The history of the Stalker series, its developer, the off-shoots it spawned, and the community of players who continue to mod the games and find new ways to play them to this day, is something well worth talking about. These are all reasons why the odds against Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl are stacked.
Consider this: Heart of Chornobyl was announced in 2018 with nothing but a logo, having been initially set for release sometime in 2021. I’ll be honest, GSC Game World’s reputation made it hard to believe that a real Stalker 2 was actually in development. Indeed, the studio itself admitted it announced the game that early to find a publisher, so really, more of statement of intent. Nevertheless, I, like many fans, played along.
It would take over two years for the first-ever trailer to emerge, and it was predictably more of a tone piece than anything, and then another year for gameplay to be shown.