The return to Chernobyl is imminent as GSC Game World has given its fanbase a progress update on Stalker's sequel. The developer also provided a teaser trailer, as well as other key pieces of information regarding Stalker 2’s narrative.
The follow up to the successful 2007 FPS survival horror has been a highly anticipated and long-awaited one at that. Set to launch some time this year for PC and Xbox Series X/S, the sequel’s release will also commemorate the franchise’s debut on consoles. With the possibility of reaching up to 120fps on the Xbox Series X, fans are also hyped about Stalker 2’s defining feature: being one of the biggest open worlds to date.
Penning an Xbox blog post, PR Specialist at GSC Game World Zakhar Bocharov firstly shared an in-engine gameplay teaser - designed to give fans a sense of the sequel’s ambiance. The teaser features school ruins within Pripyat - the town where the Chernobyl disaster occurred - as a first-person character scurries from room to room whilst witnessing energy storms occurring outside. These emissions are deadly, and the developer recommends that you hide immediately when they strike. GSC also revealed that the sequel’s new stalker is called Skif - which is a codename worth remembering - who will carve a new chapter within the Zone. “Anomalous” energy storms would explain why Skif was in a rush during the teaser, as hiding from these emissions will no doubt be a regularity.
The developer concluded the post with news that development was “progressing smoothly”, highlighting that the team had made “quite a bit of progress since July”. Fans were assured that the team’s goal was to deliver a high-quality product on every platform, and progress indicated that GSC were on track to providing an “ultimate experience”. GSC had no official release date to reveal, however, it did confirm that Stalker 2 would be available on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
Bocharov also announced that Stalker 2 would include ray tracing and 4K support on its launch day for Xbox Series X. The same blog post stated that the release will feature “fast SSD [and] RTX support”, which promises to deliver one hell of a radioactive ride.
Source: Xbox