Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has come a long way in a short stretch of time. When I played the long-awaited shooter at Gamescom last year, I was left a little worried by the state it was in – to call that early in-development build exceptionally rough around the edges would be an understatement akin to calling the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone a small hazard to your health. It wasn't long before the game was delayed again. But the Stalker 2 I sat down with at Summer Game Fest 2024 hasn't merely offered up a refinement of that foundation, instead it demonstrates an absolute transformation.
The visual fidelity has been overhauled entirely; where the Zone last appeared somewhat flat and washed-out it's now overwrought with dense detail, a violent sky illuminating deadly anomalies off in the distance of the open world. The artificial intelligence is sharper, enemies doggedly pursue me through thick foliage as they share their bullets between my position on an irradiated ridge and Blind Dogs stalking through tall grass. The framerate holds steady as firearms kick back like a jackhammer, prone to jamming whilst you squeeze at the trigger as weapons gradually degrade over time – a real problem when Bloodsuckers dip in and out of view, the mutants shifting around you faster than the reticle turns.
