S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart Of Chornobyl 4K Trailer Teases Nail-Biting Open World Gameplay

Ukrainian developer GSC Game World released the first game in its S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, Shadow of Chernobyl, way back in 2007. Reviews came pouring in not long after its release touting the survival horror game's excellence. Fans of the series should get excited because there's finally a new gameplay trailer for the title, which even gives us a release date.

The games in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series were all released in fairly rapid succession, with Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat releasing in 2008 and 2009 respectively. The announcement for the development of a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 was in 2010. Development of that sequel ceased in 2012 and GSC Game World remained relatively silent in the six years following that disappointing cancellation. Luckily for fans, they came back in 2018 to announce that the newest title in the series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, was back in development using Epic Games' Unreal Engine.

The trailer shows an impressive array of amazing-looking visual effects, an awesome set of cool weapons, and definitely some spooky and scary creatures. The latest gameplay for the trailer shows you flinging bolts in an attempt to detect anomalies. Directly interacting with these anomalies would probably not end well for your character. Of course, the trailer shows some impressive scale visuals, like the Duga Radar array built during Soviet-era control of the area.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is set in a fictional version of Ukraine near Pripyat where a "Second Disaster" takes place turning sections of the area into a place called the "Zone." You play a character who is attempting to survive and scavenge while dealing with mutants, anomalies, and other human beings in this wasteland-area. The wasteland-area also looks pretty open to explore in some cases. There's potential for it to be very big indeed. Unreal Engine 5 supports a single map playable size of 8 kilometers by 8 kilometers with the ability to do what is known as level-streaming, a technique that allows seamless transitions between map areas.


Originally slated for release on April 28, 2022, the development of the latest installment in the series was temporarily ceased due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. That was enough of a reason for GSC Game World to move its development to Prague, Czech Republic in order to continue. Now there's a new release target of 2023, but at least it's finally coming—a whole 16 years after the first release in the series. We're excited to finally play this follow up we have been awaiting for so long.