STALKER 2 is a survival shooter that nails the atmospheric horror and feeling of desolation that it sets out to achieve. You are a lone Stalker pitted against the vast Zone, and against the Zone and the way of life in this unique ecosystem, your existence or lack thereof has no impact. A common theme of the story reiterates how the Zone is both a provider and an oppressor, a cruel mistress of sorts that Stalkers have a love-hate relationship with. And that’s exactly the kind of experience you can expect going in.
Before getting started, I’m going to comment on the biggest issue this game faces, and that is performance issues. Despite playing on a 3070, I was forced to turn the game down to Low for any semblance of consistent playability. That still didn’t fix all the issues, and sometimes the game would start dying after a lengthy session or when you speak to certain NPCs or load into some areas. There’s a massive day 0 patch planned, and I hope it fixes up the major performance issues because, at its best, STALKER 2 looks drop-dead gorgeous.
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