GSC Game World has announced its plans for updates to Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl for the remainder of 2025. Big ticket updates include tweaks and changes to the A-Life system, Unreal Engine 5 performance gains, and new night vision devices to play with.
“Our main mission in the near future is upgrading the game to Unreal Engine 5.5.4. This will bring new features and tools to make the Zone an even better place, but more importantly — bringing the latest Unreal Engine 5 optimizations will lead to better stability and performance,” stated GSC Game World in a Steam post.
GSC states that it’s aiming to hit this goal for the year, but the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade might ultimately have an impact on all planned updates rolling out this calendar year.
GAME UPDATE LIST FOR YEAR 2025
- ENGINE UPDATE TO UNREAL ENGINE 5.5.4 (FOR OPTIMIZATION)
- VARIOUS NIGHT VISION DEVICES
- BINOCULARS
- A-LIFE UPDATES:
- More A-Life Zone: various technical improvements and updates
- NPCs can’t see in the dark as good as before without
- NPC Combat Updates
- Mutants Combat & Balance Updates
- NEW ANOMALIES
- NEW MISSIONS, FROM OLD AND NEW FRIENDS
- NEW WEATHER SCENARIO
- MASTER DIFFICULTY PRESET
- EXTENDED DAY/NIGHT CYCLE
- STASHES LOOT REWORK
- STAMINA AND ENERGY DRINKS REWORK
- IMMERSIVE DISPLAY MODE
- PLAYER EQUIPMENT UI UPDATE
- protection stats, finally!
- MORE UI UPDATES AND IMPROVEMENTS
- LOCAL SAVE BACKUP RESTORATION
- FURTHER OPTIMIZATION AND “ANOMALIES” FIXING
- ZONE KIT-PHASE 1 TO PHASE 2
- Audio Modding (Wwise)
- Narrative Tools
- create your own stories
- Improved compatibility of various mods that interact with common game systems
- Enhanced Blueprints Modification Support
- Technical Improvements and Optimization
- DISCORD HOLIDAY EVENT
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