Even though S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy – Enhanced Edition released on May 20 offering free “fully remastered and optimized” upgrades for all owners of the original trilogy, developer GSC Game World has been under siege by a review bomb campaign after players discovered the Russian voice acting and “Soviet-era” landmarks had been quietly removed.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Legends of the Zone Trilogy – Enhanced Edition includes remastered versions of Shadow of Chornobyl (2007), Clear Sky (2008), and Call of Prypiat (2009) with upgraded visuals, next-gen console optimizations, and expanded mod support. However, shortly after release, all games plummeted to a “mostly negative” rating on Steam as players flooded the review section to complain about blurry visuals and register their dismay that the games were now “blurry, censored, and revised, [with] added advertisements.”
“So I own the originals and played them to death. If I get an enhanced edition I want to be excited when I boot it up, to see something different that makes we want to re-engage with the game. This isn’t it,” explained one player. “The graphics aren’t upgraded enough to get excited about, I have mixed feelings about stripping out the Russian references – honestly I see the original games as products of their history and although I understand the sensitivities of the developers I’m not sure whats to be gained by retconning them.
“So it’s free so I’ve nothing to complain about, but it’s not a huge step up from the original and to be honest, if you want an enhanced edition you can just mod the thing to your hearts content or play anomaly. GSC needed to do much more here and some cosmetic tweaking doesn’t really cut it.”
GSC Game World is a Ukrainian video game studio based in Kyiv, although some staff are currently working out of Prague after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, temporarily halting the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 as a result. At least one former GSC developer, Volodymyr Yezhov, has been killed in action.
While not formally acknowledging the negative reviews, GSC has today posted an update and a patch that it says will fix crashes on unsupported PC hardware and some consoles, address save issues, and repair “missing geometry on several levels.”
“Stalkers, we care about your feedback and are working on fixing the most critical issues,” the team said. “We really want to make your comeback to the Zone special.” It then said it would “continue to work on improving the trilogy.”
The “missing geometry,” players believe, refers to the missing Soviet relics found across all three games. It’s not clear if GSC chose or was compelled to revise Soviet iconography, but PC Gamer was able to confirm that the monument/sign outside Chornobyl itself, which reads “ChAES in the name of VI Lenin,” had at least been deleted. All that was left was “the two concrete blocks it used to stand on.”
The update made no explicit mention of the missing audio or the blurry textures.
“THEY LISTENED! THEY LISTENED! THEY LISTENED!” cried one delighted player on Reddit. “EE still has some issues but goddamn it, so glad they actually work on fixing the game and do not ignore the feedback.”
One player said: “That’s a million time[s] better solution than just removing it without a trace. That’s both applauding the current decommunization efforts while not censoring anything that existed before it.”
“This is a good first step. Hopefully we see some other fixes to notable things like the popular blur issue and items not appearing in marked stashes,” added another.
Read more on how S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has changed everything for the studio amid the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
