The developers ofSTALKER 2: Heart Of Chernobylhaven’t been shy about boasting about the game’s map size, a massive upgrade from the original series. Set in the irradiated Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, players will experience a lone Stalker’s journey through the paranormal and often horrifying wasteland.STALKER 2’s story will take players through many unique biomes and iconic locations from the series, each twisted by the Zone’s strange influences in unique ways.
Being a direct sequel to the cult classic,Heart Of Chornobylaims to improve and expand on what made the franchise so beloved by fans. Out of all the expansions andexciting new features inSTALKER 2,the most noticeable improvements are the complete graphical overhaul and detailed environments ofSTALKER 2’s new game world. While the sheer size ofSTALKER 2will give players plenty of locations to discover, the characters and factions bring the fictional world to life.
STALKER 2’s Story & Characters
Continuing The Story From The Original Series
Despite the complete visual overhaul,STALKER 2aims to embrace the original series by directly continuing the previous game’s events.STALKER 2’s story takes place years after the original games, following the journey of a new Stalker named Skif venturing into the Zone in hopes of finding a rare, supernaturally charged artifact.
Despite the new protagonist and goal, fans can expect to see some familiar faces across the zone, even if those faces are in the form of returning mutated monsters roaming the wasteland. Even though it is a direct sequel, new players won’t have to be worried aboutcatching up with the original games, asSTALKER 2’s story can still be enjoyed without any prior knowledge of the series.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Is A “Huge” Game With A LOT Of Content To Explore, Says Dev
Screen Rant spoke to the technical producer behind the upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl to learn more about its terrifying world.
Expanding uponSTALKER’sworld,Heart Of Chornobylwill featurefour branching endingsto offer players, with their actions throughout the game helping to determine which one they’ll see. During their time in the Zone,players will encounter several side quests and NPCs that can have significant consequences depending on their choices. Each of the various factions and characters in the Zone will provide players with different means to accomplish their main quest, acting as a non-linear form of storytelling.
How STALKER 2’s Map Compares To The Original
A Drastically Larger Expansion Built From The Ground Up
Much ofSTALKER 2’s long development time likely went into the massive map of the game’s Exclusion Zone, providing players with 64 square kilometers of wasteland to explore. Journeying throughSTALKER 2’s unique environments, players will come across many differing biomes, from overgrown forests and abandoned urban cityscapes to dilapidated post-war Soviet infrastructure. While other games tend to bloat their size with inaccessible buildings or stretches of empty landscapes,each ofSTALKER 2’s environments is hand-crafted from the ground up using no procedural generation.
Heart Of Chornobylis roughly 8 times larger than the original series.
This personal touch results in a map filled to the brim with unique areas and locations with their own story to tell, with plenty of loot to gather on the way. In total,STALKER 2’s map will be divided into 20 different regions, with most of theSTALKERtrilogy’s maps being included in one seamlessly explorable experience. Given that theSTALKERtrilogy combined totaled roughly 7.5 square kilometers,Heart Of Chornobylis approximately 8 times larger than the original series, with a drastically improved level of detail and expanded areas to go alongside it.
The immersive exploration of the larger Zone is aided by its punishing difficulty, with players having to befriend or combatSTALKER 2’s various hostile factions and creepy monsterslurking in radiation-filled corners of the map, alongside the even deadlier environmental dangers that can provide a quick end for a distracted Stalker.
How Long It Will Take To Beat STALKER 2
Providing Fans With More Content Than Ever Before
So far, the developers have claimed thata single playthrough ofSTALKER 2’s main story will take roughly 40 hours to complete, with sidequests and exploration bumping this number to over 100 hours of hand-crafted content to offer. WithSTALKER 2’s mechanics being a challenging but rewarding experience for players, a first playthrough will likely run higher than the base estimate. From scavenging through all the unique areas in the Zone and completing various side quests offered by NPCs throughout,STALKER 2will likely have more than enough content to warrant its long development time.
The originalSTALKERtrilogy has been kept alive for nearly two decades thanks to continuous fan support.
Given thatSTALKER 2boasts full mod support for PC and consoles, if the original trilogy is any indication,players can expect countless hours of enjoyment from a wide span of community content released over the years. The originalSTALKERtrilogy has been kept alive for nearly two decades thanks to continuous fan support, with some modding projects still. From quality-of-life improvements to complete overhauls, fans have been providing fresh experiences for the franchise that console players can finally enjoy thanks toSTALKER 2’s new modding capabilities.
With two future DLC expansions and a free multiplayer update in the works,STALKER 2:Heart Of Chornobylplans to provide players an evolving gameplay experience that this unique franchise deserves.
