Stalker 2 Review Roundup: Here's What The Critics Think So Far

I'm excited to give it a try after work tonight.

Great. So about the time it leaves game pass it’ll be worth playing.

So based on that round up, it seems like the game itself is fantastic. Without checking the reasoning behind the open and metacritic reviews, so far it seems like the only fluctuations are from how much people can tolerate the bugs and technical issues (which were to be expected both considering what the development went through and just the general ambitious nature of the game and looking at modern game development; seriously bigger AAA studios and massive publishers have put out more bug ridden games under far better circumstances). I'm ultimately just glad this is on Xbox same day. Curious to see how it plays on my series S and the cloud (I really just need a passable experience that works as intended "most" of the time).

Shall give it a go on gamepass tonight on series x then go from there.

Dam shame it’s a 76 though and not a 90 plus critical acclaimed top AAA game.

They seem harder to come by nowadays, I think not even Nintendo have had any 90+ in 2024.
Sony with Astro Bot and last of us 2 remastered.

Very bad for business, quality is definitely taking a hit in the industry and once that starts then word gets about and sales decline.

@OldGamer999 The Metacritic score is PC 74 from 46 reviews the XBOX Series X score is 80 from 15. Not much difference but not sure why an XBOX site is giving PC scores

Doesn’t hit with me personally, but it looks very solid for those wanting to try. A couple reviews noted some interesting strengths, I can see this being quite the time sink. And all developed in the context of geo-political pandemonium… well done to the team for persevering. Enjoy folks!

@Dalamar73 Theres no celebrations from me this is just standard and expected. A messy release that will require patches over the coming months. Add this to the excellent roll out of MSFS and its all eyes forward to Indiana release............what could possibly go wrong. I will however be playing this today as I did Redfall to see what I personally think.

A game that was developed with literal war outside their windows and then essentially having to live like refugees in other countries just to have the some semblance of a playable game has some bugs?! Who would have thought?!

I get it, people are tired of games releasing in buggy states. In this case, I think we need to give a little grace and I hope people support the game regardless as the developers went through literal hell to get this out - especially since, judging by the actual text of the lower-scored reviews, the game is fantastic...just buggy.

One could say "delay", but I think the developer probably reached a breaking point to delay even further after delaying...how many times now?

Normally I'd be very critical here but the fact this game exists at all is verging on miraculous!

And Phil Spencer claimed that this was a “Game of the Year” contender..😟 Technically, this game needs a serious amount of work. Another 50gig update should do it… damn..

@GamingFan4Lyf screw that bs. Yes of course give them the benefit of the doubt, but they still released a product that needed more dev time. Xbox could have said here more time and have had avowed come out or just flight sim 24. I’m not buying this game until they patch the heck out it.

@GamingFan4Lyf this so much. Folks are rightly frustrated with buggy releases as you say but of all the reason that can happen the team at GSC are performing minor miracles just to get to this stage given their horrendous circumstances.

I am personally going to give them all the time they need & enjoy their game as much as i can in the meantime.

@Fishmasterflex96 Microsoft has no control over this game. It is not the publisher. It only had a Game Pass and time exclusivity agreement (and I assume a marketing agreement).

Sure, Microsoft has been a cheerleader for the developer, but the decision to release is up to the publisher...who is also the developer. If the game passes all the proper certification checks for release on Xbox, then there is nothing it can really do to force a delay.

For all we know, the game is already fixed and these reviews aren't based on the patched product. Both this site and Eurogamer are withholding reviews to see if this latest patch irons out a lot the issues - there could be more but these are the only sites I frequent.

@GamingFan4Lyf Yeah, Jesse from Xbox Era is streaming it now and he's saying it's in better shape than it was during the review period. He suspects it would have gotten better reviews if critics had been playing it in its current state. I'll check it out today and see for myself. Hopefully the issues won't detract too much from the experience.

I’ll for sure play it in a few months when it’s in a better state

@GamingFan4Lyf yes Xbox isn’t the publisher but they are in bed with this game by the fact it’s a timed exclusive. If they needed more time, which they clearly did, Xbox should have went to them and said give it another delay and that’s ok. Stalker 2 releasing in a bad state is not a good look for Xbox by association. And all of this looks even worse when Phil talked about delaying Avowed which didn’t need polish, in favor of games like Stalker 2 which needed more time.

@GamingFan4Lyf they deserve plenty of praise and it’s a big shame they didn’t delay, even a couple of weeks.

People are more annoyed at the overall situation I think rather than it being a stalker thing - 2 big games release in 2 days, both have issues - Pro patch issues on the Sony side etc.

It’s tough for devs, but people are being more choosey in what they buy at the minute and a poor start can be hard to recover from.

Much as I have a lot of sympathy for them all in Ukraine, suggesting it's a miracle that the game released is way wide of the mark when development moved to Prague quite some time ago. Pretending this was developed in a war zone is pretty silly when it factually was developed in the Czech Republic.

It's yet another game that seems released far too early with low quality standards, which is a shame as apparently there's a good game in there amoung the glitches, poor ai and story issues.
I think it's worth waiting till early next year unless you must play it now.

@LonR Because everything is an Xbox

I’m trying it today, it will hook me or getting uninstalled lol

@OldGamer999 hang on, you said you sold your series x.

Would have surely been worth delaying the release to get the game in order and avoid those damaging poor and average reviews.

@Weebleman told me that last week. At this point I’m unsure if they actually own any console.

@Weebleman
My son back from uni with his so it’s all gaming paradise over here now.

@Titntin
First 40 minutes impression stalker 2 running like a dream not a single thing wrong.
120hz VRR Dolby vision and atmos all working and confirmed by tv.
Performance mode, low motion blurr.
Panning very smooth and clear.

Really have not a clue what all the fuss is about.

Just played it there and it's a mess tbh I'm so disappointed I'm going to delete it and give it a go again next year after some more patches but it really should have been delayed again.

@OldGamer999 good to hear. Maybe that patch really has ironed it a lot of the bugs. Hoping for a good session tonight (oo-er).

@OldGamer999 ahhh, good times my man. I thought I was going mad! Congrats on the new TV also!

@Weebleman
Thanks chap.
In the open world open world of Stalker 2 now.
Running perfect and fast and fluid.

Running great here on my Series X as well. Great game so far!

Played it for 4 hours last night on the S, I didn't come across any bugs. I was surprised that it looks so good on the S. 30fps is alright but the movement feels like they went for a very realistic feel so I had to turn the sensitivity way up for the controller. I died a lot but that gives the game a 'one more go' quality. Game gets a thumbs up from me.

@OldGamer999 So every single other reviewer who's had plenty of time to play it is somehow wrong because it was smooth for you for 40 minutes?
I have not played it and can't give a personal assesment. But I've read the reviews and watched Skillups video which seems to agree with many others and shows a game which has a host of issues well beyond simple frame rates. If you wish to pretend the game is problem free, that's your perogative, but the broken systems and balancing demonstrated in Skillups video are unlikely to have been fixed in the day 1 patch.
I do hope that many issues have been addressed though. It's not my sort of game, so it's not for personal reasons that I really want the game to succeed. The Team deserve all the goodwill and success they can get from this, and I wouldn't begrudge them any of it.

@Titntin
I have put some hours in now and in the open world, side missions etc.

I seem to have no graphical or sound issues from the series x.
In 120hz forced mode VRR, Dolby vision and atmos running.

Maybe as I’m not a big professional reviewer I can’t see or have not come across these issues.

I just believe that maybe on other devices series s or PC. Also depending on the series x set up.
I mean you can’t get better than forced 120hz with VRR, with Dolby vision and atmos running.
That is the elite way to run a series x if you have the capability on your TV.
Maybe that has helped my experience.

I just think it’s bit of bash show going a bit over the top and I’m just trying to give my so far positive experiences with my particular top set up.

@OldGamer999 Watch Skillups video and tell me 'thats a bash show', it's properly documented for anyone to see and he clearly wishes to like the game.
..and I get it, you got a new TV congrats. You don't need to shoehorn that into everything you write. Almost all of us committed gamers have top end TVs playing in 4k 120hz etc, you are not part of an exclusive club.
I hope you continue to enjoy the game.

@Titntin
I mention the TV because I know that games can run better at fixed 120hz with VRR enabled on series x. That even gets mentioned on DF with other games.

Never watched a skillups video.
What system are they running the game?

Just saying if it requires a VRR to display correctly it is not "fixed". That is some BS DF made up years ago and is the goto crutch for games that are not well optimized for the bespoke hardware they are played on.

The game is what it is a decent addition to Game Pass no more no less. Probably got scored a touch higher in reviews due to the circumstances in which it was made, that may even get it a few rewards.

This has probably peaked on Steam until a drop in price and if lucky may get a few weeks in the XBOX most played charts.

Regarding the TV setup for using a Series X if a game needs a TV costing thousands of £ then theres a serious issue as anyone sensible would be playing via PC if they were that concerned with quality.

Stalker is amazing. It's not for everyone and it's as weird, survival as it looks. Don't compare it to Metro; it's other beast.

I played the first hour of the game and I thought it was horrible. Perhaps one day it will be good. I had a lot of stuttering, the controls are real bad and getting radiation damage almost everywhere I walk was frustrating. It has a real dated feeling to it. As if it would have been great about five years ago.

@Titntin I had said something similar on Youtube and everyone tore into me. As if the game was developed in the middle of a war zone, literally. lol. I refuse to give this game a pass because of whatever circumstances the development team claims to have gone through. I played the first hour and thought the game was horrible. That's all I needed.

I have sympathy for their circumstances, but they have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the game. I find it appalling that the conclusions on many of the reviews, particularly the very positive ones, are mostly about the circumstances of the Devs while they made the game. It may well be inspiring, but it's not relevant. It's a reviewer's job to give us the information we need to decide if we want to buy the game, lots of reviewers seem to forget that.

Not sure what to make of it thus far as it's a real mixed bag. Great atmosphere at times, but some of the design choices and bugs are taking me out of the game. The bloodsucker thing in the prologue was infuriating, plus some kind of stick drift or weird sliding around with no control, quest updates not updating or just being out of sync, markers not updating, getting attacked by invisible 'things', enemy walking alongside me not attacking, etc.

Obv the bug fixes will make a difference, but I just don't know if the game design is my kind of thing.

Feels like a game for hardcore STALKER fans and those who like hyper-real / tactical / survival games where you have to be patient, work things out, be prepared to fail (a lot).

I'll have another play over the weekend and see if it grabs me.

Shout out for the Ukrainian voice work. Sounds great, but it does mean you have to pay attention to the subtitles, ie that's one more thing to process when you're in a gunfight etc.

EDIT: on the flip side, this does feel like the devs have created a real labour of love. I hope they patch the bugs (and maybe listen to feedback from all types of players)... because for some people this will be an incredibly immersive experience and their personal choice for GOTY.