Posted on: December 6, 2024

Jet_Sextus

Games: 498 Reviews: 21

So much potential

A lot of what I have played so far, I have really loved. Great gunplay, great atmosphere, there's so much to love here. I tried to get into STALKER ~ 15 years ago, and for as much as I wanted to like it, it never quite clicked. I don't know if it's me being 15 years older now, or STALKER 2 being more "modern", but whatever it is, this game is clicking. I want to play more of this game. I wish I could play more of this game. But I keep running into game breaking bugs. Not crashes, not silly glitches, not things of that nature, but full, "missions are incompletable" bugs. Missions will be rendered fully broken, I'll reload my save, and the same thing happens every time without fail. There've been 3 patches thus far at the time of writing, and I've tested every one, same problem on them all without fail. I even submitted a report to the devs. I described my PC specs, the mission that was breaking, how it was breaking, and I included my save files and analytics data files in the submission. They replied to me, asking what my gamertag was (I'm on PC), asking me when my save files dissapeared/became corrupted (they didn't), and requesting that I submit another report with save files attached (again, my original submission did include both save files and analytics data files). Originally, I was going to hold off on writing a review. But between the game being broken to a degree that I have to check with each patch if I'll actually be able to play the game now, and the copy & paste response from the devs that indicated they didn't even read my bug report, it's all left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm trying my best to be kind to the game. I'm willing to let a lot more slide from a developer making a game on the frontline of the Ukranian/Russian war than I would be from your standard AAA dev. I can forgive crashes, performance issues, etc. But I've reached a point where I cannot progress, and all I can do is wait for another patch, and hope it actually fixes the problem

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Posted on: December 6, 2024

rdok

Verified owner

Games: 91 Reviews: 5

The Zone Doesn't Hold Your Hand

**Rating: 9/10** S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is like being slapped awake by a radioactive babushka—it’s brutal, immersive, and doesn’t care about your feelings. After *131 hours* in the Zone, I’m still hooked. --- **Survival on *Veteran*: Fix It or Die** The *Veteran* difficulty is perfect. Forget bullets—they’re easy. The real pain is *maintenance*. Keeping weapons and armor intact costs more than your neighbor’s goat. And I loved it. Every repair reminded me how much the Zone hates me. The economy? Coupons. You’re surviving on scraps—bleak perfection. --- **Emissions: Run, Idiot!** The emissions are terrifying. Playing with no HUD made it better—I didn’t know the map showed safe zones. It forced me to always keep track of where the nearest house, hole, or shack was, just in case the sky turned red. Every emission had me running like a Kozak, screaming, “Where the fuck do I hide?!” --- **Immersion Overload** No object markers, no compass. Turning off all that crap made every discovery feel earned. Artifacts, weapons, and armor became treasures, not loot. It’s immersive like no other game. --- **The Zone Is Alive** The graphics are stunning, and the world feels real. The detail turned me into a hoarder—artifacts, weapons, armor, you name it. --- **Weapons and Performance** The weapon variety is incredible. Performance was solid, though FSR 3 on epic crashed after a few hours. Dropping to High fixed it, and it still looked great. --- **Fast Travel? Not Here** Fast travel is limited to hiring guides, which I loved. No shortcuts, just struggle—pure Zone. --- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is survival at its best. It’s unforgiving, immersive, and addictive. I haven’t even finished the last main mission because it would end the game. Instead, I’m still exploring the Zone, soaking in every radioactive detail and chasing down artifacts. The Zone keeps calling, and I’m not ready to leave.

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Posted on: November 24, 2024

DrAcid

Games: 155 Reviews: 3

Captures the original spirit!! Has bugs

This sequel perfectly captures the original games' spirit, with new systems, graphics, story. Yes, has lots of bugs, but I am totally fine with them personally. The zone is brutal, the zone is merciless. Watch your back, Stalker! Not 10/10, but maybe a strong 8/10.

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Posted on: November 26, 2024

charlemagne1980

Verified owner

Games: 514 Reviews: 104

What a disappointment

Runs like garbage and just horrifically terrible story telling/immersion/interest so far; cheap jump scare tactics might be enoug for kids, but I expect more for this much money. This is not worthy of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. name at all.

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Posted on: November 21, 2024

Scatterheart

Games: 140 Reviews: 2

It's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.!

First things first, you should treat this as an 'early access' release. It needs more work in terms of optimisation and bug squashing before it's really ready for everyone, especially if you have a more modest rig. But with that in mind, I asked myself - do I want to play early access Stalker 2? The answer to that of course was - my god, yes! Performance wise I'm personally having little trouble, with the caveat of running a 5800X3D and 7900 XTX, your mileage may vary. There are plenty of benchmarks out there to show what you can expect, Tom's Hardware and PC Gamer are worth a look. You will need some grunt, especially on the cpu side. I'm fairly early in the game and haven't yet experienced any bugs but I'll say that some of the animations when interacting with the environment feel a touch 'placeholder'. Not that they are awful, they just aren't up to the look and feel of the rest of the game, which is in fact incredible! Mostly, this game feels like Stalker brought into 2024, if you are an OG Stalker fan and know what you're getting into it's likely everything that you've been wanting. The atmosphere, the fantasy of it all, it's right there. If you aren't familiar with the series it's worth knowing that the experience is a bit more hardcore than your average fps but still very approachable, especially on the Rookie difficulty setting. Just save often ;D Overall- if you like the sound of it, have the system to run it, and the 'early access' nature of things doesn't bother you. Go for it! I'm already in love and it will only get better as time passes.

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Close, but not an exact hit

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Standard Edition

Discover the legendary S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe and experience:

EPIC NONLINEAR STORY IN SEAMLESS OPEN WORLD

VARIETY OF ENEMIES AND HUNDREDS OF WEAPON COMBINATIONS

LEGENDARY MUTANTS WITH DIFFERENT BEHAVIOUR MODELS

ARTIFACTS OF INCREDIBLE VALUE AND UNFORGIVING ANOMALIES

GOOD HUNTING, STALKER!

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