Following the recent delay of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl until November, developer GSC Game World has rewarded patient fans with a new 35-minute deep dive into the post-apocalyptic horror shooter sequel, featuring a mission set in its dark yet beautiful open world.
Stalker 2's “massive” world, officially known as the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, is made up of 20 regions, each with its own residents, anomalies, and wildlife. It is also said to have few barriers, meaning players are free to explore the locations as they wish, with the goal of “giving a sense of freedom, giving a sense of solitude, giving a sense of anxiety.”
While GSC's in-depth analysis offers a good overview of Stalker 2's surprisingly varied environmental work, most of it focuses on the swamp, a once-inhabited region free of Stalkers but home to many other dangers, which hosts a mission in which players must deactivate deadly repurposed psychic beacons to reach the Clear Sky base.
As the mission unfolds, GSC emphasizes the freeform nature of the mission design, explaining that it is impossible to see all of the content and all of the characters in a single playthrough: players will experience a slightly different story, slightly different missions, and meet different people depending on the choices they make.
Some of these choices may be mission-related—at one point we see the player choosing to approach a key location from the relative safety of a rat-infested cellar rather than the potentially more lethal surface—while others are more organic. GSC says it’s encouraging exploration by placing new gear, weapons, weapon attachments, and upgrades into the world, many of which can’t be acquired through the story.
In total, Stalker 2 will have 35 weapons, each of which can be equipped with different upgrades and attachments for added variety. They will be used against creatures such as zombies, Pseudodogs (who roam in packs with ghostly versions of themselves), and mutant pigs known as Flesh. GSC notes that its AI doesn’t cheat by always knowing where the player is, and will instead hunt them down by guessing where they’ll be.
Players will need to keep an eye on their hunger and fatigue levels to ensure their efficiency doesn't decrease, and they'll also need to be careful about their gear load, as overloading will limit their movement. GSC says it deliberately avoided making Stalker 2 easy for players, as that would “kill the grip of reality,” an attitude reflected in the decision to forgo a leveling system in favor of a more naturalistic progression, with players improving as they become more familiar with the environment or gain quicker reactions through experience.
The full 35-minute in-depth analysis of GSC contains many other informative details, including a bit of information about the routines of the different people in the Zone and the dynamic nature of the factions, which can sometimes change their leader or even split up. It's worth watching, if only to admire its beautiful, dark environments.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is out November 20 and will be available on Xbox Series X/S, PC (via Steam, GOG, Epic, and the GSC website), and Game Pass.