Among the many, many high-profile games coming out in the next few years is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. Announced in May 2018 but only really to drive publisher interest, it’s hard to really say what state the game is in. It was originally announced in 2010 and cancelled in 2012 before being resurrected after all.
However, in a new update on the official S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Twitter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be powered by Unreal Engine. Developer GSC Game World says it was constantly searching for the “best technologies to work with” and that Unreal Engine was the “most suitable choice for us”. More importantly, it helps to make modding easier and more accessible.
While visual fidelity should be strong, Unreal Engine will also likely provide a better gameplay experience. It’s too early to say though especially since we don’t know what platforms S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will release on, whether it will be exclusive to PC and so on. However, since it’s being developed on Unreal Engine, does that mean some kind of exclusivity to the Epic Games Store in the future?
The developer acknowledged that people would be thinking this and said, “This announcement has nothing to do with platforms or digital stores. We will talk about this later.” Stay tuned for hopefully more details in the coming months.