I’ve put well over 40 hours into STALKER 2 this past week, grinding my way through the gigantic open-world survival horror shooter to get my review done for launch day. For all of that time, I played the game with its Ukrainian voice acting and subtitles; after all, it’s the native language of the developers at GSC Game World who made it, and it’s also the one that makes the most sense for a game set within the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine.
A colleague of mine, though, has been playing in English, and told me that dub of the game is pretty cheesy — an impression I also got when catching bits and pieces of dialogue watching video reviews of the Xbox and PC exclusive this morning. Curious, I booted up the game, switched the voicework over to English, and ran around a base full of NPCs to talk to.
And, uh. Wow.
In the case of STALKER 2’s protagonist Skif, saying that the English voice-over is cheesy is an understatement. He has a voice you’d expect to hear from the action star of the corniest B-movie you’ve ever seen — completely flat and emotionless, yet full of awkward and jarring over enunciation. Listening to him talk for just a few minutes made me want to punch him in the face, and I can’t imagine playing through the whole game with his yapping.
Other characters and random NPCs sound far better, thankfully, but they’re all voiced by Americans and western Europeans. This creates something of a disconnect between the voice acting and the rest of the game world, as it prominently features architecture, music, and art that’s reflective of Ukrainian and eastern European culture. I’ve also noticed that in general, these voices are less serious and more lighthearted, which doesn’t really fit with the eerie, tense atmosphere of the setting (and yes, while the original games had silly voices too, there weren’t many of them).
In contrast, the title’s Ukrainian voice acting sounds far more natural and is more appropriate for The Zone, with Skif’s VA very well done in particular. Even if you’re typically a “dubs over subs” kind of person, I strongly recommend opening up the “Game” section of the settings and giving the Ukrainian voicework a shot. I promise you’ll like it.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has arrived on Xbox Series X|S and Windows PC, and is one of this year’s best Xbox games and best PC games. It has a $59.99 MSRP, but notably, you can get it for a discount at CDKeys right now. You can also play it through Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
