Stalker 2 Will Officially Run On Unreal Engine 5, Confirms Developer

Glorious

by Daniel Hollis Thu 12th Aug 2021

Stalker 2 Will Officially Run On Unreal Engine 5 — *Image: GSC Game World*

Stalker 2 came in with an incredible gameplay demo during Xbox's E3 Showcase this year, and now we have confirmation of the tech that powered the eye-watering trailer. Developer GSC Game World has confirmed the game is actually running on Unreal Engine 5.

The game joins a small batch of titles that have been revealed to have moved over to the impressive graphics engine. The next entry in the Stalker series will be one of the first titles implementing Unreal Engine 5 on Xbox Series X and Series S, hopefully showcasing just how powerful these next-gen machines are.

Unreal Engine's Twitter account jokingly replied to Stalker 2's tweet, claiming they "thought it was a secret". However, GSC Game World put their money where their mouth is and came back with a screenshot of the game being developed in Unreal Engine 5.

A few other games are also moving over to UE5 for their development. The Outer Worlds 2 may be one of those games, according to a recent job listing. Others include State of Decay 3, Hellblade 2 and The Coalition's future projects.

In fact, the latter recently shared a tech demo of Unreal Engine 5 in action on Xbox Series X, showcasing just how powerful the new graphics tool is. Not long until we start seeing some truly next-gen experiences!

Happy to see Stalker 2 running in Unreal Engine 5? Let us know in the comments below.

[source twitter.com]

From spending sleepless nights anticipating the release of Fable II, Daniel has always been a massive advocate of Xbox. His obsession with Fable was only the beginning of a love for the RPG genre. Outside of gaming, Daniel can also be found attending gigs or creating poorly constructed drum solos

1
GamingFan4Lyf
Thu 12th Aug 2021

@Xenomorph_79 The original game was actually very ahead of it's time. Key members of the original STALKER team left and started 4A Games - makers of the Metro series.

I dabbled in the game a little bit, but the gameplay never really clicked with me. I know the game was very ambitious in terms of AI, Weather, etc. and I think it was relatively glitchy. It just ended up getting overshadowed by more polished games of the time. I would probably enjoy it now if I still had access to it.

Looking forward to giving this one a shot - especially since it's a Day 1 Game Pass release.

2
Cherip-the-Ripper
Thu 12th Aug 2021

So either this or Forspoken will be the first big unreal engine 5 game to come out then?

3
FriendlyOctopus
Thu 12th Aug 2021

Does this mean the first unreal engine 5 console game will be on Xbox? Are any unreal engine 5 games heading to ps5 sooner? Genuinely curious

4
Ocat
Thu 12th Aug 2021

Stalker 2 is not gonna make release date April I’m afraid.

5
BAMozzy
Thu 12th Aug 2021

I am not surprised that games are being ported to UE5 now but I don't expect many to use Nanite and/or Lumen. I am sure UE5 will still offer more in terms of PQ, Performance and/or optimisation gains.

UE5 has a 'better' Temporal Upscaling and could use that to target a Higher Frame Rate with less of 'hit' to PQ despite dropping Resolution. That's without having to convert Assets to Nanite and use Lumen for their Lighting.

As for whether or not this is the 'first' UE5 game, I don't know - because Fortnite is getting a UE5 update in 2022 and there is the 'next' (2022 PES) eFootball game too. You have Hellblade II and the next Coalition game too but unlikely in 2022 and don't know when Dragonquest XII is coming but that's a UE5 game.

Games like Avowed, Ark II, Hogwarts Legacy, New BioShock etc are coming on 'Unreal' but as yet, the version hasn't been confirmed - they could be ported to UE5...