After several postponements, you can finally dive into the dark world of Stalker 2 and really enjoy the new game from the Ukrainian developers GSC Games, right? Not quite.
In the test version, collapsing frame rates, bugs and crashes instead throw serious obstacles between our fun spokes.
At the latest when the game runs worse after you have reduced the graphic details, the alarm bells should go off - and they have been on for us since the start of the test. But can Stalker 2 still be saved?
If you want to know what Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl is like in terms of gameplay, then take a look at Natalie's test:
This is how we tested
We mainly tested the technology with a Radeon RX 7900 XTX, 32 gigabytes of RAM and a Core i7 11700K. We use the 1440p resolution in the highest settings with TSR in Ultra Quality mode.
According to the developers, this setup should be suitable for 4K resolution and 60 FPS. Only the processor is slightly below the requirements.
We also tested Stalker 2 on other systems that are equipped with a Geforce RTX 4070 and a Geforce RTX 2070 Super, among others.
The system requirements thing
The demands that Stalker 2 places on your PC have been public for a while and look somewhat reasonable.
But it had in advancegiven that the development studio has not yet made it clear that they also rely on upscaling such as TSR, XeSS, FSR or DLSS.
So you have to activate one of these options in order to achieve the corresponding frames per second with the specified hardware.
Do the requirements match the performance?In short: no. In graphically less demanding areas the FPS does reach the target frames, but this is rarely the case.
An Nvidia RTX 4090 outperforms Stalker 2 at 4K resolution and maximum graphics settingssea Nvidia-Benchmarkonly the 60 FPS when frame generation is activated. This is not in the system requirements.
Even on our AMD test system we didn't consistently achieve 60 FPS with an RX 7900 XTX, even though we only played at 1440p in the test - cities and outposts in particular are a problem in Stalker 2, but more on that later.
Only frame generation can help here, as long as we don't want to lower the graphics settings. This wouldn't be a problem if frame generation didn't have its own problems.
Frame generation worries us: Both our AMD test system and the PCs with Nvidia graphics cards seem to have their own difficulties with their respective versions of frame generation:
On the AMD system, frame generation causes extreme stuttering, which sometimes occurs more, sometimes less frequently and takes away some of the fun from the game.
On the Nvidia computer, the function leads to micro-stutters and reloading problems with textures, which come at the expense of gaming fun and immersion. Accordingly, we did not use frame generation during testing.
This is particularly unfortunate since the typical input lag that often occurs with this feature isn't really noticeable. Without the severe hangs and reloading problems, generating extra frames would be optimal for the game.
In lower resolutions and graphics presets, the game's graphics performance lags similarly.
So with the PC, which uses an RTX 2070 Super and uses medium settings, we get around 50 FPS at 1080p resolution. But this only applies to the game sections in which there are no other technical problems - and these are few and far between.
Before we get to the wealth of other technical problems, let's talk about the successful aspects of the technology, which definitely exist.
Stalker 2 - we liked that technically
Admittedly, Stalker 2 is certainly not the graphics cracker of the year, but it is certainly nice to look at on high settings.
This is mainly due to the detailed environments, the dense (if simple) flora, the ray tracing and the atmospheric weather effects that contribute to the oppressive mood.
What's particularly noticeable is that the ray tracing is of similar quality both in the lowest settings and on "Epic".
Even though it doesn't come close to flagship games like Alan Wake 2 and some details are missing in the reflections (such as the tree trunk at the bottom of the picture), they still look good enough to enjoy while walking by.
It's hard to tell the difference between the highest and lowest reflection quality, but the higher settings are slightly sharper.
Overall, the graphics are what you would expect from a AA game– including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Stalker 2's many problems
We have to be clear: Stalker 2 is not in good technical condition - at least not the PC test version that was made available to us in advance.
Probably the biggest drawbackare the massive frame drops in some areas. This especially applies to areas with many NPCs, i.e. cities and outposts. The FPS on our test system tends to drop from around 70 to 40 FPS on average. Then there are violent jerks.
On our test system with an RTX 2070 Super, this got to the point where we were running at just 10 FPS in some cities and the game didn't even want to open the menu anymore.
The problematic NPCs also appear in the open world again and again in the immediate vicinity of our character and help in some fights.
But they tend to hinder us because they cause frame drops when there are only three of them. So it's hard to escape frame rate drops.
Even in fights without friendly NPCs, the game often stalls and has problems. This means that some fights become more of a burden than a fun element of the game.
But the frame drops aren't everything. The frame times are also sometimes very irregular and significantly too high.
As a reminder: the lower and more regular the frame time, the better the feel of the game. The frame time shows how long it takes to calculate the individual images over time.
Problems galore: If only the FPS would drop, we would still have hope that the developers could help out with a day-one patch. But the many more mistakes make hope sink further with every hour in the game.
Diverse Bugsdisrupt the course of the game and the fun of the game. These include many weapons that have no sound and NPCs that rotate upwards into the sky.
Sometimes we just got stuck in the ground and couldn't move forward until we minimized the game and reopened it.
Regular crashescause additional frustration. The game tends to give up, especially when loading saves. Then you have to restart and wait another five to ten minutes until the shaders are compiled.
Flickering is a constant companion. No matter whether with FSR, DLSS, XeSS or TSR: house walls, windows, shadows and fences tend to flicker and are therefore distracting. In addition, the rendering distance of some elements is significantly too short despite high settings, as you can see in the following image:
Smaller errors such as the rendering distance of the shadows are also noticeable. For example, when we stand just a few meters away from the shadow of the tree on the building, we still have to move a few meters closer to see the higher quality of shadow - unpleasant.
Strange occurrences: To make matters worse, we noticed some discrepancies during testing. The game runs better on our test system with the RTX 2070 Super when you use the high graphics presets than with the medium settings.
Additionally, some upscaling presets don't seem to make a difference in performance, even though they should. For example, if we set the TSR upscaling to Performance and then to UltraQuality, this is hardly noticeable in terms of performance.
This brings us back to the question from the beginning.
Can Stalker 2 still be saved?
Absolutely, yes. But given the fact that the errors are piling up, it is certain that Stalker 2 will not be playable when it is released.
We're hoping for quick patches that will at least significantly improve performance in busy areas of the game and in fights, because that's currently Stalker 2's biggest problem.
The regular stuttering in battles should also be fixed as quickly as possible before you pay the full price for the game.
Have patches already been announced?Yes, there will be a day one patch that will hopefully address some of the issues presented. But when exactly it will come and how many errors and performance problems it can fix is currently unknown.
In the following video we discuss how things can work in the best case when games develop well technically:
Editorial conclusion
Stalker 2 is currently only suitable for absolute hardcore fans who know what they're getting into. Strong hardware will also be necessary in order to be able to play the title reasonably well right from the start.
Otherwise, it's probably a case of waiting, as the massive FPS issues and stuttering in some areas urgently need to be fixed before most of us can have fun with the title.
So it's better to wait for a few patches and see if the condition improves.
