S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the survival horror game set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Blending immersive exploration with tactical combat and survival elements.
‘Stalker 2’ has been a long time coming, having first been announced in 2012 but then cancelled for various reasons. It finally resurfaced in 2018 with an announcement to begin development again, but again silence, then in 2021 at E3 GSC presented a game play trailer. To say it has gone through development hell is an understatement, having gone through 3 different game engines and issue at the developers. This was further compounded by the fact that GSC is based in Kyiv, and we all know what happened in February 2022, there is a fascinating film on Youtube on GSC’s own channel and on the official Xbox channel exploring its development and the impact the war had on the studio and the colleagues.
I have been a massive fan of the ‘Stalker’ series since the first game, back in 2007, and its sequels released in quick succession in 2008 and 2009. To say I was excited is a under statement and I couldn’t wait to explore the zone again.
‘Stalker 2’ is based in the exclusion zone in Ukraine, around the fated Chernobyl power plant, with a map size that is approximately 60 square kilometres. It is fairly chunky to say the least, it is bigger than the maps of GTA V, Skyrim, Fallout 4 and the original Stalker games, an impressive feat with plenty of exploration.
What is the zone, as its called, filled with? Basically stuff that wants to kill you, you will be facing off against other stalkers from various factions, there are 12 each with there own goals and agendas, Mutants, Anomalies…..oh and the zone itself wants to kill you as well. Lets start with the factions, you can align with various factions at different parts of the game depending on who’s goals you agree with, these choices are important, they dictate how other stalkers respond to you, how areas in the game open up to you, what missions you get and finally the ending, there are 4 separate endings. Replaying the game multiple times is worth it and unlike many games the main quest is long and is not going to be over in 10 hours presenting to me excellent value for money.
Mutants explore the zone, some are fairly normal and what you would expect to see such as blind dogs and massive rats. Then you have the more unusual such as blood suckers, controllers and many others. Anomalies, these are areas which have various effects on you, all of them bad, such tossing you in the air, ripping you apart, trying to set you on fire and others, the only benefit of them is that these anomalies can contain artefacts. These are artefacts imbue you with additional characteristics and abilities, however they all have some kind of negative effect as well, the primary one being radiation which hardly brings me onto the environment. Being the exclusion zones the primary issue you face is radiation, but there are also falls, barbed wire and your general well being to worry about such as hunger, energy and sleep. Like I said the zone wants to end you.
What are the graphics like?… to be honest sometimes a little bit of a mixed bag. Some gun models are excellent, others I feel could have done with some more work, all though the animations for reloading and clearing jams, you have to deal with gear degradation as well to make your life a little harder as well, are excellent. Same applies to the mutants. However the world that is a different story, you can clearly see in many ways it is the main character and it is truly beautiful. Anomaly effects, the objects littering the world from abandoned buildings to massive equipment grave yard from the clean up after the disaster, just lovely. The lighting and how it interacts with objects and the ecosystem is just gorgeous, despite wanted to kill you. Sound is also key in this game and I cannot recommend enough a decent speaker or headphone set up, I’m using a surround sound system with my PC, Sound plays a key part in both the atmosphere and survival.
How does it play? This is a difficult one and is one of the reasons it has taken me so long to submit this review, lets just say there are issue’s. On day one of release there was a patch that was nearly as big as the install file for the game and there have been a number of patches and hot fix’s since then. GSC have fixed many issue but it is still has bugs, however it seems GSC are loyal to their player base and are fixing these issues.
Apart from that it is brilliant, game play is great, difficult and you will die a lot, I think I’m on over 200 after over 100 hours of play and it keeps a count of the times you have died just to really rub it in. One of the key features fixed since launching the game is its A-life AI system, this controls NPC’s and mutants in the world and since the first you are starting to see the world come to life fully with stalker groups from the various factions traversing the world and battling it out for control independent of what you are doing. Just make sure you stay alert, you think your safe but your not, mutants are roaming the world and you are a tasty morsel.
Would I recommend this game to people, 100%, just to experience the world. Value for money I think it is excellent, I really like a game with a story and rich lore, plus with its multiple replays you’ll have many happy hours. Just realise it is still a buggy mess. Please go buy support a small studio, our game landscape is so much better with them.
Author: Jonathan, Cardiff Store
