Stalker 2 developers GSC Game World recently revealed a new trailer for their upcoming game. This is the first look at the game we’ve gotten in a while, as the last glimpse was over six months ago. The new trailer shows us the gameplay elements of the upcoming title and the narrative the game will follow.
Formally confirmed in 2020 after years of on-and-off announcements, Stalker 2 has had a stormy development. After the announcement and quick scrapping of NFT plans due to fan backlash in December 2021, the project halted in February due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where GSC is based. Many employees were forced to evacuate their homes in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Other designers decided to defend the city.
Like the hugely ambitious original, the sequel is an open-world survival game set in a nuclear exclusion zone created around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. It’s powered by Unreal Engine 5, features a non-linear story, and is coming to Xbox Game Pass on day one. Other than that, we don’t know much specifics about its story or new features, although the trailer above suggests that it’s not far from the first game.
The trailer shows the player taking down enemy humans and monsters using a variety of weapons, including what appears to be a sawed-off shotgun, pistols, and machine guns. We then see the player throw a bolt into a pile of rubble, which causes a force field to erupt from the ground and rocks to start flying into the air. After some more action scenes, we get confirmation that Stalker 2 will launch sometime in 2023, barring any delays.
A 2023 release window is the only date we have to go on at this point, but we know that Stalker 2 will be a limited-time console exclusive to Xbox and will be available on Xbox Game Pass on launch day.
Stalker 2 will launch in 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
