The Engine and Modding of STALKER 2: What Should We Expect?

If you've played STALKER, the odds are pretty darn good that, at this point, it was a modded version of the game. The franchise has come a very long way since the days of Shadow of Chernobyl, with the exciting new sequel, Heart of Chornobyl (note the distinction in verbiage), being an extremely high-profile and polished Unreal Engine 5 experience.

A world of difference compared to the almost ridiculously janky beginnings of GSC Game World's beginnings, we'd say. If you look far enough, early STALKER games essentially kickstarted the modern understanding of the concept of Eurojank, but this isn't a bad thing, in and of itself.

We'd claim the opposite, actually, now that we've got almost two decades' worth of hindsight to draw upon: STALKER was basically made by its jankiness, and had it not been so unique and personable early on, it never would've entertained such an immense audience. What to make of the shiny, polished-up sequel, then?

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Is STALKER 2 going to maintain the franchise's identity?

Look, we're not going to tell you to watch a 30-odd minute... though you should do that, if you're a STALKER fan and haven't done so yet. The Deep Dive featured above is the bit that gave yours truly genuine hope that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl hasn't lost its identity after all. Game engines aren't the be-all-end-all for how a title might feel in motion, but the simple truth is that it's usually quite easy to identify what is Unity, what is Unreal, and what is Frostbite - just to list a few prominent examples.

Not always, but usually, and we can't tell you how happy we are that STALKER 2 has managed to translate the old games' delightfully janky and distinctive gameplay loop, combat, and ImSim-tier interactions with the Zone itself. This wasn't a given, please understand: Unreal Engine, in particular, has a tendency of eating up the games' respective identities due to its handling of rendering and physics, and though UE5 specifically is better behaved than its predecessors, we still had our concerns.

The game itself, then, looks true to its name. What about modding specifically, though?

Can Unreal Engine 5 keep up with X-Ray's modding capacity?

Fact: there are some Unreal Engine 5 games that support mods. Take Ready or Not as a prime example of this being the case. Also fact: Unreal Engine 5 games aren't that easily moddable. Not since the days of UE3 have we had genuinely compelling UE title mods, and while the reasoning behind this is manifold and complex, that's just how things are at this time.

The third and final fact to consider here is that, for a long while, STALKER lived and died by its modding community's sheer willpower. Mods such as Oblivion Lost kept the franchise going early on, entertaining fans well beyond the scope of any given mainline release, and after the legendary(ly janky) X-Ray engine was retrofitted for open-source development, we got masterpieces such as Call of Chernobyl (i.e. GAMMA and Anomaly) because people wanted more of STALKER.

This would never have happened had GSC Game World's X-Ray engine not been used for the game's development from day one onwards. So, what to make of the engine switch, with all of that in mind?

The good news is that STALKER 2 feels incredibly authentic

One thing we can say with absolute certainty is that mods such as Anomaly and GAMMA will most definitely not be coming in anytime soon. STALKER 2 is due to launch early this November, and it's virtually unimaginable that such immense, hardcore-tier revamps would be developed until a few years have gone by, at the earliest.

Note, too, that STALKER 2 is due to receive a whole host of post-launch updates and expansion packs, which means we won't have a truly stable, set-in-stone build of the game until years down the line, to begin with. Serious modding, then, might be a long shot for the time being, but it's not a total wash. We expect smaller-scale mods, like reskins and gameplay tweaks, to be quite popular. As we've seen with Ready or Not, Unreal Engine 5 can play host to small, simple mods by default, and this may prove conducive for STALKER 2's modding scene early on.

What about the long run, though?

A hope on the horizon, but only time will tell

GSC Game World has outright promised that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be moddable to the gills, much as its predecessors have been. Now, while we don't yet know whether this'll be the case or not, we can vouch for the studio's ability to drive home a uniquely compelling experience that is true to its legacy.

Just a few years back, we had been fairly skeptical of STALKER 2 in this sense. We didn't think it'd be a bad game, mind: we just didn't see a way for GSC to deliver the franchise's most important gameplay aspects to the front by using Unreal Engine 5. Yet, they have, and even the revered A-Life AI is making a triumphant return.

So, we've got the vibes, we've got the gameplay, and we've got the team that is evidently making it all come together in a phenomenally loving manner. Modding is the biggest question mark at this time, and it'll take a long while before we can say anything concrete on the matter. GSC Game World's work so far, though, has made believers of us, even as some of the more skeptical fans of the old STALKER of yore.

Let's see what comes of all this, then.

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