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Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review - a vast wasteland of jank and jeopardy

Full of anomalies in more ways than one, Stalker 2 is a mess of bugs and jank that nonetheless stays faithful to the open world survival shooter of yesteryear.

While the first-person shooter released this week doesn't assault the player with overt references to that ongoing conflict, small glimpses of Ukrainian nationalism do peek through - the flag's colours on a box of matches, a field of poppies marking the eerie resting spot of fallen soldiers. Compared with the threats of other video game wastelands, Stalker sometimes feels like its anomalies are the result of a low budget creative solution (you don't have to animate radiation - it's just a field of air that hurts). The average player, of course, won't be thinking about the game as a source of Ukrainian pride, but as a compelling and often busted survival shooter that frustrates and satisfies at alternating pitch, like the staccato racket of a rifle that intermittently jams in the middle of an exciting fight.

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