We now know that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl will be a technological showcase for the Xbox Series X.
John Linneman of Digital Foundry made this tweet a few hours ago:
“Played Stalker 2 on an actual Xbox Series X – it’s shaping up very well technically! I’m impressed. Surprisingly great image quality too.”
When he was asked if the game runs at 60 FPS, he simply answered; “It is!”
Not everyone will have a long memory for this, but this is, in fact, a long standing promise made by studio GSC Game World, that they were able to fulfill. They made this promise to the public as far back as November of last year.
It’s a great sign for a project that, as we like to remind readers, has gone through literal war to get released. GSC Game World planned S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl all the way back in 2010. That was the year that Red Dead Redemption, Bioshock 2, God of War III, and Mass Effect 2 came out.
GSC Game World effectively went under, got revived, turned their fortunes around by making Cossacks 3, and then finally properly got into making the again. And then the studio reckoned with a literal invasion of their own country.
There are so many things that got in the way of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and that includes suspected sabotage by Russian hackers. But GSC managed to keep going through thick and thin, and in the process got themselves the help of one of the biggest tech companies in the world.
In so many words, it is a miracle that this game is finally going to be released at all. But on top of that, it’s truly gratifying to learn that GSC managed to survive all this to make what could be a very good AAA.
Maybe it’s too early to call S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl a GOTY contender. Somehow, that didn’t stop gamers from saying that about Black Myth: Wukong before it released. But it’s clear now that it’s already met the yardsticks that gamers use to decide what games they believe deserve to go to the upper echelons.
Only a little over a week ago, GSC Game World shared a deep and emotional preview of their production of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. This game will have us contemplating the unsavory side of war, the side that we don’t get to experience in the massive online military shooters like Call of Duty and the upcoming Delta Force. For something with these lofty artistic goals, it deserves to have only the best technical performance to drive that message home.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is releasing on November 20, 2024, on Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Epic Game Store, and GOG. It will also be available on Game Pass.
