performer - gamebastion.com

A certain kind of friction can go a long way in creating a challenging and punishing game that’s also Not that a lot of post-apocalyptic first-person shooters are, but STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is especially not for the faint of heart. It’s built to generate the kind of friction that goes a long way in creating a challenging and punishing game that’s also captivating. When you’re left to figure things out for yourself amid myriad dangers that can kill you in a moment’s notice, rarely having an easy way out of a mess, it becomes clear that the survival instincts embedded in the STALKER series are very much alive in this long-awaited sequel. But there’s also an equal and opposite force at play: the type of friction that hinders you from engaging with it in earnest, like poor technical performance, bugs that are sometimes hilarious but mostly frustrating, and nonsensical enemy behavior. Yet for all that’s working against it, there’s an underlying greatness in how STALKER 2 immerses you into the mysteries within its massive and brutal wasteland.

The Chornobyl Exclusion Zone – the site around the tragic, real-world nuclear disaster in 1986 – remains the heart of STALKER, both as a harsh and often stunning open world, and a fascinating setting that’s integral to Ukrainian history. In this fictionalized version, physics-defying anomalies work as deadly hazards scattered around its huge map, while equally dangerous mutated wildlife lurks about and supernatural phenomena amid the nuclear fallout instill a sense of danger around every corner. Various factions of Stalkers – mercenaries who make their risky living in The Zone – are also on the hunt throughout; when it’s hard to tell who’s friend or foe, it’s a harsh place to survive in, much less thrive.

In that respect, STALKER 2 is a masterclass in atmosphere: stunning dynamic weather, pitch-dark nights, and radioactive storms that paint the sky a hellish red or toxic green are as visually striking as they are petrifying.