S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Deep Dive Details Open World, Player Choice, and More

GSC Game World has offered the meatiest look yet at its long-awaited upcoming open world shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, with an extended developer deep dive, thanks to which a host of new details have emerged on the game. 

The developer has, for instance, confirmed that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s massive open world is going to be divided into 20 unique regions, with each having their own environments, architecture, residents, anomalies, and more.

The map will also consist of areas that players will find familiar if you’ve played the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R trilogy, though you can also expect some parts of those areas that were previously inaccessible to now be opened up in the upcoming sequel. Meanwhile, some locations in the game are going to be based on their real-world counterparts in the actual Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, with some areas being slightly tweaked and adapted for the game, and others being recreated exactly as they are.

GSC Game World has also stressed once again just how central player choice is going to be in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The shooter intends to give players near-complete freedom in where they can go, what they can do, and how they can go about different tasks.

That will result in players experiencing slightly different stories, coming across different quests, meeting different characters, and the like. As per the developers, a single playthrough of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 won’t be enough to see everything that it has to offer, which means you’ll need to play through it multiple times to see all of its quests, meet of all of its characters, and the like. 

That will, as you might imagine, mean there’s plenty of story content in the game to get through. According to GSC Game World, in fact, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has nearly three hours’ worth of recorded cutscenes, all of which were shot in the developer’s own motion capture studio. 

As part of its deep dive, GSC Game World has also showcased an entire mission from the game, offering new details on the many anomalies you will encounter, the different kinds of weapons you’ll be using, and more. Read more on that through here.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is set to launch on November 20 for Xbox Series X/S and PC. Microsoft is bringing the game to its Gamescom booth next week, so expect more details on it in the coming days.