Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review: the best version yet of the brutal and beautiful survival horror shooter

The first thing that struck me in Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl – recently released on PlayStation 5 – wasn't the claws of a mutated creature or a bandit's hail of bullets, but the first-person shooter's stunning visual presentation.

Incredibly atmospheric, brimming with absorbing details, and endlessly immersive, GSC Game World's passion project immediately places you in a brutal, believable post-apocalyptic world capable of conjuring a lifetime of nightmares.

Of course, if you laced up the boots of the titular wasteland wanderer and braved the game's unforgiving open-world when the Ukrainian developer released it on Xbox platforms and PC a year ago, you're well aware of Stalker 2's adept ability to transport you to its fictional take on the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone – the tragic site of 1986's Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.

That said, while its original release was technically advanced and artistically brilliant ...