What if you were alone in a giant open world littered with bandits and mutants, with few resources to get you where you need to go? That question is at the heart of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, one of the most haunting survival horror games I have ever played and unlike anything else in the genre.

The game’s chilling sound design, incredible storytelling, and demanding combat come together to deliver on that central premise. It effortlessly entrusts you to find your way own way through its technically impressive recreation of Chornobyl. That trust is woven into every aspect of the experience offering a radioactive sandbox full of dangers, rewards, and opportunities for you to discover and make the most of.

In that sense, Stalker 2 is the purest form of a survival horror experience there is, because at all times it is unpredictable, deadly, and terrifying in a multitude of ways. It is one of the boldest Xbox Series X games and PC games I have seen this generation. However, its lack of handholding and rugged, realistic approach to gameplay is not going to be for everyone. Plus, the storage chest of small visual bugs I saw in my time playing keeps it from being spotless.

Stories of Chornobyl

As Skif, you are just another Stalker fighting for your own survival in The Zone - the barren and deadly landscape surrounding the Chornobyl power plant which suffered two explosions, one in 1986 and another in 2006. However, one seemingly simple task, to activate a Scanner and meet someone named Sodler, doesn’t go to plan and you're ambushed and knocked out. After waking up you have none of the gear you entered The Zone with and your Scanner has been stolen by your attackers.

So you walk. Alone, you move from settlement to settlement, hearing a rumor here or there when others are friendly enough to help you. Eventually, you come across large towns that allow you to discover more about The Zone, the political dynamics between factions, and the dangers in the wild that are whispered around the campfire.

These moments interacting with entire outposts or individuals in the world are key focal points for how Stalker 2 tells its narrative. Whether it was small stories about an encounter someone had with a bandit or key cutscenes where characters would deliver these almost Shakespearian monologues about The Zone, I kept wanting to learn more, explore more, and meet more people.

You may stumble upon a faction baron who isn’t too happy with you stepping on his turf, an interaction that ends up leading you down an entire core questline, or you might find a lone survivor surrounded by mutants that you can choose to save or let die, and, either way, never cross paths with them again.

The delivery of the narrative in this way means that such moments of discovery are the driving force behind Stalker 2’s exploration and open world. The possibility of who I might find kept me moving and the excellent Ukrainian voice acting (English, not so much) breathes life into the individuals you meet. On top of that, The Zone is a character in itself. The way individuals talk about it as a mythical, breathing creature they love, fear, or want to escape from is unlike anything else I have seen done in a game before. The writing here is truly impressive.

Loneliness of Chornobyl

That novel approach to storytelling echoes throughout the rest of the experience. The Zone is a barren expanse full of not much, making it an incredibly isolating experience. There are rarely companions by your side and on each excursion I set out on I would feel on edge.

Sometimes I would hear roars of mutants in the distance, causing me to jump up and start looking around frantically to see if I had accidentally stumbled upon something I should run away from. Or, I would accidentally end up in the middle of a terrifying storm and try to dart to my destination while praying lightning didn’t strike me, as the wind whistles through my headphones.

The Zone in Stalker 2 feels like it is alive; alive in an organic, realistic way that most open-world games can only dream of. The intense atmosphere created by developer GSC Game World is heightened by Stalker 2’s visuals as well as its sound design.

It has one of the best dynamic weather systems I have ever seen, and there’s always a stunning demonstration of landscape or environment whether it is raining, sunny, or cloudy (again, feeling almost lifelike in how it has been realized). There are also Emissions, huge deadly radioactive storms that can occur as you are exploring, coating The Zone in a thick red smog that will kill you in moments if caught outside in one. These offer some of the most impressive visuals in the game and my jaw dropped the first time I came across one.

Similar breath-taking moments both big and small are scattered throughout, demanding that you stop and take it all in.

Dangers of Chornobyl

The final piece of Stalker 2’s puzzle is its combat which is taxing, yet fascinating. Guns and weapons are weighty and inaccurate, so your approach to encounters requires a lot of thought before you commit, and as a result, feels very realistic. You can’t just run in and spray your way to survival. Instead, you have to precisely place shots and keep an eye on your surroundings.

Weapons are bulky and can jam at any moment creating a sense of panic. There aren’t any grenade indicators telling you someone threw a frag your way, so you have to be aware of the sounds to hear it clink along the ground, for example, only serving to add to the intense atmosphere coursing through the game. Enemy indicators regularly disappear if you lose sight of them for a few seconds, so you’ll also have to be prepared and predict where they might be as you flank them.

Bandits won’t always know where you are at. So, they will organically guess where you might be. One standout moment I had was when I ended up starting a fight with half a dozen enemies outside a small rail station. While fighting the main group, one of them flanked me quietly, then finished me off with one shotgun blast.

That moment forced me to change my approach to combat. From here I embraced the intensity of zipping from cover to cover or unjamming a gun in the middle of a firefight. It’s chaotic and the combat demands a lot of patience to learn and adapt in a way that goes beyond most other survival-focused first-person shooters. But that lack of hand-holding is what kept me hooked as the encounters never felt scripted or formulaic. However, this style of combat will be a dealbreaker for some who don’t want to feel dragged down by the gameplay and simply want to explore or lose themselves in the world. Combat is fundamental to Stalker 2 and you can’t really ignore it.

However, combat and these interactions with other people are also where I noticed the most bugs. Some were small like the UI regularly not showing up. Others were more substantial, never game-breaking but certainly immersion-breaking; characters clipping through geometry in settlements, or a pair of headphones floating in mid-air during a cutscene instead of sitting atop someone’s head. Occasionally, I would also see an enemy teleport spawn somewhere in front of me out of nowhere, which was less than ideal.

A lot of these will be addressed in a day one patch, but each time I came across one I was slightly disappointed because, for a moment, it ruined the immersion Stalker 2 offers, which is its biggest asset.

Should I play Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

Stalker 2 has a number of basic accessibility options like subtitle sizes which are varied and the ability to add a background. You can also change your crosshair color and setting, and turn off or on almost every UI element like threat indicators, hit markers, and health information. Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia are also available.

However, it lacks the advanced accessibility features you may find in other big open-world role-playing games (RPGs) like adjustments for those who are partially sighted, blind, or have hearing problems. Its difficulty options are also formulaic with a “story” option called Rookie, a standard mode simply named Stalker, and a harder, veteran mode with no deeper ability to customize them.

How I reviewed Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

I played Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl for nearly 50 hours encompassing the main story, side missions, and exploration. I played the game mostly in performance mode on Xbox Series X with a standard Xbox Wireless Controller, and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of the game with a Gigabyte M28U monitor and Steelseries Arena 3 speakers.

First reviewed October 2024.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 feels like a throwback in the very best of ways. Lead developers Treyarch and Raven Software have smartly combined some of the most successful elements from entries across the long-running first-person shooter (FPS) series to craft a highly polished experience that excels in almost every regard. 

Classic systems such as the traditional prestige mechanics, which offer the most dedicated online players the opportunity to partially reset their progress for exclusive rewards, or the simple but effective weapon attachments still haven’t lost their luster in 2024. It’s not all things that we’ve seen before though, as a handful of clever new innovations, like the flagship ‘omnimovement’ system, and the most high-fidelity graphics we've seen yet successfully drive the franchise forward and keep each facet of the experience feeling fresh.

The result is one of the best FPS games in almost a decade and a must-play for fans of the genre. There are still a couple of sore spots, like a handful of poorly designed multiplayer maps, that hold things back from total perfection, but, with plenty of new content on the way through a barrage of seasonal updates, the next twelve months of Call of Duty are well-positioned to be some of the greatest yet. 

On the run

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign picks up roughly ten years after the story of 2020’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Set in 1991, it’s loosely centered around the events of the Gulf War, though with more of an eye towards covert espionage than boots-on-the-ground conflict. You play as a group of CIA operatives, sent into Iraq to intercept the Iraqi Minister of Defense and bring him back to the government in one piece.

As you might expect, this simple task goes wrong in a matter of minutes when a mysterious military force emerges from the shadows to thwart your mission. Reunited with the fan-favorite rogue spy Russel Adler, it soon becomes apparent that this organization, known as Pantheon, has close ties with the CIA, forcing the team off the grid. It’s a classic Mission Impossible-style premise and, while nothing particularly complex or sophisticated, is a perfectly serviceable framework for a series of absolutely stellar set pieces.

Variety elevates every moment campaign, with all manner of surprising mechanics and environments crammed into its roughly nine-hour runtime. There’s a refreshingly open assassination segment early on, with a variety of possible approaches that incentivises at least a couple of replays. Later on, you’re stealthily infiltrating a political fundraising event, investigating different possible leads, and scanning clues with a high-tech spy camera before a hair-raising motorcycle chase. 

One highly memorable mission even takes on a wholly unexpected survival horror edge, equipping you with an overpowered grapple hook and bombarding you with legions of imagined zombies and powerful boss monsters.

In between each mission, you’re sent back to your safehouse, which offers its own suite of activities. Levels are littered with cash, which can be hoovered up and spent on safehouse upgrades to unlock new perks and gear going forward. Quite a few puzzles are hidden across its grounds too, giving achievement hunters plenty of incentive not just to blitz through the story.

This is also without a doubt the best-looking campaign in Call of Duty history, surpassing even the visual excellence of 2022’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Multiple areas are breathtakingly realistic, with absolutely stunning, highly detailed textures and advanced lighting effects. Some of the more abstract scenes also allow the developer to really show off its artistic chops, with bright primary colors and an effective dream-like atmosphere. Performance is delightfully smooth on PlayStation 5 to boot, with resolutely stable frame rates even in the most intense moments. 

Back to basics 

This year’s multiplayer experience smooths out many of my biggest frustrations with recent entries, returning to a formula that will feel immediately familiar to long-time fans. The painfully convoluted weapon attachment system of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is no more, superseded by a simplified selection of accessories that still offers plenty of customization without ever seeming overwhelming.

Rather than countless barely distinct options, each attachment category is populated by a handful of more significant mods. Some provide little buffs, while others bring much bigger bonuses alongside a noticeable drawback or two. Player perks have also been whittled down and are finally available right from the start of a match rather than staggered intervals. 

You can choose up to three per loadout, with every perk sorted into a distinct Enforcer, Recon, or Strategist category. While you are free to mix and match between these categories to create your own custom builds, equipping three perks of the same type yields some very powerful bonuses. Picking three Enforcer ones, for example, gives you a major movement speed and health regeneration boost after each successful kill. These combinations are significant enough to tangibly impact play, but everything is still well balanced with no particular set taking a clear lead.

The brand-new ‘ominmovement’ system, which lets you sprint, slide, and dive in any direction, is well integrated and leads to countless thrilling moments. Diving backwards off a tall ledge while peppering an enemy with bullets feels completely natural and it’s almost hard to believe that movement hasn’t always been this way. Combined with the high number of more compact 6v6 maps in its 16-map line up, most online matches have an absolutely incredible sense of pace. 

There are some notable exceptions, though, mainly thanks to a small number of quite poor maps. Scud, which is set against the ruins of a decimated desert outpost, is a particularly sore example with far too many open sightlines that encourage slow games to a crawl as players favor sitting in key positions with sniper rifles. Rewind, a delightfully 1990s strip mall, is significantly better but still feels a little empty in a 6v6 format given its large size. These complaints will almost inevitably be addressed in future updates as more maps arrive, but it does still slightly dampen the online experience at launch.

Army of the dead

The round-based zombies mode is another area where Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 borrows plenty from past games. For the uninitiated, the Zombies mode is deceptively simple - you drop into one of two maps with up to three friends and try to survive against increasingly powerful waves of the undead. Mowing down shambling creatures yields cash, spent on unlocking new areas of the map, buying new weapons, or sticking your gear through a Pack-a-Punch machine for an additional bit of kick. It's an incredibly effective formula and significantly more enjoyable than the more open-world Modern Warfare Zombies found in last year’s game.

That’s far from everything to discover, however, with a raft of easter eggs ranging from cute little references to entire story sequences hidden for the most dedicated players. Exclusive cosmetics, secret achievements, and plenty of level XP reward those who dig deep. I’ve already spent hours in the Zombies mode and, while I did manage to survive to round 41 and find the hilarious zombie bowling minigame on the Liberty Falls map, I still feel like I’m barely scratching the surface of everything that it has in store.

All three major components of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 are an absolute blast and are so brimming with content that they would even work well as entirely standalone games. As a complete package, the level of quality here is something that we haven’t seen from the franchise in years. Call of Duty is well and truly back. 

Should I play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility

There are plenty of accessibility features in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. This includes a wide array of subtitle options for the campaign, and the ability to customize the colors of the entire UI and apply a range of visual filters.

The controls can be fully remapped across the board in both controller and keyboard play, with a range of assist settings that can remove the need to hold certain inputs if required.

How I reviewed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

I'm a regular Call of Duty player with prior experience reviewing the series in addition to a wide range of other FPS titles. I completed the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign in a single sitting, clocking in at roughly ten hours including the time I spent exploring the safehouse and replaying a few missions.

I then spent around twenty hours (and counting) in its multiplayer mode, trying out all of its available playlists and maps. During that time I reached the maximum level and began Prestige 1. I also played multiple Zombies matches with friends and solo, getting to grips with its mechanics and the two launch maps.

I played on PlayStation 5 using a DualSense Wireless Controller. For audio, I relied on a pair of Astro A50 X headphones, which I found really helped the detailed sound effects shine. Throughout my time with the game, I compared my experience with that of other Call of Duty games. 

First reviewed October 2024.