S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl review: I would walk 500 miles

I think S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is going to be a divisive game. You’re either going to love it or hate it, or like me, swing between the two. I love the environment and exploring, but I long for another means of travel. The combat against military personnel and other humans is intense, but the monsters sap the joy from my brain. I love engaging with the systems and mechanics, but the experience lacks depth.

While S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 makes every stride toward the goal of greatness, it wobbles along its path. I’m personally hoping that, in time, the developers (and modding community) can help it reach its destination.

The first step

If you’ve already played a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, then you know the backdrop. For those that are new, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is set in the country of Ukraine after the historic nuclear meltdown, except the explosion in ’86 wasn’t the only one. Another one happened in 2006, which created a distorted, anomalous, and extremely hostile location known as the Zone.

Life in the Zone is fraught with danger. It’s a whole beast unto itself, with extreme weather conditions, mutated fauna, radiation seeping into everything, and anomalies. These bizarre environmental hazards manipulate gravity, affect time, discharge fire and electricity, and generally do a lot of damage when they appear. As dangerous as they are, it is an absolute spectacle to behold, with each one warping and affecting the immediate surrounding.

Many believe the anomalies that wreak havoc on the Zone are contained, but that turns out to be incorrect as Skif’s house explodes into a fiery wreck. Not much remains other than a weird artifact, the strange by-products of anomalies that present untapped potential. This one is inert and requires Skif to venture to the Zone, find an anomaly, and recharge it using a scanner one of his scientist contacts has found.

Nothing goes according to plan in the Zone – a sentiment that applies equally well to the player as it does to Skif. He's attacked, losing his friend, the scanner, and the precious artifact he was hoping to sell to buy himself a new home. From this point, Skif’s primary goal is to find those who attacked him, get his artifact back, and maybe bloody a few noses along the way.

Walk before running

With the primary reason for going into the Zone set and the stakes and motivation squared away, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 unleashes you into its hostile world with reckless abandon. The start of the game is a crash course of everything you’ll be doing for the next several dozen to hundreds of hours – fighting soldiers, looting for gear, discovering and avoiding anomalies, collecting artifacts, fighting the various mutant types, and completing quests.

Before long, I made my way to the first proper town where I quickly sold off anything I didn’t need, stashed items I wanted for later, and threw on the ground anything that didn’t fit into those two categories. With my bag empty and ready to be filled with loot, I spoke to as many of the men around town as I could before setting off on my next quest.

I opted to help a gentleman trapped by raiders, where I snagged a scoped rifle, before setting out to investigate a stash marked on my map, and then following the main campaign. All this eventually led me to a walled facility with soldiers patrolling its grounds. It’s at this point that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 really started to bare its fangs – for the good and the bad.

Finding your rhythm

There’s a tense satisfaction from meticulously and methodically clearing out an enemy-dense compound. I felt like some sort of trained marine, creeping through dimly lit corridors, leaning around corners, doming hostiles, and covering my movement with well-placed grenades. All of this is critical, as every group of foes poses a serious threat and requires careful planning of how to take them down.

While the clearing out of camps is exhilarating, the joy is sapped when the enemy spawns start to hinder progress. I’d clear out one corner of the compound and by the time I finished my loop and returned to my starting point, the foes had respawned. In my mind, I had earned the reward of looting and exploring in peace, but what ended up happening was I would get shot by a fresh batch of foes that walked out of a building I’d cleared five minutes earlier.

It’s a tough pill to swallow, especially as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 markets itself on its brutal survival and tough encounters. There’s this sense of quasi-realism dripping from the game, what with its various weapon upgrades, attachments, and ammo types, but it falls short of offering true depth.

For instance, while you can lean and switch different ammo types, there’s no prone mechanic or much information on bullet functionality or weapon statistics. While it will show you weapon range and damage, it's just a bar as opposed to actual details like distances, bullet cones, and bullet patterns. There’s also no real depth to your character beyond eating to improve “combat efficiency” or chugging an energy drink to refill your stamina. It appears, on the surface, as a deep pool to dive into, but it winds up feel like splashing in a puddle.

This is disappointing, because the systems that are present are worth investing time into. I loved sifting through my gear and organizing my stuff (even if it is a bit clumsy) and working out what artifacts I need in each instance to either grant me some benefit or offset a penalty.

Catching your breath

After shooting my way out of the compound, I set my sights on heading back to base with my loaded-up backpack. I had enjoyed my walk there, admiring the beautifully rendered nature and cowering inside shelter from the storms, but now I was staring down the barrel of a slow, stamina-sapping crawl back to town that was made even more tedious by the lack of emergent gameplay out in the field.

Most of the time, the return trip amounts to little more than holding W for several minutes until you reach your destination. You might come across a building or two, but most of the time these contain little more than ammo. If you’re lucky, there’s an anomaly and artifact to find. Even getting ambushed by mutants wasn’t as common as I’d thought it would be and I didn’t see any other S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s out there walking through the world. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a lonely game with emptiness creeping in at the borders.

And look, I don’t expect fast travel in games like these, though I do long for something to speed up the process or distract me – auto-walk would have been a godsend. I even found an old bicycle I would have loved to fix up, or let one of the tech fellas fix for me.

When I did make it back to town, I sold enough gear to make some repairs and upgrade the stuff I was using. Again, this system lacks depth. There’s no bartering to be found and even upgrades are done solely using money. You won’t be finding components and materials out in the world for a specific upgrade you want to make for your precious gun. It’s frustrating, as I longed to drink deeply from the cup, but my thirst has not been quenched.

I found myself always on the cusp of being completely and utterly enthralled, only for the immersion to fracture. Combat against the enemies is excellent, but any time a monster would appear I’d sigh. Most of them have similar AI and attack patterns: run at you, do a little jump or swipe, and then run away. This isn’t too bad for the swarms of rats or dogs, the real pain is with the bigger foes that are downright bullet sponges.

These boots are made for walking

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 offers an excellent framework on which more can be built. The world, especially the Zone, is just oozing with style, and the systems that are present are worth investing in, despite how shallow they can feel compared to other games in adjacent genres.

Honestly, if I wasn’t so enamoured with this gorgeous world, I’d be scoring this lower. Similarly, if there was just more to do and richer systems in place to engage with, it’d be higher. I think that those out there who love the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise will feel at home in this game, as the world is stunning, the sense of loneliness and isolation permeates everything, and the combat against the human factions is intense.

Fortunately, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is still on its path to greatness. It’s just going to need a little more love to get it to its destination. I just hope the rest of the journey is a bit faster than Skif’s walking speed.

This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is scheduled to release on November 20, 2024 on Xbox and PC.

Sam Chandler

Head of Guides

Hailing from the land down under, Sam Chandler brings a bit of the southern hemisphere flair to his work. After bouncing round a few universities, securing a bachelor degree, and entering the video game industry, he's found his new family here at Shacknews as Head of Guides. There's nothing he loves more than crafting a guide that will help someone. If you need help with a guide, or notice something not quite right, you can message him on X: @SamuelChandler