Rock Paper Shotgun's review of STALKER 2: Cost of Hope, an expansion launching alongside the game's 2.0 update, finds it a mostly successful attempt to address omissions from the 2024 base game. The DLC adds long-absent locations such as the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and revives the classic Duty-versus-Freedom faction rivalry, restoring elements series veterans had missed without feeling like cynical fan service.

The reviewer singles out three new areas for praise: the fog-choked, electrically hazardous Iron Forest; a sombre, explorable recreation of the CNPP itself; and the standout Lymansk, a physics-defying, horror-tinged town that departs from the game's usual "raid a facility and leave" mission structure in favour of tense, torch-flickering survival stalking. However, the headline suggests the returning faction war ultimately "fizzles" despite the strength of the new environments, though the excerpt cuts off before the review's full verdict on the story and combat variety is given.