Stalker 2doesn’t care about your feelings. When the sequel was officially announced many years ago, there was a fear amongst the community that GSC Game World was going to be creating a sanitised sequel intent on sanding off the original’s rough edges in search of mass appeal, thus losing its homemade charm. Despite its elongated production, Stalker 2 is every bit the obscurePCexperience it has always been, and I’m unsure if that’s the best thing that could have possibly happened or a damning indictment of its shortcomings.
Skif is a fresh-faced Stalker who finds himself venturing deep into the exclusion zone to set up scanners and gather information for an informant. The circumstances behind our task in the opening moments are unclear, as is how to survive in this harsh locale. Tutorials appear briefly on-screen about how to avoid spots of radiation or use certain equipment, but I found out very quickly how easy it is to meet death in Stalker 2. Step out of line or allow a monster to sneak up on you, and you’ll be reloading your save in no time. But there is a strange thrill in the frustration that comes with death, and one I found myself eager to welcome.
Heart Of The Radioactive Storm
After completing the tutorial section and being blasted away by a trio of relentless soldiers, I find myself in a sprawling township where ample quests can be taken on and characters can be met. It reminds me of the first settlement you stumble across in the original game. Fellow Stalkers can be found around a faintly burning fire as they discuss their pursuit of survival as one plucks away at an untuned acoustic guitar, providing the deathly quiet air with a sense of life.
As a Stalker, your job is to navigate the zone in search of resources, filling the role of the morally grey mercenary who can save people’s lives or leave them behind. How you strike a balance is up to you, and sometimes being a barbaric monster is the only way forward.
I was told that the three-hour preview build I played at the GSC Game World offices was set to a harder difficulty setting, but more forgiving options would be available in the full game.
I was surprised by how quickly Stalker 2 throws you into the thick of things. While there is a main quest to take on - marked in orange on your map - there are no restrictions on taking on side missions or exploring the zone of your own volition. I knew next to nothing, but I could still go out on a limb and embrace the open world. But I would learn the hard way exactly how many things out there want to kill me.
Everywhere I turn is a group of thugs spawning out of nowhere, a pack of wild dogs that are a nightmare to kill, or a literal gust of wind that can suck you up and explode you into a million pieces. The only way to stop them is to throw rusted bolts into the vortex and run past as the anomalies recuperate. You learn all of this by doing, and it’s difficult not to admire a game that operates like this.
Trial and error is a core gameplay mechanic of Stalker 2, since you will likely need to approach every gunfight or stealth sequence multiple times as you bite the dust thanks to enemies that spot and kill you within seconds with very little room for recovery.
Sometimes I saw situations like this as procedural and inspired, while others had me questioning whether the game was straight up broken. With just over a month until release, Stalker 2 has a lot of janky components, and not all of them can be brushed aside as a natural part of its DIY identity.
Pripyat Is Calling
There was one side quest where I had to reach a key character by sneaking into a winding tunnel beneath his residence. I could either talk to him or kill him, but either outcome brings a group of angry mercenaries to my door. But with only one way out and no weapons to my name that could handle things from a distance, I marched out the front door and was thrust into a firefight I could not win.
Through sheer luck, I emerged victorious eventually - never thanks to my own ingenuity, but by bashing my head against the game enough times that it gave in. These moments aren’t uncommon, but they’re also the instances fans of the original game will devour.
Stalker 2 plays like a relatively old school PC title, so it’s quite jarring when it suddenly transitions into stylish cutscenes during story sequences where everything is well animated and motion captured. All control is taken away from you too, which will take getting used to.
Aside from arbitrary pockets of radiation dotted throughout the open world - the area I saw in the preview was known as the Lesser Zone - the entirety of Chornobyl is your highly radiated oyster. Go anywhere and do anything, and if you’re crafty enough with how you play, there is nothing stopping you from potentially turning the game on its head.
GSC Game World wasn’t fussed about us pursuing the main quest or exploring for three whole hours, happy for press to experience the game in a way that I imagine will reflect real world conditions. I dabbled in the main quest, including a tense scene in a bar where soldiers confronted a small handful of Stalkers, but otherwise everything I did was fueled by curiosity.
It reminded me of exploring the Capital Wasteland in Fallout but with a heavier atmosphere. A world that can be beset with blankets of darkness, radioactive storms, and hordes of grim creatures at any moment. The weather became so heavy at points that I felt like I needed to take shelter, otherwise the radiation that permeates the world would suddenly spell my end.
Immersive sim-esque elements are everywhere. Enemy strongholds, stealth missions, and the majority of quests I stumbled across afforded the player decent flexibility if things didn’t suddenly fall over themselves. That’s what you want from Stalker 2, an utterly relentless world in which using every resource you find to its maximum is the best and most rewarding way to play.
The Zone Will Swallow You Whole
Approaching it like a generic shooter is a guaranteed route to player punishment, and GSC Game World wants you to realise that and deal with it. You may end up walking away, or you may fall in love with Stalker 2 like you have with no game before. It is impossible to tell right now where the majority of its audience will land.
It wasn’t clear exactly how far customisation will go in the full game from the preview, but I did glimpse a few menus where you may upgrade weapons, armour, and items with the help of crafting components. From the start, however, you’ll be pretty defenseless.
There is some incidental hilarity to be found amidst all the melancholy, too. The pause menu is outfitted with a quicksave option, so you’re encouraged to try silly things and regret choices immediately, as it doesn’t matter when things can be reversed with the press of a button. So I walked into a nearby town and hurled a grenade at a group of fellow Stalkers. All of those who didn’t die rushed me and killed me in seconds, but there is a universe where I emerge triumphant and can loot dozens of bodies to become the most powerful man in the zone. It’s possible, and being able to get away with that alone is so exciting.
Your guns will jam, you’ll run out of healing items, allies will turn against you, and the zone will threaten to swallow you whole at every opportunity. But it is this cadence that Stalker has built its reputation on, and there is something magical about the series sticking bravely to its guns even when the gaming world changes around it. I expected Stalker 2 to transform into an open world blockbuster without the rough edges that once defined it, but after three hours in the zone I’m bowled over by how much it kicked my ass, and how I just can’t wait to jump back in and punish myself all over again.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is the long-awaited follow-up to the apocalyptic first-person shooter. As a Stalker, you must venture into the deadly Exclusion Zone, contending with mutants and warring factions alike, in search of valuable artifacts.
