Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl feels like the biggest game launch of the year right now, especially since the sequel has been a long time coming. In any case, reviews for the game are starting to go live just a couple of hours ahead of the launch and they seem to be confirming a lot of fears people had while heading for release day.
In a recent Steam discussion thread, we can find a quick roundup of some of the game’s reviews. Even leading up to the launch we could see that the system requirements were not exactly going to be easy for everyone to meet, and this seems to be echoed in critics’ evaluation of the game. At the time of writing, the game holds a ‘Generally Favorable’ 76 rating on Metacritic.
“Technical issues and severe bugs” hold the game back – “not ready for launch” according to early reviews
Right away, IGN calls Stalker 2 a “refreshingly brutal FPS” but goes on to say that “technical issues and severe bugs” have been a problem so far. You’ll find similar reports from several video game reviewers, Skill Up for example frankly says that they “cannot recommend” the game as “it’s simply not ready for launch” – a sentiment that not only Stalker 2 has shared in the past few years of game launches (particularly on PC).
Top 5 Cyber Monday deals
This year's Cyber Monday has officially kickstarted, offering up huge discounts on some of the market's leading tech products. Below, we'll list the best Cyber Monday deals we can find.
- Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED Curved gaming monitor - WAS $1,599.99 NOW $949.99 Save - $350
- LG C3 Series 65-Inch Class OLED - WAS $1,499.99 NOW $1,196.99 Save - $70
- AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6-Core - WAS $299.99 NOW $186.97 Save - $330
- Beats Stuydio Buds - WAS $178 NOW $99 Save - $300
- Bose QuietComfort Bluetooth 5.1 Headphones - WAS $349 NOW $199 Save - $150
Prices and savings subject to change. Click through to get the current deal prices.
In any case, the game is still just shy of its worldwide launch, and game performance can be judged on a player-to-player basis; not all gaming PCs are built the same after all. However, even in the run-up to the launch, we discovered that even the RTX 4090 is not enough to run it at 4K 60 FPS at max settings, so the inclusion of both DLSS and FSR support is much appreciated.
Not everyone wants to latch on to performance or bug issues. Within the Steam discussions, one person says the “original games were jank too,” and that didn’t stop them from having fun. They go on to say they’ll still play it and see how it goes (making most of Steam’s two-hour refund window to check it out).
