STALKER 2 has enjoyed commercial and critical success, but one group of people are not exactly impressed: Russians.

Social media reports are discovering messages on Telegram from Russians offering money in exchange for negative reviews on Steam or TikTok. The postings all specify the need to call out bugs and optimization issues, which are problems with the game that are being actively addressed in an update. Fans have been able to look past these issues and see the potential in STALKER 2, but these posts look to exploit one of the game's weaknesses.

As of this writing, the game still has a "Mostly Positive" rating on Steam with over 35,000 reviews. Some negative reviews seem valid, mainly when the account features over 50 hours of playtime. Others, however, are short and sweet and just flat out say, "The game doesn't work, do not recommend."

An example of the Telegram message below mentions that templates are available for people to use on Steam or TikTok.

How russians fight Ukrainian video game 🫠 https://t.co/nDQKMOvyTA pic.twitter.com/gMWBVo6GIt

— Mariia Kramarenko (@KramarenkoMari3) November 24, 2024

STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World has had a tumultuous development cycle leading up to the game's release. Initially slated for a 2022 release, the Kyriv, Ukraine-based developer was forced to move to Prague, Czech Republic, after the start of the Russian-Ukraine war. The game's subtitle, Heart of Chornobyl, was even changed to the Native Ukrainian spelling over the original Russian spelling, Heart of Chernobyl.

Despite its issues, the game has been a breakout success, selling over one million copies in just three days. Other game developers have taken notice, too, with Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio attacking Metacritic for potentially harming the popularity of STALKER 2. Colantonio said the current Metacritic ecosystem encourages boring, bland games that play it safe for a better review score. Meanwhile, much more interesting games that may be rough around the edges, such as STALKER 2, are punished.

Thankfully, those rough edges haven't hurt STALKER 2, which, according to SteamDB, has an all-time player peak of over 120,000.

Posted: 3 hours, 3 minutes ago
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/stalker-2-review-bombing/