Well, after my journey through the original STALKER trilogy (which I started around 20 hours into the game while waiting for bug fixes to a major mission), I beat STALKER 2.

I have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue what to think of this game.

I can't say this is the worst thing I've ever played -- I obviously wouldn't have stuck with it for 80+ hours if that was the case -- but it most certainly is not the greatest. The developers clearly wanted to make the biggest and grandest STALKER entry yet, and they obviously have the talent and resources to do so. Unfortunately, I don't think they succeeded; there's too many issues present for me to say this game is worth your time and money.

There is a decent amount of stuff here that is good, don't get me wrong. The graphics (assuming you can run the game at the highest settings in the first place) are top-notch and look stunning. The attention to detail in the environments and locations themselves are genuinely super impressive. In some areas, particularly sections where there's a lot to do in a more confined area, I felt like exploring just for the sake of exploring, which is what I think an open-world game should strive for. The gunplay is leagues better than Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky (if not solely because your shots actually go where you're aiming), and the animations for weapons and interactions as a whole is sublime. They even made completely unique weapon jamming animations, which was never present in prior games -- you just reloaded to fix it. These changes help add to the overall immersion of the experience quite well, and it's this type of detail that I really appreciate.

With that said: this game had it extremely rough from the get-go.

I can't really talk about this game without mentioning how absolutely godawful the launch was. The launch of this game was complete and utter ♥♥♥♥, plain and simple. The game ran like trash, hogged computer resources like crazy, and was an overall unoptimized piece of garbage. Granted, some of this is Unreal Engine 5's fault (the engine which the game runs on), but even then, there's no excuse to have a game run that badly at launch. On top of that, as I mentioned earlier, the game was littered (and still is) with bugs. While the major ones have been patched out, the launch version of this game made it so you quite literally could not progress because of bugs, both in the main quest and in side quests. Not to mention one of the defining features of the STALKER franchise in general, A-Life, was completely absent in the game at launch. This game needed more time in development. Yes, this game was already heavily delayed as it was, but holy ♥♥♥♥ it needed so much more time in the oven if the launch was anything to go off of. I don't know if it was Microsoft forcing them to launch it for Game Pass / XBOX exclusivity or what, but it massively ruined the first impression for me.

Coming back after the patches...I mean, this is definitely an open-world game. There's enough here to keep you occupied and make your own fun in some areas. You can opt to go for all stashes on the map while finishing any side quest you come across in your travels, or you can straight beeline for the main quest and ignore everything else. However, there is a massive problem that this freedom introduces.

A lot of the content of this game is just content for the sake of content. There's stuff for you to do, sure, but that's really all it is. Going off what I said earlier, some side mission indicators turn out to be one-and-dones that take minutes to complete at best, and don't contribute anything to the story. Stashes on the map appear at random whenever you loot enemies (much like Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky), and most of them are completely pointless. This also was the case in the prior games mentioned, but in this game, certain stashes have flash drives which are required to upgrade your weapons/armor, especially in the later stages. The game incentivizes you to look for these to gear yourself up better, but what the hell is the point of doing so when 90% of them are completely useless? It makes no sense logistically and feels like filler to pad out the game, which it did not need at all.

The open-world aspect of the game also falls flat. Sure, the environments are excellent and there's numerous different locations to explore, but the vast majority of these locations amount to nothing outside of a few stash locations and maybe a side quest hidden in there. The world feels huge with constant references to the original trilogy through easter eggs and straight-up remakes of locations, which is sure to please fans of the series, but at the same time the world feels completely barren of anything with how much running through fields you end up doing. I feel like a solid third of my playtime in this game was spent just running from place to place and nothing else. The scope of this game is commendable, but it is simultaneously one of its biggest flaws because of how it's pulled off. There's way too much empty space.

The ending for this game, much like Clear Sky, sucks ass. While there are certain missions in the game that are undeniably not fun to do (cough cough the stealth mission), the entire sequence past the point of no return is the epitome of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Enemies spawn at set points, which is made painfully obvious through indicators on the HUD and completely ruins any immersion for this section as a whole. One of the final bosses (yes, one of) that I had to encounter required me pouring over 200 sniper rounds into him, only to realize he had a completely unique artifact on that allowed him to regenerate health over time after not taking damage for a bit. Nothing in the game conveys this to you. On top of that, after a second final boss encounter, you end up having a whole sequence of fighting through hordes of enemies to then end up at another boss encounter -- this time an arena, with multiple enemies who can block your bullets at will, and who are also safeguarded by five Gauss Gun soldiers who will completely obliterate you if you even have a thought of trying to peek someone. Oh, and there's also no actual cover for you. Hell, even if there was, in my playthrough, the Gauss Gun soldiers ended up shooting through thick concrete walls to kill me in one shot sometimes, so I guess it wouldn't have mattered anyways.

The most fun I had in this game was probably in Pripyat. I ended up managing to get there earlier than intended through a cheesy parkour method which has since been patched, and I really don't think it should have been considering you're barely in the area for the end of the game regardless. The area was ripe with tense combat situations and hordes of Monolith soldiers to fight, which (prior to the A-Life update) was a huge contrast to the rest of the game's completely dull and lifeless open world where you just ran from point A to point B. It felt exciting and fast-paced, and I wish more of this game was like that.

I don't think this game is worth buying in its current state. I am not going to say that this game won't eventually become something worth buying, but as it stands currently, there's too many bugs, design flaws, and abhorrent performance issues for me to recommend this to someone at full price. I'm grateful that the developers are sticking with the game to fix a lot of problems -- I just wish they delayed the game so those problems wouldn't have existed in the first place at launch.

Edit: The multiple endings have so many loopholes in them. In one route, Richter tanks Gauss Gun shots like it's nothing, and in another route, he dies to a punch to the groin. Basically all of the endings are piss poor in quality disregarding the route you have to take in order to get there in the first place. Nothing makes sense. It's so blatantly rushed. It's so bad.

Well, after my journey through the original STALKER trilogy (which I started around 20 hours into the game while waiting for bug fixes to a major mission), I beat STALKER 2. I have no fucking clue what to think of this game. I can't say this is the worst thing I've ever played -- I obviously wouldn't have stuck with it for 80+ hours if that was the case -- but it most certainly is not the greatest. The developers clearly wanted to make the biggest and grandest STALKER entry yet, and they obviously have the talent and resources to do so. Unfortunately, I don't think they succeeded; there's too many issues present for me to say this game is worth your time and money. There is a decent amount of stuff here that is good, don't get me wrong. The graphics (assuming you can run the game at the highest settings in the first place) are top-notch and look stunning. The attention to detail in the environments and locations themselves are genuinely super impressive. In some areas, particularly sections where there's a lot to do in a more confined area, I felt like exploring just for the sake of exploring, which is what I think an open-world game should strive for. The gunplay is [i]leagues[/i] better than Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky (if not solely because your shots actually go where you're aiming), and the animations for weapons and interactions as a whole is sublime. They even made completely unique weapon jamming animations, which was never present in prior games -- you just reloaded to fix it. These changes help add to the overall immersion of the experience quite well, and it's this type of detail that I really appreciate. With that said: this game had it extremely rough from the get-go. I can't really talk about this game without mentioning how absolutely [i]godawful[/i] the launch was. The launch of this game was complete and utter shit, plain and simple. The game ran like trash, hogged computer resources like crazy, and was an overall unoptimized piece of garbage. Granted, some of this is Unreal Engine 5's fault (the engine which the game runs on), but even then, there's no excuse to have a game run [i]that badly[/i] at launch. On top of that, as I mentioned earlier, the game was littered (and still is) with bugs. While the major ones have been patched out, the launch version of this game made it so you quite literally [i]could not progress[/i] because of bugs, both in the main quest and in side quests. Not to mention one of the defining features of the STALKER franchise in general, A-Life, was completely absent in the game at launch. [b]This game needed more time in development[/b]. Yes, this game was already heavily delayed as it was, but holy fuck it needed so much more time in the oven if the launch was anything to go off of. I don't know if it was Microsoft forcing them to launch it for Game Pass / XBOX exclusivity or what, but it massively ruined the first impression for me. Coming back after the patches...I mean, this is definitely an open-world game. There's enough here to keep you occupied and make your own fun in some areas. You can opt to go for all stashes on the map while finishing any side quest you come across in your travels, or you can straight beeline for the main quest and ignore everything else. However, there is a massive problem that this freedom introduces. [b]A lot of the content of this game is just content for the sake of content[/b]. There's stuff for you to do, sure, but that's really all it is. Going off what I said earlier, some side mission indicators turn out to be one-and-dones that take minutes to complete at best, and don't contribute anything to the story. Stashes on the map appear at random whenever you loot enemies (much like Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky), and most of them are completely pointless. This also was the case in the prior games mentioned, but in this game, certain stashes have flash drives which are [i]required[/i] to upgrade your weapons/armor, especially in the later stages. The game incentivizes you to look for these to gear yourself up better, but what the hell is the point of doing so when 90% of them are completely useless? It makes no sense logistically and feels like filler to pad out the game, which it did not need at all. The open-world aspect of the game also falls flat. Sure, the environments are excellent and there's numerous different locations to explore, but the vast majority of these locations amount to nothing outside of a few stash locations and [i]maybe[/i] a side quest hidden in there. The world feels huge with constant references to the original trilogy through easter eggs and straight-up remakes of locations, which is sure to please fans of the series, but at the same time the world feels completely barren of anything with how much running through fields you end up doing. I feel like a solid third of my playtime in this game was spent just running from place to place and nothing else. The scope of this game is commendable, but it is simultaneously one of its biggest flaws because of how it's pulled off. There's way too much empty space. The ending for this game, much like Clear Sky, sucks ass. While there are certain missions in the game that are undeniably not fun to do (cough cough the stealth mission), [b]the entire sequence past the point of no return is the epitome of bullshit[/b]. Enemies spawn at set points, which is made painfully obvious through indicators on the HUD and completely ruins any immersion for this section as a whole. One of the final bosses (yes, [i]one of[/i]) that I had to encounter required me pouring over 200 sniper rounds into him, only to realize he had a completely unique artifact on that allowed him to regenerate health over time after not taking damage for a bit. Nothing in the game conveys this to you. On top of that, after a [i]second[/i] final boss encounter, you end up having a whole sequence of fighting through hordes of enemies to then end up at [i]another[/i] boss encounter -- this time an arena, with multiple enemies who can block your bullets at will, and who are also safeguarded by five Gauss Gun soldiers who will completely obliterate you if you even have a thought of trying to peek someone. Oh, and there's also no actual cover for you. Hell, even if there was, in my playthrough, the Gauss Gun soldiers ended up shooting through [i]thick concrete walls[/i] to kill me in one shot sometimes, so I guess it wouldn't have mattered anyways. The most fun I had in this game was probably in Pripyat. I ended up managing to get there earlier than intended through a cheesy parkour method which has since been patched, and I really don't think it should have been considering you're barely in the area for the end of the game regardless. The area was ripe with tense combat situations and hordes of Monolith soldiers to fight, which (prior to the A-Life update) was a [i]huge[/i] contrast to the rest of the game's completely dull and lifeless open world where you just ran from point A to point B. It felt exciting and fast-paced, and I wish more of this game was like that. [b]I don't think this game is worth buying in its current state[/b]. I am not going to say that this game won't eventually become something worth buying, but as it stands currently, there's too many bugs, design flaws, and abhorrent performance issues for me to recommend this to someone at full price. I'm grateful that the developers are sticking with the game to fix a lot of problems -- I just wish they delayed the game so those problems wouldn't have existed in the first place at launch. Edit: The multiple endings have so many loopholes in them. In one route, Richter tanks Gauss Gun shots like it's nothing, and in another route, he dies to a punch to the groin. Basically all of the endings are piss poor in quality disregarding the route you have to take in order to get there in the first place. Nothing makes sense. It's so blatantly rushed. It's so bad.