S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 - Announced

@Gamespot S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been officially announced by GSC Game World and is coming 2021.

It appears that a full sequel in the STALKER franchise is in the works as confirmed by series developer GSC Game World. A website cropped up (http://stalker2.com) and the official GSC Game World website states that the game is currently in the works. The game's site simply has a dark concrete background with "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2" and "2.0.2.1." painted into it, likely indicating that this game won't be around until another three years.

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More information.

I haven't been this excited for a game announcement in a while. Let's hope gets released, I can wait till 2021.

Bought the first trilogy on some discount, uninstalled fast, luckily didn't spend much of $.

Whoever buys this one, please do tell if trashmobs respawn. The first game was nice till the moment I had to waste my time on all the same trashmobs over and over everywhere. Sadly, to this day noone made the essential norespawn mod that allowed me to finish both Skyrim and FO4.

Holy crap! With the same miserable devs going through hell - fans too - like in case of the first one we had to go through, until that junk got released?? Wait.. STALKER 1 devteam already ran to the winds, so they are doing a sequel with a new team?

Hm, let's wait and see. The original was one of the more atmospheric shooters around, so hopefully they can keep that and improve the formula.

Sorta good news. BUT.
Please don't be over-ambitious this time guys, so that we can get a game that is actually playable at launch.

semi-rant:
I hate this game for totally non-gaming reasons.
The devs sorta raped a brilliant novel (and its authors) for reasons unknown to me.
Make no mistake: this game has nothing to do with the novel.
/semi-rant

Get out of here, Stalker!

Wasn't there a stalker 2 already?

Originally Posted by GabrielMP_19
Wasn't there a stalker 2 already?

Yeah I'm confused. Wasn't there two sequels - Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat??

Stalker (Shadow of Chernobyl) had two expansions, Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.

There are three stalker games in series. SoC, CS, and CoP. Standalone games not expansions. With Call of Pripyat generally regarded as the best gameplay wise.

Many, many mods are availible over at Moddb. My favourites are Priboi story and Autumn Aurora for SoC. Also Oblivion Lost and Misery for CoP.
Lost Alpha is a standalone total conversion/re-release of SoC with cut/deleted areas, maps, etc.
Clear sky was released second but is a prequel to SoC. Call of Pripyat is the third and so far, last entry. All expand upon the Zone and what happened with Strelok and squad after you open the Sarcophagus at NPP past Pripyat.

ltdr/ Great semi-open world FPS with amazing atmoshpere and sense of dread. Tarnished by some bugs/glitches, respawns etc. Call of Pripyat the best entry point for new stalkers.

Get out of here, Stalker!

Yeah, they're really good games imo, but mods definitely make them better. The original graphics haven't really aged well.

I'm not big on mods that add fan-made items and weapons or make changes to story/quests, so I usually just stick to a graphics/sound upgrade and bugfixes. Stalker Complete is one that I would definitely recommend as it modernizes the games but makes very few changes to the gameplay.

That Autumn Aurora mod looks pretty good though. Might have to try it…

STALKER was one of my favorite shooters, if you could see past the bugs.
It had a definite open-world RPG feel… I'm surprised no one ever made a Fallout-style turned-based combat mod.

Cheeki breeki!

I absolutely loved the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, despite their flaws; the third is probably one of my most favourite games ever. If you are a bit spoilt, and can only enjoy super polished, AAA productions, then you probably best giving these games a miss. However, if you like really atmospheric, open world game-play, then you can certainly do much worse. I hope Stalker 2 manages to capture the same eerie sense of foreboding.

I also really love the film, and the book it's based on (Roadside Picnic), all for completely different reasons. I even visited some of the locations from the film when I went to Estonia a few years back, which I thought was an absolutely awesome opportunity!

In this day and age, one might call the title of this project a bit unfortunate.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 details - it's an MMO, may support mods, in-house engine


Sergey Grigorovich talked to the press about the game, yesterday in Kiev. The game wasn't shown.


Quote:
They looked back at the trilogy and identified what people loved about it, but also at how developing a game evolved since then, digital distribution etc.
Old X-Ray hasn’t been updated since 2011 when Stalker 2’s development was halted
They’ve been working on a new engine, X-Ray 3.1 for a year
The engine can handle advanced photorealistic graphics, a unique lighting system but also older technologies without affecting the game’s look (I think he means it has ray tracing but also traditional lighting)
The engine is multiplatform and they want to finish developing it by the end of this console generation. They hope Nintendo will have a stronger console out by 2020
A-Life was difficult to work with. In an era when many gamers did not have Internet, they wanted to make a singleplayer game that felt like an online game, where stalkers have personalities and animals follow their instincts and a food chain
Stalker 2 will be an online game, no singleplayer – „why create a simulation, when we can have real people in the game now? Why write NPC behaviour systems, when you can have real people doing what they want. They will fill the game world with their real life, not an artificial one. We just have to give them the right tools”
The timeline is not locked, they might even soft-reboot it
Players won’t be split into factions from the start. All players have the same common quest. When a players reaches the goal, a blowout will redistribute the Zone’s balance of resources. They hope this mechanic will create dynamic clan systems, with players creating their own alliances and fights. Some will want to maintain the state of the Zone, others will want to update it as it would be better for their alliance. This is based on the Clear Sky faction system.
You can be a loner and don’t join any alliance
BUT! They still have an AI system, jokingly named „O-Consciousness”. This constantly updates the game world – from the state of the resources, to moving anomalies and controlling mutants.
They considered a battle royale mode but they think it may not even be popular anymore by the time the game launches. Faction war has always been popular in the Stalker community, however. Players will have the freedom to create arenas and battle royale modes if they want (I think he means in-game, not through modding)
They want to keep the game on for a long time, so they’re aware of the need for constant updates. They need it to bring a steady strem of money, but they don’t want it to be pay-to-win and they won’t split the community through DLCs
They will have cosmetic transactions: a lot clothes, player and weapon skins, music for the fireside guitar. There may be a mod workshop.
In-game money can be bought with real money. There will be a „contraband store” where players can buy equipment for in-game money, but hunting artifacts will be more profitable
The game has perma-death. After you lose three characters, you’ll have to buy new ones with in-game currency. Yes, this means you may have to pay real money. Joining an alliance and making friends will thus be beneficial.
They don’t want to reveal the anomalies, mutants and artifacts because they’re still designing them. They claim some anomalies wouldn’t work in a singleplayer game and they want to make surprising new mutants.

All interest in this game is now gone moving on now.

Well damn

Sounds pretty good though if MMOs are your thing.

And then they slammed the door in my face. With authority.

My reaction when I heard it was going to be an MMO…