A play and a chat with GSC Game World
Oh,S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
2: Heart of Chornobyl.
Then again, keeping the mystery intact may have been the point all along.
“I’m fighting with the marketing team because they want to show as much as possible!”
anomalies, and dump AK rounds into a snarling mutant before a roving bandit gang puts me down.
Not exactly an illuminating safari through Heart of Chornobyls open world.
And yet, there are glimpses here of what this sequel is trying to achieve.
For one thing, and while I can scarcely believe Im saying this about a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
game, theres a noticeable absence of jank.
My Stalker moves heavily, but not clumsily.
Weapons have a ferocious, meaty kick, but dont handle awkwardly in the slightest.
Even inventory management, which maintains a version of the series grid-based system, is snappy and intuitive.
Thats not to say that this is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
with the edges sanded off.
But its polished, for sure, and generally does feel like a modern FPS.
- “Old players will see connections like with some characters,S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Shadow of Chernobylplayers will say ‘Oh, I know this character!’.
“Also, we are reaching for the console audience and theGame Passaudience, which will be huge.
We are totally aiming for the new players.
And we knew from the start that this was our goal.”
Rarely has a game sought a wider audience by knowingly being unwelcoming.
Again, though, even my brief demo suggests that the signature atmosphere will survive intact.
It plays more smoothly, sure, but its still recognisably S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. “Were building a new game on the legacy we have”, he explains.
“Its hard to find something to compare [to the original games].
You cant find a game that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
is similar to, because its unique.
Its not been copied by anyone in its design and scale.
But it is a good start point to bring new, modern design parts for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
But I guess it’s good to have more unique games that are different from others.”
2 is definitely unique is the circumstances of its development.
2 is not an anti-war game Grygorovych and the rest of GSC simply wanted rid.
Not injecting something new.
But yeah, we removed the Russian, we didnt want to see it in the game.”
So they’re bringing something or bringing something out.
“I guess that’s been going for quite some time already.”
2, such as with mosaics highlighting Ukrainian culture.
As Grygorovych puts it: “We, as Ukrainians, have our own identity.
We identify ourselves as Ukrainians.
We have a totally different story and identity than other countries around us, and for us.
We had two revolutions since the USSR was destroyed.
Its definitely in our code.
Will Heart of Chornobyl and yes, that is the Ukrainian spelling prove a worthy successor?
That depends on how well it pulls off that balancing act, marrying classic S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
tension and brutality with modern polish and slickness.
