Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review: ambitious, but still a work in progress

digitaltrends.com:

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl MSRP $60.00 Score Details Pros

• Exclusion Zone is still a unique setting
• Great weapon variety

• Performance issues galore
• Full of bugs
• Plodding, bloated campaign
• Rehashed features

[Editor’s Note: Ahead of its release, Digital Trends received a PC copy of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl that was plagued with more technical issues than we typically see in a review build this close to launch. I personally hopped into the Xbox build once our critic started raising red flags and was instantly met with bugs within my first 20 minutes. The PC build received major patches meant to address those issues during our test, which radically altered its performance. We are still testing that build, which does seem to improve performance and fix a swath of bugs, so it’s safe to say that the version of Stalker 2 you will play when it launches will likely look very different from what we tested.

While we have previously declined to run reviews for games still being worked on so heavily during the review process, our critic identified a general instability, in addition to core design woes, that we don’t believe will be quickly fixed by a single update. It’s with that in mind that we have decided to run our review based on what we’ve played. We encourage our readers to do their research beyond this review once Stalker 2 is out to get a sense of how well the launch version is running with additional updates.]

• Everything announced at the October 2024 Xbox Partner Preview
• You’ll have to wait just a little longer for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
• Amazon’s ambitious MMO New World is finally coming to PS5 and Xbox this October

A game like Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is incredibly challenging to review.

I write this after installing a third enormous prerelease update, this one a 135 GB whopper that patched and reinstalled over 145 GB worth of files. On one hand, I can applaud developer GSC Game World for its