Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl's road to release has been longer than anyone could have anticipated when it was first announced six years ago - mainly for reasons outside of developer GNC Game World's control - but the studio is still committed to improving the game, even after its long-awaited November 20 launch.
The Stalker series - a mish-mash of first-person shooting and survival horror across a naturally disturbed disaster zone - is somewhat known for its jank. It's even often cited as the very best 'Eurojank' series around, where low-budget ambition creates something that's both wildly out-of-the-box and sometimes technically clunky. But Stalker 2 is aiming to sidestep the technical woes that its predecessors became associated with.
"Everyone at the moment, they are absolutely dedicated, all of themselves to make it as polished as possible," Game World's PR lead Zakhar Bocharov says in an interview with 12DOVE. The studio is supposedly focused on releasing Stalker 2 in a stable state, though it's also bracing itself to work on post-launch updates "if we need to address technical stuff."
"We don't want this game to be forgotten in a week or two," Bocharov continues. "We're gonna do that. We're gonna receive the feedback from players and listen to them carefully. And we did that in the past, the good occasions and probably not-so-good occasions both. So we really care about what players think. We will follow that closely. We will [make] changes, and we will do that in a timely manner."
"At the same time, I can't explain [in] words how passionate people are towards doing as much as possible until the late stage. It's just like they're doing their absolute best," Bocharov notes.
Game World had already delayed Stalker 2 months ago to iron out technical creases, but that's far from the only problem the Ukrainian developer encountered during production. The radiated sequel was first indefinitely pushed from its 2022 release date due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Then, several cyber security attacks and generally awful goings-on continued to cause issues for the development team. Thankfully, Stalker 2 looks to deliver on its spooky premise when it comes to PC, Xbox Series X|S and Game Pass later this year.
Microsoft isn’t publishing Stalker 2, but the company has been “so supportive” to its developers.
