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Chornobyl. A desolate landscape ruined by disaster. A place where nature has reclaimed, fauna and flora emerging from the depths to reveal an all-new life.
It is that same Chornobyl, and that same desolate land, which has been ripe for game developers to play with, dropping new ideas and mechanics, working with the real world atrocities in the virtual form, free of constraints and rules.
It’s the latter which has allowed Chornobyl to become a virtual playground, with various games taking players deep into the unknown, all in hope of uncovering mysteries and secrets, understanding that the line between success and failure is ever thin. We’ve had the roguelite nature of Chernobylite, the madness of the madness of S.W.A.N.: Chernobyl Unexplored and the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, most recently revived through the Legends of the Zone Trilogy (Shadow of Chornobyl, Clear Sky, and Call of Prypiat).
And now, finally, we have S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl – a game that many thought may never see the light of day. But it’s this open world adventure that draws back the curtain on the events of Chornobyl like never before, twisting things up with artistic flair to immerse the player in ways that I have never experienced previously. It’s just a shame then that there are many bits that still need polishing, as this romp through a mutated land offers up more opportunities than you could ever imagine.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl focuses on the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. It sees us entering a land that has suffered a second explosion, changing things in the process. It’s here where mutants survive, anomalies are present and factions look to go up against one another. But it’s also here where artifacts lie, sitting with stratospheric values, gobbled up by S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s who risk their own lives for the chance of a fortune.
It all plays out across a huge world that is some 64-km² in size. Full of radioactivity, it’s up to you to take on the role of Skif; a Stalker with dreams; or something like that. The thing is, Skif’s entire future will depend on your decisions…
That story is key to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, but not as key as the actual gameplay itself. But you should come to Heart of Chornobyl in the knowledge that this is a brutal game; brutal in many ways. There’s obviously the world itself, full of mutations, living, breathing, reacting to your own actions. Then there’s the difficulty too – and I have no qualms in admitting that for the purposes of review, I soon had to dial down the difficulty. Even now, after continuing to explore the ways of Chornobyl, I have zero intention of ramping it up again. Of course, you may decide that an absolutely brutal first person shooter, one in which ammo is a more valuable commodity than anything else, is for you. In which case, crack on. I’m just glad GSC Game World saw sense to ensure those wishing to ‘enjoy’ the story, are well catered for.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl very much plays like most open world shooters, in that you are very much left to wander where you like, taking in missions and sub-missions as you see fit. It also lets you just head off on your own, forgoing the map, forgetting about the workings of the journal, scraping notes and a precious PDA for adventures new. And it allows that with aplomb, even though you may well find yourself heading straight into trouble, or occasionally being required to go backtracking as you pick up a mission scent and discover yourself traversing areas that have already been scoured.
For instance, in an early point in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, I went tower climbing, happily scaling the heights for my own personal pleasure. Nothing came of it, aside from some stunning vistas and the death of a mutated rat. It was only further down the line, as I agreed upon a mission, that it turned out the same tower had to be scaled to progress mission objectives. It’s all well and good climbing ladders, but perhaps it’s also better to stick to the plan, going the way GSC want you to go at any one point.
That open world is rich though. Soldiers, friends and foes, await, as do gangs, other stalkers, mutated animals and more; more that won’t be spoiled here. It’s occasionally a joy to sit back and watch two factions go at it, picking off stragglers as a combat scenario comes to its conclusion. But equally, going full guns blazing is possible – provided you have the ammo, the weaponry, the gear, the equipment and the balls to stay safe. Spoiler: rarely will you.
But there’s so much to explore in this world, that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is never dull. Whether it be a cave you happen upon, an anomaly that you stumble into, artifacts which require harnessing or radiation to keep an eye on, the immersion that this game brings is very much second to none. Throw in trading, tech points, conversations with anyone and everyone, the need to keep eyes on hunger, tiredness, overloading the old backpack, deterioration of weapons and more, and it feels like a game that will have you playing for weeks, months and most probably years. Remember, if you want to see absolutely everything that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has on tap, this is going to require multiple playthroughs and a ton of luck.
It’s also one of the best sounding games of this generation. There have been moments in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl where I’ve just stopped in my tracks, halted by a noise, spinning on a dime, hoping, praying that whatever it was that created the sound, that moved in the dark, had gone. It’s the little ticks, the tocks, the pings, the bings, the bongs and beeps that will have you on your toes throughout, as firefights, weapons, and the growl of animals play out.
But then S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl ramps things up with some further environmental sounds that are out of this world. A day/night cycle keeps the world fresh, changing up as the minutes and hours progress. But it’s when the weather changes where this one really gets moving and should you find yourself caught in a storm, you’ll want to hunker down for a few days until the sun starts to shine again. The weather effects are that good; that immersive. In fact, I sat in a hut for the night, happily forgetting about the ghastly world, watching lightning strikes and seeing leaves whistling through the wind.
Obviously that sound is helped by the visuals. Generally, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl works some dark and gloomy angles; greens, browns, dark nights and the like. But then, this is a world like no other and radioactivity pierces the night sky, glowing bright, warning you off or dragging you further in, depending on your wants and needs. It’s helped that the world is just so alive that again, visually, things excite, perhaps as you head off to explore something you have seen in the distance, wondering what will be found at the other end…
So it’s disappointing that there are other elements of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl that let it down; occasionally quite badly. Don’t see this as the signs of a bad game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is far from that, and I’d suspect that GSC will be on the case to dropping patches and bug fixes as a matter of priority, but we can’t sit here and say we haven’t been slightly disappointed by multiple glitches, bugs, awkward NPC conversations, scripting and close up visuals that feel like they have been kicking around since the early days of when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was first being developed.
Notable issues have mostly centred on the NPCs that absolutely litter the Chornobyl world and we’ve taken in repeated conversations, have seen soldiers walking through each other, others trying for minutes at a time to walk through solid walls, stuttering close ups during chats and trades and more. We even lost a good half hour of play stuck in a building, unable to get out of the door we initially went through; locked in with a couple of clones who stood staring at a wall, all as we were unable to progress.
We’ve also lost sight of enemies in the field, disappearing into the ether, never to be seen again, even when they were mere feet away. And whilst we can’t complain too much when a ‘mission failed’ sign pops up even though we had done nothing to warrant such, we’re going to put that down to our enemies chucking a stray grenade for the fun of it.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl also needs a bit of polish in regards inventory management. Frankly, it’s an absolute ballache to move through the contents of a rucksack, attempting to use certain items or move them around. It gets worse when trading, never really knowing what has, and what hasn’t, been sold, bought or confirmed. Similar feelings sit in regards the upgrade system; although that is to much a lesser extent, it could be worked in a much neater way.
So, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. There’s no doubt that this is one of the most immersive, grittiest, most brutal of games, for multiple reasons. It’s also one that will allow for a ton of opportunities, no matter whether you follow missions, help out the odd friend, or go it alone, exploring the world forevermore. There’s also no doubt that aurally, it’s of the very highest standard, helping complete the immersion.
However, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl goes and shoots itself in the foot on a few too many occasions. Bugs and glitches are to be expected for an open world game that attempts so much, but only with some polish and refinement will S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 shine as a masterpiece of open-world survival horror.
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