It feels surreal to finally say this, but Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is finally about to launch. While Stalker fans have been itching to get back into The Zone since 2009's Call Of Pripyat concluded the series' original trilogy, Stalker 2 has been repeatedly pushed back due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
All of that waiting will finally come to an end this month, as Stalker 2 is set to release on November 20. Now one of the biggest upcoming Xbox Series X games of the year, Stalker 2 feels like developer GSC Game World's chance to bring its unforgiving survival series into the mainstream and stand alongside the best FPS games of this generation.
So far, there's a lot to be excited for. Becoming a Stalker - someone who ventures into the irradiated Zone for supernatural artifacts - will involve learning to survive vicious gunfights and attacks from mutants, keeping your ammo and medicine supplies topped up, and navigating the area's vying factions. Over the years there's been no series quite like Stalker, and if Stalker 2 can recapture that feeling of immersive survival, we'll be very happy scavengers indeed.
If you're looking to catch up on The Zone's goings-on, you can find everything we know so far about Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl below.
Recent updates
This Stalker 2 guide was updated on November 11, 2024, ensuring that all the information listed below will help you get a handle on what to expect come Heart of Chornobyl's release date.
Stalker 2 release date
The Stalker 2 release date has been set for November 20, 2024. Although this pushes the game back two months from the September 5 release date given in January 2024, the good news is that Stalker 2 has now gone gold, meaning its final release version is now locked in.
The game going gold was celebrated in a brief video published on November 8, although the trailer itself didn't contain anything new on The Zone. That being said, the relief that Stalker 2 is finally locked in for launch should be cause enough for celebration. It's been a long and winding road to reach this point, as development has faced numerous setbacks largely driven by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
The game was set to launch in Q1 2024, although developer GSC Game World has stated that "the game apparently needed more time in the oven" based on feedback from a playable build the studio presented at Gamescom 2023. But that was over a year ago, and our hands-on with Stalker 2 for three hours in October 2024 felt much more promising. The game as it stands is incredibly immersive and boasts some of the best shooting mechanics of the year, and although it was still a little rough around the edges technically, the team has since had another month to patch things up.
Stalker 2 platforms
The Stalker 2 platforms have been confirmed for PC and Xbox Series X. We know that it will be available on Steam, Epic Games Store, Microsoft Store, and GOG for PC players, while it will also be accessible via Xbox Game Pass. The studio says that it is "doing our best to ensure an equal level of game experience and immersion, regardless of the gaming platform."
Will Stalker 2 be on PS5?
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is only confirmed for release on PC and Xbox Series X, but that doesn't mean that it won't launch on PS5 in the future. In fact, confidential Microsoft documents were released as part of the Apple vs. Epic court battle which suggest that the Xbox Game Studios window of exclusivity is just three months long. So you never know, a Stalker 2 PS5 release could be in sight, but you'll need to watch this space.
Stalker 2 Game Pass
Stalker 2 will be available via Game Pass for PC and Xbox Series X players. That means that, so long as you have an active subscription, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be available from the full Xbox Game Pass list on the same day that it goes on sale at other storefronts on November 20.
Stalker 2 trailer
The Stalker 2 gameplay trailer, which you can watch above, works to set the tone of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and outline some of the major innovations GSC Game World is striving for with Unreal Engine 5, photogrammetry technologies, as well as full body and facial motion capture. GSC promises that the high level of fidelity and atmosphere evident in the Stalker 2 trailers is representative of what will be delivered later this year.
Another short "trailer" of sorts was released alongside the last Stalker 2 delay:
It's just a 40 second delay announcement trailer, but it does root us in the world of Stalker 2 by way of Colonel Korshunov's announcement to his troops that "The Zone will remain out-of-bounds until November 20, pending the completion of the Ward's official affairs. Consider this as me giving you time to prepare better. Over." The Stalker then haves a dramatic sigh before pulling out a weather-beaten tablet device, opening a map that reveals the new release date before grumbling: "Really? Again?"
Stalker 2 story details
The Stalker 2 story will take you to the Heart of Chornobyl – deep within the dangerous Exclusion Zone. This game is a sequel to the events of the original Stalker trilogy, although developer GSC Game World has said that no prior knowledge of the series is necessary to enjoy and understand Heart of Chornobyl.
We played the first three hours of Stalker 2 last month, which followed an all-new protagonist called Skif. Skif is on a mission to charge a mysterious Artifact using The Zone's energy, but things go wrong when he's ambushed and left for dead by a group of hardened stalkers.
From there, Skif is tasked with finding out who robbed him by dealing with The Zone's many competing factions. Who you choose to side with and how those choices will pan out remain to be seen, but GSC Game World has confirmed that Stalker 2 will feature a non-linear narrative that will be shaped by the player's decisions.
Stalker 2 setting explained
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is set within the dangerous territories of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. Called The Zone, this fictionalized version of Ukraine is set in an alternate timeline where a second disaster has taken place in the wake of a "Second Incident" in 2006, which caused monstrous mutations and supernatural activity in the area.
You should expect to see familiar locations such as Cordon and Pripyat and new locations such Duga, although GSC has teased that there will be "hundreds of other familiar and new locations will be up for exploration." The studio is yet to confirm whether areas such as Limansk, Zaton, Yanov, and Kopachy from Stalker: Call of Pripyat (2008) and Stalker: Clear Sky (2010) will return.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will feature a seamless open world for the first time in the series' history – in the past, Stalker games divided regions of The Zone into checkpointed areas.
GSC Game World has claimed that this version of The Zone will be "one of the biggest open worlds in video games to date," spanning more than 60 square kilometers. From our hands-on, the map alone seems to be truly massive.
Speaking to 12DOVE in October, the developer shared that Stalker 2's open world is built to explore for "as long as you can survive", with plenty of side quests and optional adventures waiting for anyone with the supplies to explore.
"It's a really big map," shares GSC Game World's PR lead Zakhar Bocharov, who doesn't know how long it will take players to get from one side to another. "There is no transport. A lot of things need to be covered by food. All fast-traveling is based on money, so it's closer to a cooperative system, where you actually need to pay someone to guide you to another part of The Zone."
For many players, Bocharov shared, Stalker 2's open world will be the game's main attraction. "[Stalker 2] clicks for me [through] absolutely random moments – being somewhere and it's sunset, and there's some sort of sign over there, hanging, and there is music playing in the distance, and the grass waves in the wind, and there's an anomaly and footsteps," he explains. "It's about the atmosphere, it just clicks – it resonates – with you."
Stalker 2 Gameplay
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be part large-scale first-person shooter and part intricately designed immersive sim, and the results seem impressive. We've been hands-on for the game's first three hours, which allowed us to dive beneath Stalker 2's gameplay trailers to see how surviving in The Zone actually feels.
From those three hours, we found that merely staying alive always comes before adventuring or completing side quests, as making sure you're well-stocked with ammo and medicine is crucial. Protagonist Skif dies after taking just a couple of gunshots, while mutants can maul players to death in seconds. Ammo and other supplies are scarce, which means that even choosing when to fight is a problem in itself.
As brutal as this is, Stalker 2 has some of the best FPS action in 2024 because it treats the player as "highly expendable" and takes a deliberately old-school approach to certain mechanics.
"In some aspects, [Stalker 2 is a] really modern game being released in 2024," Bocharov told 12DOVE. "But at the same time, it's old-school to a certain degree. You know – being a difficult game, being a big single-player experience, staying authentic to the DNA of the series [...] it's something that can be done in a way that potential and existing players are used to."
Besides that, Stalker 2 will include a full day-night cycle, and dynamic weather to ensure the world continues to shift around you. You'll need to mitigate this while keeping on-top of survival mechanics like hunger, sleeping, bleeding, radiation effects, all while trying to detect and circumvent the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone's Anomalies.
GSC Game World says that it has prepared a total overhaul of its A-LIFE system too, with A-Life 2.0 designed to simulate life in the Zone in as realistic a way as possible. In most open world games, life exists within the player's field-of-view. With Stalker 2, the studio is promising that factions and mutants will be fighting for "living space, migrating, capturing new places, or retreating to safer areas" – meaning that, in theory, no one route through the Zone will ever be the same.
Stalker 2 combat and AI
If you can survive the elements, you'll then have to go up against a large variety of mutants (lengthy exposure to radiation is never wise) and factions of other human Stalkers who have entered the area looking to recover valuable artifacts and sell them to the highest bidder beyond the borders of The Zone. You can even spot one of those artifacts in the Stalker 2 reveal trailer, where 'Jelly' can be seen located in the swamps – a mysterious property that's said to have a regenerative effect on stamina.
GSC appears to be really expanding upon the immersive first-person shooter foundations that were put down for the original trilogy. The studio is promising aggressive, intuitive AI that will push your tactics at every opportunity, as well as over 30 weapon types – each with its own set of modifications. Skif will be able to install some of the weapons mods out in the world or even while in combat – such as the silencer or a scope – although "more complex and advanced upgrades will be available only through a technician."
Additionally, Bocharov explained that enemy humans will "search for the player, and make their own assumptions about where the player is" in combat. "That's a challenge on its own, resulting in that experience of actually immersing you in a gunfight where you're not just taking aim and pushing a button to kill someone, but feeling like you're battling for your life. It's a combination of all these elements done right, while being authentic to that original difficulty."
Stalker 2 will feature new Anomalies, Factions, and Mutants
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be a blend of old and new. While this is a standalone sequel set in a modern world, it is building atop the foundations of the original game so expect to see some familiar faces and factions – although given the pervasive danger of The Zone, it's hard to say who has survived over the years. The same can be said of the mutants, many of which may be ostensibly recognizable but ultimately warped beyond recognition due to extended exposure to The Zone's litany of mysterious Anomalies and radioactive areas.
Speaking of Anomalies, they're as deadly as ever. Some can be spotted easily – flaming pillars and spontaneous whirlwinds are dead giveaways – but others barely register as a shimmer in the air, meaning you need to be careful if your Geiger counter crackles into life. You can throw nuts and bolts ahead of you to detect exactly where an Anomaly is, and doing so can save your life – although the all-new GILKA-01 detector should help out on that front.
Stalker 2 multiplayer
We know that many of you are wondering whether there will be Stalker 2 co-op or multiplayer support. While GSC Game World is yet to detail the functionality exactly, the studio has confirmed that "multiplayer will be added to the game with a free update" after Heart of Chornobyl releases in 2024.
However, it's been a long time since any news on this multiplayer mode has been shared, so it remains to be seen what shape or form any online play will take.
Stalker 2 development
Stalker 2 has had a long and storied development. The project was actually first announced in 2010, with a release date of 2012, following the successful release of Stalker: Call of Pripyat. However, reported financial issues within developer GSC Game World ultimately led to the game being canceled in 2012 and the closure of the studio.
GSC reformed as an entity in 2014 to develop real-time strategy sequel Cossacks 3. Four years later, the studio announced that Stalker 2 was being put into production on Unreal Engine 4. Little other information was shared in the years between 2018 and 2021, beside the occasional in-engine teaser, before Stalker 2 was given a full reveal at the Microsoft and Bethesda E3 2021 conference, which is where GSC confirmed that development had moved to Unreal Engine 5 and that it was targeting an April 28, 2022 release date. This was again pushed to December that year, before GSC announced that it would be on hold due to strain put upon the studio during Ukraine's war with Russia.
Most recently, the game saw its summer 2024 release rescheduled to November 20, 2024. With the game going gold in November 2024, just weeks before release, it seems we're about to finally get our hands on the long-awaited shooter.
Stalker 2 delays and name change
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl was originally supposed to launch April 28, 2022, although it later became one of the more notable video game delays of the year. In January 2022 it was announced that GSC Game World had delayed the game until December in an effort to "fulfill our vision and achieve the desired state of the game."
However on March 2, GSC was forced to delay development indefinitely, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine – the studio is based in Kyiv, and many of its employees joined the war effort. During this pause, GSC changed the spelling of Stalker 2's subtitle to 'Heart of Chornobyl' from 'Heart of Chernobyl', which reflected the difference between the Ukrainian and Russian spelling of the infamous power plant near the city of Pripyat.
Development of Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl was resumed in May 2022, with GSC noting on Discord that "the work is in progress." A month later, in June, the studio released a development diary as part of the Xbox and Bethesda E3 2022 showcase explaining that while some of Stalker 2's development would continue in Kyiv, "much of the game’s development will take place" in a new office established in Prague. As part of this announcement, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl was given a 2023 release date. This turned out to be another miss, however, and we now know to expect Stalker 2's launch to come on November 20 2024.
Stalker 2 system requirements
Stalker 2 minimum system requirements
OS Version: Windows 10 / Windows 11
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X / Intel Core i5-7600K
Memory: 8 GB
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Disc space: 150 GB SSD
Stalker 2 recommended system requirements
OS Version: Windows 10 / Windows 11
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X / Intel Core i7-9700K
Memory: 16 GB
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB
Disc space: 150 GB SSD
What does S.T.A.L.K.E.R. stand for?
While the internet will commonly refer to the game as 'Stalker 2', the proper spelling is actually S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. It's a backronym for Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers, and Robbers. You're welcome.
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