The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise has largely been quite for the better part of the decade. However, the series' imminent return next year will surely shake up many gamers' worlds. Developers GSC Game World is stirring up interest right now with an announcement that they know will excite their fans: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is going to be made using the Unreal Engine.
Return to Form
GSC Game World initially announced S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in August 2010. The game was supposed to be made using an in-house engine written by GSC. However, the game was doomed for cancellation when GSC disbanded in December 2011.
GSC would later reform in December 2014. Their first project after coming back from the ashes was Cossack 3, a remake of the studio's first-ever game, Cossack: European Wars.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise would be resurrected with an announcement in 2018 on Cossack 3's Facebook page, teasing the release to be in 2021. GSC would make sporadic updates about the game every now and then ever since, showing signs that upon its announcement, the game was still just in the design phase.
Some people speculated that the game was prematurely announced ahead of E3 2018, so the developers could find a publisher for the game. Unlike past games in the series, Cossack 3 was self-published.
New Year Surprise
Development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been pretty quiet, but the developers had to issue a tweet yesterday revealing that the game is, in fact, using Unreal Engine. "GSC Game World constantly searches for the best technologies to work with," says an accompanying image in their tweet, "and (Unreal Engine) was the most suitable choice for us."
The decision to use Unreal Engine was affected by multiple factors, including the use of in-game mods for the game. GSC's in-house engine, which they used for the original games, is also old, and updating it might be costly.
The developers say that they planned to keep this under wraps for a little while longer, but that they were forced to make an announcement after their "colleagues at Epic released a New Year Surprise."
As the Unreal Engine is developed by Epic Games, this announcement caused a lot of worry for the fans who are also loyal to Epic's rival storefront, Steam. Using the Unreal Engine and being published by Epic Games could lead to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 becoming an Epic Game Store exclusive.
However, the developers used the tweet to try dispelling these conspiracy theories. They say that this announcement was only to confirm the engine the game will be running on and has nothing to do with what storefront the game will be available in.
Persistent Legacy
Even though the series hasn't been updated for more than a decade now, the franchise still has a lot of fans, and its legacy is still felt throughout the industry up to now. There are games inspired by the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game that went on to become huge hits, including the Metro series.
The latest game in the series, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, also recently received an overhaul mod called Gunslinger. The mod is currently in open beta. Being an overhaul, it aims to fix major issues and to make the game more realistic.
