Playing STALKER 2 feels like coming home, despite all the (many) problems

I’m deeply conflicted on STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. From one point of view, it’s a phenomenal celebration of everything I’ve ever loved about the franchise. On the flip side, its single most important feature is either broken or deliberately left out, and it’s unclear what might happen next.

Squaring off with STALKER 2 is a complicated thing for me, and I suspect many franchise veterans feel something similar about it. There’s absolutely no question about two of its launch-day features:

• There’s a love for the source material present here, and it is handled with appropriate fervor by GSC Game World.
• The game is broken beyond belief, and it falls apart at the seams in the later stages of the main story.

Ever since STALKER 2‘s been re-announced, I’ve been very skeptical of what GSC Game World may or may not be able to do with the IP. Especially one that’s been so ridiculously elevated by its community via mods. For the fact that the ridiculously customizable X-Ray Engine would be replaced by the sheer sloppiness of Unreal Engine 5, I had no love. In fact, even though the modding scene is already picking up, I still have my doubts about it reaching the heights of the old, classic STALKER titles in this respect.

Yet, at the same time, STALKER 2 feels right. It’s a genuinely compelling homecoming in some barely quantifiable ways, and here, I aim to discuss this for a little bit. Perhaps even help someone make sense of the bits that have gone right, and the bobs that have gone left.

STALKER 2, such as it is, is a broken mess of a game. I will sing it praise in this article, but I’d like to ask you to keep this statement in mind throughout. It’s important for the crux of my argument.

Upon starting my first playthrough of STALKER 2 (because I’ve got no doubt many more will follow), I was greeted by an oddly cinematic cutscene that felt more like Crysis or Far Cry than anything else. It was tightly scripted, well executed and acted, and it set the stage for what was to come.

Skif, as a protagonist, is appropriately eclectic and Weird. More so than any of its predecessors, STALKER 2 is a thoroughbred New Weird story where you simply have to go with the flow and accept that some things will not make sense no matter how you flip them. The vibe is king, instead, and it is downright immaculate.

In classic video game fashion, the prologue equips Skif with powerful full-length rifles and a face-off against the legendary Bloodsucker in the middle of the night. The powerful goodies are subsequently yanked away, and Skif is soon enough left alone and under-equipped for the horrors of the Zone, a trust Makarov at his side.

For the next five-odd hours, I enjoyed one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in years. The story unravels slowly and at a fairly brisk pace, and there’s really not much chance to go off and explore. Crucially, this works in STALKER 2‘s favor, because you don’t get to see the “simulation” fall apart until you’re already reasonably well invested.

When it does fall apart, though, it’s like someone pulls the rug from under your feet. I’ve written at length about the importance of A-Life in STALKER right here at Destructoid, and though newcomers won’t really understand how crucial the system is, veterans will. A-Life was the bit that made STALKER‘s rendition of the Exclusion Zone such a big deal.

Sure, the mainline STALKER games only really had a severely stunted and gimped version of A-Life in place, but it gave players a sense of persistence and progression that you simply will not get out of this game. It’s not happening.

A-Life, as it currently stands, does not exist in STALKER 2. I can speculate as to why that is the case until the Fleshes come home, but it’s irrelevant. The relevant bit is this: STALKER 2 only ever spawns NPCs within a meager 100-meter radius around the player character. More frustratingly, this does mean clearing out large bases is effectively impossible, while it’s conversely entirely possible for that Bloodsucker nest to replenish its inhabitants literally minutes after you’ve cleared it out.

This does not make for a good playing experience. In fact, once you figure out how the game’s NPCs work in action, you may well be hard-pressed to drop STALKER 2 for the time being. And, honestly, the thought crossed my mind as well.

Why did I stick with this broken game, then?

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl was one of the first proper FPS titles I played on PC back in the day. I started my gaming career on the PlayStation, as it were, and it took just under a decade for me to think of booting something on the underpowered office PC my parents had back then.

Boy, was my mind blown.

A-Life, as such, was barely present in Shadow of Chernobyl. It wasn’t the thing that drew me in, but rather something I’d grow to appreciate in subsequent Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat releases, as well as the mods. No, the bit that drew me in was the atmosphere and the vibe. These are the two things that STALKER 2, coincidentally, pulls off phenomenally well.

Add a zest of nostalgia to the mix, then, and you’ve got a game that’s just magical enough (when it works) to keep me glued to the screen.

GSC Game World genuinely has delivered something incredible as far as the Exclusion Zone itself goes. I’ve seen some complain that the world is empty and lifeless, but my experience has been anything but that. A general sense of dread and emptiness is absolutely necessary for the core exploration loop in STALKER, make no mistake. The absolute horror show that is STALKER 2‘s “A-Life 2.0” very nearly ruins the whole bloody thing, for sure, but the more manually curated bits help elevate the experience.

STALKER 2 is full of memorable vignettes. Against the foreboding yet beautiful backdrop of the Zone, just seeing Stalkers line up for fresh bread in Rostok feels compelling. Hearing Stalkers crack stupid jokes around a firepit in the middle of nowhere, in the Swamps? Re-visiting iconic locations to see GSC peppering out easter eggs and nods to veteran players? Talking with the prior games’ protagonists and other familiar NPCs? Just walking through the immaculate ruins of the Zone? Folks, there’s something special here, I promise.

The problem is that this “specialness” is overshadowed by the current state of the game. I have absolutely no doubt that many have already dropped STALKER 2, as if it were rad-hot. This, I feel, is warranted. This is not only because A-Life 2.0 is a ridiculously unfun take on one of the franchise’s most important features but also because we shouldn’t accept broken games in general. I’m definitely not excusing STALKER 2 in any way here.

GSC Game World claims that A-Life is currently not behaving the way it’s supposed to, and I think it’s a given that things will improve as STALKER 2 finally receives the polishing phase it’s obviously currently missing. Frankly, I doubt A-Life 2.0 will be as potent as A-Life on X-Ray was. I also don’t think modders will be able to take things as far as they did, back in the day.

At the same time, I find myself drawn back into STALKER 2‘s rendition of the Zone. It’s such a shame that GSC wasn’t willing or able to pull this off right pre-release because the content of this game deserves it. As for whether you’ll be able to push through the game’s problems in the same way I have, I wouldn’t know. If you’re a veteran of the series and nostalgic to get back into it, though, maybe give it a shot. Maybe visit Sidorovich, for old times’ sake.