If you're looking forward to collecting the Stalker 2 achievements , we recommend you check out the recent Stalker 2 gameplay deep dive from GSC Game World. While it gives us a decent look at some of the game's environments, enemies, and weapons, it also shows us that it won't be an easy romp through the Zone when the first-person shooter leaves our list of upcoming Xbox Game Pass games on November 20. Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl deep dive showcases a world of danger The life of a Stalker is a hard one, and similar to the original trilogy, Stalker 2 will be offering players another difficult adventure through the post-apocalyptic Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.
GSC Game World has mimicked real life once again in this sequel, tasking you with managing your character's needs for sleep, hunger, and thirst. You'll need to find resources to heal yourself, manage your carry weight, and contend with environmental hazards as you pick your way through the deadly world. "We didn't want to make the game easy for the player because we believe that this would kill the grip of reality," game director Ievgen Grygorovych says.
"If the player can easily make mistakes, cannot die, gets the hit points regenerated...
No, it's not a Stalker experience then." The game is huge, with 20 different regions to explore, including returning locations from previous games like the Burning Homestead and the Pump Station. With the world's size, GSC hopes to offer you freedom but also feelings of anxiety and loneliness as you wander its decaying environments.
Interestingly, GSC notes that you won't be able to see everything or meet everyone in a single playthrough. "You will not be able to see all content and meet everyone within one walkthrough. Depending on your choices, you'll get a little different story, little different quests, and encounter someone new," creative director Mariia Grygorovych said.
"If you walk through again, you will find yourself on the other side of the barricade so to say, and look at it in a different way." The Zone is fraught with danger, and the deep dive offers us a glimpse at a handful of enemies, such as phantom-commanding Pseudodogs, human voice-mimicking Bayun the Cat, the Flesh (mutated pigs), zombies, rodents, and a Controller — a rather nasty enemy that slowly kills you with psi-radiation. It's not just enemies attempting to end your life either, as the world is filled with environmental hazards, such as lightning strikes and anomalies.
We're given a look at a few anomalies, such as ones that stop fall damage by cushioning your landing, as well as flaming anomalies, which were hiding an artifact, and tornado-style ones that tore a Flesh pig to shreds. Stalker 2 packs in 35 weapons to help with your fight, each of which has varying attachments and upgrades, as well as a variety of other items, such as grenades, bolts to attract enemies or to test for anomalies, and more. You'll also have the freedom to choose how you approach objectives.
In one part of the video, the player needs to get into a building, but instead of risking the potentially deadly overland route, they decide to enter via a hole in its basement. After dispatching a number of rodents with a grenade to thin the pack, they finish off the remaining critters with their guns before entering the structure. Within, they find a side room with a locked door.
Upon inspecting the rest of the room, they find a crack in the wall, offering them a way to shoot the door's lock so they can dip in and loot the gun and ammo hidden away in there. Exploration appears to be a key factor in Stalker 2, and we can't wait to begin exploring the game for ourselves. While it was supposed to launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass next month, Stalker 2 has been delayed to November 20 , so we'll need to wait just a little bit longer.
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