PIONER Wants To Be The MMO S.T.A.L.K.E.R., But Right Now It’s Just A Loading Screen Simulator
Exploring a Soviet wasteland has never been this immersive, mostly because I spent three hours immersed in an infinite loading screen trying to enter a church.
The pitch for PIONER is basically the Holy Grail for a specific type of gamer. It promises the grim, anomaly-filled atmosphere of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Metro but wraps it in an MMO structure so you don't have to suffer through the radiation alone. It is set on a desolate island full of Soviet ruins, mutants, and weird energy anomalies. On paper, this is exactly my jam. In reality, the Early Access launch has been a technical trainwreck that barely holds itself together long enough for you to fire a gun.
Heavy Guns and Heavy Stutters
I have to give credit where it is due because the art direction is actually fantastic. It nails that specific aesthetic of "rust, concrete, and depression" that makes these games so immersive. The gunplay is the standout feature here. The weapons feel heavy, the recoil kicks like a mule, and customizing your rifle with scavenged modules is genuinely satisfying. It isn't an arcade shooter. It feels deliberate and punchy.
But then you try to move.
I am running this on an RTX 4080, a card that costs as much as a used car, and this game was stuttering like it was running on a toaster. There seems to be no shader pre-compilation, which means every time a new enemy spawns or an anomaly triggers, your frame rate takes a nose dive. It pulls you right out of the experience. The movement also feels incredibly stiff, like your character is wading through molasses while wearing concrete boots. It is that specific brand of "Euro-jank" that usually plagues budget titles, but here it feels particularly rough.
The "Church Bug" And Other Nightmares
The performance issues are annoying, but the server issues are game-breaking. The launch experience has been a disaster of connection errors and infinite loading loops. There is a notorious bug right after the prologue where you try to enter a church to reach the underground, and the game just hangs there forever.
For an MMO, the social features are also bafflingly broken. I tried to add friends to my group, only for the game to insist they were offline when they were standing right next to me. It defeats the entire purpose of the genre if I can't actually play with the people I dragged into this digital purgatory with me.
The Soulless AI Problem
We need to talk about the "AI Generated Content" disclosure on the store page because it is becoming a plague in this industry. The developers admit to using AI for logos, posters, and secondary assets, claiming they were "refined by artists."
Let's be real here. "Refined by artists" usually just means someone opened Photoshop and fixed a weird corner or a six-fingered hand. I gave ARC Raiders a hard time for this, and I am giving PIONER the same treatment. It is 2025. Let humans do the work. Period.
I know some people don't care, but when I see that disclaimer, it stains the immersion. I start looking at every poster on the wall and wondering if a human being actually made it or if it was churned out by a prompt engineer to save a few bucks. It makes the world feel cheap and soulless, which is the last thing you want in a game that relies so heavily on atmosphere.
Brain-Dead Enemies
The artificial intelligence issues extend to the enemies too. The combat is hard, but not because the enemies are smart. They are actually dumb as rocks. Mutants and bandits don't flank or take cover. They just run at you in a straight line until one of you dies. It turns what could be tactical firefights into simple DPS checks.
The Verdict
PIONER has the bones of a cult classic, but it is currently buried under a mountain of technical issues and questionable design choices. It is atmospheric and ambitious, but until the servers stabilize and the jank is polished, it is hard to enjoy the view.
Score: 6/10 - A diamond in the rough, but right now it is mostly just rough.