2024 Preview: Against all odds, Stalker 2 continues to focus on the finish line

In a world where video game development is always fraught with uncertainty, it’s fair to say that Stalker 2 is one of the most extreme examples of this.

The game’s development goes back way before the current situation facing Ukrainian studio GSC Game World. Stalker 2 was announced back in 2010 with a planned 2012 release, but was cancelled when GSC was dissolved.

The studio reformed in 2014 to develop Cossacks 3 and then announced in 2018 – at an extremely early stage of development – that Stalker 2 was coming, despite GSC having no publishing deal in place.

Stalker 2 finally got its ‘proper’ reveal and announcement during the Xbox conference at E3 2021, where it was stated that the game was coming on April 28, 2022. The fact you’re now reading a 2024 preview for the game makes it clear that this didn’t quite happen, and anyone who’s been paying the slightest interest in world news will know why.

In January 2022, GSC announced that the game would be delayed from April 28, 2022 to December 8, 2022. “Those additional seven months of development are needed to to fulfil our vision and achieve the desired state of the game,” the studio stated. “With more information, updates and showcases coming, we have an exciting and important year ahead.”

43 days later, Russia invaded Ukraine in what has become the largest attack on a European country since World War II. With infinitely more important things taking priority, development on Stalker 2 was put on hold as the studio focused on trying to “help our employees and their families to survive”.

A new office was set up in the Czech Republic, and some staff moved there to escape the conflict and continue work. Other staff, such as lead AI developer Dmytro Iassenev, community manager Oleksii Ivanov, and narrative designer Maksym Hnatkov, stayed to join volunteering efforts in Ukraine or the country’s armed forces.

Just a few months after Russia’s invasion started, GSC stated that development had resumed, but although it wasn’t stated at the time, it was already clear that it was no longer going to meet its December 2022 release date. Sure enough, the game was delayed again to 2023. Then, in August 2023, a new trailer stated that the game had been put back again to the first quarter of 2024.

From the game’s initial announcement to the studio’s dissolution, to its reforming, to the game’s re-announcement, to Russia’s invasion completely upending everything, GSC now finds itself with a game whose 2024 release will mean it had the same announcement-to-release period as Duke Nukem Forever. All signs suggest, however, that Stalker 2 will ultimately be received better than Duke’s disastrous last outing.

“Environments look rich, the lighting is superb, and there’s no denying that – visually at least – the game is going to be a triumph.”

The game’s latest story trailer, released in early December, shows off the game’s Unreal Engine 5 visuals to the fullest, with fantastic character models and detailed, expressive faces. Environments look rich, the lighting is superb, and there’s no denying that – visually at least – the game is going to be a triumph.

It’s also likely to be a more impactful story now given what the development team and their families have had to go through. Any game set in a warzone is already dealing with exceptionally heavy subject matter, but that latest trailer – proudly opening with a “made in Ukraine” caption – hits harder when you see the battlefield scenes and stories of seeing “the body of an unknown soldier fall”. It’s the ultimate understatement to suggest that the final couple of years of development can’t have been easy.

That’s not to say Stalker 2 will be guaranteed a free pass, however. The proof will always be in the playing and, while it seems a lifetime ago now, there was a time when GSC had to U-turn on plans to include NFTs in the game – including letting players make themselves a ‘metahuman’ and appear as an NPC in the game, in a move that GSC confusingly said would “initiate [its] Metaversial bridge” – following massive backlash from players.

The studio isn’t infallible, then, and while it still appears that Stalker 2 is on track to deliver the goods despite the excruciating extenuating circumstances its team has suffered over the past two years, nothing is guaranteed until the credits roll.

We just hope, for players’ sake and for the sake of the studio continuing to juggle the game with the upheaval continuing to take place beyond their monitors, that the proposed Q1 2024 release window is the final one.