Year 2011. Five years passed since the Second Disaster, which eclipsed the events of April 1986. The Zone is shaken by frequent and powerful blowouts, which move anomaly fields, opening new routes to previously inaccessible locations. Stalker factions fight for the new territories and key points. A lot of stalkers die, but newbies keep on arriving.

The action takes place one year prior to the events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, one year before Strelok's most successful trip to the center of the Zone – the third one. We will learn about Strelok and his squad from another character's vantage point.

The Zone is waiting for you ahead, new locations and unknown threats, spatial holes and monsters hiding in the fog, pitch-black nights and saving rays of a rising sun. Try to avoid anomalies and hide from blowouts, discover the Zone and collect artifacts, cure radioactive irradiation and fight for any stalker faction you like! Only then you will uncover the truth about Strelok and how he happened to get inside the death track and receive the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. tattoo on his arm.

Main features

• Familiar and well-know Soviet-style game world
• Real in-game objects, like Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Chernobyl-2 military object designed to detect US missiles launches and others
• The atmosphere of mystery and permanent danger
• Improved graphics using the DX10 technology (volumetric light and fog, dynamic wet surfaces etc.)
• Ability to join one of the stalker factions in the Zone and influence the balance of forces.
• Correlation of players actions to factions' attitudes towards him
• Fast travel inside the Zone with the help of guides
• New types of anomalies and artifacts
• New concept of artifact search and usage
• Developed system of weapon and protective suit upgrades
• Well-developed infrastructure of factions' bases (presence of a trader, barman, mechanic, minigame organizer etc.)
• Freedom of movement inside the game world and storyline
• Dynamic weather and day/night cycle
• Photorealistic graphics, which help to immerse into the game's atmosphere
• Realistic ballistics, huge arsenal of real existing weapons
• New multiplayer mode – Capture the Artifact
• Up to 32 players in multiplayer combat on LAN or Internet