Welcome back to the zone! After over a decade of setbacks in development, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion, Ukraine developers GSC Game World has finally launched Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
Playing Stalker 2 and seeing the familiar scenery is like reliving a half-remembered dream. The last game from the Stalker trilogy, Call of Pripyat, was released in 2009, which seems like a lifetime ago.
The Stalker series play as a survival horror first-person shooter which centres on the post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout zone of Chornobyl, reimagined with terrors of radioactive mutant monsters, rampant lawlessness as well as destructive yet lucrative anomalies.
Intrepid people, known as Stalkers, which stands for a collective group of Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers, are drawn to the zone in search of valuable artifacts which are associated with anomalies.
Rooting for the anti-hero
In Stalker 2, you play Skif, a newbie Stalker in the zone. Although not much is known about him, there are hints that he served in the military and is pretty handy with knives and guns. Unlike games where the protagonist is a tough hero with amazing abilities, Skif is an anti-hero who is just as vulnerable as most of us.
Vulnerability is what one feels constantly in the world of Stalker 2. Like the earlier games, Stalker 2 retains its unmistakable atmosphere full of unpredictable events and dangers which makes exploration in the nuclear wasteland both fun and scary.
From environmental hazards to radioactive anomalies, and from ferocious mutants to hostile humans, there are plenty of ways to get killed. Some mutants even have terrifying super powers like invisibility and psychic manipulation that make them incredibly hard to beat.
Even if you manage to survive these threats, there is also a random catastrophic phenomenon known as Emissions when the zone discharges energy, causing the sky to turn blood red and kills anyone caught in the open.
It’s not enough to take refuge in a rickety shelter — one needs to be in a shelter with a proper roof, thick walls and ideally underground to survive.
Stalker 2 is not for the faint of heart, with lots of suspense and jump scares, and is pretty merciless in testing the preparedness of the player. Dying frequently is the norm, and the game even has a counter to remind you how many times you have died.
For me, it was an embarrassingly high number even though I thought I was being careful! Falling into radioactive sludge while running away from an invisible snarling creature at night after running out of ammo was completely unintended.
Besides trying to survive, you’d have to navigate a zone that hosts dangerous anomalies that conceal valuable artifacts that the Stalkers risk their lives for.
Anomalies are detected by a beeping sensor carried by Skif, and can manifest as unusual fire, water, electrical or wind phenomenon. The artifacts they harbour bestow benefits as well as harm, and can also fetch a good price when sold to traders.
Tossing bolts at anomalies can dissipate them temporarily that lets Skif run past or scan for artifacts near them. As you progress through the game, there will be better sensors which can provide more information about the artifacts, making them easier to find.
There are also artifacts that complement each other to neutralise the negative effects or enhance powers, so it pays to hunt them down despite the dangers.
With the unpredictably hostile environment, you have to constantly switch between holding bolts and a pistol as you never know what is going to kill you next!
Stalking and talking
While Skif works alone, there are plenty of NPCs (non-playable characters) who offer jobs, side quests and aid to Skif, while others have items to trade and can provide services for a price.
Interactions with NPCs in Stalker 2 are pretty sophisticated, with well-developed branching dialogue and complex responses with consequences depending on your prior actions, which offers a lot of replayability.
Some NPCs also belong to different factions with their own motivations, which influence how they interact with you. They are also swayed by the actions you take to ally with or oppose them.
However, there are some drawbacks in such complexity. Decisions you make, such as choosing certain dialogue options or accepting or rejecting quests, can have real consequences and may be irreversible.
Certain side quests can be accidentally skipped if you speak to NPCs from different factions out of order or accept certain quests before triggering others. This means you can’t go around collecting all side quests like grabbing food at a buffet without consequences.
Although the dialogues are generally well-structured, I experienced some issues with wanting to interact with NPCs amicably. On one occasion, I had wanted to back out of a conversation where I could either pay a bribe or attack an NPC, but the game didn’t let me. I was left with no choice but to attack since I didn’t have enough to pay the bribe, which got Skif killed in the encounter.
The human enemies in Stalker 2 are incredibly perceptive, making any stealth attempts or sneak attacks extremely challenging. They are excellent sharpshooters as well, making any encounters with large groups highly dangerous. Taking advantage of the environment, such as luring enemies into anomalies or shooting at them from a safe vantage point, can save Skif some ammo and lives.
Saving often is essential since the game is so unpredictable and also because the game is rather unstable. I had encountered crashes, stalled progress and quest completion bugs, which required the game to be restarted or the system rebooted. The unpredictability and surprises (or shocks) are what make Stalker 2 fun, and each playthrough is unlikely to feel the same.
Picking up the pieces
If you are hoping to go in with guns blazing with an endless supply of ammo, Stalker 2 isn’t that kind of game. Being a survival horror game, ammo in Stalker 2 is very scarce, and the ability to survive requires a true scavenger mentality, such as unloading ammo from firearms dropped by enemies and thoughtfully conserving the right ammo for maximum efficiency.
It also helps if one is not easily spooked into shooting blindly in the dark at invisible enemies and wasting precious ammo. At times, it makes sense to just run away when things are going south!
Since everything is in short supply, there’s plenty of scavenging to be done for consumables such as ammo, food, medkits, and even vodka as a stop-gap anti-radiation measure.
Even though you can pick up guns dropped by enemies, some are in such poor condition that you cannot sell them. Repairing gear, upgrading weapons and buying supplies are incredibly expensive, making survival all the more difficult and challenging.
Sometimes, it isn’t enough just to use a medkit to increase health when Skif is injured. If he has a wound, he needs bandages to stop the bleeding; if he suffers from radiation poisoning, he needs anti-radiation medication or vodka to reduce the radioactive damage. Plus, Skif needs to pay attention to hunger — if he is hungry for too long, his ability to fight and hold weapons will be impaired.
Currency is in the form of Koupons, which are obtained by completing jobs, looting dead enemies or stashes. Weapons and armour will degrade with use and need a large quantity of Koupons to repair and upgrade, while supplies and consumables need to be traded for or purchased.
Even fast travelling requires an expensive paid guide, so I tend to walk everywhere instead. This is also part of the fun since Stalker 2’s unpredictability makes every trip a different experience.
Occasionally. there will be some great loot and gear that are too good to pass up on, but there’s also a limit to what Skif can carry, which makes looting and selling a tedious process. Making things worse is the expensive and inconvenient fast-travelling, which adds a level of realism in the game but is a real chore for pack rats like me.
Nuclear scenes
Stalker 2’s world is incredibly detailed and interactive with plenty of dynamism in the open world. The game’s natural environment and haunting atmosphere looks extremely realistic, with day and night cycles, weather effects and dramatically scary Emission events.
Revisiting Pripyat and seeing the painstaking details put in by the developers in recreating the scenery makes for an emotional experience for Stalker veterans. The feeling of dread and awe is constant while exploring and looting abandoned homes, derelict facilities and dilapidated buildings with remnants of lives left behind.
With plenty of secrets, surprises and nasty shocks, the intrepid explorers will find plenty to appreciate in the world of Stalker 2.
I personally enjoy exploring the zone and taking in the view but the constant fear of being attacked, the sinister clicking of the Gieger counter indicating radiation and warning beeps of the scanner sensing anomalies make for an unnerving experience.
Gear up
Just as the game is unforgiving to the player, the specs are equally demanding of your PC. With the open-world, ultra-detailed and realistic graphics, Stalker 2 seriously pushes the limits of a gaming rig.
For PC gamers, I would recommend running on a system more powerful than one with the minimum specs. I started off playing on an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card, which can run the game with some visual compromise and serious slowdowns.
Loading shaders takes a very long time and the system struggles when entering new areas. Playing on an upgraded rig with an AMD Radeon RX7900 XTX is a huge improvement in terms of visuals and game performance.
Here are the recommended specs for running the game at a resolution of 1440p and 60fps (frames per second):
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 32 GB DDR4 dual channel memory
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti / Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070
- Free space on disk: 160GB SSD
- OS: Windows 10/11
Despite my upgraded rig, there are still technical issues such as the game crashing to desktop, occasional bad stuttering and severe framerate drops. I experienced quite a lot of bugs, ranging from visual bugs which are mildly annoying to some which are downright hilarious.
One particularly memorable one was when I loaded a saved game and the dead bodies previously lying on the ground were standing upright. This was unintended but genuinely scary!
There are also broken quests which did not trigger as well as quest completion bugs, which to me are even more annoying than graphical issues. Thankfully, the developers are diligently patching the game since launch, so things should get better with time.
TL;DR
Stalker 2 offers a uniquely realistic survival horror first-person experience set in the nuclear exclusion zone of Chornobyl in Ukraine. It isn’t a newbie-friendly game, and has loads of surprises and hundreds of ways to die that will keep you on your toes.
With scarce ammo, supplies and gear as well as weapons and armour that need heavy investments for repairs and upgrades, Stalker 2 makes you feel extremely vulnerable in the face of multitudes of threats.
Stalker 2’s highly detailed graphics and immersive environments make exploration fun and scary at the same time. Unfortunately, the multitude of technical issues and game-breaking bugs mar the enjoyment of the game. On a positive note, the developers have been very proactive in fixing the game with frequent patches following the game’s launch.
Stalker 2 is available for purchase for PC on Steam and Epic for S$79, Xbox Series X|S & Microsoft Store, and is free on Xbox Game Pass for subscribers.
Techgoondu is part of the jury for The Game Awards 2024! Cast your own votes at www.thegameawards.com, and catch the show over various online channels on December 13, 8:30 am Singapore time. This year’s Game of the Year nominees include Astro Bot, Black Myth: Wukong, and more!
