A whole slew of new info on Stalker 2 makes it clear: the excursion into the zone will be harder and significantly more extensive than ever before!
In the next year, Stalker 2 wants to make you shine. So, after that guaranteed never-before-read word joke, we get more specific: A whole slew of new info makes it clear that developer GSC Game World has lost none of its penchant for ambitious plans. The only question is: Will they actually realise everything this time?
Especially in the survival aspect, Stalker 2 is supposed to be much tougher than its predecessor. But also in terms of scope, they are not satisfied with small scales and promise significantly more playing time than in the predecessors, if you really want to explore every corner of the game world and complete all activities.
If the stalker has nothing in his belly, he will soon be in the bush
Where did the info come from? The new information on Stalker 2 comes from the January 2022 issue of (Magazine PC Gamer), who spoke to GSC Game World. So these are not rumours, but official channels.
Survival elements in gameplay focus: What was once already planned for the first Stalker game, but was discarded until the release in 2007, is now finally to become reality in Stalker 2. Hard-hitting survival elements force you not to be able to roam the zone non-stop without paying attention to your condition.
Hunger: You must regularly fill your belly with delicious jerky, exquisite tinned food and other foodstuffs so that you don’t go hungry. If you don’t, your stamina will dwindle and you won’t be able to perform many actions. If you wait too long to eat, your stalker will bite the dust. Nice detail: If you delay your meal too long, your stomach will regularly let you know with a loud growl.
Sleep: Rest periods also play an important role in Stalker 2. You can only maintain maximum performance if you are well rested. This is said to go so far that the optical and acoustic perception of your environment changes when you are overtired. However, hallucinations do not occur after moderate overtiredness, but only after you have delayed sleep for a really long time.))
As in real life, you can still take short-term measures against hunger and fatigue – such as a small snack or a can of energy drink. This should prevent you from suddenly having to turn back in the middle of a mission because your tummy is rumbling or your eyelids are getting heavy.
By the way, four brand-new screenshots were also published as part of the PC Gamer preview, which show that Stalker 2 could be a new graphic highlight. You can view the new images in all their glory in our gallery:
Over 100 hours of content planned
There is also solid news in terms of scope: According to the developers, 30 quest designers are working on filling the world with enough content. The bottom line is that you should need over 100 hours to complete all the activities in the zone.
However, it is still unclear what exactly is meant by these activities. Besides main quests, most likely side quests and local events that trigger as soon as you are in the vicinity. Whether GSC Game World has come up with another kind of zone entertainment remains to be seen.
Another detail about which new information has been elicited is one of the factions that we will inevitably have to deal with in the course of the story. This faction sees itself as a kind of police force for the zone and is therefore not particularly well disposed towards us and other stalkers. The leader of these zone vigilantes has mainly hired highly qualified mercenaries and other ex-military personnel in order to have the necessary manpower.
The faction’s goal: to eliminate all the dangers of the Zone in order to help all of humanity through the potential of science. Of course, there are still all kinds of anomalies and other artefacts to be recovered in the Zone, which they want to examine in the scientific institute.
The Zone is alive
In the first Stalker, a system called AI Life in the background ensured that the game world was dynamically populated by other stalkers, animals and nasty mutants. In the sequel, AI Life 2.0 is now used, which basically has the same tasks, but of course is supposed to do them even better.
So you have to make sure at all times that no other stalkers shoot you in the back while searching for artefacts or that a mutated animal sees a tasty lunch in you. It is not known how many mutants are to be found in Stalker 2. In the trailers shown so far, however, we have already been able to spot some old acquaintances, such as the Bloodsucker, who sneaks up on you invisibly.
