S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl is now live on Xbox Store, with a massive download size.
As indicated on their Xbox Store listing, the game sits at 150 GB. That’s slightly bigger than Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth’s size on PlayStation 5, at 145 GB.
To be fair, the two are completely different games with different goals. While GSC Game World is going for a realistic world, they aren’t aiming to make stunning visuals with rich details.
No, the world of Chornobyl is grimier, harsher, reflecting a reality that people aren’t as eager to enter. There may be darkness in Midgar and the worlds around it, but there can still be heroes in that world too. In Chornobyl, nobody, not even yourself, can claim to trod a moral path in an active warzone. The fantasy that you can defeat corporations and Gods, gives way to a world where you have to live every day like it’s your last.
GSC Game World’s title has built up a hype cycle unlike any other title, as one would be hard pressed to name another game that was made in an active warzone. Microsoft even made a documentary that records the dramatic circumstances behind its development for posterity, but that really isn’t the only story behind this game.
GSC Game World got tied up in the console wars when a developer misspoke about getting the game running on Xbox Series S at 25 FPS, when he meant to say it ran at 35 FPS.
A month later, GSC Game World sought to turn the whole thing around by claiming that they were able to get S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl running on the Xbox Series S at 60 FPS. They also committed to building a performance mode to make the game run at that framerate consistently in that console.
GSC did commit to getting the game running on Xbox Series X at 60 FPS. So now we know that GSC can get their games running at optimum performance, and they can also scale down their projects appropriately as well.
In spite of the high production values, gamers have to set their expectations. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games have always been about making hostile worlds, that don’t even have the conventions of Soulsborne games to keep them hoping they can make it. This is a survival game with a harsh sandbox, and the rewards for getting through it are potentially even greater.
