When STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl was released in November 2024, I gave it stellar marks in a deep-dive review because it genuinely motivated me to fall in love with an irradiated, fractured wasteland, torn apart by mutations, warring factions, and anomalous activity. Fast forward to Cost of Hope, the game’s first major story-driven expansion, and it has happened all over again.
I’ve given Cost of Hope the full run-around, exploring every inch of the 2.0 update that brings the game’s latest evolution, completing both of the expansion’s endings, and soaking up a good 15 hours of entertainment – and there’s still more left to do.
Read on to catch this full STALKER 2: Cost of Hope review to determine if it’s worth your time, and more importantly, your money.
The Cost of Hope is More Than Worth Paying
Cost of Hope represents an ambitious step forward for GSC Game World, broadening the already expansive horizons of the base game and pushing the STALKER series towards an all-new saga. The game’s post-apocalyptic wasteland, The Zone, will be irrevocably changed by your decisions in this substantial story, and the stage will be well and truly set for whatever comes next.
Because there is more ‘coming next’.
When you boot up STALKER 2 and hop into Cost of Hope, you’ll find that the story unravels relatively quickly. You’ll make your way into the Iron Forest, a foreboding, radiation-riddled location teeming with fog, brutal enemies, and the origins of a war brewing between the franchise’s oldest and most recognizable factions.
For the most die-hard STALKER fans, the energy builds fast, and the cutthroat action between Duty and Freedom establishes itself in a blink.
Everything new in the 2.0 update and the Cost of Hope expansion is just waiting to be explored. There are stacks of new weapons, weather enhancements, AI improvements, binoculars, and a hefty array of quality-of-life updates, among other things. The new Unreal Engine 5.5.4 upgrade is front and centre, and the whole thing runs pretty nicely (especially on PC).
All of that is free, but it’s the paid DLC in Cost of Hope where things really start to shine.
Put simply (and without spoiling too much), a breakdown in the relationship between Freedom and Duty established by the D4 Treaty leads to a threatening conflict that bubbles between the two squads. In the shadow of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a fresh danger has emerged, and it’s one that could change the face of the world, let alone The Zone.
Freedom wants to secure the danger and use it for good, manipulating the planet and creating miracles, while Duty wants to destroy every trace of this danger and get one step closer to bringing The Zone to its knees.
That’s as far as I’ll get when it comes to describing the content of Cost of Hope.
Naturally, the split means there are two endings, and the missions leading to those endings differ considerably. That said, you can save your game before a ‘point of no return’ if you want to quickly digest both endings.
Full transparency: I went Freedom first as my natural choice, then played it again and went the Duty route. I’ll say that the Duty route seemed easier if you want a softer ride.
Throughout the whole thing, on both sides, the set pieces, cinematics, new characters and the acting behind them, the chilling locations, and the moral undertones of the expansion all sang to me quite beautifully. I instantly clicked with Zulu and Mavka, the new core characters, and I fully appreciated the depth of what was unfolding as I explored the expansion.
Far More Than Just ‘DLC’
Cost of Hope is being marketed as a DLC or an expansion, but it’s something far more potent. This is a deep dive into the history and very foundations of the STALKER series, and by the time the dust has settled, regardless of your choice, The Zone will be changed forever.
It’s an indication of things to come, and the ramifications are massive. What we discover in Cost of Hope will leave fans of the franchise slack-jawed in surprise, and knowing that each path the story takes presents something so drastically different from the other way encourages serious replayability.
Let’s take a run through that depth in Cost of Hope.
Firstly, the new locations are haunting. The Iron Forest and CNPP are iconic, and in the latter’s case, a marked delivery that fans have been chasing for many years. As you explore the story, you’ll also be plunged into a twisted, complex ‘dream world’ of sorts, and that segment will really play with your mind.
There are new threats, including variants of existing fauna and an all-new mini-boss mutant called the Amok. This powerful, humanoid mutant is a tricky one to defeat, and from the moment it’s introduced, you’re made fully aware of just how capable a foe it can be.
But, that said, the DLC still offers multiple ways to play it. Some segments that can be resolved with either stealth and a more tactical approach, or a balls-to-the-wall, all-out action style of play. The way the story builds up is sublime, and the crescendo that falls before the DLC wraps is nothing short of superb, offering us our best indication of what happens now.
I’ll be frank, some of the older issues that plague STALKER 2 were still present. There was a bit of AI jank with characters having pathing problems, getting trapped on things, or not fighting right. I also fell prey to the game’s somewhat awkward and clunky movement mechanics at times, falling to my death more than once.
The first time I completed the DLC, I had a flickering visual bug that rendered the closing cutscene difficult to watch, and some of the animations were lacking. For instance, at several points you leap into a ‘teleport’ anomaly, but when you make contact, you simply freeze in place, then a transition screen opens up, and hey presto, you’ve teleported. It just felt a bit underdone.
STALKER 2: Cost of Hope Review Verdict
STALKER 2’s Cost of Hope expansion represents a sizeable purchase in this day and age. It comes with a $29.99 price tag, which is the cost of some full games these days. If I’m being brutally honest, I’d probably have priced it around $19.99, given that you can wrap the story in around eight to ten hours, and if you ‘save cheese’ the alternate ending, you only bolt on an extra two or three hours.
Of course, that depends on your playstyle and the difficulty you’re playing on.
That said, Cost of Hope is a phenomenal expansion of an already incredible world, and it sets the stage for a dramatic evolution yet to come. I can’t really fault GSC Game World for what they’ve produced and how they’ve produced it, and long-standing fans of the franchise should come away from this DLC feeling very satisfied with what has been presented.
It might not break into my top five expansions ever released (because that’s an extremely prestigious list), but it’s certainly coming close, all things considered.
Put simply, buy Cost of Hope if you’re a fan of the franchise, have spare cash on the hip, or have a dying urge to explore something more in STALKER 2, but perhaps wait for a sale if you’re not too fussed about what happens in the expansion.
Let me know on the Insider Gaming Discord server if this review has motivated you to buy STALKER 2’s Cost of Hope expansion.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out whether you should side with Duty or Freedom in Cost of Hope, and be sure to subscribe to the Insider Gaming weekly newsletter for even more news
STALKER 2: Cost of Hope
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STALKER 2: Cost of Hope
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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