It's hard to put into words just how long and painful of a wait it's been for this game. STALKER 2 has been on the tentative horizon for the majority of my adult life, and I'm still kind-of-sort-of unsure whether GSC Game World is actually about to release it or not.

Yet, everything points to the fact that it is coming, and boy howdy is it coming soon. STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is due to hit the stores - including 2Game - on October 20. In other words, we're just over a month away from STALKER 2's actual release.

And, honestly, had you shown me this back in 2012, I would've been taken aback. Remember: STALKER 2 was first announced in 2010 with a target release window of 2012! That version of the game was scuttled, however, and the development began anew from scratch in 2018. That's the build of the game we're heading towards now, and I'm thrilled about it.

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STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is an Honest-to-Goodness STALKER Game

One of the main concerns that I myself and the STALKER community at large have shared is that GSC Game World's new flagship might not feel like a proper STALKER title.

The problem here is that STALKER's legacy mutated over the years. The original titles weren't that hardcore, and they weren't that sandboxy in the grand scheme of things. They were, by and large, linear shooters set in non-linear open worlds, and the player was free to tackle objectives however they saw fit.

Aforementioned mutations came about thanks to STALKER's incredible modding community and access to an open version of the X-Ray engine. This resulted in ultra-super-uber-hardcore mods such as Anomaly, GAMMA, and the like, which take the survival aspects of the experience to a level that's far beyond even that of Escape From Tarkov.

Thankfully, previews highlight the fact that even though STALKER 2 does stick with some aspects of modern hardcore survival gameplay, it's not egregious in doing so. I highly recommend reading through Eurogamer, IGN, and GamesRadar's previews of STALKER 2 if you want the nitty-gritty of it all. Down below, I'll help you make sense of what you're actually getting with Heart of Chornobyl.

Classic gameplay mechanics brought back to life

Here's the jig: STALKER 2 sure was pretty hardcore compared to what came before it, asking the player to maintain their gear, manage their healing items and food, radiation stats, ammunition, and so on. Compared to games such as Escape From Tarkov and its most popular mods (e.g. GAMMA), it's way closer to Fallout 4 than you'd expect.

One of the problems I anticipate with Heart of Chornobyl is that some players might jump into it expecting a horrific survival shooter where every single wound might rot out and a brand new gun might explode into your face. It's not that, thankfully. STALKER 2 is way more similar to the old Call of Pripyat than anyone saw coming.

Sure, the game is far more modern, polished, and sensible in how it plays. At the same time, it adapts virtually every single gameplay element from the old games without dredging too deeply into the hardcore survival genre.

STALKER has never truly been post-apocalyptic, if we're being honest. The Zone is a small, anomalous area set against the backdrop of a world that's absolutely thriving outside of its shimmering borders. This philosophy is reflected in its gameplay, too: high-tech gear isn't that hard to come across, and not everyone is a murderous bastard out to get you.

My point is this: STALKER 2 is precisely what it says on the tin, and nothing else. For veterans and those who love STALKER proper, we couldn't have wished for a better game. Not everyone will enjoy this, however.

A-Life strikes again!

One of the bits I enjoyed the most in the bigger previews is that it's plain as day that, yes, A-Life is in the game. A-Life is, arguably, the driver of the classic STALKER games' long-term popularity. In a hypothetical pre-release version of the Shadow of Chernobyl, competing Stalkers could finish the main story before the player did, as everyone was on level playing field and chasing after the same objectives.

A-Life is a special, progressive AI system for NPCs and fauna that informs their actions and behavior. Sometimes, this means scrounging for food in a place where Stalkers killed one another in droves. Other times, it might lead to full-on faction warfare, if the going gets tough.

While GSC Game World had only managed to ship a very sanitized version of A-Life in a first-party STALKER game, it still delivered organic memorable gameplay, and Eurogamer's preview confirms we're still getting that. In their playthrough, one of the NPC quest-givers actually died while they were off completing their quest, and  the story just kept going.

This is the bit that veterans will be truly excited about: STALKER might've always been fairly linear, but it was always loaded with unexpected, unforeseen situations. STALKER 2 delivers that in droves.

Immersive, Reactive, but not for Everyone

And that's the gist of it, really. Everything suggests that GSC Game World has delivered the thing that, honestly, I didn't think they could deliver. A genuine first-party STALKER sequel that stay true to the original games in all the ways that matter.

Now, we are still a month away so we don't have any more first-party information to share yet, but the hopes and expectations are higher than ever for Heart of Chornobyl. I've no doubt that some people will be highly disappointed in what they might feel is a watered-down version of the modern tactical shooter.

Yet, those of us who have been with STALKER since Oblivion Lost (goodness me!) are going to be thrilled. I've no longer got any doubts on that front!

Support GSC Game World by Watching the War Game Documentary!

One last thing I'd like to highlight here is that if you're even remotely interested in STALKER at large and GSC Game World, you may wish to check out this kinda-sorta making-of documentary. Really, though, it's about the realities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how an actual real-world war affected the studio, the developers, and - more broadly - the production pipeline of STALKER 2.

I highly recommend it, though it's also a painful, often horrifying watch so do keep that in mind.

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