STALKER 2: What is a Stalker?
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.
STALKER 2 Development Reportedly Relocating to Czech Republic
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
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