Stalker 2 is out, but following a host of reviews criticizing the game’s plentiful bugs and glitches, it sounds like if you’re planning to play this one on the Steam Deck, you should probably wait a while for some patches first.
First up is Kirk from Sports Illustrated, who recounts a story where men could split into multiple men. Pretty sure that’s a Marvel character. It sounds kind of like a chestburster from Alien, only with men. Lots of men. I suppose that could add to the atmosphere, but it’s still an unintentional issue.
Next up, Liam from GamingOnLinux. While Stalker 2 works on Desktop Linux, the Steam Deck fares a lot worse. Performance, even when nothing is happening, frequently dips below 30 frames per second. If you’re a sadist and want to disable FSR upscaling, then it’s even lower at around 20. Yikes.
Noah from Steam Deck HQ also spotted an issue where assets wouldn’t appear for a time upon loading in. Not just that, but FSR 3.0’s frame generation, while upping the framerate, makes the game even less enjoyable to play.
This all sounds pretty bad but there is help on the way. According to VGC, GSC Game World says a day zero patch has been released that fixes a host of the bugs. That said, given how many different bugs have been reported — VGC even mentions the screen going black every so often — it may very well be worth giving Stalker 2 some time before you attempt to play it on Steam Deck.
