STALKER 2was always going to be a conflicting release. I don’t think anybody expected it to be conflicting for the reasons that have since come to light, however, namelythe lack of A-Life proper. Still, there’s merit in this game, and the creator ofDishonoredthinks so as well.
According to Raphael Colantonio,the founder and former CEO of Arkane Studios,STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylis going to be his personal Game of the Year. Colantonio has been one of the lead developers on a great number of widely acclaimed games. Examples include The Dark Messiah of Might & Magic, Dishonored, and Prey, just to list a few, and he’s since moved on from Arkane to the greener pastures of a smaller dev team. The man’s got experience, is what I’m getting at, and he thinksSTALKER 2is the best game he’s played sinceBaldur’s Gate 3. That’s high,highpraise indeed.
Stalker2 is not perfect but it’s my Game Of The Year. The atmosphere, the brutality of the world, the survival, the free form exploration… Last game I enjoyed before this was BG3
Raphael Colantonio says STALKER 2 is his personal Game of the Year
According to Raphael Colantonio,STALKER 2‘s atmosphere and brutality are the best things since sliced bread, and the game is his own personal GOTY. It’s not a perfect product, Colantonio admits, but he’s quite adamant in stating his opinions aboutSTALKER 2loudly and clearly. In fact, he’s been defending his takes aboutSTALKER 2over on Twitter with gusto, and it’s hard to deny that there’s merit in what he’s saying.
The Metacritic ecosystem encourages devs to make safe boring games.As long as a game is polished at launch, you’re guaranteed a 80%, no matter how boring the game might be.Meanwhile Stalker2 gets a 73 because it’s a bit rough on the edges at launch.Unfair, misleading..
All things being equal, I do think Colantonio is taking it a tad too far in saying thatSTALKER 2is just “a bit rough on the edges at launch.” Having been with the franchise from literally day one ofShadow of Chernobyl, and some time prior, my experience withSTALKER 2has been more sobering. Roughness around the edges I’m more than happy to excuse, and GSC Game World has already delivered two substantial hotfixes resolving many of them.
That said, I’m not happy with the fact thatA-Life 2.0 requires extensive modding before it gets to a functional state. I’m also not keen at all on the waySTALKER 2‘s narrativefalls apartin the later stages of the story due to problems with quest triggers and scripting. Are these problems unforgivable? They’re certainly more annoying than Colantonio lets on.
The funniest thing is that I don’t disagree with Colantonio, necessarily. I genuinely thinkSTALKER 2might be my Game of the Year for 2024 as well, as weird as that might sound. I’ve already written at substantial length how conflicted I am about the game, but I feel that this drives home just how good the bits that aren’t broken are. The game is memorable, clearly made with extreme care, and has all the bones of a cult classic. An appropriatelyanomalousrelease, one might even say.
In other related news, it’s not like Colantonio is sitting around in the Zone, practicing his guitar skills. After leaving Arkane Studios, Colantonio founded the smaller, more agile WolfEye. WolfEye has since produced the awesome — but less recognizable —Weird West. More importantly, the studio is now incubating a far more prospectiveDishonored-meets-FalloutImmersive Simin the background. It’ll be curious to see ifSTALKER 2ends up rubbing off on Colantonio enough to make a difference for WolfEye’s next project, that’s for sure. The Zone’s reach goes far and wide, after all.
