Stalker 2 gets away with a lot because, as online editor Fraser Brown said, "We stan a janky weirdo." It's a big, ambitious, deeply engrossing game that's also pretty busted in some pretty major ways. The fact that it's nonetheless regarded as one of the best games of 2024 is a testament to just how good it is, but some of that willingness to forgive emerges from the fact that Stalker is, well, Stalker. That's just how it is.
Old-time Stalker fans would no doubt be disappointed if all the jank had somehow been filed off, but there is a line between charming and frustrating: Weirdness is fine but you want the damned thing to work. Today's patch, the first for Stalker 2, promises to make some meaningful movement in that direction with more than 650 fixes and adjustments to an array of issues, ranging from memory leaks and crash issues to nerfs to some enemies and mission-specific problems.
