It’s hard to discuss Stalker 2, the long-awaited sequel from GSC Game World, with first contextualising its development. The studio was forced to leave its native Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, with some of its talented developers going to help the war effort directly. The team moved to Prague, where a devastating fire destroyed part of its offices. With such ongoing hardships, it’s a staggering achievement that the team managed to release Stalker 2 at all, but what’s less surprising is the heart found within The Zone. Stalker 2 wears its themes of displacement on its sleeve from its earliest moments, and despite an array of technical issues that make it hard to experience the studio’s work as it was clearly intended, I don’t doubt that it will grow to be looked back on as one of 2024’s best games – even if it’s not quite there yet.READ MORE: EA FC 25 hits new lowest price ahead of Black Friday with some on sale at 50% offREAD MORE: ‘I’ve tested PS5 Pro for weeks – this is why it’s odd and I can’t recommend it yet’Stalker 2 is a first-person shooter that strays into survival horror pretty regularly, leaning on genre staples like item scarcity and digging into dark corridors with a flashlight held high, and it successfully balances both sides.Guns are punchy, but there’s enough crunchiness in its mechanics to make it feel, in some ways, like the closest console players will get to a more sim-like title such as Escape from Tarkov.It also doesn’t hold back, and its Zone (a scientific hotspot following the Chornobyl disaster) is to be respected – you are a guest here, and it’s not uncommon to be killed by something you literally can’t see, let alone shoot at.That’s sure to frustrate some players who haven’t danced with the series before, but it’s refreshing to play a console shooter that doesn’t hold your hand – unless it’s ready to bite it clean off. That’s not to say it doesn’t introduce you to the basics like throwing a metal bolt to locate an Anomaly before sprinting past it, but there’s something to be said for remembering the training it does give you early on.If you’re worried about Stalker 2 being a sequel to a trilogy of games released in the late 2000s, fear not – the game does a decent job of feeding players a narrative on a “need to know” basis.Right from the jump, as protagonist Skif hops a fence into The Zone, Stalker 2 does a great job of keeping you in every moment. Whether it’s jabbing himself with a medical kit, cracking open some less-than-appetising tinned food to restore some strength or succumbing to the effects of radiation poisoning, Stalker 2 takes joy in the mundane and the unusual in equal measure.By doing so, its Zone becomes closer to feeling like a real location while remaining a deep sense of mystery. The first time an invisible ‘Anomaly’ hurled an object at my head, or a mutant caught me with a jump scare are moments I’ll remember forever – and Stalker 2 is full of these moments.Those are just the scripted ones, too, but the real magic of Stalker 2 is in its underlying systems. Much of its player-driven moments feel like what other game developers would use as a way to point out how deep their systems go, but Stalker 2 takes the baton and runs with it, bordering on immersive sim territory.From a complex faction system, to enemies both human and otherwise roaming the world, everything feels like it connects together. Even the anomalies, which are essentially terrifying invisible clouds that can tear flesh from bone can be fed enemies and allies alike if you line things up.Come and join The Daily Star on Bluesky, the social media site set up by ex-Twitter boss Jack Dorsey. It’s now the new go-to place for content after a mass exodus of the Elon Musk-owned Twitter/X.Fear not, we’re not leaving Twitter/X, but we are jumping on the bandwagon. So come find our new account on https://bsky.app/profile/dailystar.co.uk, and see us social better than the rest.You can also learn more about The Daily Star team in what Bluesky calls a ‘Starter Pack’.So what are you waiting for?! Let’s M.S.M.F.A (Make Social Media Fun Again)Sadly, that ambition does tend to weigh heavy on Stalker 2’s underlying skeleton. During the review period it wasn’t uncommon to need to reload to get around a bugged objective, or for the enemy I killed to just sort of slide along the floor until he hit a solid wall.The Day One patch has certainly improved some of this, but it feels like a game buckling under its own ambition. Lighting and detail are a little all over the place, particularly on Xbox Series X. Microsoft’s flagship console may not have as much grunt as a high-end PC, but it’s still bizarre to see lighting in interior locations match the sky outside despite there being no windows.That’s perhaps amplified by the fact The Zone often feels like a fever dream – its skies move between cloudy blue and fiery red, and Stalker 2 revels in the juxtaposition of its benign countryside with more fantastical elements, but that comes at the cost of texture pop-in and pretty regular frame drops.GSC Game World has committed to patching the game further, and that’s a good thing because a version of Stalker 2 that nails the execution is likely to be very special indeed.It’s rare to play a game that will be more than what it is at launch, probably in just a few weeks time. Taking what’s here into account, Stalker 2 is often buggy enough to get in its own way.And yet, I’m desperate to see this game grow with fixes and updates, because I’ve made my home in The Zone – and I’m not ready to leave just yet. Reviewed on Xbox Series X. Review code provided by the publisher.
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