There’s something to be said aboutSTALKER‘s modding community: it perseveres, no matter what. Even when the IP was in limbo, people kept making awesome mods such as the fully open-world and sandboxCall of Chernobyl. ThoughSTALKER 2hasn’t had anything like that up until now, that’s all changing.
As strange as it may sound, none of theSTALKERgames have released with a proper, full-featured sandbox mode. Sure,Call of Pripyathad post-campaign content if you played your cards right, but that was an exception to the rule. In fact, evenSTALKER 2: Heart of Chornobylhas an actual point-of-no-return, which came as abig disappointment to yours truly in particular. Thankfully, theSTALKERmodding scene knows that this game’s true value lies in free-form sandbox goodness, and so the first free-playSTALKER 2mod is already here. Courtesy of modder Ekkaia, the aptly titled “New Game Start – A Free Play Mode Attempt” is a highly experimental experience that, nonetheless, made its way straight to the top of my must-have list of mods,among other goodies.
Get the “New Game Start – A Free Play Mode Attempt” mod for STALKER 2 today and unlock its sandbox potential
Ekkaia’s New Game Start mod is pretty much aCall of Chernobyl(orGAMMA, orAnomaly, as it were) type experience for GSC Game World’s latest and greatest. It’s very much a work-in-progress type of thing, mind, though I am happy to report that it’s not nearly as janky and broken as, say,Project Zomboid‘s admittedly awesome Week One mod.
Setting inherent modding jankiness aside for a little bit, Ekkaia’s efforts have been directed simply at giving us a proper sandbox survival experience that befitsSTALKER‘s Exclusion Zone. To that end, the mod tears out the main story ofSTALKER 2, its intro missions and tutorials, and Skif himself. Players simply get to choose their starting location, faction, faction rank, loadout, and a few other tidbits before being thrown into the Zone to survive for as long as possible. New Game Start is, of course, designed to work with a host of other mods, but don’t expect it to work reliably just yet.
As Ekkaia puts it: “I know there are still many downsides, but I want to publish a “first version” the best I can, like a “proof of concept”,” they said. Ekkaia also explains that New Game Start is supposed to be a “wake-up call for community collaboration,” which means they’re hoping to get more people working on the project as soon as possible.
In summary, then, do expect our very first chance to playSTALKER 2without being constrained by the main story. Do not expect a highly polished and optimized experience at any level, however. Note that it’ll get broken often, too, asGSC Game World itself is still patching the game rather heavily.
This is all well and good, of course, butboy howdydoes New Game Start – A Free Play Mode Attempt need a different title. How aboutCall of Chornobyl, perhaps?
