Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is desperate to kill you, and it will often succeed. Some deaths are inglorious: a bandit may shoot you when your back is turned, or a pack of wild dogs will decide to make you their lunch. But few of its post-apocalyptic dangers are as dramatic or lethal as emissions, storms of psionic energy that turn the sky blood-red and shake the world so hard you'll think it's coming apart. Fail to get indoors before an emission kicks off, and your life is measured in seconds.
These emissions are deadly, yes, but they're also hypnotically beautiful. While taking shelter in a disused gas station, abandoned along with the rest of The Zone due to the Chornobyl nuclear power plant meltdown, I couldn't resist sidling up to an open window and watching its red hues and streaks of lightning scour the land. Low on supplies from a shootout with hostile scavengers, I sat and watched the emission rage whilst planning my next move. In moments like this (and there are many others) Stalker 2's atmosphere is incomparable. But it's a shame – a sincere, heartbreaking shame – that bugs and technical issues shatter that immersion at every turn, making this the best but most broken game I've played all year.
