S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl Review – A Brilliant, Brutal, Buggy Mess

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl represents more than just another highly anticipated game release.

The development studio GSC endured several development delays, cyberattacks, a server fire that wiped out an entire floor, and evacuated nearly 200 families to continue development in a safer environment.

In today’s faceless, hyper-connected online world, it’s easy for people to forget that real people pour their lives into creating these games. However, not all games are created under equal circumstances, and not all studios face the same challenges. The fact that this game was released at all is deserving of high praise and a testament to the resilience of the development team.

The love and passion for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is evident throughout, but games can only be delayed for so long. A mix of brilliance, brutality, and a buggy mess, mar a game that may eventually define the genre…but not just yet.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl Review – A Brilliant, Brutal, Buggy Mess

Crouched in the corner of a dusty wooden cabin, I watch through the barely ajar door as the pulsing red glow of the Emission storm floods the night. The howling wind relentlessly pounding against the walls, making every creak and groan of the timber sound like the cabin’s about to collapse.

Crawling through rusted sewer tunnels, I keep to the shadows, avoiding the dangerous green glow of the radiated water below. The faint scratching of… something echoes through every passage. Unsure which path leads to safety, I pause in front of a grilled exit, offering the smallest comfort of protection—from one direction, at least. I’m out of ammo, out of medical supplies, and have no idea how deep this sewer goes.

These heart-pounding moments are S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl at its very best. The attention to detail in both the audible and visual components of the environments is jaw-dropping, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is one of the most atmospheric games on the market today.

In one moment, I felt as though I was treading through the halls of a pure horror game, and minutes later I was ducking and diving between crates dodging enemy fire. It brings together a strong core of horror, survival, and action, but doesn’t really look to push to perfection in any discipline.

Exploring the world is equal parts brutal as it is fascinating. Avoiding mutants, taking out human patrols, watching in awe at some of the more spectacular anomalies that haunt the landscape.

Therein lies the downfall of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, I’m not sure the anomalies were designed to smash through the fourth wall and undo so much of the game’s brilliance.

I witnessed enemies spawning several feet in front of me, out of thin air, which is almost as impressive as seemingly duplicating themselves in the process. Taking down one with a well-placed headshot, I watch as the body falls, only to see another standing in the same location.

Quests remain unfinished due to missing objective items or AWOL NPC’s. The game gets to a state where attempting to open the map or inventory takes upwards of 40-50 seconds. These bugs in any other game would be enough to dismiss it entirely however, despite these issues, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl manages to be one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played this year.

Enjoyable is probably not the right word; S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an arduous journey.

It’s challenging, frustrating, and infuriating at times, but it’s this willingness to push the player through the negative emotions to adapt and evolve that hits so hard for me.

It reminds me a lot of the incredible Dragon’s Dogma 2 in the way it ignores the all too convenient design of modern games. It’s not going to hold your hand; you are going to fail, you are going to die, and you will either love the game more for it or hate it entirely.

However, even with the welcoming challenge of a game that pushes limits outside a simple test of reflexes, the challenge is often pushed to a point of failure as the game’s core design philosophy clashes with mechanical designs that just don’t make any sense.

Too often, the choice was clear but miserable: push forward to the next story location, driven by the intrigue of post-nuclear fallout, bizarre anomalies, and the fascinating characters populating the world, or spend 45 minutes trekking back to a camp to repair gear and restock on ammo.

Ammo is a big problem, especially during extended story sequences when you don’t have the time or desire to return to camp. Combat is already a challenge, mostly due to a mix of sometimes brilliant but oftentimes abysmal AI enemies, but to survive in these story sections is monotonous.

Several times throughout the game, I found myself resorting to knife attacks against heavily armored enemies. At other moments, I wiped out entire rooms, looting each body for ammo, and then scavenging their weapons to extract additional rounds from the clips. This created a repetitive loop of three to four minutes of ammo looting in nearly every room. The mundane repetition is a stark contrast to a game that is anything but mundane.

Sometimes this was due to my eagerness to follow the story, other times it was due to extended story sections that played out over many hours. I didn’t rush through, I farmed a few hundred thousand Coupons (the currency of the game), but it never felt enough.

This was more of a struggle toward the latter stages of the story. The early game narrative is rather disappointing, as you spend much of your time chasing down a single device and a group of people that attacked you.

Towards the end, however, the desire to reach the next chapter and learn of the next event was impossible to resist.

I really needed to see what was coming; instead, I was forced to walk 1.2km to a safe house to resupply, farm for resources, and repair.

During the review access period, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl welcomed numerous updates and patches, more than I can remember for most games this close to release. A day-one patch was also released, which addressed many of the more glaring issues. In addition, several thousand fixes have been applied.

While S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has vastly improved from its patches, it still suffers from technical issues. From flashing textures tp poor performance during cutscenes and dialog, it’s a long list.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was a hard game to score.

It’s not a typical 7/10 game, a game we’d usually consider a universal recommendation for any fans of the genre.

It’s not an 7/10 because we ignored the bugs and glaring technical issues.

It’s an 7/10 because, despite these problems, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is still an experience deserving of high praise.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a fantastic game that flirts with greatness but falls short of being truly incredible. Longtime fans of the franchise will relish the brutal challenge the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe is known for, while newcomers might find the bugs more horrifying than the world itself.

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