Stalker 2 manages to rekindle the old magic

A lot of people have tried, but no one’s ever managed it. Creating a mixture of huge game world with secrets at every turn and deadly dangers that make me kick the bucket in a matter of seconds. It also comes with a big dose of Eastern bloc charm. 2007’s Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl still lacks this unique flair – or it did until now.

Rust can be so beautiful

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, developed by the Ukrainian studio GSC under difficult circumstances, captivates me in a way that only its almost 20-year-old predecessor could. As a fan of dystopian worlds and monumental graphics, this game is made for me. GSC has captured the surreal landscape with its barren forests, radioactive ponds and abandoned factories in an almost photo-realistic way. Apocalypse tourists like me get their money’s worth.

Rust brown dominates Stalker 2. And yet it never gets boring. Be it at night or during the day, this world is impressively staged thanks to great lighting effects. When the sun shines, the zone looks incredibly idyllic. But once the moonlight reflects on your AK74, you realise this calm is deceptive. Deadly dangers could be lurking beyond your torch beam.

However, I don’t play Stalker 2 for its story. While the game is meant to give you different paths, I only partly pay attention. The personal stories that the game tells are much more exciting. For instance, I get distracted again by a derelict industrial estate and end up being caught off guard by a mutated giant wild boar. Before I can draw my weapon, the air begins to crackle and blue lightning flashes from the ground. The next moment, the monster catches fire and disintegrates into a thousand individual pieces. The laughter at this happy coincidence immediately sticks in my throat as my anomaly detector starts beeping wildly. Before I can react, the screen becomes blindingly bright, followed by a loud bang and I’m lying dead on the floor. On the game over screen, my death counter jumps to 70.

The zone punishes mistakes straight away

Stalker 2 is just as unrelenting as the first installment. One slip can quickly be your last. Bandits and enemy soldiers are clever and entrench themselves or swarm out to surround me. I barely have time to heal before the next grenade lands at my feet. The mutated creatures are a bit more stupid, but their sheer number and aggressiveness certainly gets your heart rate up. And the constant danger of encountering an anomaly, getting caught in an apocalyptic storm or running at full pelt into a radioactive area are ever-present. While I can quick-save, this isn’t possible in battles, which makes the at times long fights nerve-wracking.

There are also survival mechanics, such as hunger, sleep, radiation and injuries that I have to keep an eye on. Cossack vodka helps for radiation, so I always have some in my rucksack. For once, even the carrying limit doesn’t bother me — or at least, it hardly does. Stalker 2 aims to be reasonably realistic. So it feels like a job well done when I manage to deliver two weapons to the dealer in fairly good condition. Fast travel is incredibly limited.

You need money urgently. Without a skill tree or similar role-playing elements, you can only use equipment to increase your chances of survival in the zone. Even the smallest weapon upgrade costs a fortune, and they only apply to that one weapon. So you have to look after those you have, as you can’t just take a new one from an enemy you’ve finished off. This makes every upgrade feel significant – attaching a sight to a weapon becomes a highlight.

Stalker 2 is definitely no walk in the park, at least not on the medium difficulty level. But we already knew that from the first installment. The many bugs the game had at launch are also reminiscent of the 2007 version. In Shadow of Chernobyl, it was all just part of the thrill to be trembling in fear for your life during a firefight and out of concern that the game could crash at the worst possible moment. According to various reviews and forum posts, Stalker 2 is still pretty choppy. For me, it’s run relatively smoothly on two different PCs so far. The interface dropped out a few times, a quest was once temporarily blocked and another time the peeing animation was still running when a soldier was walking. It looked as if he had a sprinkler in his trousers. Just normal Stalker stuff. In terms of performance with all those spectacular graphics, it’s also absolutely fine.

The wait was worth it

Even after more than 15 hours, the world of Stalker 2 still feels surreal and threatening. Almost like being on an alien planet. While sipping a glass of vodka in improvised accommodation in the middle of nowhere, I’m reminded again and again that I’m not alone in this godforsaken area. And after all, I’m here of my own accord. I relish sitting down in front of my PC every evening with anticipation. Against all odds, Stalker 2 draws me in irresistibly, like a magnet. I feel the same way as the stalkers in the game. In the contaminated exclusion zone around the destroyed Chernobyl nuclear reactor – full of anomalies, nightmarish mutants and cold-blooded bandits – I feel right at home. The zone is calling and I can’t help but respond. Over and over again.

Stalker 2 is available for PC, Xbox Series S/X and Game Pass.

Video games

Plaion S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chernobyl - Limited Edition

PC, Multilingual

Video games

Plaion S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Heart of Chernobyl - Limited Edition

PC, Multilingual