Microsoft S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl (PC/Xbox Series | 20 November 2024) - Information Thread, update (08/22): Gamescom 2024 Official Trailer

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[unogueen]

Possibly the only game where running away is the best part. A shame it seems well too lit compared to og trilogy. Hopefully we still get bloodsuckers who launch themselves at you from 100 paces out.

[Brick]

I'm really going to have to go back and finally finish the first game. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

What It Takes to Build a Game in a War Zone | WIRED

WWW.WIRED.COM

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The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 team has had to navigate war in Ukraine while developing the sequel to their hit shooter.

 

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THE OFFICES OF GSC Game World smelled like a gas station. The Kyiv-based studio, responsible for the cult-classic immersive sim S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and its hotly anticipated direct sequel S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, had stockpiled thousands of liters of fuel—alongside first aid kits and other survival supplies—in its corridors during the nervy winter of 2022. Who could blame them? Everyone in Ukraine was preparing for the worst. 

 

International headlines in January and February of 2022 warned that a massive Russian invasion of the country was imminent. The conflict, if it came to pass, would represent the most destabilizing military engagement on the European continent since the end of the Cold War. GSC Game World has furnished a legacy of taut gunplay, eerie atmospheres, and perfectly twisted side quests, but now the studio was forced to contend with a much more pressing reality—one that transcended the rigors of game development.

 

“Emergency buses were ready at the GSC office throughout the winter, with drivers ready for action,” says Maria Grygorovych, lead producer on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. (Grygorovych agreed to answer my questions over email, due to the language barrier.) “The evacuation plan with all the timings and meeting points was ready as well: The employees were aware of their organizing responsibilities if the action would be needed.”

 

 

New screenshots:

 

[Brick]

This game is definitely a looker. 

[Best]

[Keyser_Soze]

6 hours ago, Brick said:

This game is definitely a looker. 

 

Even more impressive given the labor circumstances there.

[Keyser_Soze]

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

In just 15 minutes, the first playable Stalker 2 demo gave me all the harrowing, post apocalyptic misery I could want | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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Life's tough in the zone.

 

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The demo starts, and my health is already draining. Welcome to Stalker 2, I guess. This Gamescom, for the first time, GSC Game World's long awaited sequel is available to play on the show floor—albeit just the smallest possible slice. But while the demo may be only 15 minutes long, it manages to pack in all the grim, dystopian misery a Stalker fan could want.

 

Case in point, my health. I'm unconscious in an irradiated field full of anomalies. But that isn't what's killing me off. No, my character finally opens his eyes, and I discover the culprit: a mutant dog that's been snacking on his leg. My character pulls out a gun. It jams. The dog lunges at his neck. My character struggles to hold it at bay, weakly kicking it away just far enough for it to land in a gravity anomaly. It's pulled into the air and crushed to death. Life's tough in the zone.

 

Finally able to stand, I look around to find a stranger who's been silently watching this all unfold. He chucks me a bolt. Right, yes. The field is full of anomalies. Bolts are a Stalker classic—an invaluable tool for pinpointing any anomalies in your immediate area. If I throw a bolt at a gravity anomaly, it'll be briefly weakened, letting me pass relatively unscathed.

 

 

 

STALKER 2: Going Hands-on With the First Ever Playable Demo  - Xbox Wire

NEWS.XBOX.COM

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STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl makes a hell of a first impression – the opening moments see your player-character, Skif sprawled across the floor of a rad-blasted forest, looking down, and seeing a mutant dog chewing on their leg. Cue a panic, a jammed gun, and the dog being fortuitously picked up by a nearby […]

 

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STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl makes a hell of a first impression – the opening moments see your player-character, Skif sprawled across the floor of a rad-blasted forest, looking down, and seeing a mutant dog chewing on their leg. Cue a panic, a jammed gun, and the dog being fortuitously picked up by a nearby atmospheric anomaly and, well, exploding. Like I said, hell of a first impression. 

 

This long-awaited sequel to the cult classic first-person immersive shooter series is clearly aiming to grab attention from the off – and getting the chance to go hands-on with this first ever playable build at gamescom shows that off in more ways than one.  

 

The most surprising element for a showfloor demo is the freedom you’re offered. Developer GSC Game World makes clear that this is a tiny slice of an enormous game, and still work-in-progress, but barring a short scene-setting conversation with a mysterious stranger – who directs us to speak to some locals – the demo makes no demands of you to do anything other than explore. It’s a clear marker of the game as a whole, a world that offers you choices from the beginning, and the opportunities to make them how you’d like. 

 

 

[skillzdadirecta]

Do you need to play the first one to get into this one?

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Just now, skillzdadirecta said:

Do you need to play the first one to get into this one?

 

 

Not at all.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[unogueen]

God dammit got an anglo.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2's irradiated world is dreadfully peaceful, if a bit confusing at the moment

WWW.ROCKPAPERSHOTGUN.COM

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We got hands-on with 20-minutes of Stalker 2 and explored an irradiated wilderness that felt a little jank, but oozed a…

 

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Devs GSC Game World are going through an unimaginably difficult time right now on top of leaks and hacker attacks. That has to be taken into account when we think about the development of the game, and it could be why, after 20-minutes spent exploring a bit of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl's irradiated world, I'm unsure what to make of it.

 

Maybe I played a very early build, but while the world itself looks every bit the eerie post apocalyptic survival wasteland you hope, NPC interactions aren't in as great shape. Chats with friendlies are unclear, and in firefights the enemy AI is shonky - to the extent that I think it'll be more useful as a preview to just tell you exactly what happened to me as I played.

 

My time with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 started with a blistered dog biting at my ankles. A friend shot it off me, and I watched it fall backwards into a rippling, see-through blob, where it exploded into bits. I'm then told by ol' matey to - now, I'm not 100% sure this is the case - chuck the screw in my hand into these killer bubbles and then leg it. So, I do what he says and then nothing really happens to said bubble. I run, but it turns out there are loads of bubbles surrounding me, so I end up leaping into one, which then propels me into another. I die. These, then, are S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s famous anomalies, weird energy pockets that frequently pop up in the Zone. They're one of, if not the, main environmental hazards in the series, and this first meeting with them in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was confusing, especially if you're not a series veteran.

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

STALKER 2 Recaptures the Tense and Awkward Soul of the Cult Series | gamescom 2023 - IGN

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STALKER 2's rough edges and tense firefights recapture the soul of its cult classic predecessor.

 

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Despite its Unreal Engine 5 base and prominent Microsoft support, the fifteen-minute gamescom demo suggests that STALKER 2 still sits in the ‘eurojank’ category; the colloquial term for eastern European games that are overly ambitious and technically wobbly. This sequel’s animations are stiff, its human faces look like haunted waxworks, the AI struggles to stay smart, and inventory management is fiddly. But in exchange for that you get a Soviet bloc world that feels authentic and layered with opportunity. This demo may have been short, but its small areas featured numerous angles for stealth or action approaches, fun flanking routes, and a variety of side objectives.

 

My sample misadventure through the rusted carcass that is the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone begins with a rabid dog mauling away at my ankles. The mutt is dispatched by kicking it into an anomaly; the rippling miniature storms that litter STALKER’s world. The dog explodes into a dozen gory chunks, demonstrating that these anomalies are to be steered well clear of. I’m also given some bolts, which can be thrown into anomalies from a safe distance to cause them to erupt and open up a safe path. These storms don’t turn up again for the rest of the demo, but I hope in the full game they fulfil a dual role as environmental hazard puzzles and traps to lure enemies into.

 

Further down the road I discover a man fighting off more of those mutated dogs. My over-cautious nature sees me blast a hole in the side of his head (why would I trust anyone in this god-forsaken place?), which results in a notification that I’ve failed an optional objective. Thankfully I’m able to reload the demo and approach in a more friendly manner, but this slip-up shows off STALKER 2’s push for realism; NPCs are not safe from stray or purposeful shots, and objectives will change with their fates.

 

 

 

GSC Game World's CEO Answers All of Our Questions About STALKER 2 | gamescom 2023 - IGN

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Game director and CEO at GSC Game World Evgeniy Grygorovych stopped by our gamescom studio to answer all our big questions about STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

 

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It's been a long time coming, but it looks like STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl will finally be coming out early next year, with developer GSC World hitting gamescom to talk all about their highly anticipated sequel. And GSC has quite the story to tell: after being announced and then canceled in 2011, revived in 2018, and then delayed amid Russia's unvasion of Ukraine. But now, we've finally got more to see of STALKER 2.

 

Game director and CEO at GSC Game World Evgeniy Grygorovych made the time to stop by IGN's gamescom studio to answer our questions about how the team is doing, the importance of creating a realistic recreation of Chornobyl, what audiences can expect after more than 10 years after the original, and more.

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Defiant STALKER 2 Developers Say War in Ukraine, Russian Hackers, and Death Threats Won’t Break Them - IGN

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During an interview at gamescom 2023, the Ukrainian developers of STALKER 2 discuss the terrible conditions under which the FPS is being made.

 

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When I bring up the war in Ukraine, I see a sadness overwhelm both Yanchyi and Bocharov. But they do not shy away from talking about what’s happening, however painful it is. They know they will be asked about the war in almost every interview they do at gamescom 2023. For them addressing the war and its impact on Stalker 2's troubled development is a golden opportunity.

 

“We are not tired of this question because we really think that it is important to share this experience,” Yanchyi says. “We want the world to know about this. And of course it is hard because our families... some of my family live in Ukraine, my parents live in Ukraine, and the same situation is with all my colleagues.

 

“The feeling that your beloved are in constant danger is pretty harming. It leaves a scar in yourself. It shouldn't be the experience that any human nowadays should have, any child nowadays should have. But this is our reality: asking our colleagues if they're alive or not each morning when the shelling starts, and ends.”

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE GODDAMNED KIDDING ME!
 

Stalker 2 developer's latest setback is a fire gutting a third of its office, but it insists the team's 'dealt with worse than that before' | PC Gamer

WWW.PCGAMER.COM

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It'd be nice if the universe would let GSC Game World catch a break.

 

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As reported by Czech publication Vortex, on September 7, Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World suffered a fire at the Prague office it moved into last year following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. GSC Game World employees have stated that no one was hurt in the incident, but one of the three floors occupied by the dev sustained heavy damage and requires "full restoration."

 

Vortex reports that the other two floors used by GSC Game World were undamaged by the fire, but that the damaged floor may have been where the developer stored its backup servers. A GSC Game World representative confirmed that the fire occurred and stated that the incident was under investigation.

 

 

[Brick]

I'm glad no one was hurt, that's the most important part, but I also hope no game files were permanently lost as surely they would have backups. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

STALKER 2 Devs Discuss ‘Imperfect’ gamescom 2023 Demo, Address ‘Downgrade’ Debate - IGN

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The developers of STALKER 2 have discussed the game’s first hands-on at gamescom 2023, and addressed a “downgrade” debate sparked by the release of a new gameplay trailer.

 

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The reaction to the latest STALKER 2 trailer sparked the dreaded “downgrade” claim from some. But what’s actually going on here? Maksym Yanchyi, lead Xbox programmer on Stalker 2, and GSC Game World’s public relations manager, Zakhar Bocharov, explained studio’s approach.

 

“We decided to take not a marketing approach, like showing something really polished and beautiful in a safe way, but rather a player approach, so you can play it even though it's imperfect,” Bocharov said.

 

“Of course there are certain risks implemented because the polishing goes all the way through. But that's how we decided to approach that, to give players a chance to play the game.”

 

 

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Bocharov brought up Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, which GSC Game World is using to build STALKER 2. He highlighted its lighting system, which “generates a huge amount of the overall impression from the picture itself, because the same graphics with different lighting can look extremely different”.

 

GSC Game World, Bocharov explained, is still figuring out all the technologies Unreal Engine 5 makes available, for example its Lumen Global Illumination tech. “It needs to be adjusted,” Bocharov said. “The engine got constantly updated. Then there are certain aspects which can look slightly worse than they were in terms of lighting. I guess a lot of people are referring to that dog scene — certain things can look like they're downgraded in the moment, probably they are because it's work in progress. We are getting there.

 

 

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“Certain things, they look exactly like they looked back when we showcased the gameplay demo. So I guess what we are aiming for, despite all the ups and downs, our goal in terms of the overall level of graphics on the release is the gameplay video we released in 2021.

 

“That's our target visuals, and we are getting there, we are seeing that we're getting there, but there can be certain humps on the way.”

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

STALKER 2 is a merciless trip down memory lane

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The studio has concocted another thrilling blend of FPS, RPG, and survival horror

 

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Skif is lying in the moss, a mutated dog gnawing at his shin. He pulls a pistol to fend it off, but — gasp — the clip is empty. Just before it can chew on his neck, he musters a deft kick, booting the pooch into a gravitational anomaly. The dog floats delicately in its gentle embrace before being compressed into a shower of meaty chunks. This constitutes my warm welcome into the unforgiving world of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

 

It has been 14 years since the last official STALKER game (2009’s Call of Pripyat), and GSC Game World has returned with what looks to be another complex blend of FPS, RPG, and survival horror. Like its trio of predecessors, Heart of Chornobyl is set in an alt-history version of the Chornobyl Anomalous Exclusion Zone, where a second disaster in 2006 summoned strange environmental phenomena, coveted supernatural artifacts, and a rogues’ gallery of mutants.

 

 

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Here, I got to test STALKER 2’s gunplay, which feels closer to a military simulator than a modern shooter. Enemies don’t just run out of cover like spongy sacks of XP; the wily crew I faced preferred to outthink me with gradual flanking movements. The AI has a refreshing caginess to it, and there are no health bars, so accuracy is paramount. The guns feel nice and heavy, too, with severe kickback and lengthy reload animations.

 

But it was the game’s more surreal encounters that left a lasting, tantalizing impression. Close to the end of my first run, I cautiously opened a barn door to find impossible spouts of fire — Burner anomalies, it turned out — emanating from the concrete. Before I could even have the time to react, a band of buff quadrupeds with terrifying, noisy faces started lurching at me. They looked like headcrabs with a family gym pass.

 

 

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The spirit of the series is alive and well in STALKER 2, but despite how excited I felt after my hands-on demo, I got the impression that the game still needs more time in the oven. STALKER 2 was delayed to early 2024 during Gamescom, but I’m sure fans won’t mind waiting a little longer to get their hands on it, especially considering the unimaginable disruption to the game’s development caused by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, where developer GSC Game World is based.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

Message from the developers in this version:

 

 

[skillzdadirecta]

This doesn't have an official release date yet right? I bought the original games during the steam sale last week and want to check them out before this launches.

[Keyser_Soze]

6 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

This doesn't have an official release date yet right? I bought the original games during the steam sale last week and want to check them out before this launches.

 

Whenever they don't have bullets whizzing over their head it will be ready.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Biggie]

Is this a spooky game?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Tracks from the OST:

 

 

 

 

 

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

There was a time this game looked visually stunning. Now it just looks alright. 

[stepee]

Looked better before they went woke.

[tgo]

Never played these games so looking forward to this.  Looks great.  

[Keyser_Soze]

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

40 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

That's actually a really good way to announce the delay.

 

Which, if the recent not-E3 impressions are to believed, can only be a good thing for the game because it was apparently really quite rough.

[ThreePi]

Unfortunate, but at least I won't have to decide between this and Space Marine 2.

[skillzdadirecta]

Yeah it's starting to get crowded starting next month with game releases. I'm still working my way through Banishers and Outlawas comes out next month as well too.