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Here follows a transcript of every conversation I have had with another human being about Stalker 2 since I scored it 83% in our Stalker 2 review, back in 2024:
SOME GUY: I’m kind of curious about Stalker 2, but I’m wary. I’ve heard that game is really buggy.
JOSH: It’s gotten a lot better since the review period! GSC has put out a lot of patches and ironed out loads of the kinks. And even back when it was ultra-buggy, I still really liked it.
SG: Hm, but it’s a little janky, right? Isn’t there some big update that’s in the pipe?
JOSH: Well, it’s Stalker. Jank is part of its beautiful, simulation-y package. But yes, GSC is working on literally overhauling the game’s entire Unreal Engine 5 implementation in its 2.0 update.
SG: So I should wait for that?
JOSH: You don’t have to! The game is good!
SG: I’m going to wait for that.
And so, I remain the only person in human history who has ever actually played Stalker 2.
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But good news: the Stalker 2 2.0 update that everyone I know has been waiting for—including at least one person I know who paid full price for the game at launch—is out tomorrow, alongside the new Cost of Hope expansion, and I’m forced to admit that, damn, maybe you were right to wait.
I should note that, though I’ve dipped in a few times, I’ve not seriously played Stalker 2 since a few months after it first released. Many of the changes I’m noticing could well be a product of previous patches rather than the 2.0 update.
But one thing is indisputable: Stalker 2, as of 2.0, runs better and smoother than it has done throughout its entire history. Compared to the thing I first played during its ramshackle, chaotic review period, it might as well be an entirely different game.
I booted into a pre-2.0 version of the game to check and, roaming around Garbage, I still ran into little performance stutters and hitches. It wasn’t unbearable, but it was noticeable. In 2.0 it’s silky smooth. There are still times, running around out in the open world on Epic graphics settings, that I will encounter just a hint of slowdown, but it really is a stark difference compared to, well, the various forms of Stalker 2 we’ve gotten before.
It looks rather nice, too. The Zone’s never been ugly in Stalker 2—even when it was peopled with those distended flesh sculptures—but it’s prettier than ever now. In particular, interior areas with contrast between light and shadow (of which there are many in the Zone) pop more than they did before.
It’s good, is what I’m saying, and I get the impression it’s the version of Stalker 2 that GSC would have liked to put out two years ago, if it had its druthers. You can officially stop waiting. Go play Stalker 2.
