Stalker 2 takes challenging gameplay and makes it a chore with numerous bugs and flaws

The STALKER series is renowned for its ability to hold your hand.

It is extremely challenging and requires you to adjust to every new circumstance without providing guidance on how to do so.

By eliminating common gaming luxuries like rapid travel, regenerative health, and indestructible weapons, Stalker mimics the savagery of combat.

It also emphasizes the psychological effects of battle, like the terrifying Zone and the stress of handling finite ammunition with breaking weapons.

There are otherworldly horrors and pressures that could change the course of history in the Zone, a region of nuclear disruption.

But the bugs that are all throughout the place are scarier than anything else in the Zone.

Since enemies spawn inside one another, it’s conceivable that another will emerge from its insides after you kill one.

If you ascend a tower, the NPCs will gather at the bottom and throw grenades at themselves because they all have the same terrible pathfinding.

Stalker is such a horrific experience that, despite its initial flaws, it became a cult classic.

The game has been enhanced over the past ten years by modders, who have fixed every fault that the developers missed.

Though perceptions have gradually improved as a result, Stalker 2 serves as a reminder of how flawed these games are when they first come out.

Additionally, the enormous 150GB download size ends right before another 140GB patch takes up your time and space.

In that regard, it’s a faithful successor, and we’re confident that our thoughts will shift after the modders have a chance to review it. However, as it stands, we are unable to suggest it.

In 2024, when there are so many outstanding games vying for our attention, we want games that respect our time.

You spend the majority of your time sluggishly walking across a nuclear wasteland, dodging all the monsters that are out to get you.

Instead of gaining incremental progress, you start searching for ways to circumvent the system and quicksaving continuously.

Broken weapons not only make combat more tense, but they also make you furious that you have to drag yourself back to town to have them restored. We don’t mind punishing games.

Additionally, the inconsistency of what adversaries may see or hear makes stealth disappointing.

Stalker 2’s gameplay falls short of being exceptional, despite its amazing premise and scenery.

See our review of Stray for further gaming reviews.