The developers of STALKER 2 have discussed the game’s first hands-on at gamescom 2023 and addressed a “downgrade” debate sparked by a new gameplay trailer.
GSC Game World told IGN it is still targeting a visual quality and level of polish suggested by STALKER 2’s eye-catching 2021 trailer (below). This comes despite the horrendous conditions suffered by the staff at the Ukrainian developer amid the war with Russia, which halted development, displaced staff, and caused a number of delays.
STALKER 2 was at the Microsoft gamescom 2023 booth in hands-on fashion, letting the public and press play the post-apocalyptic first-person shooter for the first time. STALKER 2’s gamescom 2023 gameplay trailer (below) includes footage taken from the build used at the show.
It’s fair to say the build on show was rough. As IGN’s STALKER 2 hands-on preview revealed: “Despite its Unreal Engine 5 base and prominent Microsoft support, the 15-minute gamescom demo suggests that STALKER 2 still sits in the ‘eurojank’ category; the colloquial term for eastern European games that are overly ambitious and technically wobbly.
“This sequel’s animations are stiff, its human faces look like haunted waxworks, the AI struggles to stay smart, and inventory management is fiddly. But in exchange for that you get a Soviet bloc world that feels authentic and layered with opportunity. This demo may have been short, but its small areas featured numerous angles for stealth or action approaches, fun flanking routes, and a variety of side objectives.”
The reaction to the latest STALKER 2 trailer sparked the dreaded “downgrade” claim from some. But what’s actually going on here? Maksym Yanchyi, lead Xbox programmer on Stalker 2, and GSC Game World’s public relations manager, Zakhar Bocharov, explained studio’s approach.
“We decided to take not a marketing approach, like showing something really polished and beautiful in a safe way, but rather a player approach, so you can play it even though it’s imperfect,” Bocharov said.
“Of course there are certain risks implemented because the polishing goes all the way through. But that’s how we decided to approach that, to give players a chance to play the game.”
Bocharov said GSC Game World had seen the “downgrade” reaction from some people following the release of the latest STALKER 2 trailer, but moved to reassure fans there’s more work to be done on the game to improve things.
“When you are constantly releasing marketing materials, trailers, etc, it’s like some people always say that it’s downgraded. You can always see someone unhappy with what they see. I guess that downgrade thing is a result of the game being work in progress first of all. And it can be changed. In certain aspects the demo we showed, it looks more beautiful than the trailer we released.
“The build obviously was a priority for people to play here [gamescom]. Also we wanted them to have a glimpse of what’s in the demo because we’re not sharing it publicly. So it’s like a showreel for the demo, the trailer itself.”
Bocharov brought up Epic’s Unreal Engine 5, which GSC Game World is using to build STALKER 2. He highlighted its lighting system, which “generates a huge amount of the overall impression from the picture itself, because the same graphics with different lighting can look extremely different”.
GSC Game World, Bocharov explained, is still figuring out all the technologies Unreal Engine 5 makes available, for example its Lumen Global Illumination tech. “It needs to be adjusted,” Bocharov said. “The engine got constantly updated. Then there are certain aspects which can look slightly worse than they were in terms of lighting. I guess a lot of people are referring to that dog scene — certain things can look like they’re downgraded in the moment, probably they are because it’s work in progress. We are getting there.
“Certain things, they look exactly like they looked back when we showcased the gameplay demo. So I guess what we are aiming for, despite all the ups and downs, our goal in terms of the overall level of graphics on the release is the gameplay video we released in 2021.
“That’s our target visuals, and we are getting there, we are seeing that we’re getting there, but there can be certain humps on the way.”
STALKER 2 is due out early 2024 on PC and Xbox Series X and S.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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