S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Deluxe Edition

Underneath the technical problems that plague STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a unique greatness. It emerges as a refreshingly brutal shooter that strives to hook you with its incredible atmosphere and leave you invested by the end of this long, arduous journey.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is rough around the edges, but its propensity for creating emergent moments in a deadly and alluring world makes this trip back to the Zone a fraught and compelling experience

Full of anomalies in more ways than one, Stalker 2 is a mess of bugs and jank that nonetheless stays faithful to the open world survival shooter of yesteryear.

Just like in the old days, performance issues and bugs don't stop Stalker's mad, wonderful heart from shining through.

Stalker 2, in its current state, has too much baggage to overlook

Stalker 2 could be a great game in a few years, but what's presented at launch is a technical mess that doesn't capitalise on its best ideas. Compelling side stories and a brilliant setting do a lot of the heavy lifting, but at launch Stalker 2 isn't an adventure we'd fully recommend embarking on.

It's incredibly buggy, but persevere and this survival FPS will reward you with intense shootouts and some wonderfully atmospheric free-roaming.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a pretty big mess. In its current state, this is a badly-judged game in almost every way. The new zone is incredible to behold at times, for sure, but it's a world at odds with itself; full of gear and guns, but with precious little in the way of enemies that challenge you to use them. The story is terrible, the A-Life system is AWOL, and the acting and writing is atrocious. Stalker 2 is cheap in how it kills without warning, is packed full of bugs and performance issues on Series X, and is devoid of mostly anything that makes it feel worth playing for very long.

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.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl crumbles under the weight of its own ambition.