Stalker 2 is still alive. You can feel the heart beating tachycardia, that of someone who – in a fit of anger and adrenaline – wants to fight, to demonstrate that he can do it, despite the difficulties that a developer who aspires to create a work with great ambitions normally has to face, despite the weight of an important legacy like that of the series. Despite the war. To make itself heard, to make the public understand that the game is healthy (even if not in full shape), GSC Game World brought it to the Summer Game Fest, offered us the pad and asked us to start the adventure . We tried the first 30 minutes of Stalker 2, and we want to believe that, on September 5, the Ukrainian team will be able to reap the fruits of its efforts, its battles. Despite it all.
Welcome back to the Zone
The beginning of the experience takes us to a nocturnal landscape, where a van crosses a dark and wild road, near a wall that looks like it shouldn’t be crossed. It is in fact what separates us from the Zone, that Hell of indefinable horrors which, as Dr. Dalin at the beginning of the game, “reveals a whole new world“. To be precise, it is the same cinematic (obviously in extended format) whose hint was shown in a trailer from two years ago. We report it below.
At the entrance to the Zone, right before setting foot in that radioactive abyss, the protagonist Skif follows the instructions of Professor Hermann, who fans of the saga know well: he must cross the perimeter, position a scanner and recover an important artefact. It won’t be a cheerful picnic in the woods because, as soon as he crosses the border, that territory of supernatural brutality will immediately try to bring him to his knees. This is what he did with us. We barely had time to look around, to familiarize ourselves with the radial weapons menu, to observe the surrounding environment and orient ourselves with the compass indicating the distance from the main objective: shortly after setting foot in the Zone a mutant beast he attacked, moving with lightning speed and suddenly disappearing from our sight. Her speed and her infamous ability to become temporarily invisible immediately brought back terrible memories.
We recognized him: he was a Bloodsucker. It took an entire magazine to bring him down, at the cost of many wounds. The baptism of fire spoke unequivocally: this second numbered chapter remains a Stalker. And he will try to tear us apart. Thanks for the welcome, dear old Zona.
An indomitable spirit
In Stalker 2 there is the indomitable spirit that distinguishes the series, that survival soul that pushes us to ponder every move, every exploratory impulse. We need to curb hunger pangs, monitor our health, keep the level of radiation under control which could dangerously rise and lead us to eternal sleep (if you want to refresh your memory, read our review of Stalker Trilogy). The open world of GSC Game World holds us in a deadly embrace, and leaves our indomitable spirit the task of freeing ourselves from its grasp.
To do this we will have to evaluate the actions to be taken, save the bullets, avoid radioactive sources (at least when possible…) and plunder ruined homes and corpses of other human beings in search of the most putrid food ration or the latest medikit available. In addition to food and medicines, our best allies will be weapons: some will be more approximate and makeshift, such as the semi-automatic with which we will go into action the first time, while others will be more lethal. We will always have to consider durability, caliber, damage and rate of fire when selecting our tools from the limited grid inventory. Even choosing which gun to take with us can – clearly – make the difference between life and death. In a matter of minutes it is certainly not clear what the value of such an ambitiously layered production is, the duration of which – according to the estimate of the developer sitting next to us during the test – should be around 50 hours or so. A first fleeting encounter with the Zone at least had the merit of reminding us how cruel this world is. It’s not the same as what we saw in the very first gameplay trailers, but fortunately it’s also different from the one explored last year at Gamescom (here’s our first test of Stalker 2). We can define this version we tested as an understandable and acceptable middle ground. The limping demo of 2023 has given way to a game that is still imprecise and angular in the management of hitboxes during shootouts, but still more refined, permeated by that hardcore charm that the series thrives on.
However, the graphic rendering of the build at the Summer Game Fest was far from that shown in the first appearances of the game and was not even as clean as that which appeared in the most recent trailer during the Microsoft Showcase. In any case, it must be admitted that, if we turn a blind eye to fairly invasive tearing, the demo was certainly not unpleasant to watch. Don’t expect Unreal Engine 5 to be fully exploited if the final version turns out to be similar to the one tested at SGFbut that could be fine too, especially if we consider the unthinkable difficulties experienced by the development team.
Despite its technical uncertainties, Stalker 2 also remains hypnotic to observe: more than the polygonal count and the level of detail, the credit goes to the sick atmospheres of the Zone, its dark and intimidating colors, its wild inhospitality. The same one that welcomed us briefly, not so much to give us the measure of the playful qualities of the experience, but to make us feel the temperament of Stalker 2. To make us listen to her terrible heart beating.
