Stalker 2 release date revealed and it's coming next year

The Stalker 2 release date is official after years of waiting, and it's coming your way next year.

The Xbox E3 2021 event hosted the grand reveal of a new trailer for the long-awaited sequel, which included both the Stalker 2 release date and the new, official Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl title. The open-world shooter set in a strange and twisted Chernobyl containment zone is headed to Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC on April 28, 2022, and it will be a day-one selection for Xbox Game Pass as well.

The trailer is set the perspective of our new hero Skif, cutting between some sedate scenes around the campfire with some sorta-friendly faces, and Skif cutting through the many dangers of the containment zone: there are the other humans combing the abandoned region for treasures of course, but then there's also the anomalies that tear through the very fabric of reality - sometimes literally - and mutants lurking deep within mysterious research facilities.

The trailer goes in-depth with several aspects of the game and introduces some characters who seem like they'll be key to Skif's journey through Pripyat: that dark-haired guy who seems a little too eager to personify the containment zone is especially worrisome, but at least you'll have some pals to hang out with when you aren't busy fighting for your life. Showing stalkers at rest in relative safety between their expeditions was one of the best, subtle details from the original Stalker games, and it's good to see that developer GSC Game World is still invested in showing us these different sides of the zone.

The Stalker series of games (it's very loosely based on the Soviet art house sci-fi movie of the same name) began with Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl in 2007, and was followed by a prequel in 2008 and a sequel in 2010. Fans of Metro Exodus will almost certainly want to mark this release date in their calendars.  

With so much 4K content hitting the best streaming services nowadays, we've got our fingers crossed that some cracking OLED, QLED, and other top 4K TVs will be making appearances in our early coverage of the best Prime Day TV deals.