[b]8/10 - Good S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but I hoped for something a little more ambitious[/b]
[i]Disclaimer: This is mainly about the roughly 10-hour main DLC story. I haven't finished the side quests yet.[/i]
I came away from [b]Cost of Hope[/b] somewhat unsatisfied, although that has more to do with how the story develops towards the ending than with the overall quality of the DLC.
At its core, this is simply [b]more S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2[/b]. If you enjoyed the main game, there's a very good chance you'll enjoy this too. The atmosphere is fantastic, the gunplay feels and sounds great, weapon variety is excellent and the new characters are probably among the strongest parts of the DLC.
[h2]Story & Characters[/h2]
The characters introduced in Cost of Hope are well written and believable. They have their own personalities, motivations and ideological boundaries, and the [b]Duty vs. Freedom[/b] conflict works well because both sides have understandable reasons for what they believe in.
I ended up siding more with Duty's point of view, both personally and because I think it fits Skif quite well. He's already suffered because of the Zone, so I can see him being more skeptical towards those who want to use or control it.
My bigger problem isn't really [b]what happens[/b] in the story. It's [b]when it happens[/b].
The story reaches its most important turning point roughly two thirds of the way through, and afterwards it lost too much momentum for me. At that point I already had a pretty good idea where things were heading, so most of my curiosity was gone.
That's probably the main reason why the ending left me less satisfied than I expected.
[h2]Mission Design[/h2]
This is where Cost of Hope disappointed me the most.
The missions are mostly in line with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's main story. They're fine, but rarely do anything that feels genuinely fresh.
There's also too much fighting against waves of mutants for my taste. A new mutant gets introduced with the DLC but is barely used afterwards. You obviously don't want to spam a new enemy everywhere just because it's new, but it still feels strange to introduce something fresh and then spend most of the DLC fighting things we've already seen countless times.
Enemy health is still something I dislike as well. The gunplay itself feels great, but some enemies remain too bullet-spongy for my taste.
There are also more jumping, vaulting and platforming sections than I expected. I like the idea, but S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's character controller can feel somewhat floaty and janky, which isn't ideal when more precise movement is required.
One section in particular experiments much more with level design, movement and your sense of orientation, and it was easily one of the most memorable parts of the DLC.
The concept itself isn't completely new. Games like [i]Layers of Fear[/i] and [i]Half-Life: Alyx[/i] have played around with similar ideas before, so I wouldn't call it groundbreaking. But it worked really well here and felt different from the usual S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mission design.
I wish Cost of Hope had taken risks like that more often.
[h2]Locations & Atmosphere[/h2]
Atmosphere remains one of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's greatest strengths, and Cost of Hope absolutely delivers here.
[b]Iron Forest[/b] in particular stood out to me. I can't really point to one specific reason, but the area just has that typical S.T.A.L.K.E.R. feeling.
And then there's the [b]NPP[/b].
Seeing it again after so many years is great fan service. Unfortunately, the main mission taking place there was also one of the weaker missions for me.
It's a fantastic destination with surprisingly little to actually do there during the main story.
There are side quests in the area that I haven't completed yet, so I'm not judging the entire location based on the main quest alone. Still, during the story it mostly feels like scenery for the finale rather than a location whose full potential is being used.
[h2]Update 2.0[/h2]
Cost of Hope released alongside Update 2.0, and technically S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is in a much better place now.
The newer Unreal Engine version noticeably changes the look of the game. Foliage is denser, lighting is much better and the Zone has a somewhat different visual feel compared to the original release.
Personally, I prefer it.
CPU-heavy areas that previously felt choppy are massively improved, input latency has dropped a lot and gunplay consequently feels much snappier.
Typical Unreal Engine stutters haven't completely disappeared, but they're rare enough now that they no longer dominate the experience for me.
[b]Technical problems are no longer the first thing I think about while playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.[/b]
That's a huge improvement.
Most of this is part of the free 2.0 update rather than the paid DLC itself though, so I wouldn't use it to justify Cost of Hope's price.
[h2]Bugs[/h2]
I still encountered some visual and scripting issues.
Most noticeable were situations where the game seemingly didn't register my position quickly enough and enemies that should already have spawned suddenly appeared almost directly in front of me.
Nothing game-breaking, but it immediately breaks immersion when it happens.
Otherwise, the experience was considerably smoother than S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was around launch.
[h2]Is it worth €30?[/h2]
For someone who already loves S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, I'd say [b]€30 is fair[/b], but it's also about as much as GSC could reasonably ask for it.
The main story took me around 10 hours. The locations are great, the characters are strong and there are memorable moments, but €30 for roughly ten hours also means those ten hours really need to deliver.
For me, Cost of Hope gets there, but it's a close call.
I own the Ultimate Edition from release, so psychologically I wasn't sitting there thinking "I just paid €30 for this" while playing it. Obviously I still paid for it through the Ultimate Edition, but it changes how you perceive the value.
Had I bought the DLC separately for €30, I'd probably be a bit more critical of it.
[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
[b]Cost of Hope is at its best when it focuses on the atmosphere, characters and ideological conflict that make S.T.A.L.K.E.R. interesting, but it falls short whenever the mission design settles for familiar encounters instead of doing something genuinely new.[/b]
The story works best while you're still wondering where everything is going. For me, it shows its hand a bit too early, and the final third loses much of the momentum built up before.
I also think my way of playing the DLC probably hurt the experience.
I deliberately played the main game right up to its final mission before Cost of Hope released, then loaded that nearly finished save and basically treated the DLC as a separate 10-hour campaign.
Looking back, I don't think that's the best way to play it.
Cost of Hope feels much more like [b]extra content for an ongoing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 playthrough[/b]. I think it works better when mixed naturally into the main game while you're still exploring the Zone, doing quests and progressing through the original story.
Playing nothing but the DLC back to back makes its familiar mission structure and repeated encounters stand out much more. Integrated into a normal playthrough, I think some of that would have bothered me less.
So if you're starting fresh or are still somewhere in the middle of the game, that's probably how I'd recommend experiencing it rather than saving almost the entire DLC for a nearly finished save like I did.
It's roughly on par with some of the better content from the main game, and that's both a compliment and my biggest criticism.
I wanted Cost of Hope to take a few more risks.
Instead, I mostly got more S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
Fortunately, I still really like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
[b]8/10[/b]
