The developers of STALKER 2: Heart Of Chernobyl haven't been shy about boasting about the game's map size, a massive upgrade from the original series. Set in the irradiated Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, players will experience a lone Stalker's journey through the paranormal and often horrifying wasteland. STALKER 2's story will take players through many unique biomes and iconic locations from the series, each twisted by the Zone's strange influences in unique ways.

Being a direct sequel to the cult classic, Heart Of Chornobyl aims to improve and expand on what made the franchise so beloved by fans. Out of all the expansions and exciting new features in STALKER 2, the most noticeable improvements are the complete graphical overhaul and detailed environments of STALKER 2's new game world. While the sheer size of STALKER 2 will give players plenty of locations to discover, the characters and factions bring the fictional world to life.

STALKER 2's Story & Characters

Continuing The Story From The Original Series

Despite the complete visual overhaul, STALKER 2 aims to embrace the original series by directly continuing the previous game's events. STALKER 2's story takes place years after the original games, following the journey of a new Stalker named Skif venturing into the Zone in hopes of finding a rare, supernaturally charged artifact.

Despite the new protagonist and goal, fans can expect to see some familiar faces across the zone, even if those faces are in the form of returning mutated monsters roaming the wasteland. Even though it is a direct sequel, new players won't have to be worried about catching up with the original games, as STALKER 2's story can still be enjoyed without any prior knowledge of the series.

Expanding upon STALKER's world, Heart Of Chornobyl will feature four branching endings to offer players, with their actions throughout the game helping to determine which one they'll see. During their time in the Zone, players will encounter several side quests and NPCs that can have significant consequences depending on their choices. Each of the various factions and characters in the Zone will provide players with different means to accomplish their main quest, acting as a non-linear form of storytelling.

How STALKER 2's Map Compares To The Original

A Drastically Larger Expansion Built From The Ground Up

Much of STALKER 2's long development time likely went into the massive map of the game's Exclusion Zone, providing players with 64 square kilometers of wasteland to explore. Journeying through STALKER 2's unique environments, players will come across many differing biomes, from overgrown forests and abandoned urban cityscapes to dilapidated post-war Soviet infrastructure. While other games tend to bloat their size with inaccessible buildings or stretches of empty landscapes, each of STALKER 2's environments is hand-crafted from the ground up using no procedural generation.

Heart Of Chornobyl is roughly 8 times larger than the original series.

This personal touch results in a map filled to the brim with unique areas and locations with their own story to tell, with plenty of loot to gather on the way. In total, STALKER 2's map will be divided into 20 different regions, with most of the STALKER trilogy's maps being included in one seamlessly explorable experience. Given that the STALKER trilogy combined totaled roughly 7.5 square kilometers, Heart Of Chornobyl is approximately 8 times larger than the original series, with a drastically improved level of detail and expanded areas to go alongside it.

The immersive exploration of the larger Zone is aided by its punishing difficulty, with players having to befriend or combat STALKER 2's various hostile factions and creepy monsters lurking in radiation-filled corners of the map, alongside the even deadlier environmental dangers that can provide a quick end for a distracted Stalker.

How Long It Will Take To Beat STALKER 2

Providing Fans With More Content Than Ever Before

So far, the developers have claimed that a single playthrough of STALKER 2's main story will take roughly 40 hours to complete, with sidequests and exploration bumping this number to over 100 hours of hand-crafted content to offer. With STALKER 2's mechanics being a challenging but rewarding experience for players, a first playthrough will likely run higher than the base estimate. From scavenging through all the unique areas in the Zone and completing various side quests offered by NPCs throughout, STALKER 2 will likely have more than enough content to warrant its long development time.

The original STALKER trilogy has been kept alive for nearly two decades thanks to continuous fan .

Given that STALKER 2 boasts full mod for PC and consoles, if the original trilogy is any indication, players can expect countless hours of enjoyment from a wide span of community content released over the years. The original STALKER trilogy has been kept alive for nearly two decades thanks to continuous fan , with some modding projects still. From quality-of-life improvements to complete overhauls, fans have been providing fresh experiences for the franchise that console players can finally enjoy thanks to STALKER 2's new modding capabilities.

With two future DLC expansions and a free multiplayer update in the works, STALKER 2: Heart Of Chornobyl plans to provide players an evolving gameplay experience that this unique franchise deserves.