Every time Skif, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s protagonist, meets his end, a menu screen pops up that displays a personal death count. By the time the player’s a dozen or so hours into the game, it isn’t unusual for this number to approach the triple digits. This is because the world of Stalker – an alternate history portrayal of the nuclear Exclusion Zone in Chornobyl, Ukraine – is harsh. A bullet will take Skif down very quickly, but he is also easily killed by standing anywhere near an exploding grenade, receiving the brunt of a surprise charge from a mutant boar, or wandering into an invisible pocket of gravity-warping air.

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