Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl Review (Xbox Series X/S & PC)

It’s wild that anyone would want to go into The Zone by choice. But such is the addictive nature of the Stalker series. Even with all the harrowing attacks and life-draining challenges it throws at you, you can’t help but return. I guess the trials and tribulations you go through are simply just that fun. For any newcomer to the series, worry not. You can always play the new Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl entry and feel right at home. But veterans, too, will have a blast, especially with how far the series has come over the past 16 years. 

It’s taken a heck of a long time to get our hands on a new title, justifiably because of the Russian-Ukraine war. But even despite the challenges Developer GSC Game World has faced, they’ve still given us a fantastic way to kill afternoon spare time. Granted, there are glitches here and there that still need more time in the oven. The overall product, though, is a sight to behold and an even more thrilling venture to dive into. Find out all you can expect in our Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl review.

Careful What You Believe

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster has definitely ignited lots of tales about the aftermath. In Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl, those tales double down on the paranormal. Invisible monsters are a thing, as are mutated humans. But the radiation, too, can quickly drain your health. Still, these are no match for the anomalies, energy phenomena that can pull you in and fry your brain matter. Or the storms, “emissions” that encroach throughout the Earth in dazzling red lightning streaks that turn the skies pitch red and the ground aflame. And, the emissions better not find you out in the wild, or you’ll be ripped to shreds. 

At every turn, The Zone wants to kill you. And, even if it’s not the more horrifying creatures and paranormal events out to rip you apart, it’s mob bandits looking to make a quick buck. Fortunately, the bandits are the easiest to deal with. At the start, your protagonist, Skif, ventures into The Zone, looking to recharge an artifact that spawned in his apartment, setting his home ablaze. But upon arrival, The Zone does you dirty, unleashing bandits on you who strip you of all your supplies and leave you for dead. 

Picking Up the Pieces

So, now, you’re licking your wounds but determined to reclaim your stolen artifact. But you have very little to fight with, and so you must begin scavenging, making a quick buck to buy new gear and upgrades. This leads you to settlements where you can pick up side quests. Just your usual run-of-the-mill type of jobs, whether fetch quests, retrieval of valuable artifact missions, killing some guy, and such. But it’s not the side quests themselves that really steal your heart, but rather the places they take you to. You discover a world brimming with a shocking balance of life and rot. 

Most places are desolate, with remnants of scorched bodies and intricately detailed rusty old machinery to bring them to life. Or the outside world, where danger lurks in the shadows, but also wondrous biomes to explore.  Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl really takes the time to design an atmospheric brutal world. Whether using stunning weather that bears consequences on your life, pitch dark nights that demand flipping your flashlight and your heart pounding at the delving deeper into the unknown, or the constant eyeing of emissions whose mix of toxic red and green fumes will kill you near instantly. It’s all so eerily designed, ensuring to sustain a realistic but doomed aura. 

Life Lives Here

You do run into all sorts of characters, free to choose whether to put a bullet in their head or help them on their diverse side missions. For the most part, the characters have believable voice acting. However, some of the English VO could use a little more authenticity. It can break the pace when you sometimes need to pay attention to the dialogue to keep track of any forthcoming threat. Meanwhile, the story itself is quite interesting. It balances exploration and combat-intensive missions quite well. Often, the need for the former comes in when your weapons and gear begin to fail you against the enemies you run into. Because as much as headshots are the surefire way to survive, enemies will inevitably grow stronger and more persistent. 

So, you will often have to take a breather to do odd jobs, make an extra buck, and upgrade your gear. Then, you can proceed to chip away at more of the main quest. At its core, it pits various factions against one another. Each faction has its own agenda that you can choose to align yourself with. This is, of course, keeping in mind that the faction you support will likely ignite hostility from the others. And so, approaching either base of the rival factions will likely lead to ambushes, many of which can be utterly difficult to come out alive. The quickest reaction will often rule the day as you fire into encroaching enemies’ heads. And when the difficulty spikes, it’ll demand smart maneuvering around the environment to survive. 

Shots Fired

You’ll be dipping in and out of cover nearly constantly, and much of it will rely on reflexes that later on feel satisfying to have pulled off – even if you can’t really explain how you made it out alive. I guess in that sense, Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl can be incredibly intense. You barely have the time to think through fights. So, you always have to make the most of downtime moments. Like when you’ve just barely made it into an establishment to wait out an emission. And as you take in the stunning red skies and watch the lightning strikes fade out through the ground, you can plan your next move. 

But you’d much rather gather your supplies at a settlement before heading out into missions. Once in the thick of The Zone’s harrowing threats, ammunition runs out quickly. Weapons break down. Skif needs to be fed, too, all of which demands effective preparation. Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl achieves a great balance with its gameplay elements. Despite how difficult it can get while in the heat of combat, you still never feel like it’s unfair because there are numerous ways to retry and ensure you get it right. With the anomalies, you can use your trust scanner and bolts. If it’s locating artifacts using the most efficient route, your echo detector comes in handy. Sound effects, too, are a great help, like crackling and popping sounds when approaching a high-radiation area.

Rough Edges

The only annoying thing is the mutated beasties that take away the satisfying feel of combat. They don’t really reward your efforts with much. Meanwhile, there are some creatures that spawn in swarms. They sneak up on you from behind and nib away at your legs. And when you try to shoot them off, they are too fast to catch any bullet, making you waste precious ammo in the air. Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl can also be incredibly buggy, which I should add, the developers have been working at releasing patch fixes. However, the glitches can be quite interruptive when NPCs walk through walls and fall through the ground. When heads disappear, you’re left emptying rounds into spongy bodies. When the AI is inconsistent, among other nitty-gritty, combined, it can detract from the overall experience. 

Verdict

Over a decade later, we have the pleasure of jumping back into the harrowing but pleasant world of The Zone. It’s an incredibly brutal exclusion area of the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, designed to kill you in all manner of ways. As a result, you’re always on the edge of your seat, dreading the forthcoming bandits looking to make a quick buck, the mutated creatures thirsting for your blood, the deadly anomalies whose getting too close to can fry your brains, and, of course, the most lethal paranormal danger: the nuclear storm. If the storm finds you out and about, you’re a goner. 

And so, even as the stunning, atmospheric world of The Zone steals away your heart and pulls you into exploring more and more of its thrills, the danger remains an ever-present sense of dread hanging at the back of your mind. For that, Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl is the perfect game to test your reflexes and perseverance. Even in the buggy moments, which the developer promises to iron out in due time, perseverance remains key to making the most of your time here. No matter your skill or newness to the Stalker series, if you can stomach the numerous threats to your life with limited resources if you can find ways to optimize a harsh world to your advantage, you’ll find the shootouts well worth the blood pressure and the atmosphere wonderfully intoxicating.