The upcoming survival-horror RPG STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has a strong pedigree to live up to. GSC Game World kicked off the STALKER franchise in 2007 with STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, followed up by the expansions Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat. Each game, regardless of their individual stories and mechanics, always centers around the same group of individuals: the stalkers.
Stalkers have a rich history within the world of STALKER and the Zone they explore. From the Loners who mentor players in the games' opening hours to other powerful factions of stalkers fighting for dominance, survival in the Zone revolves around these individuals.
The History of Stalkers
In the games' timeline, after the second Chernobyl disaster of 2006, the Ukrainian government attempted to contain the newly dubbed "Zone of Alienation" where the laws of physics had been disrupted, leading to fantastical anomalies and horrific mutants appearing. The military was sent in to deal with the threat, only to be driven back 60 km from the Zone's center, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
The military set up a fortified perimeter and forbade anyone from entering the Zone. However, the allure of impossible phenomena and prospect lucrative payouts for Zone artifacts proved stronger than the military could contain. Trespassers began trickling into the Zone, these illegal prospectors being labeled "stalkers" who are ordered to be shot on sight.
In practice, experienced stalkers rapidly became the most reliable means of extracting artifacts from the Zone, and everyone from private collectors to state-sanctioned Ecologists began employing stalkers to hunt down valuable objects. Like the Spartans of the Metro series, good stalkers excel at surviving where no one else can.
Stalkers in the Zone
In the years since the first stalkers penetrated the Zone, a rich landscape of interconnected factions has sprung up, loosely united by the common identity of stalker even as they try to kill one another. Some enter the Zone for adventure, others priceless artifacts, and others still to escape from the law. Whatever their reasons, once they have passed the perimeter and start hunting the ruins of Pripyat for weapons and equipment, they've become stalkers.
Although the government applies the "stalker" title to any Zone trespasser, stalkers themselves only consider those who actively hunt the Zone for valuable loot to be true stalkers. As such, traders might not be considered stalkers despite their illegal status, while armed artifact-hunting Ecologists scouring the irradiated monuments of Pripyat might be called stalkers despite being sponsored by the government.
Borderline cases can muddy the definition, as Bandits and Mercenaries spend more time extorting "real" stalkers and providing firepower to other factions than they do hunting artifacts. However, so long as a person carries a gun, operates in the Zone, and will snatch any artifact they can lay their hands on, most would consider them a stalker. Above all else, the skills to survive the mysteries of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone are what make a stalker.
Stalkers in STALKER 2
Trailers for the upcoming STALKER 2 have shown a great focus on the player character (a stalker by the name of Skif) interacting with their fellow stalkers as a group of close-knit peers. Some consider their fellows to be friends who need to have each others' backs, while others cynically believe friendship in the Zone is a fantasy.
GSC wants to show that each stalker has their own hopes and ambitions, their own reasons for risking their lives inside the Zone, and their own principles. Given the degree of choice offered in the past, from staying moral in the bleak post-Soviet setting to gunning down anything that gets in their way, STALKER 2 looks to deliver compelling choices which will have powerful implications for the player and their fellow stalkers.
STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.