Been playing on hardcore, died 74 times in 33 hours.

The wait is over! Despite being invaded by russians the developers has release the game and maybe its still a little too fresh but without a doubt we have something very special here!

This game could be an absolute masterpiece after a bit more polish! But for me personally and with use of the mods listed below and a decent PC so far I have seen very few anomalies (bugs).

The Anomaly Zone... is hard to explain, you need to visit it to understand how it feels. Is it a different reality? alternative world? They did a fantastic job of building the atmosphere. The soundtrack is masterfully done and every sound is making this game more immersive. Zone both scares and attracts you at the same time its sucks you in and the more time you spend there the more you want to come back.

To me personally, a guy who was born in Ukraine in 1984 this game series always been close to heart and really close to location of the game in real life too. First game always felt very special every time you played but I was not a true fan, it changes now!

Weather system is something I did not expected but so happy we got. I am using mod that makes days longer other then that is very cool how many different weather conditions there could be from a peaceful sunset to a deadly storms! Most beautiful and terrifying lighting I have ever seen in a game!

Special anomaly zones in the game are truly special and memorable like Poppy seed field and the Bubble in the first lesser part of the zone, and I cannot wait to explore and find more!

Just like always this game best played in native language in this case Ukrainian voice acting is superb and better then English from what I have heard, I highly recommend you trying Ukrainian audio with your preferred language subtitles.

There is awesome cut scenes, something we have not seen much in the first game.

There is more then 80 different guns that you can customize and break, fix. Gun fights feel realistic and quite fun. Guns are big part of this game and I am glad to see so many different and realistic weapons.

You can chill by the fire and play the guitar, while stalkers tell jokes or stories from zone, on some you can even make an difference, for example there is a truck with a backpack by the Poppy seed field, inside you will find a note and some energy drinks, you keep the note in the backpack and add some drinks the guy at the fire will tell everyone that there is still good people in the zone, if you take everything you will say only bad people left, if you only take the note he will complain that no one will now understand why energy drinks are needed when you go throw the field! I live and breathe the zone now and when I am not in it I want back. This is exactly why we play video games for an escape and this game is amazing at it!

I wanted a challenge and started playing on hard... Maybe too hard but fits the harsh and deadly Zone and for some reason it feels good, and rewarding but I have to agree, some monsters needs a nerf and enemy spawning around the corner should be definitely addressed.

Speaking of patches and future content for this game, please keep in mind developers made this amazing game while being attacked by russia, some of them have given their lives like one of the original game devs while defending his country from russian invaders. The war is not over so please be patient and instead of defending, show your support if you liked the game.

I am still new to the Zone and only have explored some part of the game in 30 hours but every time I have to stop playing this game I am thinking about it and impatiently waiting for the next opportunity to play more.

I want to thank the devs for the amazing work they did during the war and I just wish for one thing in the game - player home, some more personal space to call home in the Zone.

My personal GOTY!

Stay safe Stalker!

Слава Україні! Вдалого полювання сталкере!


P.S. These mods fix most of the issues of the game.

Medkits and Consumables Rebalance
Grok's Balanced Difficulties
Grok's less tanky bloodsuckers and poltergeists
No weight for ammo nades meds and food
Jake's Longer Days
Longer sprinting
Reasonable Weapon Degradation
Reduced Melee and Jump Stamina Costs
GameEngine.ini to add in AppData folder

I also play with HUD visibility 5% helps to take a great screenshots and you can still see the compass and ammo count but feels even more immersive!

This game is something out of this world and if I am asked to describe hell Silent Hill is the first on my mind. Strange journey where one door only leads to another with more scarier enemies which are masterfully placed to always surprise you, making you sit on your edge of your sit, if when you are playing on hard. Journey that slowly uncovers the secrets behind this place and making you regret thing and mistakes you did in the past... Truly survival experience like no other. Enemies and bosses are also straight from hell, you have never seen anything like it for sure!

Silent Hill 2 Remake is a sensational comeback for the franchise and Bloober Team''s best game to date. Far from being just an opportunistic game, it is both a love letter to the saga and a successful retelling of the original one. Faithful and very different, this new game modernizes psychological horror without ever abandoning its old-school roots. Silent Hill 2 Remake is deeply scary and stressful. Besides being very good remake it is simply an excellent survival horror that honors the license and gives us great hope for the future.

The sound... ambient.. everything you hear is sounds... truly unsettling! Music is by the original composer!

PC options are great, AMD FSR 3 frame generation and NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction can be easily enabled. (check comments for the detail instructions)
While it shows some ghosting issues, frame generation can definitely make the game feel smoother, especially for those who are playing on an underpowered system or on Steam Deck.

For my Ukrainian friends there Ukrainian localization on the release! УКРАЇНЬСКА ЛОКАЛІЗАЦІЯ!

I never forget trying this game on my friends PlayStation one evening in 2002... I was mesmerized by filled with fog town and wanted to come back and play the game ever since and I could not imagine a better way to experience the full game in all its glory! IT LOOKS ABSOLUTELY INSANE on capable hardware!

Absolute must play for any survival horror fan and a great game overall!

P.S. There is (8!) endings in this game!!!