Sticking the landing with a sequel is tricky, doubly so for a game as long in the making and with such a nightmarish development as Stalker 2. GSC Game World’s survival FPS will arrive 15 years after 2009’s Call of Pripyat, a game that still haunts my dreams. The sequel was announced in 2010, canceled in 2012, and resurrected in its current form in 2018. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to further delays as GSC faced the most challenging circumstances any creatives could likely imagine. Now, with launch mere days away, the developer has had years to reflect on the original trilogy, but lead producer Slava Lukyanenka stresses that Stalker 2 is its own beast.

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