S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 - what will it be?

On the Internet of news about the upcoming game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is not very good, there is little information and generally little discussion of this project, which is allegedly already being developed by the Ukrainian studio GSC Game World. From time to time there are some vague hints, but the reaction to them is sluggish. And it's strange, given the wild popularity of the first three S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

I am not Nostradamus and not a psychic, but I imagine what kind of game it will be. So, looking at the general trends that are now taking over the gaming world, discarding those that are clearly off topic, we can assume:

1 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 with a high degree of probability will be a massively multiplayer online game, it is not for nothing that Survarium has become exactly like this, which, according to some sources, is, in general, the same STALKER-2, only already completed without Grigorovich and his studio...

Studio GSC Game World is unlikely to pull a full-fledged game, such as Far Cry 5, but an online toy that can be completed for a long time and without much strain for a long time is easy. An example, the same Survarium, which to this day has not been brought to mind - everything is at the level of a shooter like CounterStrike.

2 - Even if the studio GSC Game World manages to do the impossible - find the money to create a full-fledged game with a single mode (well, or with two modes - single and multiplayer), the question rests on the plot. She can’t go further than the Chernobyl Zone, because this is one of the most hyped chips in Stalker. And here everything is already gnawed to the bone, it is extremely difficult to come up with something new. If, however, to break away from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and indulge in all serious, the risk of failure greatly increases. And for GSC Game World, the failure of such a project is complete bankruptcy.

3 - The risk of failure increases also for other, political reasons. If the first three Stalkers everywhere showed "the remnants of the former great and mighty Union", then this carried warm and nostalgic emotions (in any case, there was no anti-Sovietism). Now the trends of modern Ukrainian reality resemble some kind of totalitarianism - a dictatorship, disobeying the orders of which is fraught with the execution of hundreds of hungry dogs from an atomic machine gun...

Crazed types staged a frenzied war on the whole past, you either have to spit on the past, or they will spit on you yourself.

It is unlikely that Grigorovich will dare to go against the wind, especially since he has already marked his Euromaidan sentiments. And this means that the game will be a failure in Russia, and in Belarus, and in Kazakhstan, and indeed in the CIS countries, among the majority of the Russian-speaking population, even in Ukraine itself.

4 - Stalker 2, Abandoned Enterprise, Time Stopped4 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be built according to Western principles, which everyone has been tired of in games for a long time - these same clichés, monotony and boredom...

So my personal opinion is to create a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, which would be of the same level and the same popularity as the first three Stalkers, GSC Game World will not succeed. The failure of Metro Exodus, despite the very high level of expectation from its players, speaks volumes. Six months have passed, and everyone has already forgotten about her... neither in the news, nor on the forums... complete indifference. It was not necessary to shoot at the monument to Lenin, morons, it was not necessary!

P.S. Information appeared on the Internet that GSC Game World is recruiting employees to work on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, and to support existing ones. Probably, the company decided to remaster the old Stalkers - so to speak, "stretch" them to HD quality...

If Grigorovich hadn’t spanked with a mitten in his time, he could have released several add-ons or DLC for each Stalker game, which could keep these games afloat for a long time, at the same time bringing good income to the company... Now it’s too late to do this. Yes, and the creators of the mods have already pumped out everything that was possible from this topic.

Oscar Khallylov, 2019