Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl is slated to finally release this fall, bringing players back to the radiation-filled world after over a decade. The GSC Games World Title is the fourth major entry in the series, following 2009’s STALKER: Call of Pripyat. Just like its predecessors, the upcoming Xbox exclusive will take place in the Mysterious Zone, a desolate wasteland devastated by nuclear meltdowns where players must fight to survive.
The zone has many dangers, but one of the biggest is anomalies – strange distortions in reality that will harm the protagonist if they attempt to go through them. There are also many other environmental hazards – A Geiger counter quickly makes it clear some areas are lethally irradiated, and a recurring event called the emission that turns the sky crimson and instantly kills the player is a lingering threat. Not too much is known about STALKER 2s story, but players will take on the role of a bounty hunter in a storyline with multiple potential endings.
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Screen Rant Interviewed STALKER 2 Technical producer Evgeniy Kulik at Gamescom to discuss crafting the game’s vast open world, the many dangers players will face, and the importance of cultivating freedom for fans.
Create the dangerous world of Stalker 2
Create a world full of terrifying discoveries
Screen Rant: What would you say are the biggest ways the game has evolved since the team first started conceptualizing it?
Evgeniy Kulik: I would say that now we are doing our best, and we put a lot of effort into our love and our passion for this game to provide the most unique experience. We are now using a lot of new technologies such as Unreal Engine 5, and it gives us a lot of tools to create this amazing, really huge world. One of the main challenges was to preserve the unique atmosphere of the unknown, of loneliness, of fear of something hidden, and of course, the atmospheric events and the background noises.
The The main feature that we show in STALKER 2 is this huge map which is an open world. The original trilogy had great locations but divided by a loading screen; Now there will be no loading screen at all. You are trying to learn something new about some rules of this universe, of this dangerous but still really exciting place, and you are constantly learning with the game, and you are diving deep into the story of the game. We would really like to showcase this game to the huge audience, and we are really excited about the release of the game. We really love our community, and we want them to play as much as possible and enjoy the world that we brought them.
Speaking of the open world, I read about how it is divided into 20 different sections. Can you talk a little about how they differ from one another in the world?
Evgeny Kulik: Ours The map is 64 square kilometersDifferent locations and – of course – different biomes. You may notice, for example, in the starting regions, it is not so corrupted by the essence of the zone. As you proceed deeper into the zone towards the center, you may notice different factions, different mutants and other inhabitants.
We have 20 different regions, and in these regions you can find big locations with big hubs where several different people and different factions live, but still you can notice smaller locations and mini locations. The main feature here is that we use almost no procedural generations to create the world, and This huge map is made all by hand From our guys of [the] Level design section, so each place you will experience in the game is quite unique.
I know that one of the great pillars of this game is cultivating a sense of freedom for the player. Can you talk a little bit about the different ways the game does that, and why that was such a core facet for you guys that was so important?
Evgeny Kulik: If we are talking about how [the] The story evolves in this case to cover all old side story content, from every version of every faction, It can take up to 100 hours, Because the game is huge, and you can’t complete and see anything from the first playthrough. Because every choice you make in the dialogue, in your actions, can have some consequences in the short term and in the long term, to cover all the game, you need to play it more and more and more, because it can lead you in Different directions.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl’s Finish Plan
How much player choice will come into play
From that, I know there aren’t necessarily different endings, but there are different plot points like you said that players will experience depending on where they go. How big of a difference are we talking about there between playthroughs?
Evgeni Kulik: I will not go with [an] Exact number, because I don’t want to spoil anything. You should experience yourself, but still There will be many types of endings, And they are dependent on your actions, on your choices; Every step you take, every decision you make, you are totally responsible for that.
In terms of the different dangers that players are facing, I remember from my game last year that it was very multifaceted – it’s environmental, but there are humans shooting at you, there are mad dogs. Can you talk a little bit more about, as players continue to go through the world and explore more, the kind of multi-layered threat level that they’re going to be facing on all sides?
Evgeniy Kulik: As I mentioned before, the game is open world, so you’re free to go everywhere, basically. But I would say our game is like a role-playing game, but not in the classic way that we are used to with the leveling system, with skill trees. You’re growing with the game, so you learn new factions, you learn some new mutants, because every time you’re facing a new threat, you need to figure out how to deal with it.
There may be different anomalies, there may even be some new features like arc anomalies, because They have a completely different gameplay from what players are used to with STALKERAnd, of course, different NPC factions. You can deal with them only through classic gunfire, or maybe you can approach them, maybe you can deal something with them, or maybe you can deal with them during the dialogue.
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Do you have a particular danger in the game that you find particularly difficult or scary to deal with for whatever reason?
Evgeny Kulik: Just from my perspective, The most dangerous places are the underground laboratoriesBecause you don’t know what’s inside until you’ve told yourself, in the most terrifying way.