Stalker 2 is approaching. The long awaited new entry into the Stalker series—dearly beloved in all its janky glory—will drop players back into The Zone of Alienation, an irradiated, dangerous, and weird area between the borders of Ukraine and Belarus.
The hallmarks of the first-person survival shooter series are bleak atmosphere, terrifying monsters and mutants, and unforgiving risk/reward combat. Fans (including myself) have been waiting and clamoring for over a decade for a sequel, which was originally announced back in the dusty past of 2010.
Here's all the details and everything we know about Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl.
Is there a Stalker 2 release date?
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is currently due November 20, 2024. It was going for a September release but then was hit with another delay that pushed it to the current date.
Initially, the sequel was set to release in April of 2022 before a delay into December of that year. However, that was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which forced GSC Game World to suspend work. Though development did resume, the ongoing warfare has understandably slowed the game's production. Plus, if that wasn't enough, a September 2023 fire at the relocated GSC Game World offices in Prague caused extensive damage.
Will Stalker 2 be on PC?
Yes! The Stalker series has always been on PC, but Stalker 2 is also a "console launch exclusive" on Xbox. That's a confusing phrase, but it doesn't mean PC players will have to wait. It just means PlayStation owners will be out of luck. Stalker 2's official site states the PC version will launch simultaneously with the Xbox version.
How has Stalker 2 been affected by the war?
GSC Game World was based in Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. When Russia declared war on February 24 of 2022, it was one of the first game development studios to speak out, with a statement that read, in part: "Our country woke up with the sounds of explosions and weapons fire, but is ready to defend its freedom and independence, for it remains strong and ready for anything. The future is unknown, but we hope for the best, are ever sure of our armed forces and our belief in Ukraine."
In March 2022, with the city under heavy bombardment and Russian troops massing outside it, GSC Game World paused development on Stalker 2. A video that had been intended to showcase the studio's mocap work instead became a powerful statement, showing how priorities had shifted. "Now we are striving to help our employees and their families to survive", it declared. "The game development shifted to the sidelines."
GSC Game World relocated its development headquarters to Prague, a process that began in March 2022 alongside the temporary pause in Stalker 2's development. During that pause, the spelling of Stalker 2's subtitled was changed to Heart of Chornobyl, reflecting the Ukrainian rather than the Russian spelling of Chornobyl.
In late May 2022, community representative Mol1t explained that development had resumed, saying on Discord that "it continues" and "the work is in progress." A delay into 2023 was announced soon after, owing to the invasion's continuing disruption.
GSC Game World released a dev diary video in June 2022, which detailed how the war's disruption of daily life in Ukraine has affected the studio. In the video, GSC devs show their makeshift workspaces, the regular interruptions from air raid sirens or needing to evacuate to bomb shelters, and their efforts as community volunteers and enlisted members of the Ukrainian armed forces.
In September 2022, Microsoft company policy led to Stalker 2 pre-order customers seeing their preorders refunded, while Stalker 2 pre-orders became unavailable on the Xbox store. In response to resulting speculation, a GSC spokesperson denied any further Stalker 2 delays.
Here's the latest Stalker 2 trailer
While the trailer is called "A Time of Opportunities" it seems more like what our own Christopher Livingston noted as "all the ways I'm going to die horribly." Showing off everything from anomalies, to dogs, mutants of both the massive and more usual sizes, and even other denizens of the zone that want to introduce you to their knives. The scariest part is definitely the tremendous anomaly-twister near the end—just think of how many loose bolts that thing is whipping around.
Let's watch the other Stalker 2 trailers
This Enter the Zone cinematic teaser trailer gives us a look at what kind of mood will be waiting for us in the Heart of Chornobyl. From the recorded conversation that serves as narration for the trailer, it sounds like Stalker 2's plot will involve an effort to "venture forward to a new, better humanity" by harnessing the forces of the Zone. I'm sure that'll work out fine.
Then, you can point your eager anomaly detectors (your eyes, I mean) at the Stalker 2 gameplay from E3 2021. It begins, as everything Stalker-related should, with a group of mercenaries sitting around a fire while someone plays the guitar. Then we get a look at some gunplay as a Stalker, named Skif, raids a camp. It's a bit more Call of Duty than we'd expect from Stalker combat, which typically involves being real careful and not rushing headlong into a group of enemies.
We also see some on-the-fly weapon modding, some rather nice-looking explosions, and an encounter with a bloodsucker—a monster seasoned Stalker players are quite familiar with. Then there's an expedition into a bleak-looking swamp to find an artifact. It definitely looks very Stalker-y, as we see a headcrab-esque monster get sucked into an anomaly, and Skif uses a new detector and some thrown bolts to avoid another, followed by the acquisition of a precious artifact.
If you want to get a blow-by-blow explanation from the devs themselves, this Stalker 2 dev highlights video gives us some commentary on bits from the gameplay trailer above, where we learn there's a small detail that hints at a new (possibly military) faction. There's also a cameo at the end from Sergiy Grygorovych, founder of GSC Game World.
Finally, if you want to see some earlier footage from Stalker 2, there was also a teaser back in 2020 that "demonstrates the level of graphics and atmosphere we are aiming to achieve on release" as well as an in-engine teaser.
Will Stalker 2 seriously have NFTs?
Well yes, but then no, and now hopefully it continues to be no. On December 15 of 2021, GSC Game World announced a tie-in with NFTs—a sort of blockchain auction for players to be able to get themselves scanned onto the faces of NPCs, or have access to "unique" items.
This did not last very long. The following day NFT involvement with Stalker 2 was retracted, proving that the answer to 'what are ya selling?' was not, indeed, NFTs.
So for now, it appears Stalker 2 will be safe from the scourge of the non-fungible token trend.
What engine is Stalker 2 running on?
Though previously Stalker 2 was being developed for Unreal 4, it's now shifted to Unreal 5. A change in engine may be part of the reason for the initial delay that pushed its release into 2022.
With this engine change comes a bevy of improvements, including some quite pretty characters and weapons. Now we can expect to see both the whites of their eyes and the not-so-whites of their teeth when confronting enemies in the Zone.
There's a true open world this time
The maps in the earlier Stalker games were big, but they weren't entirely open worlds. While sizable, they were broken up into chunks and you were funneled through a few specific access points to travel between them.
Stalker 2 will officially be a seamless open world game. "For the first time in the series, the Zone will be yours to explore as a post-apocalyptic open-world—one of the biggest ones to date," says GSC Game World.
A-Life has been upgraded
There's a lot of simulation happening in Stalker games. Members of the various human factions wander the Zone, same as you, and there are all sorts of mutants and creatures creeping around out there too.
These different entities clash and interact, even when you're not around to see it. In the previous games, a system called A-Life simulated the world and its inhabitants, and now an upgraded A-Life 2.0 will do the same in Stalker 2.
What is Stalker 2 about?
Not much about the story has been revealed, but the scenario sounds similar to that of the previous games. "Bounty hunters delve deep into the Zone, driven by its treasures and mysteries. Some of them are running from their past, others are blinded by money, and some are obsessed with finding the truth behind all the mysteries."
The story will be non-linear, and GSC says, "Your choices will influence both short-term consequences and global outcomes."
Ray tracing and resolution
GSC has confirmed RTX support for Stalker 2 on the Xbox Series X and Series S, and 4k resolution for the Series X, which means we can safely assume the same features will come to PC. Expect to see a lot of reflections in those radioactive puddles.
Do I have to play the other Stalker games before I play Stalker 2?
Yes, you do. That's not official, that's just my personal directive to you because two of the Stalker games (Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat) are excellent.
If you want a second opinion, GSC Game World has its own answer to that question: Yes, you do.
"Stalker 2 is a standalone project that can be enjoyed on its own," it said on GSC's site. "At the same time, we recommend to complete the previous games for the maximum level of immersion."
So, yes. You do. You'd better get started!
Will Stalker 2 support modding?
The original Stalker series is kept fresh by a passionate and dedicated modding community. And GSC plans to support modders with Stalker 2 as well. "We're fully committed to make modding as simple as possible on day one."
Hey, what does S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stand for again?
Yep, the game is actually S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, which is much peskier to type than Stalker 2. And the letters (supposedly, because the story is a bit complicated) stand for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers.
Which one will you be? Probably all of the above.
