STALKER 2 pre-order bonuses revealed, include an upgraded VSS Vintorez

Despite my own initial skepticism, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is shaping up to be the tour-de-force that both the developer GSC Game World and the franchise’s fans deserve. The November 20 launch date is seemingly set in stone, too, with pre-order goodies now finally shown off.

As exciting as news about STALKER 2‘s mod-kit and A-Life handling might be, who wouldn’t get thrilled by a fancy new gun skin? Notably, while we have known for quite a while now that there’d be a snazzy set of pre-order bonuses available to those who pre-purchase STALKER 2, the specifics have been fairly hazy. That’s all in the past now that GSC has shown off an appropriately tuned VSS Vintorez, the legendary Tourist stalker suit, and a backpack patch, of all things. These items will be available for discovery in-game to all pre-order owners across all platforms, so it’s worth highlighting them.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl early bird pre-order digital content shown off, and it’s cool stuff

Skins are, obviously, not going to be particularly relevant to one’s core gameplay experience in playing STALKER 2, but they sure are lovely to look at. More specifically, the pre-order boons include:

• Gvintar/Vintar DMR (As VSS marksman rifle) with custom attachments and a built-in Geiger counter.
• “Tourist” Sunrise suit of armor with appropriate upgrades.
• “Early Bird” survivalist backpack (with a fancy sewn-on patch).
• Bonus Campfire content, including guitar tunes and stories.

Nothing too wild or ridiculous, then. My only hope is that this pack of goodies is later bundled into a post-launch DLC of sorts, as it’d be a shame to have it permanently locked behind pre-order/early bird offers.

The big question, though, is how these items will be handled in-game. To have a VSS handed to you in the early stages of a STALKER game is… uh, definitely a choice. The featured armor set, too, appears to have increased inventory capacity and upgraded protection against anomalies, and this could very well end up killing the early-game survival experience.

I expect that GSC will have foreseen this as a potential problem, however. I expect that all three of these items will instead be found a bit later on, as the player progresses through the early-game gauntlet. We’ll have to wait and see, however.