S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the long-awaited survival epic from Ukrainian studio GSC Game World, has finally arrived. The game delivers a glorious and beautiful pain in the ass, with a vast and immersive open world that evokes a sense of raw survival in an uncaring environment.

Despite its many achievements, the game is not without its flaws. Combat can be uneven, with enemies sometimes looking in the wrong direction or appearing out of thin air. Additionally, the game's troubled development, which saw over half of the development team move to Prague from Kyiv due to the Russia-Ukraine war, has led to some glitches and audio-visual quirks.

However, when S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 works as intended, it's an emergent sandbox capable of producing simultaneously bleak and hilarious moments, all while giving the illusion of a world functioning independently of the player's inputs. With a few patches, the game may yet become the "shining" version of itself that its developers envision.