A post on a Russian forum dedicated to the Chernobyl-based first-person shooter series STALKER has revealed some old documents related to the game's full-fledged sequel. These documents represent one of the largest leaks for the original version of STALKER 2.
Originally announced in 2010 by developer GSC Game World, STALKER 2 would be a sequel to the first STALKER game and its two spin-off games. However, it wound up being canceled in 2012 and a new version of the game was announced in 2018. The leaks, released on two Russian fan sites for the series, were discovered by Nintendo Smash and represent the original version of STALKER 2, so it's very unlikely any of what we learn will be in the new version of the game. GSC themselves confirmed that this leak is legit on Discord and are fine with the fans sharing it and talking about it.
In addition to miscellaneous details and concept art for maps, characters, and mutants, we learned a good deal about the original story and gameplay. Players would take control of an unnamed former stalker who enters the Exclusion Zone in hopes of understanding his mysterious nightmares about it, but "finds himself entangled in a network of intrigues."
Characters from the first game, like the Shooter and the Doctor, would show up, as well as conspirators from the Scientific Research Institue of CHaZ. However, a second version of the story, found in the VKontakte “Bulletin of the Same Stalker” community page, puts the Shooter as the protagonist, having been expelled from the Research Institute before the events of the game. Either way, the "multidimensional" main campaign would take around 10 hours to complete, and would measure up to 30 hours if players also completed all the side missions in what was planned to be a seamless "living" world.
The current version of STALKER 2 is expected to release for PC and Xbox Series X/S sometime this year.
