There's an ambitious shooter somewhere in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, but its buried by technical woes and frustrating design.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl MSRP $60.00 Score Details “Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl crumbles under the weight of its own ambition.” Pros Cons 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 dedication to perfecting its first-person shooter before it launches. On the other hand, I can’t help but worry.
There’s a fine line between difficulty that comes from a challenge and the difficulty born from inconvenience. As for campaign progression, it’s mostly a semilinear affair in that there are specific quest chains that you must complete and lead to the next portion of the story. However, there are also major decisions that create diverging paths, such as certain factions that you’d side with. Likewise, a few characters from the original trilogy make their return in Stalker 2. Scar, Trapper, Nimble, Sultan, and more surprises all show up, which will be a surefire treat for longtime fans.
For the entirety of the two hours I spent on that quest chain, I did not see a personal stash so I could keep items for later instead of throwing them away if I got too encumbered. I also did not see a single NPC for item selling or repairs. The quest chain felt thrown together as an afterthought without any regard for the player.
Getting close to danger even yields rewards since some of these anomaly fields hide artifacts. All I had to do was bring out a scanner, walk around until the lights blink rapidly, and watch as the artifact materializes from an anomaly. These artifacts can then be equipped to gain bonuses to resistances and other stats.
Others were more egregious, such as “dead spots” in swampy terrain. If I so much as waded into these spots, I wouldn’t be able to move or jump back on solid ground. Some areas caused my character to fall through textures. Certain quests couldn’t be finished either due to bugs – one, in particular, had an NPC that prevented me from exiting a building, leaving me with no choice but to reload an earlier save. Another bug caused a facility to become permanently locked.
GSC Game World Holiday Gaming 2024 Stalker 2: Heart Of Chornobyl Xbox Xbox Series X
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