As promised, on November 20, two hours before the official release, the post-apocalyptic open-world shooter STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl from the GSC Game World studio received its first ratings from the Western press.
Image source: GSC Game World
Metacritic has over 50 reviews of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl with a rating of 74% (PC) and 80% (Xbox). On OpenCritic the picture is similar – 77% with 44 reviews (64% of critics recommend the game).
The GSC project was prevented from earning higher ratings by bugs (from unpleasant to critical), crashes and optimization problems that plagued critics. However, over the past week the game has received several major patches.
Even in its current state, STALKER 2 received one “ten”
Reviewers were delighted with the hardcore gameplay in the spirit of the original trilogy, the dense atmosphere full of secrets and stories of the open world of the Zone, as well as the sometimes mesmerizing graphics.
The disadvantages of the project include the mentioned technical condition (work on patches is already underway), overly simplified survival mechanics, a weak start and a not very interesting main plot, as well as serious problems with AI.
Critics agreed that STALKER 2 was a great success and would please fans, but was buried under a pile of technical problems. “The best but most broken game this year”– summed up the author of GamesRadar.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl starts at 19:00 Moscow time on PC (Steam, GOG, EGS, Microsoft Store), Xbox Series X and S, as well as Game Pass. Since 2022, the game has not been sold in Russia, but digital pre-orders already placed remain valid.
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