It’s been 15 years since game developer and publisher GSC Game World sent us on another mission to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, the third main release in the first-person shooter survival horror game. A lot has changed since then in terms of gaming technology and graphics, but when it comes to the so-called Zone, it remains an unforgiving place that will surely test gamers’s skills.
The newly released fourth installment in the series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (as the locale is now referred to) is an ambitious game—in scale, atmosphere, and storytelling. Perhaps too ambitious, as it is fraught with technical challenges of bugs and glitches.
Mario Vasquez, reviewer at JPR’s sister site, BabelTechReviews, undertakes the arduous journey of meticulously reviewing all aspects of this long-awaited title.