S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: The Board Game Announced

A board game version of the popular shooter/survival horror game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is in development. Awaken Realms, the maker of popular games like Nemesis and Tainted Grail, announced that they are developing a board game based on GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The game was described as a cooperative “zone-crawler,” that will contain multiple stories, each of which consist of 2-4 scenarios. Scenarios range from stealth missions to tactical gunfights to retrieval missions. Players will also be able to upgrade their gear and skills between scenarios, building a character that grows as they progress through the storyline. 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a video game franchise set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone set in an alternate universe. After the initial nuclear disaster that created the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone happened in 1986, a second disaster occurred in 1996 that created strange artifacts and weird phenomenon and mutations within the Zone. Each game in the franchise focuses on a different stalker (a person who roams the Zone) who follows a branching storyline with different potential endings based on which faction they sided with and choices they make. 

To date, there’s been three S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games released by GSC Game World, with a fourth planned for release later this year. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was initially delayed due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (GSC Game World is a Ukranian game studio) last year, but the studio announced plans to release the game in 2023. 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: The Board Game will have a crowdfunding campaign launch on Gamefound later this summer.