Naturally, many people are curious to visit the forbidden zone in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Heart of Chornobyl, which will be released on November 20 for both PC and Xbox. The game has got a lot of attention for its incredible graphics.
Considering that it is being added to Game Pass starting day one, we suspect that there will be a whole lot of people who want to try it, even if they haven’t played its predecessors. But is it possible to jump in without prior knowledge, or are you missing out a lot?
In an interview at Rock Paper Shotgun with GSC Game World boss Ievgen Grygorovych, this very issue is addressed, to which he replied:
“Our first goal was to make the game for players that don’t know anything about the first games. We understood that we will have a huge part of new players, and we want to make the game good for them.”
However, this doesn’t mean that loyal fans don’t have something extra to look forward to. Grygorovych continues:
“Old players will see connections – like with some characters, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl players will say ‘Oh, I know this character!’ So they will have a deeper and more interesting experience, but [playing previous games] is not necessary to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.”
He also says that the studio is well aware that Game Pass will bring lots of curious gamers looking to check out the title and says they are prepared for just that:
“We are reaching for the console audience and the Game Pass audience, which will be huge. We are totally aiming for the new players. And we knew from the start that this was our goal.”