Stalker 2: Heart of Chornoby has enjoyed a generally positive overall reception, despite launching with a few issues. But Stalker 2 released to near-unanimous praise from players in Ukraine, the country in which the game is set and the homeland of its developers. In fact, Ukrainian players were so eager to get their hands on GSC Game World's latest entry in the Stalker series that the game's launch quite literally broke the internet.

Ukrainian players flocked to the game as soon as it launched, resulting in nationwide internet outages in the hours after its release, GSC creative director and executive producer Mariia Grygorovych said in a recent interview.

"It's a bad thing because the Internet is important, but at the same time it's like, 'Whoa!'" Grygorovych said of Ukrainian players' enthusiasm for the game. "It touched everyone in the country."