S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Turns PS5 Into an Anomalous Region

Strong atmosphere and gunplay, but familiar bugs remain.

Stalkers and Mutants

Developed by GSC Game World, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was released in November 2024 on PC and Xbox Series X/S, and is now available on PlayStation 5. GSC has made several STALKER games, and although Heart of Chornobyl is a brand new one, not a remaster or remake, it still includes a lot of the franchise hallmarks, such as radioactive mutants, anomalies, and factions.

Players take on the role of a lone stalker, tasked with exploring a 64-km² radioactive zone to uncover mysterious artifacts. Heart of Chornobyl offers a seamless open world with a variety of post-apocalyptic biomes, as well as a branching story that encourages experimentation and multiple playthroughs. The PS5 version also includes a bunch of new features and upgrades specific to the console.

“With full DualSense support – motion-sensor aiming, haptic feedback – and enhanced features for PlayStation 5 Pro like higher-quality reflections, volumetric fog, and shadow resolution, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is gearing up for its most immersive console experience yet,” GSC said on the official game site.

The Zone Calls You

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl (Chornobyl on console) was the first game in the series, and released in 2007. Based on the classic 1972 sci-fi novel Roadside Picnic, by Russian brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (which was also turned into a 1979 movie called Stalker, by Andrei Tarkovsky), Shadow of Chernobyl borrowed the core idea of an unusual event creating a dangerous area known as the Zone.

The movie uses industrial landscapes to create an otherworldly atmosphere.

In the book and film this is extraterrestrial in origin, whereas the game series blames it on a second explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. All versions involve anomalous activity within the Zone, although the games delve fully into survival horror territory with various mutated animals and people making up enemies – alongside rival stalkers.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Clear Sky followed in 2008 and served as a prequel game that expanded on the faction mechanics. S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat came out in 2010 and served as a sequel to the first game; it was also the most technically stable as previous games were known to experience quite a few bugs and jank. All three were released as Enhanced Editions under the Legends of the Zone Trilogy name on PS4 and PS5 in May this year.

Anomalies and Artifacts

Reviews of the PlayStation version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl have already started coming in, and while many players enjoy this new, upgraded version of the Zone and familiar S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gameplay, there are those who have also highlighted GSC Game World’s familiar bugs – many of which were noted in the PC and Xbox versions, such as respawning enemies and anomalies/artifacts having no effect or dropping through the map.

Others have praised the overall story and how it filters in existential threats like the source material, while others find the main narrative choices tend to boil down to killing or sparing a particular person. Gunplay and resource management are being held up across all platforms as a highlight of the game’s survival horror/immersive sim background, with enemies proving suitably tough and frightening.

A hideous lump of meat. But enough about my ex, here’s a mutant from Heart of Chornobyl.

As GSC has itself highlighted in its PS5 trailer, audio received perhaps the most reworking for PlayStation, with reviewers noting that playing with headphones or a decent surround sound set-up are essential to get the most out of it.

There’s also a lot of incidental activity being reported by players, thanks to various updates that PC and Xbox players have already received, such as faction members fighting each other and even against monsters, helping the world feel immersive despite the technical glitches. However, the one update all players have requested is multiplayer; GSC has promised this is coming soon as a free update.

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