An early build of STALKER 2 has leaked online – what will the game be like? Open world, stalkers, monsters and more

In March 2023, 15 GB of data appeared on the network STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl. The perpetrators of the leak reported that they have access to a closed version of the project, which they will also make available to the public soon. And now, after two months of rest, the test montage of the second “Stalker” was on the Internet.

We categorically do not support the activities of those who deliberately steal data and then merge it into the network, or who inadvertently monitor developers for the same sabotage purpose. At the editorial office, we adhere to the principle that it is bad to distribute stolen goods. There are no screenshots of the leaked build in this article, just text analysis.

So, at what stage is the development of STALKER 2 and what has become known from the published meeting – about this at the moment.

In March, we explored the main plot in detail through cutscenes, storyboards, and item descriptions. Now we can say with confidence that our scenario movement analysis was correct. If you’re not afraid of spoilers, read on or skip to the next section.

The merged build does not have a story campaign in the usual sense. There are no cutscenes that the developers showed during the official demos. There is no voice acting, digitized characters, objects and other things that are important for storytelling. But you can activate each task through a special debug menu: there are story, secondary and simple quests.

After the choice is made, the game world adapts to the script devised by the scenario. If the plot indicates night and rain, then this is exactly what is shown on the screen. Markers on the map, a description in the journal, and quest items also appear. There is a dialogue system with a choice of several phrase options! However, the replicas themselves are still generated by machine voice actors.

Scenario triggers work and allow to complete the quest. At the same time, not all missions have a completed appearance. In some places there are boards with cutscene descriptions, technical tips for designers, and other explanations for the development team. Some missions cannot be completed and some lead to a crash and crash on the desktop.

It takes quite some time to inspect all available quests, but most of them are unfinished or vague. Pass STALKER 2 will not work. Fans (and all sane people) better wait for the release so as not to spoil the impression of the final version of the story.

With the test setup you can look at a huge seamless world. There are many locations, some of them already have a finished look. Everything that concerns forests is done with a big five. Trees, bushes, grass and small vegetation fill the entire open world. The environment is indistinguishable from the real “Exclusion Zone”.

You can visit and see several remarkable places – Chernobyl nuclear power plant, generators, laboratories, Pripyat streets, NIICHAZ. Some are put together from Unreal Engine editor resources, some don’t have textures yet and are shown schematically. There are also soulful examples – for example, the characteristic interior of the Soviet garage, which causes a smile.

Famous locations from the prequels are present. They are not as detailed as in the official screenshots, but even in their current form they look good and recognizable. Although somewhere the geometry has changed, but somewhere some small things are missing.

The game map of the world is a schematic sketch, which we already saw in the files of the March leak. Thanks to the test console, you can select any point on the map and go directly there. Also in the files there are references to upcoming DLCs and sketches of their locations.

NPCs and monsters spawn in the open world, lone stalkers shoot blind dogs, gangs fight among themselves, and after trouble, they restore strength to their camps. The main activity on the map appears after taking mission tasks. Then there are leeches, military, “conspiracy” groups, weapons, and so on.

Through the console, it turns out to rewind time, change the weather and parameters of the hero. Not everything is perfect with shadows and lighting, but the alternation of day and night works as it should. It’s better not to walk in the dark without a flashlight, and during the day the world looks cleaner and sunnier than in the prequel games. A funny nuance – if you drink a bottle of vodka, the game world will be painted in bright colors.

The test setup is not intended for weak PCs. The build requires a large amount of RAM and video memory. Crashes happen even on video cards with 12 GB. The frame rate in places with a large accumulation of objects drops to the minimum values. The test build is not intended to pass missions and therefore lacks optimization.

The developer console allows you to activate and view all assets available in the assembly. There are already quite a few weapons. Most weapons have detailed reload animations. There are several new pistols for the series, such as a revolver and a UZI. Large caliber weapons are implemented with dignity – highly detailed textured models for shotguns, rifles, submachine guns and gauss rifles. But the icons in the inventory are in most cases from the original trilogy. Large caliber guns and grenade launchers have a funny guitar icon. By the way, the guitar itself was not found in the game files. Maybe they didn’t search properly.

The equipment list is extensive. The stats of several helmets, jackets, and anomaly detectors are already set, but they still display the same icons in the inventory. Dressing up also does not change the appearance of the hero. But according to the lists presented, we can say that we are waiting for a truly extensive wardrobe.

Monsters are already implemented in the test version, although not completely. In the game, already known, but updated bloodsuckers, controllers, pseudo-giants, burer and other mutants are waiting for us. From the new – a bayun cat and a forest moose. The files also mention a bear, a kink, a dentist and an anther. But these monsters do not have models yet, when activated through the console, they appear in the form of blind dogs.

Monsters have artificial intelligence and behavior. Controllers alter reality, summon ghosts and draw the player in. The leech becomes invisible – it can only be detected by the footprints left on the ground. Forest Elk often attacks along with another monster meat. I must say that the fight is already interesting.

The list of NPCs in the developer console has been expanded. Each faction has a dozen main story characters, as well as a certain rotation based on rank and skill. For example, beginners have cheap armor and weak firearms. Veterans have huge guns and body kits on their clothes. There are not so many unique heads, but this is not so important, the developers promise extensive randomization of the appearance. Most likely, only basic parameters are presented in the test version.

In the open world, NPCs occasionally respawn alongside the player. Very often they arrange firefights among themselves or kill monsters. The player can interact with the characters, search the corpses and drag the bodies to remote places. There are especially many enemies in key story locations. During the skirmishes, they talk and react vividly to changing circumstances.

Open world anomalies have already been encountered, and they can be loaded through the console. There are really spectacular new effects, there are familiar ones from previous games. But overall, the development team still has a lot of work to do in terms of anomalies.

The trial version of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is not an alpha or beta version of the game. For developers, it is just a platform for experimentation and testing of gameplay features. There are already many assets in the test version with good models and textures. Rumors that the authors are using developments from the unfinished second part and models from the Unreal store have not been confirmed. Assets are completed over time, animations are linked together and all icons are given a unique design.

It is fundamentally wrong to pass judgment on an unreleased game at this point. The only thing that can be said for sure is that Stalker 2 is going to be a very big game. There is so much content in the assembly that it takes several days to study it. And this is just a draft version, which, most likely, the developers have not updated for a long time.

We hope the leak doesn’t affect the production process – we keep waiting for the game, which will no doubt be a big event on release day. Even if it doesn’t happen this year, as promised. Apparently the work is still an entire Exclusion Zone.