Stalker 2 is the much awaited fourth installment to GSC Game World’s much loved Stalker series. GSC Game World is based in Prague and due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine they had to delay the game several times. Nevertheless it was finally released on November 20th and is available on PC.
The Glitches Rob The Experience
GSC Game World has mastered crafting as close an experience as to what one might expect if a nuclear war ever happens and coupling that experience with some supernatural events or monsters and there is the formula for crafting a unique and unforgettable experience.
However, at this point in time the state of Stalker 2 leaves a lot to be desired, there is a litany of audio issues, visual bugs and optimization issues that would’ve broken the immersion if it ever was there.
One thing cannot be denied, which is the game’s visuals, while the starting areas are mostly barren, the detailed weather effects, the movement of the grass or trees when the wind blows, it all looks natural and sounds natural when there aren’t any bugs occurring to ruin it.
For example, while exploring the forests and coming across buildings in rainy weather, the game struggles to load reflections on windows, walking by them shows constant flashes or disappearing textures.
These kinds of bugs are especially bad when during combat, there are moments where we have to shoot through windows, the glitches make it so that we can’t see who we’re supposed to shoot at.
Major Audio Issues
Another immersion breaking issue is the fact that, while playing through the game we are mostly completing missions or objectives solo and we also have to face groups of enemies. These enemies on almost all occasions give the wrong callouts.
For example, they will call out that “There are no enemies in the vicinity”, right after we shoot someone almost point blank. The issues also extend to dynamics as well, because we may hear enemy footsteps coming from the left while the actual enemy is coming from the right.
There are also recurring bugs such as not being able to hear our own gunshot sounds and asset placement bugs. There are many instances of assets floating around NPCs, NPCs standing inside one another or dead enemies just t-posing around environments.
A Weak Campaign And Side Missions
What is a baffling move is the fact that the introduction sequence of the game just feels like it was tailor made to make players wanna quit the game already, the core mechanics of the game remain scarcely explained, it is a long and boring sequence that doesn’t even try to set any semblance of a plot and since weight is a factor here we already get encumbered and move slowly since we are under leveled at the start.
It takes a long time before things start to fall into place but before that almost everything seems disconnected and it is hard to find a point in doing the first few story missions as nothing gets explained properly.
Although the game is littered with tons of mini side quests throughout the entire map, a lot of the time what is experienced is clearly unfinished. There are times when you are tasked with searching for something yet the one who gave the task randomly starts shooting because you moved beyond the searchable area and there was no warning indication that it would happen.
GSC Can Hopefully Address It All
The developers of GSC Game World are experienced and storied developers, while the company went through some rough patches, the current situation is what is the root cause of this game’s poor performance. While there are numerous bugs that hinder and sometimes break the experience altogether, the game still has a lot of potential to reach or even surpass the success that its predecessors have.
What should be done is to wait as GSC can no doubt fix the issues that the game is currently shipped with which will no doubt improve the experience a lot and this would be more than enough for die hard or new fans to jump in and experience the beauty of Stalker 2 and keep them afloat for more releases down the line.
