GSC Game World is a master of riveting, merciless open-world games. Stalker 2 is no different. The long-awaited new entry in the acclaimed survival horror series is shaping up to be a haunting fever dream, full of terrors that can’t wait to reduce my skin to ashes. However, the game’s most challenging threat is often the one I can’t see on screen: myself.
The original Stalker games wholeheartedly deserve their spots among the best FPS games ever made, each of them engrained with a tangible sense of authorship. Stalker 2 immediately replicates its predecessors’ intensity, as my preview within GSC Game World’s appropriately titled ‘Pripyat’ playtest room begins. This build features episodes one and two, placing me knee-deep into Stalker 2’s early hours. Shadows swallow up the environment with a darkness that raises the hairs on my arms, as my first order of business is to gather data on some nearby radioactive activity.
It quickly becomes apparent I’m not alone. Wind pushes the game’s stunning foliage aside with a gentle caress, refusing to outright reveal whatever lingers in the distance. Then it hits me – a bullet to the chest. I’m not the only one trying to survive in The Zone, as bursts of enemy gunfire pierce the air. I’m in grave danger with no easy way out, and fear and panic soon set in. Whether it was the Agroprom Underground or the Dark Valley in the earlier games, GSC Game World’s brand of horror exists to highlight the perils of uncertainty.
After dealing with these foes, things naturally go even more awry, and I’m soon left for dead in the beautiful blue hues of the night. Making my way into Stalker 2’s enormous map, it doesn’t take long for the game to unnerve me further still. I counted just over 20 different areas to explore, and this first biome featuring run-down farmhouses and brutalist military bases was enough to whittle away at my remaining confidence.
Finding weapons is the easy part, but keeping them stocked up with bullets is decidedly trickier. I found myself in encounters where once those precious bullets had depleted, my death was a certified guarantee. You never quite know where the next health resource or vital key to survival will come from. Stalker 2 is endlessly cruel, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Combat largely sheds the jank of its predecessors. Stalker 2’s inventory and UI are strongly geared toward its avid PC audience, meaning it’s not best played with a controller. I alternated between mouse and keyboard and an Xbox controller during my preview. Controller gameplay isn’t bad, but it feels serviceable at best. Moving items around is more of a hassle than it should be, and Stalker 2’s myriad menus don’t feel as quickly accessible with a gamepad in hand.
Nevertheless, the weapons feel hefty regardless of your chosen control method. Assault rifles and SMGs, like the trusty AK-74u, rip through flesh with a satisfying punch. Until my weapon jams, that is. Suddenly, the world closes in around me, the pressure mounting with each failed attempt to remove the round lodged in my weapon’s chamber. It isn’t just cruel for the sake of it, though. Stalker games have always pushed players to innovate and experiment on the fly, finding new ways to conquer the worst that the Exclusion Zone has to offer.
I spent a good portion of my playthrough save scumming to experiment with its systems, often testing the boundaries of NPCs, foes, and the explorable areas. One of Stalker 2’s most surprising and intense new features is how NPCs react to your outwardly inoffensive decisions. In any other game, saying no or rejecting an NPC’s request would simply end that quest chain. Easy stuff, right? But Stalker 2’s NPCs just don’t give a fuck. I caught a bullet to the head a few times for refusing to, as I saw it, waste my time finding packages for ragtag wanderers of the wasteland. Anyone and everyone is willing to put you in the ground, reiterating that nowhere is truly safe. Every action has a consequence, and it could take hours for the outcome of my decisions to rear their often ugly heads.
I never felt like Stalker 2’s world revolved around me. Skirmishes in the distance between rogue factions and mutants signal a constant fight for territory. It skillfully weaves into quest design, leaving me to ponder what happens in my absence. I especially felt this way during a quest where I discovered a religious fanatic hiding in an abandoned cottage, warning me that a group of bandits were on the way to claim his head. Said bandits arrived, offering me the option to team up with them and slaughter my new ‘friend’. I simply decided to walk away, the screams of a firefight fading away in the distance. What had I done? Then, I was alone again.
Stalker 2’s approach recalls the minimalist scares of horror game legends like Silent Hill 2 or the thrills of being hunted down in Resident Evil. There’s no reliance on jump scares. The world itself is the scare, similar to the brilliance of The Dark Place in Alan Wake 2. Despite the extreme circumstances that led to the Exclusion Zone’s formation, Stalker 2’s world is gorgeous. Of course, much of that is backed by the heft of Unreal Engine 5 and the developer’s painstaking recreations of real-life environments.
I can see the paint strip away from the remnants of farms; I can see the evidence of a struggle within the map’s blood-curdling underground bunkers. Corpses tell a story, with their entrails leading me to resources or danger. One side quest has me wandering through a poppy field fit for a postcard, but the game’s focus on managing my sleep, hunger, and sickness is emphasized here more than ever.
A pale moon illuminates the field. I get lulled into a false sense of security, and soon enough my character starts feeling woozy. Echoes of violence float through the air, enhanced by supreme sound design that ripples through my headset. The grim display calls back to the grotesque splatters of horror legends like Lucio Fulci, while the twisted ambiance nestles under my skin like the best of John Carpenter’s works. This sequence is excellent, and if this is only a fraction of what GSC Game World has cooked up for the early locales, then Stalker 2 will be the studio’s most horrifying game yet.
In the end, despite all the abhorrent things I’d seen and tackled, the real enemy was still standing. Stalker 2 successfully walks the line between making me feel competent in battle while also cultivating the sort of fear and uncertainty that makes me a true danger to myself. This world doesn’t care about me, and if I’m not careful, it’ll leave me bleeding in the dark.