There are franchises that no longer attract a sock from behind the stove after 15 years - but Stalker is definitely not one of them! Recorded on release day aloneAt its best moment there were over 110,000 active players at the same time, and that only on Steam. Anyone who subscribes to Game Pass also gets access to the full version - so the real number of players is likely to be many times larger.
And at leastThe initial feedback on Steam has been overwhelmingly positive. 81 percent of just over 10,000 reviews give the game a thumbs up. If you delve a little deeper into the reviews, however, things look a little more complicated.
Between bugfest and masterpiece
There is an elephant in the room with Stalker 2, which the developers have already publicly addressed:the technical condition of the game. Inan official letter on X (formerly Twitter)They promise hotfixes soon to solve the game's biggest problems. You can see many of these rough edges, for example, in our interim conclusion on the test version of Stalker 2, and you can also find a picture gallery:
The technical condition is also one of the biggest talking points in the Steam reviews, both among the positive and negative voices. However, opinions differ when it comes to weighting. This is how User Ion writes on behalf of many people who have so far been less affected by the problems:
I've played the game for around 20 hours over the last few days and have seen a total of three different versions. According to their own statement, the developers fixed over 1,100 bugs (!) before the release, many of them critical. Even with the oldest, first version, I didn't get the impression that it was very buggy. I was able to accept and hand in all quests, collect all items, and there were no clipping errors or sound dropouts. In between there was a big patch and then the lighting broke. But that was fixed again with the patch. Yes, the performance is 'hardcore', but if you have the appropriate hardware installed, this is largely not a problem. By the way, Stalker 2 looks absolutely fantastic with HDR.
I've now visited five of the first areas, but I just haven't gotten any further in 20 hours. The worst thing you could call a bug was an NPC that started flying after dying. But that was more funny than a bug in my opinion. Otherwise, things are going pretty well for a stalker. And I really look into every corner and hang around in places where no one else is.
I'm looking forward to being able to dive back into the zone afterwards. The atmosphere is really great.
Steam-User Ion
Other people suffer significantly more from the technical problems, including many voices from Steam user snotboogie:
I can't recommend this game yet due to the terrible, terrible performance optimization and input lag. I have a 3080ti, an i711700K and 32GB of RAM (updated drivers) and I can't play this game well with any combination of settings, even in 1080p. The best I can get is 90 FPS in the boot tunnel with all settings on low, DLSS on ultra-performance, 1080p, and even then it's not a 'good' 90 FPS because of the input lag and stuttering. This is in a dark tunnel. Input lag is also unacceptable in a fast-paced first-person shooter where your survival is at stake. I also have to recompile the shaders every time I load the game, so obviously something is broken.
Steam-User snotboogie
In addition, most people agree on the game's strengths: the stalker atmosphere hits the mark, the zone is wonderfully atmospheric, and there are people at work here who really understood the appeal of the original.
What we continue to expressly warn against is that the biggest technical problems began with usexplicitly in the later part of the game, not in the first zones. Many positive reviews record a playing time of 0.5 to 5 hours - we definitely recommend that you also take long-term perspectives into account.
Also important: The current release version is the same one we played with in the last few hours before our test was published; The Day 1 patch, which according to GSC should follow shortly after release, is still pending. We can still recreate our major problems in the game with the current build. So you should have thick skin when it comes to technical hiccups or wait for the first patches.
