S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl screenshot 1S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl screenshot 2
ActionAdventureRPGOpen WorldFPSPost-apocalypticSurvivalAtmospheric

3,068 playing

Peak in the last 24 hours: 10,774

Peak in the last 7 days: 13,222

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Steam store

Game description

Enter the Chornobyl Anomalous Zone — a vast open world where anomalies, mutants, and rivals stand in your way. Explore, scavenge, and try to survive in this brutal and dangerous land. Evolving with every update, now overhauled and crowned with UPDATE 2.0.

Basic info

DeveloperGSC Game World
PublisherGSC Game World (worldwide), SEGA (Japan), 4Divinity (China and South East Asia)
PlatformsWindows
Steam DeckUnsupported
Release dateNov 20, 2024
Price

Prices by IsThereAnyDeal

Minimum specs

OSWindows 10 x64 / Windows 11 x64
ProcessorIntel Core i7-7700K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
Memory16 GB
GraphicsNvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / Intel Arc A750
Storage160 GB
steamyze

Review Analysis Score

Based on 434 reviews from the past 1 year

69.8/ 100
Bottom 30%

Steam rating: Very Positive (80%)

Review analysis summary (Reviewed Oct 13, 2026)

Bugs hold this sequel at 69.8 from 143,145 Steam reviews, though 115 reviews praise the immersive world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

👍 Strengths

60 reviews praise the visuals, the most upvoted calling it beautiful and atmospheric with good voice acting, and Visuals & Sound appears in 44% of analyzed reviews. 53 say they enjoyed it, and players praise a strong story with well written dialogue. Some say performance has improved significantly since launch.

👎 Where it falls short

Tech & Support ranks 1233rd of 1399 and comes up in 67% of analyzed reviews. 84 reviews complain about performance, the most upvoted saying patches promise CPU optimizations with no real results, and 78 describe game breaking bugs, the most upvoted citing enemies shooting through walls. 28 find the difficulty tedious, the most upvoted blaming an armor cap and hidden mechanics. Gameplay ranks 915th of 1396, and others complain about the same loot everywhere and AI that sees through cover at long range. Pricing & Fairness ranks 1182nd of 1399.

Representative reviews Original reviews ↗

“incredible, immersive world and STALKER universe” · 115 reviews
“beautiful and atmospheric game with good voice acting” · 60 reviews
“game was good after real-world adventures” · 53 reviews

How it holds up

−50+5

Controls, difficulty, progression and depth
Mentioned in 59% of reviews · Bottom 40% of the games we've analyzed

Freedom +1.21 · Room to explore, build, and play your own way
Positive “modding support offers hope for community improvements” · 4 reviews
Negative “linear scripted zone, not open world, static anomalies, repetitive mob respawns” · 14 reviews

Progression 18% · Difficulty 26% · Onboarding 10% · Strategy 16% · Controls & feel 19%

Plot, characters and the world
Mentioned in 68% of reviews · Bottom 50% of the games we've analyzed

World +3.42 · Lore, atmosphere, and how immersive the setting is
Positive “incredible, immersive world and STALKER universe” · 115 reviews
Negative “atmosphere from previous games is gone, enemies dumb, quests are walking simulators” · 11 reviews

Story 37% · Characters 16%

How much there is to do, variety and replay value
Mentioned in 43% of reviews · Top 50% of the games we've analyzed

Volume +2.01 · How much there is to play, including endgame, for the price
Positive “over 100 hours of exploration and engaging story” · 3 reviews
Negative “full price for unfinished game, recommends playing older entries instead” · 3 reviews

Variety 27% · Replayability 6%

Graphics, art style, music and sound
Mentioned in 44% of reviews · Top 40% of the games we've analyzed

Visuals +3.34 · Graphics, art style, and animation
Positive “beautiful and atmospheric game with good voice acting” · 60 reviews
Negative “doesn't look great, takes up space, performs worse than most games” · 2 reviews

Audio 15%

Playing with others, the community and servers

Not enough data — only 4% of reviews mention this.

Community -3.01 · Who you play with — how many, and how friendly

Playing together 2% · Servers & Connection 0%

Pricing, cheaters, balance and matchmaking
Mentioned in 26% of reviews · Bottom 20% of the games we've analyzed

Balance -0.63 · Whether classes, weapons, and builds are evenly matched
Negative “enemies see through obstacles at 100m, lock through cover, no tactical AI” · 19 reviews

Anti-cheat 2% · Pricing 8% · Matchmaking 0%

Bugs, performance and developer support
Mentioned in 67% of reviews · Bottom 20% of the games we've analyzed

Stability -0.88 · Crashes, freezes, save loss, and game-breaking bugs
Negative “numerous game-breaking bugs including enemies shooting through walls” · 78 reviews
Positive “no bugs encountered during gameplay” · 2 reviews

Performance 39% · Developer support 37%

Grey means too few reviews mention it to trust. — means almost no reviews mention it.

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