After waiting what feels like ages, we finally got an update on the upcoming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, the sequel to the creepy first-person shooter set in the Chernobyl area. The original game came out in 2007, and the last game in the series came out over ten years ago, so it’s been quite a bit since we got some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. news. Suffice to say the footage shown at the ID@Xbox show might not cover the parts of the game you’re expecting it to cover.
The new footage comes from developers GSC Game World and shows character and gun models that you’ll see in the new game. Everything looks incredibly detailed and well-made, and it’ll be fun to see them all in action when we finally get to play the game, though we don’t get to see that in the trailer itself.
Perhaps the most unusual part of the trailer is that almost a minute of this six-minute presentation is paid to the custom teeth tool that the developers are using to give every NPC a “one-of-a-kind smile.” The developers can replace any of the in-game humans’ teeth with metal crowns, or just leave a hole in their gums. It’s a strange thing to focus on, but apparently, these little details are important for world-building.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been supposedly in the works for quite some time now. It was announced and canceled in the early 2010s, while rumors about this iteration’s development began all the way back in 2018. GSC Game World confirmed it was working on the game last year, and finally released a teaser trailer in December. This new information about the in-game factions and the character models comes because, as GSC says, the game is not quite ready to show, which begs the question of whether it’ll meet its rumored 2021 release date.
