S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an adventure game developed by GSC Game World and released in 2024. It is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Microsoft Windows). It runs on Unreal Engine 5. It carries an PEGI 18 age rating.

It is played from a first person perspective. Its themes are action, horror, open world and survival. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component. There are 76 achievements to unlock.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is the sixth of 13 entries we hold in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. It arrived 9 months after S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy. The next entry was S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl - Ultimate Edition in 2024. Its critic score of 87 is 5 points above the series average of 82. That makes it the highest-rated entry in the series.

See all 13 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games in release order →

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl holds a critic score of 87 out of 100. That places it above 88% of the 7,527 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2024 averaged 76, so it scored 11 points above the year average. Player ratings track closely with critics at 85, across 150 votes.

The main story runs about 72.2 hrs. Completing everything takes closer to 123.3 hrs, roughly 1.7 times the length of the critical path. At its current cheapest price of $41.95, that works out to about $0.58 per hour of the main story, or $0.34 per hour if you finish everything.

The minimum specification calls for Intel Core i7-7700K / AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, 16 GB RAM and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / Intel Arc A750. A 16GB memory requirement is demanding — worth checking before you buy, because 8GB is still common in older and budget machines. It also needs around 160GB of free storage, which is a real consideration on a 512GB drive. Both tiers are compared side by side on the requirements page, and you can check your own parts against them without installing anything.

Full requirements and PC checker →

The cheapest verified price right now is $41.95 at GameBillet, 30% below its usual price. Across the 10 stores we track, the same game ranges up to $59.99 — a spread of $18.04 for an identical product. Storefront pricing varies enormously by country: Philippines is the cheapest region we track at ₱1,522.50 (about $24.15), while UAE pays AED 174.30 — 2 times more. In Pakistan it is priced at Rs 30 on Steam, which is about $30.09.

Full price comparison across all regions →

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl launched on 20 November 2024, within three weeks of Delta Force, Marvel Rivals, Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It reviewed better than 2 of the 4. It arrived 4 years into the PlayStation 5's life, so it was built for hardware developers already knew well.

Released around the same time: Delta Force, Marvel Rivals, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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