With the war in Ukraine, it’s no news that the developers of Stalker, GSC Game World had the roughest year imaginable for frankly any company in the world, having to move from their headquarters in Kyiv to Prague in the Checz Republic so they can continue their work.
Before diving into the brand-new trailer, our thoughts go out to the family of Volodymyr Yezhov, a senior developer at GSC Game World that has died last week serving on the frontlines of the Ukrainian-Russian war.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl – Come to Me trailer
In the 2:29 minutes trailer, we can see a lot of similarities between the original trilogy and the brand-new Stalker 2 game. As also seen in the first trailer, it’s almost like a remake of the original game, which is absolutely fine and what needs to happen to this franchise. Call it a “soft reboot” if you will.
The visuals resemble life-like environments, thanks to the game running on the latest Unreal Engine 5 (hopefully being upgraded to the game-changing Unreal Engine 5.1 update). As a long-time Stalker fan, I can only praise the fact they’ve decided to go with Unreal Engine as their original X-Ray Engine had a few bugs to put it mildly…
The trailer features bits and pieces of the storyline which seems to have a more serious tone than previous games, revolving around and putting an emphasis on mind-bending concepts such as “The Noosphere – The earth’s informational field”.
As for the voiceover in the new trailer, it features the English audio version which honestly feels a little bit flat and cliche. It’s worth noting that there will be two distinct audio options for voiceover and facial animations, English and Ukrainian, which sounds and feels infinitely more authentic probably due to the Ukrainian actor’s level of involvement.
*As seen, or rather heard in the second STALKER 2 trailer:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl — Gameplay Trailer
Along with the new trailer, we also received 7 new screenshots
GSC Game World has also blessed us with 7 brand new 4k high-detail screenshots from the scenes within the new trailer, where we can notice some minimalist HUD elements such as; health, stamina, and bullet inventory for the selected weapon.
Stalker 2 release date
After a couple of delays, the game is currently set for a 2023 release on the official website with no specific date announced yet, while on Steam, Stalker 2 is listed for a “Dec 2023” release.
This is a case of “better late than never”, where hardcore Stalker fans would rather wait until 2024 if necessary just to get a proper Stalker sequel than have a buggy rushed game released like we’ve seen in the industry times and times again (i.e. Cyberpunk 2077, Battlefield 2042, and many more).
