S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope is a difficult DLC to review, and one that I ended up looking at in a “glass half full vs. half empty” sort of mentality.
Looking at the glass half full, you can call S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope an exciting bit of new content added to the game two years after its launch. The new areas now playable are some of the best the franchise has ever seen, and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe is meaningfully expanded with a great new story. Throw on top of it all new enemies and a handful of new weapons to play with, and you could easily say that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is simply incomplete without the Cost of Hope expansion.
Looking at the DLC with a “glass half empty” mentality, you could say it simply doesn’t justify the price of entry. The new playable areas aren’t actually new, but unrestricted parts of the main map made open. The story is better, in my opinion, than the main game’s plot, and makes the Duty and Freedom factions, as well as player choice, relevant in ways they simply weren’t in the base game. The Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant is the central point of the entire S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe, and yet this pivotal location, along with the enhanced storytelling and faction focus, feels paywalled behind a DLC. Really, it is easy to conclude that a lot of what S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope has to offer feels like cut content from the main game, repackaged and sold for an additional price.
The Cost of Hope DLC focuses on a conflict between the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2‘s Duty and Freedom factions, two groups that in the base game feel almost entirely irrelevant. While the DLC rightfully expands them and makes them feel impactful and relevant, the conflict they mention feels almost nonexistent outside of cutscenes or the very rare encounter in the wild. Outside of the DLC’s story, it doesn’t feel as though much of what is going on is actually affecting the Zone, or having anywhere near the kind of impact the story wants you to believe it is having.
Said story, however, is pretty good, and the choices you make within actually matter. The story is so good, in fact, that it feels weird that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope is a sort of middle chapter that happens before the actual end of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Again, the entire DLC easily feels like cut content, and with some tweaks I would have called S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope the proper ending to the story that we should have gotten.
It isn’t just the story’s impact (which I won’t spoil for you, because I still think it is worth checking out), but also the inclusion of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, an area that looms over the entire S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise because of its importance. As the epicenter of the Zone and the place that started it all, this iconic and tragic structure is the shadow that casts itself over the entire game and is the most logical place to end any S.T.A.L.K.E.R. title. Yet, for some reason, it is entirely inaccessible in the base game, locked behind a DLC addition that serves, oddly, as a middle chapter in the title rather than the ending it should have been.
So much of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope feels like what the main game should have been. The atmosphere of the finale-that-wasn’t goes back to the franchise’s roots, feeling so much like an ominous and mysterious trek through the horrible remains of incomprehensible science. Make no mistake, I one hundred percent believe that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans will find the Cost of Hope DLC to be the best thing that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has to offer.
That being said, however, it is impossible to ignore the signs that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope is simply content cut from the original game. The two new zones complete the original map, which simply felt walled off for the game’s release. Aspects of the DLC were hinted at in the game’s original promotional material, and the nature of the DLC’s story and setting points toward the game’s original ending, cut out and repurposed as DLC.
In my opinion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope is the best that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has to offer. The iconic areas made available to explore are pivotal to the world, and the horror vibes are the best the franchise has had. The story is great, albeit it confines itself and its repercussions to the DLC areas, and it is, if nothing else, new content for die-hard S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 fans to enjoy. However, it is most certainly cut content that has been repurposed as DLC, and for that, I have to knock off a few points. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope would have made the perfect free addition to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, but for the cost of entry, some fans may feel a bit ripped off.
The Final Word
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope left me with mixed emotions. On one hand, it is the best of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, with iconic new areas to explore and a return to the franchise’s sense of mystery and horror unlike anything else in the base game. However, it is hard to escape the feeling that much of the DLC is content from the main game, repackaged and sold for an additional price. While I would highly recommend any S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 fans give the DLC a try, I would understand if they were left feeling a bit jaded by the cost of entry.
Try Hard Guides was provided with a Steam code for this PC review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope is available on Steam, Epic Games, GoG, and Xbox.
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