A long and tedious road.
The hostile and treacherous Zone.
Unbelievable treasures that might cost you everything.
A blood trial, separating your old life from a new one...

Welcome to The Zone — an area of exclusion around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a seamless open-world environment full of radiation, mutants and anomalies, it keeps drawing adventurers from beyond the perimeter.

Bounty hunters dwell deep into the Zone, driven by its treasures and mysteries. These people are known as stalkers.

Are you ready to become one of them?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl developer GSC Game World announced the creation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Metaverse, where players can truly own a piece of the game.

In partnership with Los Angeles-based DMarket, a platform for trading NFTs and technology for metaverse creation, GSC will use blockchain technology to let the community own a piece of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The rights to certain unique items will belong to players and it is the first time for the AAA video game.

“Considering the global trends in gaming, we can do more than just offer an immersive game experience. Our players can get a deeper presence in the game, and we will give them this opportunity by presenting the first AAA game with a unique meta experience,” says Evgeniy Grygorovych, CEO of GSC Game World.

Beginning in December 2021, users may register for item drops that will evolve into a new gaming feature built on top of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.  The first drop will take place via auction and is scheduled for January, 2022. As part of the drop series, the first-ever metahuman will be released and exposed to hundreds of millions of gamers worldwide. In-game, the metahuman will appear as an 'NPC', or a non-playable character. The face of the real owner will be recreated in the game by using photogrammetry technology, resulting in the highest possible level of realism.

The second drop will follow in February with the highly secretive genesis packs. The next drops will be announced on Twitter and Discord.

To add, any S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2-related drops won’t influence the gameplay itself or give in-game advantages over other players.

“Video game developers worldwide are expressing their intentions in using the blockchain and other beneficial technologies while GSC is already there. The company is adding a unique layer and bringing their game to a whole new level into the global  Metaverse and Web 3.0 dimension. With the joint efforts of GSC and DMarket, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will become a game of the future and a game for the community,” says Vlad Panchenko, CEO and co-founder at DMarket.

In addition, all items can be traded on the dmarket.com platform, even before the official game release.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl will feature a branching story with multiple endings. Players will have to constantly make uneasy choices with tough consequences — some of them changing the world itself.

The unique simulation system called A-Life from the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. trilogy is getting on a new level with A-Life 2.0. With different behavior of characters and mutants, the Zone changes constantly. Every playthrough will be unique with lots of things happening every moment, even if the player doesn’t witness them directly.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl is coming to PC and Xbox Series X|S as a console launch exclusive on April 28, 2022. The console version of the sequel will also enter Xbox Game Pass on day one.