Stalker 2 has been announced

[midian182]

In the history of post-apocalyptic survival/shooter games, few are as fondly remembered as the Stalker series. It’s been over eight years since the last entry in the franchise, Call of Pripyat, but creator GSC Game World has revealed that a new title is in the works. While many will be excited by the prospect of Stalker 2, it’ll be a long time before we get to play it. According to the website, the game isn’t set to arrive until 2021.

This isn’t the first time Stalker 2 has been announced. Back in 2010, GSC Game World said it was working on the game and it was schedule to launch in 2012, but a year later, studio head Sergiy Grygorovych shut down the company and work on Stalker 2 because of unspecified "personal reasons."

GSC Game World returned in 2014 to announce real-time strategy title Cossacks 3 and speak out against a crowdfunded unofficial successor to Stalker, which was eventually canceled by Kickstarter for undisclosed violations.

Since that time, the studio has been pretty quiet. But Grygorovych used his Facebook page to announce the fourth game in the series yesterday. Grygorovych, who also created Steam Spy and works at Epic Games as Director of Publishing Strategy, hinted in at Tweet that the game would use Epic’s Unreal Engine 4.

guess the engine, lol

— Sergey Galyonkin (@galyonkin) May 15, 2018

The open-world Stalker games are set in the area surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, where strange changes are taking place following a second explosion. All three titles are praised for their atmosphere and mechanics and they continue to receive excellent reviews from Steam users.

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[IAMTHESTIG]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was definitely one of my favorite all time shooter games, and I've been playing since Duke 3D and Quake in the mid 90's. I don't have high hopes though as 2 has been so on and off again I just don't see it happening. I guess it is a case of I'll believe it when I see it.

I was hoping Escape from Tarkov would have been a good replacement considering its awesome weapon customization and mechanics but when I found it it was MP only I lost interest. Don't get me wrong I like MP gaming but I really, really enjoy a lengthy campaign that sucks you in. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had a great campaign and I soaked hours into it.

That being said I felt the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games became more and more watered down in terms of the weapons. The original was challenging to be a marksman, you had realistic weapon recoil and you had to try hard to be effective with automatic fire. Then by the time Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat came around it just became soft, easy, and boring. I worry a S2 if it ever does truly come will just be more of the same.

As for using the UT4 engine, I guess that is a good thing for the most part. It is very flexible and reliable with great graphical capabilities. However I do miss the uniqueness of the XRay engine (is that what it was called?) from the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R., albeit buggy and unstable. The grunginess of the graphics engine just felt perfectly at home with the gameplay. UT4 engine is too clean and pristine to fit a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game in my opinion.