S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl – Welcome Back to the Zone

DISCLOSURE: This review was written before finishing the main story of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Graves was given 1 week to play and review the title, and managed to play approximately 30 hours (of the developer-estimated 40+ required to finish), making it significantly past the spoiler cut-off point requested by the developers. We believe that Graves was able to play more than enough to get a full picture of the game and, thus, write a satisfactory review.

For those of you that don’t know, “The Zone” refers to a 60 km² exclusion zone set up around Chornobyl after a devastating second explosion in 2006 (roughly 20 years after the original, non-fictional disaster at Chornobyl). This second explosion did more than irradiate the surrounding land and render it unlivable once over. Rather, it did the opposite: the second explosion animated the exclusion zone.

Anomalies formed out of the radioactive aether; strange and dangerous paranormal phenomena of various types that could kill a person just for stepping near it. Hulking, powered mutants were created out of unfortunate beasts and humans that were in the zone, or wandering in after. And, of course, humans were drawn in. Not only out of scientific and supernatural curiosity, but for profit, to find and sell rare artifacts that were created by the emissions that now occasionally rocked the wastes.

That was nearly 20 years prior to the events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, however, and one would think that much of the Zone had been picked clean by the thousands of people – many of them Stalkers – and dozens of factions, many of which now consider the Zone their home. And, despite recent efforts by the iron-fisted Ward, the Zone still remains a lawless and chaotic wasteland, filled with danger and death at (and often under) every junction.

And so, this raises a question: why would someone go into the Zone? And, once there, why would they stay?

It’s a question asked early and often of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s protagonist, Skif, and it doesn’t take long before he begins giving an answer: that his home was burned down due to an artifact from the zone in his possession, and that he is hoping to right some wrongs. But, of course, this is only an excuse, isn’t it?

Because Skif’s reason for going into and staying in the Zone is the same as the player’s: you go into the Zone because its lawlessness is a comfort to you. You go into the Zone because there is something to explore. You go into the Zone because it is dangerous. And, more than anything, you go into the Zone because the Zone is calls to you.

Welcome to the Zone

The Zone – not Skif – is the main character of the story. You witness its take through Skif’s eyes, but every anomaly, bandit, and crack in the earth is a tale itself. A tale of a land torn apart by man, and then by energy, and then reborn in a strange, new image. It is a way for the universe and nature to push back. What was once untamed wilderness became so again, enveloping the decaying structures of the Zone into itself and arming them, now, with energy and life of its own.

Of course, this is not to say Skif is a dull protagonist, or one without agency – far from it, Skif is one of the more active protagonists in some time – but it is to say that the most masterful part of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is not anything related to its characters, or its story, or its gameplay. It is the Zone itself, which feels alive and thriving in a way that no other video game world has since Red Dead Redemption 2.

Part of what makes it that way is an immaculate commitment to environmental storytelling. Almost every location I visited, from the smallest shack to the most sprawling bunker, has a story to tell, often one with several layers, and often connected to other stories elsewhere. A hideout might tell the story of an expert Stalker who grew too weary to go on, or a hidden laboratory might tell the hubris of a group of scientists who dug too far, or a cave system might reveal just what kind of new path evolution has forged with the aid of radiation and a little Zone magic.

But it is more than that, because the tale of the Zone is not a Frankenstein of disconnected vignettes. They are all connected because they are all part of the same dour tapestry: man pushes against the elements, and the elements push back. And not just in scripted ways, but all over: radiation burns and swamps drown. Rain and fog obscure, as anomalies burn and shock. Mutants and wildlife blend together to prey on the unprepared.

All of the various hardships you encounter make sense in light of that because you, in playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, will have seen them first hand. Even when you are traversing hilly landscapes, there is a chance the sky might turn red as lightning shattered the sky, forcing you to seek cover as quickly as you can against the awesome power of an emission.

And, as you sprint forward, dropping gear and chugging energy drinks in order to make it to the unexplored tunnel you see before you, you understand how the story of the Zone is one story, told from a thousand perspectives. The story ending in tragedy for many of those, as the Zone and its many horrors took their unpreparedness for granted to end them. 

But, for others – for Skif, and for the adament player – there is adventure there, a call more alluring than any other in the Zone. In the tunnels, whatever might lurk within them, there is adventure. And back outside, as you watch the lightning-spocked crimson sky turn back into a dreary gray, there is adventure there too.

That is the main appeal of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. And, if you can understand that appeal – that escapist urge to just find yourself free in a dangerous and unexplored land – then S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is for you. Though its tone may be grim and its atmosphere oppressive, few games give you the freedom that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 does.

I’d also be remiss not to specifically highlight just how incredible the weather system is in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. It is incredible how something as simple as weather can so fundmentally alter a games’ experience, but it truly does here. Not only are the many different types of weather absolutely beautiful in their own ways, but each also contributes to the gameplay, forcing you to adapt to the Zone all the more.

But, of course, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is more than just a walking simulator where you casually stroll the Zone while it rains, admiring the scenery and pondering the apocalyptic bubble in which you find yourself. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is also an (allegedly) brutal first-person shooter where you must fight for every piece of scrap in order to survive, fending off bandits, mutants, and the Zone itself in order to make it just another day. To put it in the words of the developers: “It’s an anti-power fantasy.”

Or, well… at least it is on paper.

Not So Anti-Powerful

Here’s the thing: your first few hours in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 are going to be difficult. You will still be learning how the mechanics work, and you won’t have the right gear to defend yourself in most fights unless you learn quickly how to get a tactical advantage. In order to survive, you will need to quickly learn to answer the questions of the Zone: What kind of gear to look for, where to find it, and how to keep it repaired? What methods of approach are the best for what environments, and against what enemies? What items are essential to stay stocked up on, and which can be stashed or sold in order to save room for valuable loot?

This is the most tense part of the game, when it is at its most thrilling. You’ll be staring wide-eyed at everything on screen, looking for enemies and loot behind every corner and beyond every hilltop. Your heart will be racing because you know there is one enemy left, but you don’t know where. And because you know that either of you only need one good volley to end it all.

And then, within a couple of hours, you find some decent armor, a gun you like (preferable one that uses a common ammo type), and a way to make enough money to keep it all repaired. You learn the ways of the Zone: crouch with a bolt out against anomalies, take out creatures from atop objects they can’t easily climb on, and engage humans from a distant with single headshots.

I played on the highest difficulty, and by 5 or so hours in, I felt mostly unstoppable against everything except for the most ridiculously tanky mutants around. My gun – the one I acquired 2 hours in and would use for the next 20 – was nearly fully upgraded, repaired, and stocked, and I could take on essentially any foe with it with ease. My armor was tough enough (and the healing supplies rapid enough) that I could afford to do something the game seems to discourage, running-and-gunning my way into well-fortified encampments filled with enemies.

And, because of that, I stopped seeking out new locations to explore, and instead contented myself with only going to places where there was a quest, or that happened to be on the way. 

After all, with 2 perfect guns (with hundreds of rounds of ammo each), a nice set of armor, 30+ each of healing, food, and anti-rad supplies, and a full set of artifacts, what did I have to gain? Some extra medicine and food? A new gun to that would only put me over my encumbrance limit until I sold it off?

It speaks volumes to the incredible deftness of the level designers and artists of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 that I still entered almost every single structure I could find, eager to explore it for the sake of exploration. Because it’s not like I had any mechanical reason to do so, and it usually only cost me resources.

And when the game does increase in difficulty and eat up resources, it is in very momentary spikes, and only because of certain mutant enemies with unique abilities. And, while their gimmicks do pose somewhat of an interesting challenge, their true strength lies much more with the fact that they simply have absurd health pools. To shoot an overgrown abomination 15 times in the head with a shotgun while it tries to do some psychic woo-woo is difficult, sure, but it isn’t because of the high-challenge threshold required to overcome the psychic gimmick… It’s because it takes 15 shots at point-blank range to kill it.

By the end of each of these encounters, I was usually grumbling from frustration more than sighing with relief. In a system where the only progression is via gear, why are there bosses with health pools that would be more at home in an RPG?

Now, admittedly, those are my only major gripe with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, but they was enough to bother me. After all, in such a militaristic setting, with such grounded mechanics and themes, to so easily steamroll my way through most encounters and be so flush with resources so early felt jarring. Made only more noticeable by the skyrocketing difficulty when faced with certain mutants.

Still a Killshot

You might think, from this, that I didn’t enjoy the combat in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. However, if you did think that, you’d be dead wrong. Though I’m not thrilled with the difficulty – mostly because of how much health both you and many mutants have – everything else about the combat is smooth as silk, and a wonderful improvement from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games of the past (which, I must admit, were so cumbersome as to make me back off them).

For starters: the enemies are smart and tactical, and will fight you with the highest level of intelligence that is possible for whatever they are. Humans will flank you, lay down suppressing fire, and try to frag your position. Pack animals will swarm you from different angles, hiding to take advantage of your limited field of view. Mutant brutes will use hit-and-run tactics to avoid being gunned down by a steady barrage of bullets, using their tankiness to reposition rather than try to overcome impossible odds. Suffice to say, the enemy AI in this game – a system the developers refer to as “A-Life 2.0.”

Also part of this “A-LIfe 2.0” system is how the NPCs engage each other in combat. Allies may swoop in to cut down a pack of wild dogs for you, or maybe you’ll find yourself in the middle of a pitched battle against Noontide and Ward forces. These dynamic distractions open up tactical opportunities – including to retreat – that would not be possible with less sophisticated AI.

And as for the gunplay itself? It’s excellent. Every headshot feels satisfying, every impact feels weighty, and every jam seems to happen at whatever moment would ratchet tension the most. Cycling between weapons for different ranges and situations becomes like second nature, as you truly adapt to the Stalker way. And the entire time, gunshots and roars and footsteps and barks ring out like a cacophony of battle, adding to the overwhelming viscerality of the game. It’s wonderful, in all its tactical, gritty glory.

Which reminds me: I could write an entire separate article – the length of this one – just singing the praises of the sound design in this game. Every single noise goes so far into enriching the world and immersing the player.

And, when that sound design and that gun play combine together with the stunning, broken world, there is nothing like it. Staring out at an emission while you try to desperately fire down at pursuers who have you cornered in a building, while gunshots and lightning ring out and blend together… I hate to sound trite, but that’s what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is all about.

What Is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 About?

To contrast my previous statement, what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is not usually about is the narrative. While previous games have had stories that worked – in that they functioned well enough in order to move players from one place to another and expand the lore – none of the previous 3 entries in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series have been stand-outs in that regard.

And in some way, the same can be said for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The story has its fill of clichés and predictable plot points, and the jargon of names, factions, terminology, and slang can blur together to make things quite confusing if you aren’t keeping up. But, outside of those issues, the story of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is… Pretty good!

That is to say: there are a significant amount of interesting, named characters making logical, interesting decisions with conflicting ideologies and agendas. Because of that, and because they are interacting constantly with the most important and interesting character – the Zone – the story manages to remain compelling even as you are told to do another fetch quest. 

And, in turn, it makes those fetch quests – which are always worthwhile since they see you exploring some of the most interesting areas of the game – more interesting, because you were paying enough attention to actually care about what you are going to fetch and why. Or, at least, it does for me, and I’m the type of person to completely tune out NPCs when they ask me to go grab something.

Part of what might’ve kept me so engaged – despite the generic nature of the quests and some truly awful facial animations – was the voice acting. And I don’t mean the English voice acting – which I couldn’t stand more than 5 minutes of – but the native Ukrainian voice acting. Especially in directed cutscenes, I was genuinely blown away by some of the performances, most notably those of Faust and Colonel Korshunov. I can’t pretend every character is so rich and well acted (many of the shopkeeper NPCs seem to have about 4 lines in total, all of them swarmy), but at least enough of them are – including all of the main cast – to be remarkable.

And, while I might insist that the overall plot structure can be a bit predictable and unremarkable, even I have to admit that there were several times when the story took a different direction or explored a different avenue than I was expecting. One such example is what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 does with Monolith, one of the enemy factions from the previous games. 

And, as someone who bounced off those games and only vaguely remembered Monolith at all, I can say that the new direction the team over at GSC Game World takes with them is extremely compelling. In fact, the direction that they take with every faction – each filled with infighting and conflict even amongst themselves – is fantastic. Not only that, but every time a callback is made to previous titles in the franchise, it feels meaningful, and adds to what is said. 

Clearly, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 greatly respects the games that came before, the lore they set up, and the world they left behind. But it doesn’t do so to the point to stagnancy, instead taking those old ideas and making them new, while still keeping the fundamental aspects of what they are in place. Nothing is rewritten in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (at least, nothing that I noticed), but quite a lot is developed.

And so, to summarize, the rich character and faction relationships, excellent voice cast, and compelling thematic discussions turn the game’s story from what would be a slightly interesting tale about “who has control of the Zone” into a much more engaging one where you feel invested in the outcome because of those strong moments. And, while I wouldn’t exactly say it is a masterpiece of emotional storytelling, the fact that a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game has me caring about its many convoluted factions and lore tidbits (not to mention at least a few characters) is a triumph.

Pests in the Zone

Don’t worry, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans, the game is still buggy as hell. And, yes, it does make it more charming. There is something that just feels right when, moments after reaching full immersion, a character ragdoll-spasms across the room, stuttering and glitching out before colliding with you and forcing you to a different level of the same building you were in.

I’m not being sarcastic, it truly wouldn’t feel like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game without bugs like that. Maybe because, for every little physics object that flies off or dialogue option that appears when it really shouldn’t, you are reminded of just how much was put into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Just how ambitious it is, to create something of that scale, with limited resources. Of course, there will be bugs! How could there not be? And why wouldn’t you want them? Those bugs are like a mistaken brush-stroke in a masterpiece. For the right audience, all they do is add character.

That said, it is one thing to watch an enemy clip through a wall and then explode from hitting his own tripwire from the other side of the wall, and another thing entirely to find yourself restarting the game repeatedly in order to get a simple item to appear, or having to learn to live without a health bar or compass until the game decides to give them back.

In that way, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s bugginess is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, there is something about that particular brand of eastern-European jank that captures an essence that you just don’t see often in the hyper-polished AAA space. On the other, bugs are unintentional mistakes, and given the long development cycle of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, it does feel like more bugs could’ve been caught than were.

Though, with this discussion around bugs, 3 things really should be states: First, that Heart of Chornobyl is the least buggy and most polished that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has seen, being closer to a Bethesda title in bugginess. Second, that GSC Game World has made a commitment to post-launch updates, to say nothing of the inevitable modding scene that is sure to spring out of this one. And third, that even in my week with the game leading up to release, several of the most noticeable bugs were removed out in patches released over that week.

All of these things are excellent signs for the game’s longevity and stability, and mean that the most noteworth issues with the game have a high likelihood to be noticed and accounted for by GSC quickly. While there might always be a general level of jank, it is an good sign when the developers are already seem focused on removing bugs.

What seems less positive at this junction is the game’s optimization. Because it’s… not great.

I have a top-of-the-line PC, with every part being less than a year old and best-in-class when it released. And yet, even my beast of a machine can only just barely manage 60 FPS at maximum graphics at 1440p. Now, that’s not terrible at all for me, but it does mean that having anything except the best-of-the-best might spell trouble for you. If you are a gamer that cares about performance, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 might be a bit of a bugbear for you.

Conclusion

And so, what are we left with, when all is said and done for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl? Well, a damn excellent game. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl not only lives up to its much lauded predecessors, but exceeds and builds on them in every way. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 features fantastic combat, memorable locations, a story that is much better than it should be (held up by strong relationships and casting), and – more than anything – one of the most captivating settings in gaming putting on its best display.

That said, there are a few things holding the game back from perfection. After you get to grips with the system and have some nice gear, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s difficulty takes a nose-dive, which is unfortunate due to how that ease clashes with the aesthetic of the game. The most difficult encounters ramp up to the complete opposite direction, but mostly due to the extreme amounts of enemy health, rather than because of true challenges. There are bugs galore, and the game is generally poorly optimized.

But, despite all that, the strength of every other aspect is so great that those flaws really do pale in comparison. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a fantastic game, one that we heartily recommend for fans and newcomers to the series. If you have even a passing interest after this review, it is a good sign that you should be in the Zone. When you’re ready to enter, you can find S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl here.