The upcoming survival-horror RPGSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylhas a strong pedigree to live up to. GSC Game World kicked off theSTALKERfranchise in 2007 withSTALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, followed up by the expansionsClear SkyandCall of Pripyat. Each game, regardless of their individual stories and mechanics, always centers around the same group of individuals: the stalkers.
Stalkers have a rich history within the world ofSTALKERand the Zone they explore. From the Loners who mentor players in the games' opening hours to otherpowerful factions of stalkers fighting for dominance, survival in the Zone revolves around these individuals.
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The History of Stalkers
In the games' timeline, after the second Chernobyl disaster of 2006, the Ukrainian government attempted to contain the newly dubbed “Zone of Alienation” where the laws of physics had been disrupted, leading to fantastical anomalies and horrific mutants appearing. The military was sent in to deal with the threat, only to be driven back 60 km from the Zone’s center,the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
The military set up a fortified perimeter and forbade anyone from entering the Zone. However, the allure of impossible phenomena and prospect lucrative payouts for Zone artifacts proved stronger than the military could contain. Trespassers began trickling into the Zone, these illegal prospectors being labeled “stalkers” who are ordered to be shot on sight.
In practice, experienced stalkers rapidly became the most reliable means of extracting artifacts from the Zone, and everyone from private collectors to state-sanctioned Ecologists began employing stalkers to hunt down valuable objects. Likethe Spartans of theMetroseries, good stalkers excel at surviving where no one else can.
Stalkers in the Zone
In the years since the first stalkers penetrated the Zone, a rich landscape of interconnected factions has sprung up, loosely united by the common identity of stalker even as they attempt to kill one another. Some enter the Zone for adventure, others priceless artifacts, and others still to escape from the law. Whatever their reasons, once they have passed the perimeter and starthunting the ruins of Pripyat for weapons and equipment, they’ve become stalkers.
Borderline cases can muddy the definition, as Bandits and Mercenaries spend more time extorting “real” stalkers and providing firepower to other factions than they do hunting artifacts. However, so long as a person carries a gun, operates in the Zone, and will snatch any artifact they can lay their hands on, most would consider them a stalker. Above all else, the skills tosurvive the mysteries of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zoneare what make a stalker.
Stalkers in STALKER 2
Trailers for the upcomingSTALKER 2have shown a great focus on the player character (a stalker by the name of Skif) interacting with their fellow stalkers as a group of close-knit peers. Some consider their fellows to be friends who need to have each others' backs, while others cynically believe friendship in the Zone is a fantasy.
GSC wants to show that each stalker has their own hopes and ambitions, their own reasons for risking their lives inside the Zone, and their own principles. Given the degree of choice offered in the past, fromstaying moral in the bleak post-Soviet settingto gunning down anything that gets in their way,STALKER 2looks to deliver compelling choices which will have powerful implications for the player and their fellow stalkers.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylis in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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