Skip To...
Despite being a rather niche series, Stalker 2 has become massively popular. This is a somewhat surprising development, considering the state of the game when it was released. While the game is not unplayable, it is riddled with many bugs that range from slightly annoying to game-breaking. If this game was released by Ubisoft or EA, many people would’ve figuratively put them on a spike. Yet it seems GSC has gotten away scot-free.
Stalker 2 Is a Diamond in the Rough
I admit that comparing GSC to Ubisoft and EA is rather unfair. The two companies are not very popular these days due to their questionable monetization tactics and other failures. GSC, on the other hand, is a lot more trustworthy, especially according to die-hard fans of the Stalker series.
I’m not a Stalker fan, and Stalker 2 is the first game I’ve played in this series. Despite all of its problems, I can see why many people are drawn to it. The game has a good core gameplay and interesting story and premise. It offers numerous challenges but is not overly unfair to players.
I would’ve called this game amazing, but the sheer number of bugs and issues I encountered prevented me from doing so. Everything went fairly smoothly in the beginning, but after I reached the second half of the game, things started to get very buggy. The game even crashed on me once and ruined my save file. There were also instances where I had trouble progressing through the main story because the doors just wouldn’t open.
The game is also very unoptimized, and your frames drop when you are surrounded by NPCs. Not only that, but the A-Life feature is also absent. It controls how NPCs and mutants spawn and move across the game and makes the Zone feel alive. This feature is available in the previous games but is currently missing Stalker 2.
A Bad Example for Other Developers
Now, some of you may think that it’s not a big deal since the developer promises to fix these issues, but that’s the problem. The game is released unfinished and full of bugs, yet people buy them and praise the game. I understand that GSC Game World has been through hell due to the war between Ukraine and Russia. Frankly, it’s a miracle the game is even out.
However, I’m worried that this is just a bad example for other game developers. Modern gaming is already filled with so many buggy, unfinished, and unoptimized games. Stalker 2‘s success is just going to signal to the developers and publishers that this is fine. They could just keep pumping out unfinished games as long as they promise to fix it later.
I understand that GSC’s situation is unique. They have delayed this game, and it may not be feasible to delay it again. After all, you still need money to keep the studio going, and releasing Stalker 2, despite its unfinished state, is one way to get more funds. I get it, but it’s still a bitter pill to swallow.
Even GSC CEO Ievgen Grygorovych admitted that they knew A-Life was not going to work because it would break the game in its current state. The game is simply too unoptimized to handle this feature. Yet they still released the game anyway.
I’m not trying to shame people for liking and supporting this game. Stalker 2 is a good game, but it’s also an unfinished game. I just want everyone to acknowledge that its popularity and success may be another factor prolonging developers’ bad habit of releasing unfinished games because they can.
