Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has had an interesting development path, to say the least. The game has been delayed several times as developer GSC Game World has had to deal with the real-world conflict happening in Ukraine. Given the circumstances, it’s more than understandable to see Stalker 2 be hit with several delays, but recently the team announced that the game should be out early next year. However, it was discovered recently that the team has been hit with yet another setback in the form of a fire damaging its offices. It’s not clear yet if this will impact the game’s release date, but it is starting to feel like GSC Game World can’t catch a break.
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The news was first reported by Vortex and then posted to Twitter by HazzadorGamin on Twitter. Late last week, GSC Game World’s Prague office suffered a fire. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but it’s estimated that the studio may need to spend $70,000 or more to repair the damage. The reports claim that the fire happened near GSC’s backup servers for Stalker 2, but again, we don’t yet know if that has affected the game in any capacity. That said, the developers have shared a few posts on Discord, saying, “No anomaly, not even a ‘Burner’ will make us stop in our pursuit of our final goal. We’ve dealt with worse than that before. This is fine.” We’ll need to wait and see if anything changes, but GSC’s initial comments seem to project that it’s planning to stick to that early 2024 window.
What is Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl?
Stalker 2 has technically been in the works since 2010, so it’s been a much longer road than you might’ve assumed. However, it’s important to note that the studio actually closed down for a few years in 2011, only coming back in 2014. That’s still almost a decade in the making, but the first official gameplay trailer at E3 2021 was impressive. Since then, the game has continued to show well in spite of all of the things happening around the studio.
The post-apocalyptic FPS mixes frantic combat with horrific enemies. You’re not just fighting other humans. Instead, you’ll need to deal with all kinds of different mutants out on the battlefield. If you haven’t played a Stalker game before, be prepared to face down some terrifying monsters. GSC Game World is also saying Stalker 2 will incorporate immersive sim elements and that your choices will impact the story.
Obviously, that’s all very ambitious, which could be part of the reason it has taken so long for the team to get the game ready for primetime. That said, it’s probably fair to wonder if GSC will be able to pull it off given the prolonged development cycle. Either way, it’ll be fun to see exactly what they bring to the table when Stalker 2 launches for Xbox Series X/S and PC early next year.
