The story of Stalker 2 is well known at this point. Finally, after delays, a cancellation, and a 2018 re-reveal, the cult classic PC game was set to get a proper sequel in 2022, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced Kiev-based GSC Game World to relocate much of the game’s studio to Prague. And yet, despite all the hardships, Stalker 2 is almost here, and it’s looking mighty impressive.
For context, we got some hands-on time with Stalker 2 at Gamescom 2023, and it didn’t look great. The game looked rough, the demo was buggy, and generally felt a bit aimless. Given everything that was going on, it was perfectly understandable that things didn’t quite line up, but the fact still remained that it felt like the game had a long way to go, which made the release date back then (2023) a bit worrying. Fears that it would release in a bad state were high.
Going into Summer Game Fest 2024, we didn’t know what to expect from Stalker 2. Remember, it wasn’t even a year ago that we last got our hands on a disappointing demo, so to be honest, we weren’t expecting too much from it. And yet Stalker 2 immediately surprised us. This is the real deal and it looks fantastic.
The game’s graphics were the first thing we noticed compared to that Gamescom demo; something that just a year ago didn’t look special by Xbox One standards was now stunningly beautiful (maybe not the right word to describe a nuclear wasteland, but you get what we mean). The character models, foliage and lighting were all phenomenal and clearly took full advantage of Unreal Engine 5. Of course, graphical fidelity isn’t the be-all and end-all of whether a game will be good or not, but it was the first sign that this is far from the game we played less than a year ago.
We were given the opportunity to play what was described to us as the first 40 minutes of the game. You and a companion sneak into the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone to investigate. Of course, it’s not as simple as just walking through the front door and putting down a scanner before heading home for a nice beer and waiting for the whole thing to blow over.
Stalker 2’s Chornobyl is oppressive, brutal, and not exactly good for your health to hang out there (the series is set in a world that saw a second disaster at Chornobyl, so things aren’t exactly in great shape). And that brutality doesn’t stop when it comes to the game’s combat. Those who played the original Stalker: Shadow of Chornobyl back in the day (or via the recent Legends of the Zone Trilogy) will know that the game is uncompromising. While you can certainly sense that GSC Game World is a little relieved for what is set to be a much more mainstream game than its previous entries (partly due to the fact that it was on Xbox Game Pass day one), Stalker 2 is going to be no walk in the park, either.
Combat in Stalker 2 is tough; you really feel every bullet you fire, partly due to the high recoil and limited ammo supply – you’ll need to time your shots carefully. It’s certainly possible to charge into a group of enemies and let loose with a machine gun, but we wouldn’t recommend it. The enemy AI is relentless from what we played, whether they’re humans or mutated dogs – once you attack them, they’ll be on your tail until you or they die. While we played for around 40 minutes, we definitely didn’t last 40 minutes because of that.
While it loosens up a bit on how cryptic the original trilogy could get, Stalker 2 admittedly still has a few moments that could have been explained better. The returning ‘Poltergeist’ enemies (invisible creatures that like to fire household items at you and drain your health) definitely fall into this category; how to defeat them isn’t explained at all here, which will no doubt be frustrating for some players – especially considering how much these enemies unsettled people in the original titles. Of course, demos are no indication of how the full game will play, and we’re hoping situations like these are better explained in the full release, but as you can see, the cryptic nature of Stalker hasn’t been completely eradicated in Stalker 2.
Nevertheless, after our hands-on at Summer Game Fest 2024, Stalker 2 is shaping up to be something special. Visually it is absolutely stunning and dripping with atmosphere. The immersive sim-like approach to mission design gives you so much to play with and experiment with. And the combat is brutal and satisfying; which makes it even scarier to deal with the already oppressive world. Not only is Stalker 2 an impressive game for a studio that has been dealt so many bad hands over the years, it’s simply an impressive period of gaming. And it will be one of the biggest wins for Xbox (and Game Pass!) in 2024, when it finally releases on September 5.