Stalker 2 originally launched last November just in time for long-standing post-apocalyptic survival sickos to feast on its eerie, emergent sandbox, and for most other people to bounce off its buggy gameplay in favor of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle or their massive backlogs. It’s getting a second chance to shine now with a PS5 port in late 2025. Will it be fixed?
GSC Game World released a new trailer for the game on Wednesday with the end-of-year launch date tease that just happens to be about 12 months from its timed-console exclusive launch on Xbox Series X/S. The devs confirmed the sci-fi shooter “will fully utilize DualSense controller features, including haptic feedback and adaptive triggers for deeper player immersion,” on Sony’s platform. A PS5 Pro update is also in the works, though it’s unclear if that will be ready in time for the PS5 launch.
Stalker 2 earned fresh fans and won over older ones with its dedication to plunking players down in a mysterious and hostile environment where every bullet and health pack is precious and the mere act of seeing what’s down a road requires a minor act of in-game courage. It does not pander or hand-hold, and with more time spent and less jank (and an earlier release date) it might have entered more GOTY-contender conversations.
Unfortunately, the bugs at launch on PC and Xbox Series X/S were hard to completely ignore, even if they were entirely par for the course with a complex sandbox game and in keeping with Stalker’s messy history. While there have been a healthy number of updates and patches in the months since its release, some players have lost patience, and Stalker 2's ratings on both Steam and Xbox have only gotten spottier. “I’ve been defending Stalker 2 since release, but I feel like I am starting to give up a bit,” wrote one fan on the subreddit last month in a thread explaining their frustrations.
I imagine porting the game to another set of hardware will only complicate things further. Otherwise, the PS5 debut is the perfect opportunity for GSC Game World to show everyone what they’ve been missing.
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