I've played Stalker 2, and I can assure you that you'll enjoy it more if you use Ukrainian voice acting.

Stalker 2 is brilliant, bizarre and a bit busted. But I love it. It's a good thing, because I've spent the past week playing it almost exclusively. Now, after spending two days in the exclusion zone of Chornobyl, I'm ready to share my top tip for playing. You should do one thing before anything else to ensure you have a great time.

Please switch the voiceover to Ukrainian.

Stalker is a sombre, eerie series. You'll be exploring the depths of once great experiments that are now in ruins. Cans will rattle and glass will break under your feet. Skif is elegiac and mournful, but in English it sounds like Brock Hardcheese: a parody on a parody.

The days of a husky Eastern European accent delivering "good hunting, stalker", are over. The English VO in Stalker 2 is aggressively... English. It's anglophone: the audio is dominated by Americans and Brits. is not good.

If you love cheesy lines, then it might work for you. But if you don't, the Ukrainian acting will be better and more in line with the game's vibes. Skif is more of a disaffected, world-weary stalker. The loners in the villages don't seem to be British. And Scar... well, Scar's actor really goes for the kill, I'll tell ya that much.

Even if you only watch dubs, I urge you to open the settings menu and change the VO language. You can keep your subtitles in English. I'm not expecting you to learn Ukrainian. Just give it a try. For me. You'll thank me later.