Stalker 2 Suffers Another Delay, and We Continue to Wait to Be Terrified
Returning to Chornobyl will have to wait, as Stalker 2 faces another delay in its release.
Delays in a game’s development can often cause some level of disappointment for an upcoming title’s fans. That is especially true for titles that see a cycle of cancellations and delays, being stuck in purgatory despite how well-received their previous instalments have been.
Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is one such game, with its original 2012 release being canceled by its Ukrainian developer and publisher GSC Game World. While the game found a 2022 release date and a graphical overhaul with Unreal Engine 5, real-world events caused yet another delay in its release. And it seems that the developers have chosen to make the wait for Stalker 2 a tad longer.
Not Your Typical Video Game Stalker
While many horror games feature stealthy enemies that strike from the shadows called Stalkers, Stalker 2 offers a fresh take on the term. The player’s character explores the ruins of Chornobyl in the aftermath of a second nuclear disaster as a mercenary on a mission, hunting treasure and individuals of interest in a first-person shooter that offers up scares and thrills in equal measure.
With Stalker: Call of Prypiat being the last release in the series as early as 2009, the new title has been highly anticipated by fans of the original games considering the cliffhanger that the last game ended on.
However, GSC Game World has chosen to postpone its launch by two months to work on further optimizations for the game.
The Wait Continues for Stalker 2 Fans
While the move to delay a new title to ensure its final release works as well as it can is good by any studio, the decision to postpone Stalker 2 has left some fans understandably disgruntled with GSC Game World.
Reactions to the latest delay in the highly anticipated release are mixed, with some fans hoping to see a polished, refined take on their favorite series when the next instalment launches in November this year, while others find the latest delay unacceptable.
One player rightly pointed out that the latest delay was a reason to be optimistic about the game’s overall quality.
Other players take a more sympathetic view in consideration of the effects of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine on the team, choosing empathy and placing their confidence in the final release.
Other players seem to have lost faith in the game, expressing concerns that it could further affect Xbox Game Pass at a time when the service could really use some good news.
Yet another player made a tongue-in-cheek reference to a European studio that delayed a highly anticipated title on multiple occasions.
Mentioning Cyberpunk 2077 is an interesting argument in favor of a studio taking its time to optimize a game in lieu of hurrying to release a substandard product that it then refines with patches and updates.
Stalker 2 fans would certainly hope that the new game lives up to its hype when it launches later this year.
