In the shadow of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
A S.T.A.L.K.E.R. although it is undeniably the largest series in the GSC Game World, we will only deal with it more briefly in this article.
It started with a simple sci-fi shooting range, but became an apocalyptic-themed FPS dotted with Chernobyl-interwoven RPG elements. Oblivion Lost has thus become S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but for so many years that the community has already seen the ambitious plan of Ukrainian developers as vaporware.
The first episode, Shadow of Chernobyl, was released worldwide in March 2007 and was so successful that in the fall of 2008 it was already over 2 million in sales. The financial success was also confirmed by the press: the guys created a game with which they inscribed themselves in the history of the game’s world.
Unsurprisingly, the sequel came to the international market in September 2008 (available in Ukraine a few days earlier, from 29 August). S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Clear Sky was, so to speak, an extension of the previous game, but this is due to the fact that we were able to get to know what happened so far from a different perspective. However, this made the press and players less excited. The success of the Shadow of Chernobly could not be surpassed.
There was no doubt the developers felt the problems around Clear Sky. The next part, the development of Call of Pripyat, was therefore given even more time. The game was finally released in Ukraine on October 2, 2009, but the international debut had to wait until February 2010. The success was unquestionable, however, the Shadow of Chernobyl, which had already become a cult game at the time, could not be surpassed, but it didn’t really interest the developers. Critics and the community still loved the game, and even became more and more hungry for the newer adventures of S.T.A.L.K.E.R..
Cossacks III
Unfortunately, not much is known about the project, but a full third part of the Cossacks was planned. On the stage of the 2009 Stalker-Fest, Sergiy Grygorovych signaled to fans with a “t-shirt” movement that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. here or there, but they didn’t forget their popular strategy either. But we never got more from the project …
However, something has changed
S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Call of Pripyat brought GSC Game World back to the imaginary ring so much that they thought of a full-fledged sequel. The true sequel was announced in August 2010. They started writing for a brand new in-house multiplatform game engine and were so determined they wanted to release it in 2012. There have already been special rumors in the international press about the cancellation of the game, which has been refuted several times, however, on April 25, 2012, an all-changing Twitter message came from Sergiy Grygorovych: the game was canceled.
The developers of GSC Game World, which was disbanded back in late 2011, dispersed, eventually forming studios such as Vostok Games (Survarium, Fear the Wolves), 4A Games (Metro series) and West-Games (formerly Union Studio). The latter is interesting because they worked though an S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, but it would have been a work that could be run in a single browser. His legal tug-of-war over the title was really a misunderstanding, the rights had always been owned by Sergiy Grygorovych.
After the break-up, GSC Game World became a so-called shell-company that existed only on paper with no employees.
New Hope
Then, after a couple of years, a news arrived in December 2014 that GSC Game World had reopened its doors and they were already working on a new game. One of the developers of Survarium, who was still working for Sergiy Grygorovych at the time, relied on inside information on their own game forum that the new team was working on Cossacks 3.
However, the official announcement had to wait until May 18, 2015, the day, when the press release arrived. By this time, many people already knew that the strategy itself was in the works, as the Facebook page was also launched and sharp-eyed users spotted this pretty quickly.
GSC Game World’s plan hasn’t been hidden: with the third part, they want to bring the Cossacks back to the world. The recipe is a good choice: take a successful game and upgrade it. Many users thought: they simply could not make mistakes.
Although beta testing was planned for the game, in the end it didn’t come together and the game was released on September 20, 2016. He was quite bumpy at the start and not without any technical problems. However, the new team has brought GSC Game World back into the imaginary ring with constant updates and new features.
The development went so well that on December 13, 2016, the first add-on, Day of Brilliance, arrived, followed by Rise to Glory (February 16, 2017), and then came Path to Grandeur (May 16, 2017). and the line was closed by The Golden Age (August 24, 2017). In these downloadable content, we got back the units we learned from the first parts of the Cossacks with a few exceptions, but there were newer units as well.
The biggest features was the Guardians of the Highlands, seen as an add-on, which arrived on April 12, 2017, bringing the Scots into the world of the Cossacks, and with a whole new game mechanic, the “advisor”.
Critics didn’t give the game too many points due to initial technical issues at release (Metacritic score: 63), but the players threw themselves at it and its community is still unbroken.
Back to the roots again
Thanks to the financial success of Cossacks 3, GSC Game World was able to return to what forced it to park on the parking lot. This S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. The next game announced in August 2010 is promised for 2024 and will use Epic’s solution, the Unreal Engine. The project has also been embraced by Microsoft, so the question is not whether it will show up, but when. As with its predecessor, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been continually delayed, with neither 2021 nor 2022 coming together.
Russian invasion
On 24 February 2022, the world was shocked to hear that Russia had invaded Ukraine. Although there has been fighting in Ukraine since 2014, those local conflicts have not escalated into a general war. However, instead of the Russian state-backed separatists, the country has now been invaded by a full war machine, which has forced the GSC, among others, to leave the country. Unfortunately, the fighting soon reached Kiev, where the company is headquartered, and the situation became increasingly desperate. The developers made a quick decision and moved the studio to the Czech capital, Prague. Not all the developers left the country, someone took up the fight against the invading army. Sadly, developer Volodymyr Yezhov was killed in action near Bakhmut in December 2022. Most of developers are based in Prague, but according to some information (rumours) there are also developers based in neighbouring countries (Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary).
Come to me – OK, but when?
The outbreak of the war effectively thwarted the company’s plans. The year 2022 was all about moving and starting the project again. Unfortunately, the 2023 release was predictable. However, delays have continued since then, but at least the team has switched from Unreal Engine 4 to version 5 during development, which promises us gamers better quality. According to a press release issued in February 2023, GSC Game World has partnered with the UK company Robot Teddy of the Thunderful group, who use their various specialist and international contacts to help self-publishing developers, as they did previously with Vampire Survivors and Gang Beast.
In the meantime, we’re not short of things to see. In addition to some images, a Come to Me trailer arrived in January 2023 – which was quite a tease after the Enter the Zone trailer released in September 2022 – and a new video, Bolts and Bullets, was also released for Gamescom 2023. Development is so well underway that visitors to the event were able to play a tiny snippet of the game. A few days later, in the first days of September, the internal information arrived that the development of the game was finished and the bug hunting and polishing phase had begun. The developers have received so much criticism in the meantime that the visuals have visibly declined compared to the 2022 preview videos, but this will be worked on until the release in spring 2024.