Stalker 2 dev on narrative themes of displacement amid a backdrop of war
We spoke to Slava Lukyanenka, Lead Producer on Stalker 2 at GSC Game World, about how the studio's displacement from its home country is being reflected in its art.
27th Aug 2024 14:39
Images via GSC Game World
Stalker 2 dev on narrative themes of displacement amid a backdrop of war
We spoke to Slava Lukyanenka, Lead Producer on Stalker 2 at GSC Game World, about how the studio's displacement from its home country is being reflected in its art.
27th Aug 2024 14:39
Images via GSC Game World
Stalker 2 is one of this year's most anticipated games, and following a recent delay it appears to be locked in for a November 20 release.
Its development cycle has been affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which forced developer GSC Game World to move its operations to Prague to be able to finish the project. I sat down with Slava Lukyanenka, the game's Lead Producer, to talk about how the studio's current situation is manifesting within the Zone.
"The Voice of Monolith has gone"
“When I joined the company, the last time I played Stalker was 10 years back,” Lukyanenka explains.
“My understanding of what the zone is at that time was kind of on the average level, but when I started to talk to our story director, I started to learn step by step, the way they want to present, the feelings that our developers could have at this point within the story, using tiny metaphors, explaining how people could feel when they have nowhere to go home, the desperation and, the loneliness.”
“I must confess that our story is not just a regular story of the person who went into the zone. You’ll see a lot of self-reflection from our developers,” he says.
“Not literally, we won’t be talking about war because it’s not happening in the game’s universe, but you may feel the same sentiments through phrases and actions of the other characters.”
Lukyanenka points to Strider, one of the series' most popular characters, and draws comparisons between his time serving the religious Monolith organization and his subsequent breakaway.
"Strider has this phrase in the trailer we released last year which was “Suddenly the voice of Monolith of Monolith was gone”, and he understood what he has done before.
“In many aspects, that’s something people in Ukraine felt when the invasion had started, because once the Russian propaganda had gone away, you see what is actually happening when the Russian army enters a new city - “the voice of Monolith has gone”, and people started to understand.”
“These kinds of tiny metaphors, tiny self-reflections, they’re spread out along the story and causing a lot of emotions, at least on my side.”
For more on Stalker 2, be sure to check out our preview of 30 minutes of gameplay from Gamescom 2024.
About The Author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
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