A new STALKER 2 trailer is a heavy dose of nostalgia for fans of the original survival FPS game. In ‘Enter the Zone,’ we’re treated to a bumpy ride into the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone on the back of a speeding military truck, which is exactly the way the first game in the series opened way back in 2007.
Developer GSC Game World is headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine, and has faced massive disruption due to the ongoing Russian invasion of the country. The latest dev diary includes a video of several GSC staffers talking about their experiences since the start of the war, with one developer living in a hallway, and another still waiting to hear from family members in Mariupol.
Over the course of the invasion, GSC says development of STALKER 2 “became even more momentous and symbolic” to the studio, and some of the developers’ determination can be heard in the voiceover heard in the new trailer. “Tell me, do you want our descendants to remember us as cowards?” a character asks, rhetorically. “Or those who dared to venture forward to a new, better humanity?”
Here’s the new trailer, which shows an unconscious figure on a rough and fateful trip into the Zone in the back of a truck.
The STALKER 2 release date has been pushed back into 2023, but GSC Game World says that despite the hardships created by the invasion, it’s determined to see this project through. In the meantime, the developers encourage fans to support fundraising efforts for Ukraine.
You also may want to check out the recently revealed STALKER 2 system requirements to make sure you’ve got a beefy enough SSD ready when it arrives next year.