Oh, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. Simple weeks from release after years of hold-ups, plopped in front of me at a confined, gently vibrating Gamescom cubicle, and you still will not expose your tricks. I did get to play a short whizz through GSC Game World's spooky FPS– adequate to feel urged, even– however be it time restrictions or the darkness of my nighttime raid into the radioactive Zone, I would have liked to have actually rather actually seen more.
Once again, keeping the secret undamaged might have been the point all along. “As a video game director, I wish to conceal whatever from the gamer”, GSC's CEO Ievgen Grygorovych had actually informed me minutes previously. “I'm combating with the marketing group due to the fact that they wish to reveal as much as possible!”
Grygorovych appears to have actually won this most current round: after a cutscene has me driven into the Zone by a valuable geek, the demonstration hardly provides me time to examine a trashed station, flick bolts into some timeless S.T.A.L.K.E.R. abnormalities, and discard AK rounds into a snarling mutant before a roving outlaw gang puts me down. Not precisely an illuminating safari through Heart of Chornobyl's open world. And yet, there are looks here of what this follow up is attempting to attain. For something, and while I can hardly think I'm stating this about a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. video game, there's a visible lack of jank.
Image credit: GSC Game World
My Stalker moves greatly, however not awkwardly. Defense have a relentless, meaty kick, however do not manage awkwardly in the tiniest. Even stock management, which keeps a variation of the series' grid-based system, is stylish and user-friendly.
That's not to state that this is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with the edges sanded off. There's little of the story or UI handholding that modern-day shooters are so keen on, and my encounter with the outlaws demonstrates how rapidly this location will eliminate the hurrying or neglectful. It's polished, for sure, and usually does feel like a modern-day FPS. Fifteen years because the initial trilogy concluded, is that a natural item of its environment, or more particularly an olive branch to the series newbies that will have used up video games in the interim?
“Our very first objective”, states Grygorovych, “was to make the video game for gamers that do not understand anything about the very first video games. We comprehended that we will have a substantial part of brand-new gamers, and we wish to make the video game great for them.
“Old gamers will see connections– like with some characters, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl gamers will state ‘Oh, I understand this character!'. They will have a much deeper and more fascinating experience, however [playing previous games] is not required to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
“Also, we are grabbing the console audience and the Game Pass audience, which will be substantial. We are completely going for the brand-new gamers. And we understood from the start that this was our objective.”
Image credit: GSC Game World
This type of believing may naturally trigger alarm bells for fans of what has actually constantly been an increasingly distinctive series,
