STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl review. This is not a very good game

Strong words, huh? But I really don’t mean to stir up controversy or go against the grain, because for many people the STALKER series is considered equal to, or higher than, the legendary Gothic. And everyone would like the new version to be simply very good. Unfortunately, it is not. It has its moments and perhaps I would have assessed it differently if it had been released sometime before Far Cry 5, i.e. seven years ago, because today – unless you have a computer from NASA – the highest settings are not a big bargaining chip anyway, and even “high” – as I played – Stalker 2 is very different from the promotional materials. Oh, I played on PC.

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Fabulous rinsings

First of all – the plot. It may actually not exist. We are a henchman who was supposed to set up an anomaly scanner inside the zone, but something went wrong, some strange guests appeared, someone saved us and… basically we don’t know anything else. The beginning is a typical “they killed him and he escaped”, and our task now is to develop this whole story. Even though we could basically turn around and go home through the same fence that took us 10 minutes. we jumped into the zone earlier. But no, there would be no game then, the call of the explorer is strong in us, so we have to ask the next guys with guns in their hands if they know anything about this particular guy who betrayed us.

And what turns out? That almost everyone has heard about him, but no one knows where he is, but if we help them with their problem, they will give us the location of another man who has definitely heard something about him. And the next one actually heard something, but he will help us if we solve a problem for him with another person, which can be solved by solving a problem for that other person… you probably understand what I mean? The plot is really a very simple, not to say simplistic, justification for moving us around the world map like pieces on a chess board.

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The open world and its consequences

A board that is quite open. There is plenty of space in the game, there are no corridors here, but an open map divided into sectors on which we can travel. Unfortunately, only on foot, because with any UAZ we would quickly realize that this “large” map is only from the perspective of a soldier wrapped in a scarf.

Unfortunately, combined with the fact how quickly our hero’s stamina bar drops, most of the journey is only tiring, not satisfying. If only this whole world were at least as densely filled with artifacts as in the first Stalker, but no. The few artifacts we find in the early stages are basically radioactive garbage. Only a few are of any use, and searching for them – unless we come across them during quests – is simply tedious. Precisely because of the pace of our main character’s movement, combined with his chronic fatigue. And if we add that he gets tired much faster when he has two too many sausages and one rifle in his backpack…

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The game’s economy is absurdly pointless

But, but… the “good” news is that you don’t have to do side missions. In fact, you shouldn’t even do it, because it’s completely unprofitable. All because of the completely screwed up economy of Stalker 2. We pay for everything in the game with coupons, which are the basic currency. The problem is that the pricing of things and services in this world is completely screwed up.

Some examples:

The stalker in the first settlement informs us that in his former house there is an icon that is extremely valuable to him, a family heirloom that he would like to get back, but a very dangerous anomaly has appeared around the house. We agree to help. For 2,000 credits we buy information about the exact location of the basement. During the journey, we fight a pack of dogs, using two magazines of bullets, costing a total of 600 credits. After the entire journey, we also have to repair the rifle and patch the suit, for which we can pay a total of up to 1.5-2 thousand credits. How much do we get for completing the task? 1000 credits. Seriously.

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Second example? We risk our lives to find the missing group of Stalkers. We find one alive, fight mutants, defeat bandits and barely survive a fight with a powerful invisible zombie. Prize? 1500 credits. Exactly the same amount as we will have to spend on… fast travel. For ONE fast trip.

Or maybe we can at least get it back in captured weapons? A dream, because it turns out that 90 percent opponents shoot at us with broken weapons. If a weapon’s durability drops below a certain level, it begins to jam more and more frequently until it eventually requires repair. Of course, in the hands of our opponents it will not jam even once, but in our case it “magically” breaks down. And you know what’s best about such weapons? No dealer will buy a broken weapon, and the cost of repairing it… exceeds its value.

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It all ends in such a way that when we go on a mission, we kill 40 enemies, we get three or four usable weapons, but with the reward from the mission and the coupons obtained for selling the equipment we find, we are barely able to cover the costs of repairing the armor – these are truly absurd and reach up to several thousand coupons.

Yes, the economy in Stalker 2 is crap and makes no sense. Since this is not an RPG game, so we do not gain experience or expand our skills, we will gain the most – or rather lose less – by NOT completing side tasks.

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But this is a small loss, because all tasks – both side and main – involve running to markers on the map, which not only show the coordinates of our task, but also the distance in meters and whether the marker is above or below us. And this also applies to navigation to hidden caches by definition. If we receive information about its existence, we will get its exact location in the game world, down to a centimeter. Even if it was hung on a tree.

Relationships with NPCs and messed up AI

Unfortunately, the complaints don’t end there. Stalker is a game in which I appreciated the relationships with the NPCs, seeing in them, on the one hand, a strong affiliation to one of the factions, and ultimately seeing each of them as an unfortunate person who hopes to improve their fate thanks to a few valuable artifacts from the zone. However, in Stalker 2 it is difficult to like anyone, the NPCs have almost no character, and entering a completely new camp, instead of becoming an experience, is a very stupid act of giving us everything on a platter. We meet a new guy, he says that we should go to his camp, we come there with weapons in our hands and everyone shakes our hand, gives us a bed to sleep in and wants to trade with us. And this is before we complete the “talk to the boss in the camp” task.

Ultimately, what seemed most interesting to me was the thread of the Monolith group/sect, also known from previous installments, which breaks away from these rigid frameworks, at least slightly. Oh, and Stalker 2 continues the tradition of an exclusively male cast – there are no female NPCs in the game.

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The very poor original dubbing does not help the impression of shallowness of the NPCs and contacts with them. Just like in Metaphor: ReFantazio I played with Japanese sound, in Stalker 2 I included Ukrainian spoken lines and… they are very dispassionate. While listening to the characters’ voices, in most cases I imagined in my mind’s eye the voice actor sitting on a stool and casually reading the given text.

But it’s even worse with artificial intelligence. Do you remember how in the first version, all you had to do was cause a commotion, enter the room and stand in the corner, aiming at the place next to the door frame, where the heads of similarly tall opponents would appear? Well, it’s similar here. Enemies push into the sights or use the extremely ineffective “two steps and a burst from the rifle” technique, ignoring hiding behind covers. Sometimes they will decide to hide or surround us, but these are isolated antics.

But that’s not what hurts me the most. What is extremely irritating in Stalker 2 is the way of alerting enemies to our presence. At a certain stage of the game, silencers appear and a mission involves entering a complex where there are about several dozen enemies. So you can complete the mission stealthily, eliminating enemies silently. The problem is that it doesn’t work as we would like.

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Example – There are 100 soldiers on the base. 98 of them are sitting on the fifth floor of the building. The other two are in one locked room in the basement. Killing one of them invisibly is not a problem. However, if they are both looking at each other, after shooting one, the other is automatically alerted – that is clear – but along with him, 98 people several dozen meters from us also know about the murder in the basement at the same moment. Hive mind, telepathic connection, or whatever. And the worst thing is that alerted opponents will always know where we are and move towards us.

Literally always. So an absurd situation occurs that just a few days later, while walking past the same complex, from a distance of 100 meters, enemies start shooting at us, whom we can’t even see. And they do it because from the moment of alarm, their AI is constantly directed towards us and constantly alerted. The enemies no longer sleep or eat, but only look in our direction, and even if we teleported by fast travel, they will shoot at us when we appear within their range.

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Dumb AI doesn’t just affect human opponents. Mutants, all kinds of rats and other dogs, are equally idiotic and absurdly annoying, running along the same very strange and repetitive paths, infuriating the player instead of providing a qualitative challenge.

Is there anything really good here?

Basically, it’s the survival atmosphere and the fact of the need to take care of your equipment, although it is so limited that I am convinced that the first mod will be to increase its capacity or to abolish the limit of carried items altogether. If, with an empty backpack and only the equipment on us, we carry half of the load limit without losing the speed of fatigue, it is enough to add a few bottles of vodka, a few sausages and canned goods, and packages of ammunition to have enough load capacity for maybe two rifles. Two more and we go from the orange field to the red field, where two seconds of sprint means, among others, inability to jump.

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On the other hand, it is somewhat depressing that 90 percent He leaves exactly the same loot when he dies. It doesn’t matter whether we sneaked up on the enemy from behind and killed him unnoticed, or maybe he has already fired three magazines at us, he will always leave behind only a few bullets, plus a piece of bread or sausage and some water. And so 20 times, if we killed 20 thugs – 6 bullets, bread and water or beer for each of them.

Another plus is the quite rich arsenal, which can also be improved by installing… well… upgrades on weapons and armor. Reducing recoil, increasing bullet speed, or reducing weight – these are just a few examples. We will perform these upgrades in an appropriate workshop. Without it, we will add a few extras to the weapon, such as enlarged magazines or sights.

Stalker 2 is a letdown

Unfortunately, as a fan of the series, I write this with great regret, but Stalker 2 disappoints in many elements. Sure, it is possible to cross a certain threshold of being “involved” in the game, when we want to get to know the entire zone and complete the plot, but at least in the build I was able to play, the economy of play, terribly annoying artificial intelligence and lack of greater attachment to the factions within the zone made me think that if I didn’t have to play it to review it, I would have probably given up sooner.

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As I have already mentioned, if Stalker 2 had appeared sometime before Far Cry 5, which is much more interesting than this production (even if I criticized Ubi’s work myself), we might have looked at this game differently. It’s a long-winded dish, devoid of any nice additions and filled with the same not-so-bad but bland taste from the beginning, basically for most of the fun.

Our rating: 5.5/10

How do the side quests in Stalker⁣ 2 enhance or‌ detract from the overall gameplay experience compared to similar games?

Question 1: What are​ your ​thoughts on the economic system and side quests in Stalker 2 compared⁤ to other RPG games?

Question 2:⁢ How ⁣do you feel about the relationships between NPCs ⁣and their dialogue⁢ in Stalker 2?

Question⁤ 3: Can you elaborate on the AI issues mentioned in the article,‍ and ​how they affect gameplay?

Question 4: Is there anything in the game that ⁢stands out as particularly good or impressive, despite its shortcomings?

Question 5: How does Stalker 2’s letdown compare to other games‌ in the same genre,‌ or to​ its predecessors?