Rodion Ilyin, editor-in-chief of VGTimes, played the demo version STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl at the Tokyo Game Show 2024 and shared his impressions of the game.
To play the demo, I had to wait in line for over two hours in a narrow, gated “snake” – but it was worth it. Before the start of the game, the organizers of the hand zone session offer to choose a language in the game (we choose Ukrainian and Russian subtitles) and set a timer – literally, they set up an electronic stopwatch with a display that inexorably counting down 30 minutes until the end of the session. You can’t imagine how psychologically urgent it was – and then there’s the leech… But more about that later.
So here are our first express thoughts on the matter: This is still the same “Stalker” you once fell in love with. Atmospheric, sometimes depressing, yet unrealistically alluring. No really: all those three-meter-high concrete fences, decorated with a diamond-shaped pattern, that can still be seen in every city along the ‘piece of iron’; ramshackle huts; Yes, even the forest of birch trees is all yours. And to see this in a really cool graphic design, sorry for the tautology, is really cool!
And then the gameplay begins – and here the problems are immediately visible. The demo starts after that same truck ride, which has already become a pop hit (you’ve watched it a hundred times, right?). And so we get out of the truck, climb over the aforementioned concrete fence and follow the direction of the marker (something like a compass at the top center) to the bunker. The first task is to obtain an anomaly detector. It immediately becomes clear that the game is and will remain as linear as possible – just like the original. There are separate forest areas, fenced off by rocks, or by a water barrier, or by a building – there is always one path, follow it, Stalker.
The second problem is bugs. The hero periodically cannot crawl under the board when he needs to sit down. You think about when to pick something up (a heal, a weapon, fooling a corpse, etc.) – and to let it go you have to take micro steps back and forth. Interface – the guy who watched the clock so that the guests did not flirt honestly admitted in my ear that some elements of the interface were still going to be reworked, and now they do not work perfectly (remind me when we supposedly have a release there , November?). Overall Difficulty: It feels like GSC was inspired by Miyazaki – the battles are difficult and grueling. Although for many this will be a plus.
Somehow the game was shown to the public – this is very good. This means that there will actually be a release. But in what condition will the game hit the shelves? There is a feeling that the new installment will repeat the path of the original trilogy, and that the girls will finish the game as the game progresses. But the game is great. I’m not afraid to say it: GSC, we sincerely want you to break the market with your game. She deserves it.
Video from the stands We published STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl on Telegram.
PS: the Japanese girl who controlled the “snake” at the entrance is very cute!
PPS: To the guy running the session in the booth, special thanks to you for adjusting the timer so I had time to finish this damn leech!
PPPS: Just fucking Russian obscenities, at least in Russian subtitles – you won’t hear such a skillful vernacular creation anywhere else.
More of our photos from Tokyo Game Show 2024 can be found in a separate article.
Source: VG Times