Stalker 2 has not even been out for a day, but over 10,000 people have already given their verdict on Steam – and it is surprisingly positive.
There are franchises that don’t attract a single new player after 15 years – but Stalker is definitely not one of them! On release day alone, Stalker 2 recorded over 110,000 concurrent players at its peak, and that was only on Steam. Those who subscribe to Game Pass also get access to the full version – so the real player numbers are likely to be many times higher.
And at least the initial response on Steam is mostly positive 81 percent of the just over 10,000 reviews give the game a thumbs up. If you delve a little deeper into the reviews, however, things look a bit more complicated.
Between a bugfest and a masterpiece
In the case of Stalker 2, there is an elephant in the room that the developers are already publicly addressing: the technical state of the game. In an official post on X (formerly Twitter) , they promise hotfixes soon to eliminate the game’s most serious problems.
A message from the GSC Game World Team.
Before you step into the Zone, we’d like to take a moment to share something from the heart. pic.twitter.com/wuLRAkq7Ba
— S.T.A.L.K.E.R. OFFICIAL (@stalker_thegame) November 20, 2024
The technical state of the game is also one of the main topics of conversation in the Steam reviews, both in the positive and negative votes. However, opinions differ when it comes to weighting. For example, user Ion writes on behalf of many people who have been less affected by the problems so far:
I’ve played the game for about 20 hours over the last few days and have seen a total of three different versions. According to the developers, over 1,100 bugs (!) have been fixed before the release, many of them critical. Even with the oldest, first version, I didn’t get the impression that it was very buggy. I was able to accept and turn in all the quests, collect all the items, there were no clipping errors or sound glitches. Then a big patch came out and the lighting went down. But that was fixed with the patch right after. Yes, the performance is hardcore, but if you have the right hardware, it’s not a problem for the most part. By the way, Stalker 2 looks absolutely fantastic with HDR.
I’ve visited five of the first areas so far, I just haven’t gotten further in 20 hours. The worst thing you could call a bug was an NPC who started flying after dying. But that was more funny than a bug in my eyes. Otherwise, for a stalker, it runs pretty smoothly. And I really look into every corner and hang around in places where no one else is.
I’m looking forward to delving into the zone again later. The atmosphere is really great.
Steam user Ion
Other people suffer much more from the technical problems, and here are a few representative comments from many voices: Steam user snotboogie:
I can’t recommend this game yet due to the terrible, terrible performance optimization and input lag. I have a 3080ti, an i711700K and 32 GB RAM (updated drivers) and I can’t play this game well with any combination of settings, even in 1080p. The best I can do is 90 FPS in the starting tunnel with all settings on low, DLSS on ultra-performance, 1080p, and even then it’s not a ‘good’ 90 FPS because of input lag and stuttering. This is in a dark tunnel. Input lag is unacceptable even in a fast-paced first-person shooter where your survival is on the line. I also have to recompile the shaders every time I load the game, so obviously something is broken.
Steam user snotboogie
Beyond that, most people agree on the strengths of the game: the stalker atmosphere hits the mark, the zone is wonderfully atmospheric, and the developers really understood the appeal of the original.
However, we would still like to explicitly warn you: The biggest technical problems we encountered began in the later part of the game, not in the first zones. Many positive reviews list a playing time of 0.5 to 5 hours – here we definitely recommend that you also include long-term perspectives.
Also important: The current release version is the same one we played with in the last hours before publishing our test; the Day-1 patch, which GSC says will follow shortly after release, is still pending. We can still reproduce our major problems in the game with the current build. So you should have a thick skin if you want to play the game, or wait for the first patches.
