After what felt like over a decade of ready – most likely as a result of it actually has been – Stalker 2 has formally been launched. The sport’s developer, GSC Recreation World, triumphed over a world pandemic, and the necessity to transfer out of a their residence nation of Ukraine following the (nonetheless ongoing) invasion by neighbouring Russia.
The truth that we have now a – largely – functioning sport in any respect is a miracle, which appears to be the sentiment most Steam gamers share.
Following its launch yesterday, Stalker 2 shortly climbed to Steam’s chart of most performed video games. The sport peaked at 113,587 concurrent gamers (by way of SteamDB), making it one among Steam’s largest launches in 2024. It’s even seemingly these numbers will get one other bump over the weekend.
With out query, these figures are orders of magnitude increased than any of the sooner Stalker video games, although contemplating how previous they’re, it could be fairly disappointing if Coronary heart of Chornobyl landed wherever near that.
In our assessment, Connor Makar awarded Stalker 2 4 stars, calling it “a wonderful work of battle and loneliness, even whether it is stricken by bugs.” That sentiment was additionally mirrored in each different assessment, a lot of which have been a bit of extra essential of the sport, inflicting it to land a 77 common on OpenCritic.
Whereas loads of the consumer critiques on Steam acknowledge the varied essential and technical points, the general ranking landed on Very Constructive, as over 81% of consumer critiques are, properly, constructive. Typically talking, everybody seems to be having fun with their time, whereas they wait on the inevitable listing of mods so as to add options, and repair a number of the extra obtrusive points with the launch construct.
Whether or not you’re blissful to enterprise into the Zone proper now, otherwise you’re ready on just a few patches and mods earlier than committing a while to the expertise, our Stalker 2 guides will make for a trustworthy companion. You must undoubtedly discover ways to improve your carry capability early, what artificats are and the place to search out them, and how you can take care of anomalies. You must most likely additionally discover ways to restore your weapons (as a result of they continuously jam) and how you can improve them.
