GSC Game World announced S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.0: Heart of Chornobyl, a particularly full-bodied update that will be available free of charge for all game owners from 20 August. New features include a new version of the engine, important graphic renewal, further improvements to the A-Life system, new options to customize the difficulty, four additional weapons and even three different types of binoculars.
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The date has not been chosen randomly: always on August 20 will debut in fact Cost of Hope, the first major expansion of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, dedicated to the historical conflict between Duty and Freedom and available separately at the price 29,99 euro or as part of the Ultimate Edition.
One of the most interested components of the update will be visual. GSC Game World has worked on the lighting of the Zone with the goal of getting more natural and credible environments, intervening in particular on the yield of shadows and reflections.
Improvements will affect both open spaces and interiors of buildings and underground settings, while landscapes and vegetation have been reworked to give the Zone a more organic aspect.
The Update 2.0 will therefore represent a real update of the graphics component of Heart of Chornobyl, accompanied by the passage to a new engine version and numerous technical interventions accumulated through the years of support following the exit.
Work on A-Life, the system that manages much of the dynamic activity within the Zone and that GSC Game World continued to perfect through previous updates.
With version 2.0 they will increase the points of interest, including bonfires, bus stops and other areas where stalkers and mutants can meet independently. The goal is to make exploration less predictable and give more the impression that the world continues to live independently of the player's presence.
The developers have also introduced many less obvious but equally important interventions. They were correct, among others, problems that could bring enemies to Shoot or throw objects through the walls, as well as situations in which certain areas could populate abnormally with an excessive number of characters or creatures.
One of the main innovations of the Update 2.0 will be represented by Custom Rules, through which each player can individually change different difficulty parameters and build an experience closer to their preferences. It will therefore be possible to make survival in the Zone relatively more permissive or push the settings in the opposite direction, creating an extremely hardcore experience.
Those seeking an even greater challenge can also rely on difficulty Master and optional mode Expedition, already introduced through previous updates.
Among the apparently simpler additions, but potentially very useful during exploration, we find the binoculars. The Update 2.0 will introduce three different models, designed to allow stalkers to observe the territory from afar, identify any targets and plan their next move more carefully.
Each binocular will be characterized by different technologies and features. The various models can be found by exploring the Zone or purchased at some traders. The introduction of this tool should be of particular importance especially in the most open areas, allowing the player to study a camp or identify potential threats before exposure to danger.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 arsenal will also expand with four new weapons. The first is theArev, an assault rifle, while GP3A and SKP belong to the category of marksman reflected. To complete the quartet we find the Hole-230A new machine gun. Somewhere in the Zone will also be hidden a unique variant of one of the four new weapons, offering the most meticulous explorers a further secret to discover. New customization possibilities will be accompanied by weapons. The update will introduce x3 optics intended for weapons of the Western bloc and a new red dot sight for those of the eastern bloc.
GSC Game World has also expanded the system offset aiming, which will no longer be closely linked to the use of night viewers. Players will have more freedom in the configuration of their equipment and the way they use the different optics.
With Update 2.0, fog will stop being only an atmospheric phenomenon to become a real gameplay mechanics. In the presence of particularly foggy conditions, both stalkers and their enemies will suffer a reduction in visual and auditory capacity.
This means that weather conditions will be able to change concretely the way to face a confrontation or cross a certain area, creating opportunities to move without being identified but making it more difficult to notice in time the threats present in the surroundings.
The weather scenario Light Rainy will receive a visual renewal, in line with the interventions made on the general presentation of the Zone.
The update will also introduce a new Statistics page within the PDA, through which it will be possible to keep track of its activities during the adventure and observe more in detail what is done during the explorations.
GSC Game World has also worked on the visual variety of some of the most recognizable creatures in the series. Bloodsucker and Flesh may present different aspects according to the habitat in which they meet, making the populations of mutants more recognizable in the different areas of the Zone. It is one of the many modifications through which the studio wants to make the world of play more organic and less uniform, making the surrounding environment have consequences even on the creatures that populate it.
The 20 August will not only mark the arrival of the Update 2.0. The same day GSC Game World will publish Cost of Hope, the first major expansion of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The new narrative content will focus on long conflict between Duty and Freedom, two of the most known factions of the universe of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and promises numerous additional hours of exploration and history. Cost of Hope will allow you to visit new locations, including Iron Forest, CNPP and Spatial Bubble, continuing to expand the Zone and further deepening factions, mysteries and conflicts.
The expansion will be included in the Ultimate Edition of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and can be purchased separately at the price 29,99 euro, except for regional variations. In order to accompany the approach to the exit of Cost of Hope, GSC Game World also organized an initiative dedicated to the rivalry between the two sides protagonists of expansion.
Players will face a brief quiz to find out if their beliefs are more compatible with Duty or Freedom, then choose your own faction and contribute to the competition between the two sides.
The initiative will also allow to compete to obtain a selection of exclusive prizes and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. themed products available in extremely limited quantities.
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