There are many wonderful things that are synonymous with Stalker, from the series’ making you feel like you’re inhabiting a world full of events that don’t revolve around you, to how it embraces realism – while at the same time featuring some serious supernatural shit. Stalker 2 is a game that’s walking a tightrope with realism, trying to make sure that it’s fun while at the same time fine-tuning the rhythm of its gameplay.
One way Stalker 2 will do that is by embracing pure, simple joys – when appropriate for the FPS game. “We are making each weapon have its own uniqueness and difference from other ones. They should have their own different soul, but it shouldn’t be like, fully realistic,” game director Evgeniy Grygorovych explains. “So we can make something more fun, like how the spray of the market M-10 works in our game.”
That joy of getting a powerful gun and getting to mow down foes is something the developer GSC Game World wants players to experience – though with everything in Stalker, there’ll be a cost. “After playing for some time you might just want to have fun, and you get some other guns that just shoot fast,” he tells us. “So you go with the fun and you just shoot it around, but then you have no ammo and you’re like – I can’t use it anymore. So you start getting back to economy mode, where you count every bullet.”
That cadence is something that the developer wants every player to feel, with points of tension and others of relaxation where you can take a breath. It’s all part of the way the game will structure itself, though GSC Game World is keen to ensure players play their own way. One aspect where this displays itself is in how weapons can be modified to be specific to how you want to play.
“Because of the upgrade and attachment system you can modify your weapon quite a lot and get a totally different rate of fire and accuracy,” Grygorovych says. “There’ll be different scopes for different distances, and players will make their own game. We don’t want to make choices for them, it’s impossible. Different players will have very different skills, and even for one player you might like some particular gun with its own recoil and bullet spray.”
All of which sounds like it may be complex in some ways, but is exactly in the tradition of previous Stalker titles – giving players tools and a sandbox to use them in, then standing back and letting you make your own way through the world.
Stalker 2 will launch on Wednesday November 20. You can head over to Steam should you want to pre-purchase it, or you can simply add it to your wishlist.
If you want to keep up with news about the game, make sure you give our Stalker 2 release date guide a visit. Our guides to the best survival games and the best apocalypse games will also help keep you in good company over the coming months.
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Additional reporting from Gamescom 2024 by Ken Allsop.