STALKER 2: HEART OF CHORNOBYL

How GSC defied closure, the pandemic and an invasion to realise its most ambitious project

- ANDREI PECHALIN

The original STALKER, released in 2007, occupies a unique place in the history of game development. Despite multiple delays and technical shortcomings, it cast a long shadow over its peers. A punishing hybrid of shooter, RPG, survival and horror set in the enigmatic Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, with innovative systems — sophisticated enemy routines and persistent NPC behaviour (the so-called A-Life), dynamic lighting, and authentic ballistics model — it has been endlessly borrowed from, but never quite matched. Perhaps more importantly, it also put Ukrainian game development on the map with a splash big enough to warrant a series.

It was a difficult legacy to live up to, however. After two unnumbered followups that refined the gameplay mechanics and technical side, including the proprietary X-Ray engine, a fully fledged sequel slipped into development hell. Plagued by issues at GSC, which eventually led to the company’s dissolution in 2011, the first iteration of STALKER 2 was formally cancelled in 2012. It wasn’t until 2018, after the company had been reconstituted and shipped Cossacks 3 (GSC's other well-known franchise), that the current iteration of STALKER 2 was announced. Yet, while it would bear no traces of the cancelled project, the most challenging days of the sequel's creation still lay ahead.

"The development of STALKER 2 took more than seven years - we started working on it before the public announcement in 2018," explains game director and GSC CEO Ievgen Grygorovych. “We understood it was going to be hard. We understood what makes