Due to launch this September, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is one of the most hotly anticipated PC games of all time. It's a simple equation: STALKER has grown into a veritable gaming powerhouse over the long years since we last received a new game, and now, everyone wants to play the proper sequel! How will it run on our PCs, though?

Here's the thing about STALKER 2: it's an Unreal Engine 5 game. Those who have been keeping up with industry news will know that this isn't great news for low-spec PCs. Some of the most prominent UE5 releases include Immortals of Aveum, The Lords of the Fallen, Tekken 8, and Remnant 2 - if we exclude the phenomenally polished-up Fortnite - and only one of those games runs reasonably well on low-spec hardware.

This does have some unfortunate implications for STALKER 2, as well.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl PC System Requirements Explained

Notably, we don't expect STALKER 2 to perform well on low-spec PCs. This shouldn't be a surprise: just look at those screenshots. The game will, without a doubt, be at the cutting edge of modern real-time game rendering, but this suggests that some may struggle to get the game to run well.

Further, those of us who got to play the old STALKER titles on day one will remember that they weren't exactly performant, either. This makes us think that Heart of Chornobyl won't be one of those games you can just crank up to the absolute maximum and go about your business. We could end up being wrong, of course, and we'd be thrilled if this were the case! Here's the full set of official system requirements:

"Low" Hardware Spec / 1080P@30 FPS

"Medium" Hardware Spec / 1080P@60 FPS

"High" Recommended Hardware Spec / 1440P@60 FPS

"Epic" Hardware Spec / 4K/60+ FPS

These are the fully up-to-date hardware requirements, as you can probably tell, and our expectation that the initial batch was just a stand-in reference came true. Sure enough, this is not looking good for low-spec fans of the franchise, and we've got a very thorough testing session ahead of us before we can safely assess what to expect out of STALKER 2.

So, all we're saying is that we'd take these specs with a pinch of salt, just in case. Expect a comprehensive performance review and the inevitable Steam Deck test - right here at 2Game!

Due to launch this September, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is one of the most hotly anticipated PC games of all time. It’s a simple equation: STALKER has grown into a veritable gaming powerhouse over the long years since we last received a new game, and now, everyone wants to play the proper sequel! How will it run […]