines of the Metro series, despite its similar themes. This is a game that is very much its own thing and that thing will click for many, but at the same time, I can see it pushing many away. I guess this is where Gamepass is ideal because it will give a huge audience that might not look at this sort of title a chance to try it out with little barrier to entry. If you fall into that category, I strongly suggest if you do try it give it a few hours before you make up your mind. At that point, you will know for sure if it is something you will dig or something that you want to avoid. I don’t think there is going to be any middle ground for this game.
Combat in the game is something that will feel alien to a lot of gamers as well. A more methodical approach is required and making sure you are as prepared as possible at all times is key to surviving encounters. Weapons and armour must be serviced at camps to ensure they work without jamming, reloading takes a significant amount of time and quite often damage will result in bleeding which can only be stopped by applying a time-consuming bandage. Running and hiding to reload and patch up is a must and often a fight avoided is better than a fight won. Surviving is victory and often the cost in ammo and medkits is not worth getting into a fight, to begin with. That said, some fights cannot be avoided so making shots count, staying nimble and most of all, hiding behind cover is a must.
This leads me to the first of a few problems the game has and that is the controls. I reviewed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 on the Xbox Series X but it is very clear that this is a game designed for the precision offered by a keyboard and mouse. There are a range of auto-aim calibrations that can be made to make life a bit easier for controller players (and I really suggest you do, it is rough on the default setting) but picking up items and searching through crates in the world is still fiddly and annoying without a mouse. Another failing is the simple fact that a controller just doesn’t have enough buttons for this sort of game. The devs have done a great job in mapping a lot of essential things, but because there are so many, it can be easy to hit the d-pad in the wrong way or hold onto it for too long and not get the item you were after. On more than one occasion I died because I drank vodka instead of using a medkit.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 also features quite a few rough edges, which is hardly a surprise when you A) consider the type of game it is and B) ponder the development conditions it was built in. There are quite a few graphical glitches present with the usual suspects like pop-in, floating bodies and stuck enemies making an appearance. The good news is that none of the bugs or glitches I came across were game-breaking, just some visual oddities that I suspect will be patched fairly quickly once it hits the real world. The game also isn’t the prettiest to look at on the Series X, with the performance mode being quite muddy and the quality mode feeling stilted thanks to the 30fps. Once again, I have a feeling this will improve with time and I am really excited to play it on my high-end PC once it is released because there are some stunning effects and environments that I feel the Series X just might not have enough power to do justice.
As you may have guessed, I have a lot to say about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. It is the type of game that invites discussion and forces examination. It is a unique experience that isn’t comfortable, but never tries to be. It encourages exploration, contemplation and, when required, swift brutality in equal measure and most of all it is a game that believes in its world so wholeheartedly it is impossible to avoid being drawn in. I won’t say I loved every minute of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, some of those minutes I was an absolute nervous wreck, but I will say that I am incredibly glad I got to experience it. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has its issues, but none of those lessen the G.S.C Gameworlds’ achievement. It is a game that will stay with me for a long time and is proof that sometimes the perfect game is the one that was broken to begin with. I am not sure how much of the war in Ukraine seeped into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but it is hard not to see parallels with the real world when playing.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 isn’t a game for everyone, but it is a game for me. My hat is off, I am standing and applauding, my deepest respect is heading to the entire team at G.S.C. What you have achieved under the most trying of conditions is nothing short of amazing.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was reviewed on the Xbox Series X with code kindly supplied by Xbox Australia
