STALKER 2 is Being Review Bombed

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STALKER 2 is Being Review Bombed

Key Takeaways

  • STALKER 2 is allegedly being review bombed by Russians paid to tarnish its image, but the game remains popular.
  • Despite development challenges, STALKER 2 has sold over 1.4 million copies and received positive reviews from critics.
  • GSC Game World plans to prioritize fixing bugs and performance issues in STALKER 2 before adding new content.

As a long-time fan of the Stalker series, I can’t help but feel a mix of emotions when it comes to Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl. On one hand, I’m thrilled to finally see this game come to life after years of anticipation and delays. But on the other hand, I’m disheartened by the reports of Russian trolls being paid to leave negative reviews. It seems that some people will go to great lengths to undermine something they don’t understand or appreciate.

It’s rumored that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is being unfairly criticized through review bombing by individuals possibly paid to harm the game’s reputation. This highly anticipated title, released recently, has been well-received both financially and critically. However, it appears that some individuals in Russia may not want to see the game succeed.

The highly anticipated video game titled “STALKER 2” faced a bumpy road leading up to its release on November 20. Originally conceived by developer GSC Game World in 2010, the project was eventually shelved and didn’t resume development until 2018. However, in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, the home country of GSC Game World, causing significant instability and even leading to some developers being drafted for military service. As a result, the studio had to relocate to Prague, Czech Republic, and changed the game’s subtitle from “Chernobyl” to the Ukrainian spelling “Chornobyl.

Recently, there have been numerous reports on social media about Russian individuals being paid to write unfavorable reviews for the game STALKER 2, on platforms like Steam and TikTok. A screenshot shared online shows someone offering up to 100 rubles (approximately $1.24) for a negative review on Steam. However, despite these attempts, STALKER 2 has maintained mostly positive reviews on Steam, with 78% of gamers expressing their liking for the game. This suggests that the organized attempt to manipulate reviews through ‘review bombing’ may not have significantly impacted the game. While there are many negative reviews for STALKer 2, most of them come from players who have spent over 10 hours playing the game. Nevertheless, it is still possible to find some brief, potentially false negative reviews that might be part of this review bombing campaign.

Gamers Are Allegedly Being Paid to Review Bomb STALKER 2

Regardless, the game titled “STALKER 2” has been incredibly successful. To date, more than 1.4 million copies of this game have been sold, which is quite remarkable given that it’s also accessible through Xbox Game Pass.

In addition to receiving praise for sales, the game STALKER 2 has garnered positive feedback from critics as well. At this moment, the open-world FPS holds an average critic score of 74 on OpenCritic, a testament to both its flaws (such as bugs and jankiness) and the acclaim it receives for its gameplay and style.

Recently, GSC Game World unveiled their strategy to address the major problems in STALKER 2. The Ukrainian developers have stated that due to the game’s expansive size, it has some rough spots. Their priority will be on fixing bugs and improving performance before moving forward with creating new content for this widely-played shooter.

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2024-11-27 23:44