With S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 promising a massive and seamless open world and plenty of player choice in terms of both narrative and its immersive sim-inspired gameplay mechanics, it looks set to deliver a pretty meaty adventure- but exactly how long can we expect it to be? Well, apparently it’s going to keep you busy for quite a while.
In a recent interview with GSC Game World PR manager Zakhar Bocharov, we posed that very question, and though Bacharov didn’t give us an exact number for the game’s runtime, he did give us an idea of what to expect. Even if you’re just sticking to the critical path, it’s going to be a long game, but as Bacharov puts it, if you engage in exploration and all the optional side content the game has to offer, you can spend “hundreds of hours” playing it.
“It’s a very long game even if you decide to follow only the main quest,” Bacharov said. “Hundreds of hours can be spent if you want to do more exploration and side quests.”
In the same interview, Bacharov also told us that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a next-gen exclusive because the game would have been “impossible to run” on last-gen hardware. Our full interview will be going live soon, so stay tuned for that.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is in development for Xbox Series X/S and PC, and currently, GSC Game World have no plans to bring the game over to the PS5. Recently leaked documents, however, suggest that the shooter’s timed consoles exclusivity is going to last three months.