After years of delays,STALKER 2finally gave fans the definitive triple-A experience they’ve waited for years to play. It is also a great gateway for new players to the series. While it will take most players under 60 hours to experience the main story and additional side content,STALKER 2boasts over a hundred hours of replayability with its branching storylines and quests. Even with the massive amount of content offered by the latest entry in theSTALKERfranchise, players wanting even more have some exciting options to look out for in the new year.
Even with the excitement ofSTALKER 2’s launch beginning to die down,the future of the iconic post-apocalyptic survival franchise is far from over.The developers have already announced thatmultiple DLC expansionsand a multiplayer mode are planned to arrive in the coming years, and while details are still somewhat hazy, there’s still plenty to look forward to. While waiting for the eventual updates toSTALKER 2, a similar game could do more than simply tide players over in the meantime.
The Chernobylite Franchise Is A Unique Take On The STALKER Experience
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Released in 2021,Chernobyliteprovided players with a short but surprisingly high level of polish and fidelity for such a new indie studio, causing plenty ofexcitement amongSTALKERfans. WhileChernobylitedidn’t revolutionize the genre by any means,it provided a familiar atmosphere combined with a unique mix of gameplay mechanics like base building and team management, making for an incredibly memorable experience. Taking place in the same Chernobyl exclusion zone asSTALKER 2, players can visit familiar locations that each share a supernatural twist unique to this new franchise.
A familiar atmosphere combined with a unique mix of gameplay mechanics.
Rather than being thrust into the zone as a typical Stalker, players take on the role of the fully voiced Igor in their mission to find the ultimate fate of his late wife Tatyana.Throughout the game, players will utilize stealth and specialized weaponry to survive both supernatural threats and enemy forces.
They willscavenge as many resources as they can before being tracked down by a supernatural hunter. This fluctuating time limit provides a sense of looming dread during certain missions, encouraging players to think ahead before venturing too far into certain areas.
Adding RPG Elements To Stand Apart From The Crowd
Offering A Wholly New Gameplay Experience From The Original
On top of the many positively received features from the original,Chernobylite 2 plans to introduce a plethora of brand-new mechanics into the series when it releases in 2025. Rather than leaning more into the traditionalSTALKERexperience,Chernoblyite 2is attempting to break apart from theSTALKERmold while still paying respect to the survival horror formula that made both games so enjoyable with new features.
One of these features players can look forward to experiencing is the drastically expanded melee combat system, which will become a more prominent part ofChernobylite’s gameplay loop as players conserve ammo or take on slow-moving bosses.
STALKER 2 Just Got A Major New Patch With 1,800 Fixes - Including A-Life
Just under a month after the launch of STALKER 2, the game’s first major update, Patch 1.1, is promising to fix the game’s most important issues.
One of the biggest waysChernobylite 2visually sets itself apart from the competition is by introducing a third-person mode for players to experience, giving players more control of the newly diverse combat encounters. Thankfully,Chernobylite 2still retains an optional first-person mode to allow for precise aiming in stealth, or immersive exploration in the hauntingly dilapidated yet stunning environments.
This perspective will come in especially handy during the massively scaled boss battles, as players fight a mix of supernaturally corrupted entities and monsters that range from standard zombies to hulking creatures made of leftover construction equipment.
Chernobylite 2 Aims To Rival The Iconic Post-Apocalyptic Franchise
Taking An Exciting New Direction For The Series
Rather than simply venturing out on missions to set areas across the game world,Chernobylite 2is taking advantage of its greater development resources to introduce an entirely open-world experience to the franchise.The map players will explore in the sequel is claimed to be 20-30 times bigger than the original, with a length of 2–3 times that ofChernobylite’s story, likely taking players roughly 45 hours to complete on average.
While a greater scale is always an exciting prospect for upcoming games,Chernobbylite 2aims to correct the weaker areas from the original, like the lack of facial animations or the limited number of characters, while greatly expanding on its unique mechanics, progression systems, and especially powerful gear for players to craft in their journey through the zone.By far one of the most exciting prospects forChernobylite 2is its introduction of co-op gameplay, which is somethingSTALKERfans have wanted for so long they’ve resorted tomodding it themselves.
Due to the greater map size,Chernobylite2will also introduce a fast travel system, which ties into the iconic base-building segments and companions that made the original experience stand out in the first place.
Despite all the exciting features coming toChernobylite 2, its RPG-like elements seem to be leaning into more game-like territory that might not be a hit with the same player base as the original game or theSTALKERfranchise. The developers themselves have even shared this worry, but claim thatplaytesters of the original much prefer the new perspective and combat systems instead, saying it “simply works better”, according to an interview withwccftech.
While there are plenty of games that offer asimilar experience toSTALKER, only a rare few, likeChernobyliteand its upcoming sequel, have been able to fully capitalize on the unique atmosphere fans have come to love. Anyone finishingSTALKER 2will want to keep an eye out for it.
