Highly anticipated: It was long suspected that one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl, was being built using Epic's Unreal Engine 4. As it turns out, that's not the case - they're using Unreal Engine 5.
Developer GSC Game World confirmed on Twitter that Stalker 2 will be powered by Epic's next-gen engine.
Unreal Engine 5 was unveiled in May 2020 and launched into early access a year later. The engine's full launch isn't expected until sometime in early 2022. Having already seen what's possible with Unreal Engine 5's Lumen and Nanite systems makes Stalker 2 even that much more desirable.
Stalker 2 isn't due out until next year, so you've got plenty of time to acquire an Xbox Series X/S or beef up your PC in preparation. According to the game's listing on Steam, you'll need at least an AMD Ryzen 5 1600X / Intel Core i5-7600K CPU alongside 8GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and at least 150GB of available solid-state storage for an entry-level experience on the PC.
The recommended hardware list is as follows:
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X | Intel Core i7-9700K
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER 8GB | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB
- Storage: 150GB
- Additional notes: SSD
Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl is scheduled to arrive on Xbox Series X/S and Windows PC on April 28, 2022. Pre-orders are now being accepted over on GSC Game World's website with pricing starting at $59.99 for the standard edition.