Ukrainian studio GSC Game World has announced plans for further development of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl for the second quarter of 2025, after focusing on solving important problems in the first quarter.
"The Zone is evolving and will continue to. Throughout the year, we will be delivering updates and hotfixes dedicated to making the game better in every aspect. With proper planning, double testing (internal and closed beta for big updates) of all features and fixes, and your feedback, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl will become the game we imagined — and you deserve," the studio said in a statement.
Over the next three months, fans can expect better mod support, including beta MOD SDK tools, as well as updates to the AI and A-Life system. In particular, GSC Game World promises that NPCs will be smarter about hiding in cover and carrying fewer grenades, and mutants will start to react to threats and eat corpses.
In STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, mutants will soon start dropping loot after death. For PC users, an important feature will be added - the ability to skip shader compilation. Players will also receive an expanded cache interface, support for ultrawide screens, two new weapons, as well as another batch of fixes and optimization improvements.
At the same time, GSC Game World reminds that in the next few months, players will be waiting for the Next-Gen update of the original STALKER trilogy.