GSC Game World, developers of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R (stalker) series, released a new teaser trailer yesterday on IGN’s YouTube channel. The trailer is essentially an art exhibit. It shows a simple run-through of a rendered game environment which looks stunning but a far cry from the original games’ graphics.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a series of first-person shooter horror games which first started off in 2007. However, there has not been a new game in the series in the last decade. You play as a S.T.A.L.K.E.R (Scavengers, Trespassers, Adventurers, Loners, Killers, Explorers and Robbers) in an alternate reality in the area surrounding the Chernobyl disaster site. In this reality, a second explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant greatly affects the surrounding environment.

In the trailer, GSC demonstrate a bunch of features. There are lighting updates, post-processing effects, god rays, high-res textures and just about everything else one would expect from a game developed in 2020. An ominous blue light present in one scene may be the anomaly that causes our protagonist’s (“Skif”) untimely demise; death by a chair. One could speculate that the chair throw at the end is a hint at the new physics capabilities of the engine, meaning S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 will have less scripted, thus more immersive, physics.

What was also dropped was that the game will revolve around a completely new main protagonist, Skif. However, little has been said about this protagonist thus far.

This trailer shows very little of the game to look forward to. “In-Engine Footage” bears little indication of what the final game will look like. This is especially so for this game which is nowhere near completion. GSC’s own website states: “We are not ready to disclose the release date just yet.” So this teaser trailer is another attempt at keeping S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 relevant. Another lump of coal to a hype train whose track may lead us all the way into 2022.