GSC Game World faced some tough challenges while creating Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, thanks to the turmoil caused by Russia invading Ukraine in 2022.
After much anticipation, the game came out earlier this month but had some hiccups. Luckily, a patch was released right on the first day to fix a few of these issues, though not all have been resolved. Eurogamer and Digital Foundry mentioned that the patch helped improve how smoothly the game runs, especially the frame-rate. However, “the game still suffers from everything to minor, amusing bugs to more serious issues and heavy CPU utilization.” On Xbox Series X, sometimes when players visit big towns, the game might freeze for a few seconds and then continue with some jittery frames.
Many folks think Stalker 2 made a solid start. Richard Wakeling from GameSpot shared in his review that the game “boldly sticks to the studio’s vision of a seamless open-world survival shooter, which the series has always strived to be. It’s rough around the edges and uncompromising in a way that is sometimes off-putting.” Even though there are still some bugs and crashes, the exciting gameplay and setting remain as thrilling as ever. We can’t help but wonder if these issues will be sorted out soon for a smoother experience.
Last month, Xbox showed a documentary called War Game: The Making of Stalker 2. It tells the story of how the game’s creators worked amidst the chaos of war. Some developers had to leave Ukraine to keep working, while others stayed to defend their homeland. Sadly, the conflict isn’t over yet.
