STALKER 2, the long-awaited Ukrainian video game that ‘survived’ the Russian invasion

“The war damaged our lives, not our creativity.” From its antenna installed in Prague after the russian invasionthe director of the Ukrainian studio GSC Game World recounts the difficulties he and his team had to face in order to launch STALKER 2.

Wednesday’s release of the long-awaited sequel to the popular apocalyptic video game released in 2007, set in Chernobyl, marks the end of a long and chaotic development process.

Some studio employees left for eastern Ukraine and then the Czech Republic just days before the Russian invasion in February 2022, while others enlisted in the army.

“Most of them stayed in Ukraine, but we don’t have the impression of having a divided team”, Ievgen Grygorovych, director of GSC Game World, told AFP.

All meetings are held online, including the weekly meeting of the nearly 500 employees spread between Ukraine and the Czech Republic.

Born a few days before the Chernobyl disaster, Ievgen Grygorovych was only 14 years old when he joined the studio founded in 1995 in kyiv by his brother Sergiy.

Although he describes himself as “a pretty good programmer and game designer,” nothing could have prepared him for his hasty departure from Ukraine, which was the subject of a documentary titled “War Game: The Making of STALKER 2,” posted on YouTube. in October.

“The invasion affected us”

The studio is targeted by Russian hackers almost daily, who attempted to disrupt the release of the sequel.

First introduced in 2010, development on “STALKER 2″ was interrupted for several years. Its release was postponed repeatedly, but finally It will be released on PC and Xbox Series on November 20.

“The invasion affected us and the game,” says Ievgen Grygorovych, who fled with his wife, five-year-old son and other family members.

Team members who took refuge in Prague send part of their salaries to Ukraine to help their families, while those who enlisted continue to receive their salaries.

The video game owes its title to the acronym used in the game for describe the looters who prowl the Chernobyl exclusion zone after a second fictional nuclear disaster.

“It is one of the most beautiful places on Earth,” says Ievgen Grygorovych, about this place whose team has visited several times.

“You can see a tree growing on top of a five-story building. It’s very scary and strange. It is a unique experience,” he says.

GSC, which claims to have sold more than 15 million copies of ‘STALKER’ and its two sequels released in 2008 and 2009presented this new opus to the public last year at the Gamescom fair in Germany.

This first contact allowed him to correct several errors.

“I want to be proud of what we have done,” says Ievgen Grygorovych, concerned about the reaction of fans a few days after the game’s launch.

“I’m very happy that this game survived the war,” says one of them in the documentary.

“And I am sure that Ukraine will also overcome it,” adds the fan.