It should be possible for us to hold two things in our heads at one time. The first, that the development of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been heavily disrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some GSC Game World employees are fighting on the frontlines of a land war, while others have been forced to relocate to neighboring countries to help get this ambitious immersive sim back on track after multiple delays. It's a miracle that production has resumed at all. The second, that the Stalker 2 demo I played was not fit for public consumption.
GSC partnered with Microsoft Gaming to bring the first playable build of Stalker 2 to the showfloor of Gamescom 2023. It's an early version of a work in progress, representing the building blocks of a game that will now reportedly launch in Q1 2024 for PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Game Pass. That feels somewhat aspirational to me, given the problems I encountered throughout two playthroughs of the demo. But the truth is that I'm happy to wait for as long as it takes, because beneath the broken AI, jagged foliage, and misfiring weapons is the still beating heart of Stalker.
Welcome to the Zone
I was supposed to head towards Zalissya, although I was soon lost to the vast irradiated open world which sprawls in all directions. Quiet exploration soon turns to desperate panic as an Early Warning System alert crackles over the radio – the Emission is imminent, and I know that there isn't enough time now to reach the fallout shelter pinging on the compass. I sprint desperately for cover as Skif sputters wearily for relief, the sky shifting from block-blue to a violent shade of deep crimson. The sight is haunting, terrifying. The wind begins to rage as fierce lightning bolts crack the horizon, my Geiger counter whining loudly as I dodge anomalies and head into an old barn. Inside, a pack of Flesh. This should be the end.
But the beastly mutants don't strike, instead they stand isolated in time. I'm able to walk between them, executing each with a single bullet as the storm clears overhead. An anti-climatic end to what was an otherwise classic Stalker moment. GSC has always had this talent for tapping into one of the key components of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic; the pervading sense that no matter how well equipped you are with knowledge and weaponry, the Zone's disastrous perversion of nature can strip everything away from you in an instant. In this regard, Stalker 2 passes the apocalyptic vibe check with relative ease.
Every outpost I stumbled across and voiced NPC that I interacted with was so clearly lost to the decay of the Zone. There's a thick atmosphere of dread layered atop everything, as Blind Dogs stalk the irradiated wasteland and waylaid Stalkers scrap for resources with violent intent. I've been waiting a long time to get back to the Zone – some 14 years after answering the Call of Pripyat. My biggest question coming into Stalker 2 was whether GSC would be able to recapture the spirit of this series, and on that I'm confident that the team is on the right path.
I'm less sold on the overall state of the experience. The notion that Stalker 2 will be ready to launch in the next six months or so seems ambitious at best. In another playthrough I stick more closely to the golden path, attempting to deliver a supply of med-kits to a group of locals hunkering down in a post-office. But every time I approach, a failstate kicks in, with the journal (a more distinct questlog, allowing for better tracking of main and side objectives) indicating that I failed to greet my fellow Stalkers as they begin to churn through my health with laser-like precision. No matter, it's an excuse to get a handle on the mil-sim combat model – heavy weapons which kickback aggressively as rounds exit the chamber.
Room for improvement
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The weapons feel solid, and there's a tidy customization system in play which allows you to modify guns while out in the field – an attractive animation occurring as I feed an extended magazine into an assault rifle. Less sound is the way enemies currently respond to changing battlefield conditions. As I enter a small scrapyard and draw the ire of bandits, I soon find myself locked in an engagement that has no resolution besides my revolving between checkpoints. Enemies run blindly out of cover, fail to take shelter from shrapnel, and ignore environmental hazards as red barrels alight in flame. In fact, most of the combatants don't take any damage at all, and if they do, they don't flinch at point of impact.
Artificial intelligence is one area where GSC will need to focus its attention in the coming months, and with refinement of the wider world. Despite what you've seen in the promotional material, Stalker 2 is hardly the Unreal Engine 5 showcase we're expecting it to be – not yet, at least. The environments are a little flat, flora and fauna lack definition, and there's a surreal lack of detail in anything outside of pistols, rifles, and shotguns cradled in your arms. While the Stalker games were never the most impressive visual experiences, this will be the first in the series to launch on console, and I fear that – despite being scoped differently, and developed under different circumstances – Heart of Chornobyl is destined to draw unfavorable comparisons to Metro Exodus. Xbox Game Pass too will bring Stalker 2 a massive amount of exposure, and expectations are already running sky high.
These types of comparisons are almost inevitable, given how few games there are these days born out of that original 2007 Shadow of Chernobyl mold, and I'd hate to see some players turned away from the sheer joys of navigating an anomaly field with nothing but a sputtering Detector and collection of Bolts to hand just because of some rough edges. I spoke with one studio representative during my play session, and he assured me that GSC is hard at work on optimizing these elements. "The demo is designed to give you a snapshot of our graphics, mechanics, AI, and our other systems. But keep in mind that it is a work in progress, and that these features we are working on and are continuing to polish constantly."
It's with all that in mind that I'm glad Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been delayed. And why I'd be happy for GSC to continue delaying the game if necessary. This has been one of the most anticipated upcoming Xbox Series X games for a number of years now, and a long-awaited experience for the immersive sim fans among us – we can wait a little longer to crawl through the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. With its punchy weapons, sprawling open world packed with horrors, human and mutant alike, anomalous pockets of curiosity, and a cleverly-set nonlinear narrative, Stalker 2 could well be the breakout FPS of 2024. From what I've played, the tone and spirit seems right on. But there is this nagging concern in the back of my mind about the stability of the wider experience, and whether the quality of fundamentals will raise substantially enough for Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl to fulfill its true potential.
Stalker 2 Heart of Chornobyl will release in Q1 2024 where it's expected to launch on PC, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Game Pass.
