S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Is A “Huge” Game With A LOT Of Content To Explore, Says Dev

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is slated to finally release this fall, bringing players back to the radiation-filled world after over a decade. The GSC Game World title is the fourth mainline entry in the series, following 2009’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. Just like its predecessors, the upcoming Xbox exclusive will take place in the mysterious Zone, a desolate wasteland devastated by nuclear meltdowns where players must fight to survive.

The Zone has many dangers, but one of the biggest is anomalies – strange distortions in reality that will harm the protagonist if they attempt to walk through them. There are many other environmental hazards as well – a Geiger counter quickly makes it clear some areas lethally irradiated, and a recurring event called The Emission that turns skies crimson and immediately kills the player is a lingering threat. Not too much is known about S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2’s narrative, but players will assume the role of a bounty hunter in a storyline with multiple potential endings.

Screen Rant interviewed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Technical Producer Evgeniy Kulik at Gamescom to discuss crafting the game’s vast open world, the many dangers players will face, and the importance of cultivating freedom for fans.

Crafting The Dangerous World Of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

Making A World Full Of Terrifying Discoveries

Screen Rant: What would you say are the biggest ways the game has evolved since the team first started conceptualizing it?

Evgeniy Kulik: I would say that for now we are doing our best, and we are putting a lot of efforts into our love and our passion to this game to provide the most unique experience. We are now using a lot of new technologies such as Unreal Engine 5, and it provides us with a lot of tools to create this amazing, really huge world. One of the main challenges was to preserve this unique atmosphere of unknown, of loneliness, of fear of something hidden, and of course, these atmospheric events and the background noises.

The
main feature that we are showcasing in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is this
huge map that is open world

. The original trilogy was big locations but divided via a loading screen; now there will be no loading screen at all. You’re trying to learn something new about some rules of this universe, of this dangerous but still really exciting place, and you’re learning constantly with the game, and you are diving deeply into the story of the game. We would really like to showcase this game to the huge audience, and we are really excited about the release of the game. We really love our community, and we want them to play as much as possible and enjoy this world that we brought them.

Talking about the open world, I was reading about how it’s split up into 20 different sections. Can you talk a little bit about how those differ from one another in the world?

Evgeniy Kulik: Our
map is featuring 64 square kilometers
, different locations and – of course – different biomes. You may notice, for example, in the starting regions, it is not that corrupted by the essence of the zone. As you proceed deeper to the zone to the center, you may notice different factions, different mutants and other inhabitants.

We have 20 different regions, and in these regions, you may find big locations with big hubs where some different people and different factions are living, but still you may notice smaller locations and mini locations. The main feature here is that we almost didn’t use any procedural generations to create this world, and
this huge map is made all by hand
of our guys from [the] level design department, so each location you will experience in the game is quite unique.

I know one of the big pillars of this game is cultivating a sense of freedom for the player. Can you talk a little bit about the different ways the game does that, and why that was such a core facet for you guys that was so important?

Evgeniy Kulik: If we’re talking about how [the] story evolves in this case, to cover all narrative content from the old side, from each version of each faction,
it may take you maybe up to 100 hours,
because the game is huge, and you cannot complete and see anything from the first playthrough. Because each choice you make in the dialogue, in your actions, may have some consequences in the short term and in the long term, to cover all the game, you need to play it more and more and more, because it may lead you in different directions.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s Ending Design

How Much Player Choice Will Come Into Play

Going off that, I know that there are not necessarily different endings, but there are different plot points like you said, that players will experience depending on where they go. How big of a variance are we talking about there between playthroughs?

Evgeniy Kulik: I will not go with [an] exact number, because I don’t want to spoil anything. You should experience yourself, but still
there will be a lot of types of endings,
and they are dependent on your actions, on your choices; Each step you take, each decision you make, you are totally responsible for that.

In terms of the different dangers that players are facing, I remember from my playthrough last year that it was very multifaceted – It’s environmental, but there are humans that are shooting at you, there are rabid dogs. Can you talk a little bit more about, as players are continuing to go through this world and are exploring more, that sort of multi-layered threat level that they’re going to be facing from all sides?

Evgeniy Kulik: As I mentioned before, the game is open world, so you are free to go everywhere, basically. But I would say our game is like role-play, but not in the classic way as we are used to with this leveling system, with skill trees. You are growing with the game, so you are learning new fractions, you are learning some new mutants, because each time you are facing some new threat you need to figure out how to deal with that.

It may be different anomalies, it may be even some new features like arc anomalies, because
they have absolutely different gameplay from what players are used to with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
, and, of course, different NPC fractions. You can deal with them by just classic gunfire, or maybe you can approach them, maybe you can trade something with them, or maybe you can deal with them during the dialogue.

Do you have a particular danger in the game that you find particularly either difficult or scary to deal with for whatever reason?

Evgeniy Kulik: Just from my perspective,
the most dangerous places are these underground laboratories
, because you don’t know what’s inside until you face it, in the most terrifying way.