Stalker 2 devs’ oppressive Zone was designed to destroy media’s “fantasy of a better life” – “that’s not how it works”

GSC Game World’s Stalker 2 was developed during an invasion on the developer’s homeland of Ukraine. After moving a great deal of the team to Prague, the studio suffered a massive fire, a minor but still draining setback.

Following years of awful events, Stalker 2 has released, bringing players back to the oppressive, downright threatening world we last saw in 2009’s Call of Pripyat. For GSC Game World, working on this harsh environment was tough, but the team wanted to make a game that broke town the typical media framing that gives viewers “a fantasy of a better life”. As the team tells VideoGamer, “that’s not how it works”.

Stalker 2 is designed to hurt you

Speaking to VideoGamer, GSC Game World explained that players are designed to “picture themselves stepping into” the role of Skif. “They can imagine taking a trip to the exclusion zone and becoming the protagonist,” the developer said as players are thrust into the shoes of an unextraordinary person in an extraordinary world.

“A lot of films, TV series, and games let people escape into a fantasy of a better life,” the developer told us. “Our game offers something different. It mirrors the challenges of real life. You can’t ‘win’ at life—you can only live it. Many think that more money, power, or possessions mean winning at life, but that’s not how it works. We can only exist in this world and find value in the journey.”

“It’s not because you’re a bad person; it’s just the way life is.”

GSC GAME WORLD ON WHY THE ZONE IS SO CRUEL

GSC explains that the Stalker series are designed to give you a “sense that you could achieve something”, but the Zone will eventually take you no matter what. Maybe this is why the game has no New Game Plus mode, and why there are no plans to add one. There’s no beating the Zone, there’s only delaying the end.

“Even in the earlier S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, there was a sense that you could achieve something, but it often felt like it didn’t truly matter,” the team said. “You could earn more money, but it didn’t change much. You could survive longer, but it didn’t make life easier. You might try to make the world a kinder or better place, but you can’t fix it for everyone. You can try, but every step brings you closer to an inevitable end—and that end might not be what you hoped for. It’s not because you’re a bad person; it’s just the way life is.”

In the end, Stalker 2 was designed to give players “a taste of life as it is”, a feeling that rings true even with the game’s broken A-Life systems. This is something that players have latched onto, and some have even exacerbated. One mod for the game, dubbed Desolation, makes the survival game even more nihilistic, and it’s one of the most popular conversions for the game.

Nevertheless, some people do find hope within the Zone. While “friendships are transactional”, battles are hard and resources are scarce, some players—such as myself—do feel a spark of hope that they can achieve something, however minor, within the game.

“If it sparks a sense of hope in someone, maybe that reflects something dominant within the player themselves,” the developer said. “It means the game has a pulse and a lens we intended to give it. That’s a good thing.”

GSC is still hard at work on hammering Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl into place. With a roadmap coming soon as well as plans for expansions that will offer “fresh perspectives” on the Zone, there’s a long future head.