Introduction
Stalker 2 is a game I genuinely never thought I’d be playing, yet here we are. This is the long-awaited sequel to one of gaming’s most niche series, a title that survived both a global pandemic and a real-world war to bring players back into the infamous Zone. Fans of the series will immediately recognize the challenging, depressing, and often gorgeous world, while newcomers might find the experience tedious, buggy, and occasionally broken.
This is a game that doesn’t compromise its old-school roots. If you loved the previous Stalker games, you’ll find a lot to appreciate, from the inventory system to the healing items, the sound design, and the unforgiving world. If you’re new, however, be warned: this is not a game designed to hold your hand.
Story & Premise
In Stalker 2, you play as Skiff, exploring the outskirts of the Zone with a scanner to perform tests. Before he can finish, he is detected by the Ward, a new authority force in the area, and subsequently attacked by an unknown enemy. Skiff barely escapes, waking up alone in the wilderness.
From there, he navigates a faction-heavy environment, deciding early on whom to side with. The story places choices front and center, affecting both the ending and how missions unfold. Diplomacy, violence, or stealth can each alter the trajectory of your journey.
One notable oddity is that the game defaults to English dialogue, which feels strange given the Ukrainian setting. Accents, often British, clash with immersion, and the voice acting is inconsistent. Still, this choice does allow players to understand enemy strategies during combat, which can be tactically helpful.
The story itself is long and meandering, with first-time playthroughs taking 35–40 hours, and full completion reaching over 100 hours. While side missions expand the lore and offer interesting characters, the rewards often feel underwhelming compared to main story missions. Returning fans will appreciate callbacks to the original games, including references to Clear Sky and Stock, while new players might feel lost amid the sprawling narrative.
The Gameplay: Exploration & Artifact Hunting
At its core, Stalker 2 is broken down into combat, exploration, and artifact hunting.
Weapons from previous games, like AKs and shotguns, return, but inventory management is restrictive, with every item—including ammo—adding to your weight. Players must carefully plan what they carry before venturing into the Zone.
Artifact hunting, a staple of the series, returns but feels less rewarding this time. Anomalies are invisible until triggered, requiring players to throw metal bolts to reveal them. While the concept encourages risk and navigation, the resulting artifacts often have minimal benefits and can increase radiation levels, which strains anti-radiation gear. Even previously powerful artifacts have been nerfed, making this once-core mechanic feel unfun and unrewarding.
Shooting & Combat
Combat remains a central aspect, but its execution is a mixed bag. Stalker 2 retains its hardcore gunplay, with a variety of weapons and calibers, each with unique upgrade trees. The gameplay is tactical, encouraging players to lean around corners and manage ammunition carefully.
However, realism is inconsistent. Healing is instant, requiring constant medkit spamming, and enemies hit hard, making battles challenging more due to damage spikes than smart AI tactics.
Weapon and gear degradation is extreme. Most weapons found on NPCs are broken or nearly unusable, and repairs are expensive. While the jamming mechanic adds realism, it feels imbalanced, especially when enemies are unaffected. Vendors are limited, making gear management tedious and frustrating.
Combat against mutants, like dogs and bloodsuckers, is often worse. Mutants behave less intelligently than in previous games, running straight at the player and ignoring strategy. Bloodsuckers now have high health and frustrating melee attacks, creating encounters that feel tedious and punishing. Despite their frightening design, fights with mutants often feel unrewarding, with combat making up only about 30% of the overall experience.
Visuals & Presentation
Stalker 2 runs on Unreal Engine 5, producing genuinely stunning moments. The night and day cycles, water effects, weather changes, and anomaly interactions are visually impressive. Subtle music enhances ambience, and animations for eating, drinking, and healing add immersion.
The emission mechanic from prior games returns, creating tense moments during energy storms. Thunderstorms, wind, and lightning make the world feel alive.
Yet, the game struggles with homogenized environments. Much of the map is repetitive forests, and early prologue sections take place in a pitch-black forest, which underwhelms compared to other modern open-world games. The lack of vehicles and limited fast travel makes traversal tedious, with long runs across the map becoming commonplace.
While the visuals shine in certain moments, the game loses the unique identity of the original X-Ray engine, feeling more like generic Unreal Engine terrain than the immersive, atmospheric environments of the past.
Critique & Design Choices
Stalker 2 maintains classic franchise mechanics, which will delight returning fans. Features like sleeping to advance time, inventory weight, and environmental hazards remain, but modern expectations clash with older design decisions:
- Limited bed locations restrict sleeping in the wild
- No vehicles for faster travel in a massive map
- Inability to climb ledges, which feels outdated in 2024
- Frequent bugs, glitches, and floating items break immersion
The game also leans heavily on running. Traversing swamps, forests, and anomaly-filled areas becomes soul-sucking, reminiscent of early 2000s open-world design, but magnified by scale.
Bugs & Glitches
Bugs are prevalent in Stalker 2. Common issues include:
- Floating NPCs or items
- Missing sound effects
- AI reset upon reloading saves
- Occasional stuttering due to large map loads
Fortunately, mission-breaking bugs are rare, and patches are already being deployed. The game’s history of bug-ridden launches makes this somewhat expected, but it’s hard to ignore in a modern release.
Closing Remarks
Stalker 2 is not a simple good-or-bad game. The experience is defined by patience, perseverance, and a love for the franchise. It survives incredible real-world challenges, delivering a faithful, albeit flawed, continuation of the series.
New players might struggle with its bugs, repetitive environments, and outdated mechanics, while veterans will appreciate the nostalgia, story callbacks, and hardcore gameplay. Mods may eventually enhance the experience, but at launch, the game is a rewarding yet grueling journey for the right audience.
For fans willing to endure the swampy runs, tedious artifact hunting, and punishing combat, Stalker 2 delivers the Zone as only GSC can. For everyone else, it remains a challenging, sometimes frustrating, and imperfect adventure.
In the end, the essence of Stalker is alive: dark, unforgiving, and immersive, reminding players why the series has endured all these years.
About the Author
