Looking back at 2024, there have obviously been a lot of fantastic games. No doubt about it – it’s been a great year for pretty much anyone who loves turning on their PC, console, or phone and just throwing dozens of hours to the wind. But there is only one game that has truly astounded me this year. Not only on its own merit (a huge open world packed with mystery, secrets, and perilous dangers) but for the context outside of the game, too. Stalker 2 is a miracle game, and it deserves its flowers.
Yes, it is still an imperfect thing, filled with bugs. It was worse still on launch, and, brother, if I could sit you down and chat to you about the version of the game press played in the week prior to its launch. Still, it shines despite such faults. I typically have little patience for such problems. Yes, I played it for a review and would have marched through its issues regardless, but bugs and crashes didn’t siphon my wanderlust. Not one bit.
It takes a lot of work from the world-building team, the narrative team, the composers, designers, and a strong vision from the lofty heights of directors and producers to manifest such a feeling. The team at GSC Game World has done this not only often, but to a stunning quality. I found myself enamoured with the darker corners of The Zone, and thoroughly engaged when something more drastic popped up on my mini-map. I see you, big tornado in the North West corner of the map.
One amazing aspect of the game I only learned about following our Stalker 2 review is the sheer variance in the story depending on your choices. How different NPCs react to you, the different settlements you have access to. The order in which you traverse The Zone! Different boss fights, different lines from your player character… It’s just so rad, man. So many games in the same genre offer a paltry unique quest here or there, a different ending cinematic. To talk the entire narrative and shake it up depending on which faction you side with is a brilliant move that frankly wants me to boot it up again and give it another shot this December.
One of the things you start to learn doing this job is how much work goes into making games. You can never know for sure, obviously. Only those who have sat down and made a game can really know the physical and mental toil of turning stray lines of code or a grey cube into a wonderful experience. But, talk to enough developers and it becomes clear that it’s a difficult feat under regular circumstances. Doing so during a hostile invasion of your home country – with some peers staying in Ukraine to fight or support their families – is outstanding.
I think some out there may see sentiments like that and worry that some of the praise GSC is getting stems in part from pity, or support for the real-world struggle of the people making it. I want to tackle that sentiment head on. If Stalker 2 launched without the wider context surrounding development, it would still be brilliant. It may have come out sooner and with less server damage sure. But the fact this game was made under these circumstances is an extra layer atop an already great accomplishment, not a stool the game stands on to reach the heights of other big games this year.
It’s fantastic, and only getting better. As post-release patches and bug fixes come out and clash against the game’s biggest flaw, I can only sit here and feel my faith in the industry’s capability to create endearing, exhilarating worlds harden further. I am further glad of its popularity. It is a game you absolutely must play for yourself.