Image via GSC Game World

STALKER 2 gets bombastic new gunplay and combat trailer

Ka-boom, ker-blam, and so on.

While it may seem rather quaint and simplistic compared to modern hardcore tactical shooters like Escape From Tarkov, itā€™s a matter of fact that STALKER went above and beyond with its guns back in the day. That trend is primed to continue, too, if STALKER 2ā€˜s new combat gameplay trailer is any indication.

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In fact, GSC Game World has now taken STALKERā€˜s handling of weapons to its logical extreme: rails, M-LOKs, and all the other customization goodness now rule supreme. As Smoking Barrels aptly shows, you can safely expect STALKER 2 to cater to the vast majority of your gunplay needs. Need to switch a weaponā€™s caliber to accommodate less exotic ammunition? For sure. Want to slap a snazzy underbarrel shotgun to a high-grade sniper rifle? Why not! The Zoneā€™s your oyster, from the look of things.

STALKER 2: Smoking Barrel gameplay trailer shows us how guns and attachments work

In the broadest possible sense, we now have a pretty solid idea of how STALKER 2ā€˜s weapons will function:

  • Low-grade modifications can be done on the fly (e.g., attaching an optics system or an aiming module).
  • Complex modifications are completed at a technicianā€™s table.
  • Thereā€™s a non-insignificant amount of complexity related to the physics of firing a gun, as it used to be in the old STALKER games.
  • Weapons degrade and jam, depending on their state.

Most of these things, granted, we did see coming. Itā€™s still good to see them present and accounted for. In fact, STALKER 2 is seemingly taking things further in the direction of the more hardcore GAMMA and Anomaly mods when it comes to gunplay. Classic, baseline STALKER titles only ever featured a single type of optics per weapon type (SUSATs for NATO arms, PVS-14 for Warsaw pact guns), a universal silencer, and two thematically appropriate underbarrel launchers. Heart of Chornobyl has already shown off a bevy of exotic attachments, on the other hand, and seems to have modernized the upgrading systems across the board.

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In a Reddit thread discussing the featured Smoking Barrel trailer, GSC developers have also shared some information on how STALKER 2ā€˜s HUD will work. According to the community manager, the HUD can be fully customized depending on your preference, going so far as to only have an ammo counter and a health/stamina display shown at any given time. Since the old STALKER games of yore had an era-appropriate crusty UI going on, this, too, is excellent news.

I would like to complain a tad about the AI shown off in this trailer, however. In the trailer, none of the enemies appear to pose a serious threat and seemingly walk straight into Skifā€™s firing lines willy-nilly. Since we know that A-Life plays a big part in STALKER 2, I believe this is just trailer-tier AI being what it is for demonstration purposes. The community manager, of course, claims this is the case, so thatā€™s nice.

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With STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylā€s November 20 release date drawing ever closer, it genuinely seems like weā€™ve finally entered GSCā€™s final marketing push. Itā€™s worth remembering that STALKER 2 suffered a whole slew of various pushbacks over the years, so it shouldnā€™t be strange if the community is still uncertain whether itā€™s finally coming out. I myself am still a tad cynical, but I canā€™t help but feel like the hype is finally on point. Letā€™s see how this pans out.


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Image of Filip Galekovic
Filip Galekovic
A lifetime gamer and writer, Filip has successfully made a career out of combining the two just in time for the bot-driven AI revolution to come into its own.