We explain what happens next with the test of Stalker 2 on GameStar.de.
The long-awaited Stalker 2 has been out since November 20, 2024 and currently has a Steam rating of 80 percent positive. However, our test version suffered from massive technical problems, performance drops and bugs, especially in later areas, which is why we only gave a provisional rating for the release.
We will briefly summarize here how our test is currently progressing and when you can expect the final rating.
What are we currently testing?
The current release version, i.e. what you can buy on PC and Xbox Series, corresponds to the version on which our test is based. The 139 GB Day 0 patch was installed by the developers one day before release. There was no patch after the release – but the developers had already announced it in a press email.
Since we haven't seen the finale of the shooter yet due to the extensive campaign playing time, we are currently playing the last areas and story missions. We also want to go back to old saves and check whether the four patches during our review phase changed anything. We do this on different test computers so that we can better assess the extent of the fixes or remaining problems.
In the last few meters of the release version, we are currently experiencing a lot of bugs, technical and performance problems, which severely affects the fun of the game.
Small spoiler in advance: From Pripyat onwards (after around 70 hours of play) we noticed a massive deterioration in performance, bugs and enemy AI on a test system. Enemies spawn on each other in masses, but hardly react to our character. Enemies that are actually already dead get back up. The performance drops to 10 FPS in the open world, in dialogues and sometimes in boss fights.
And we couldn't even finish a boss fight from the main story because the boss disappeared in the middle, even after 20 attempts. On another test computer, the boss fight continued without any problems and the poor performance also picked up again. However, the frame numbers still jump back and forth a lot, which is far from a really smooth gaming experience. Further details will be available in the test update.
1:19:23
We can forgive a lot of things about Stalker 2, but not its open world
When will the judging come?
Because the experiences on different systems are so diverse, we want to take a few more days to evaluate them. You can probably read the updated test update including the rating this Sunday, November 24th, 2024, on GameStar.de. The test will then be available to everyone for 24 hours.
If you have any specific questions for our testers, please ask them in the comments. Please tell us how Stalker 2 is currently running for you.
