The Writer wants the Room to restore his fading sense of inspiration, while the Professor wants to destroy it, but ultimately neither man enters it, realizing that no one can really know their innermost desires and what they might lead to. Stalker guides two men, the Writer and the Professor, to the Room, a fabled chamber at the heart of the Zone that is said to grant one’s innermost wishes. On the other hand, the film closes with a lengthy monologue from Stalker’s wife that suggests he may really have preternatural talents. On one hand, it is hinted that he may be no more than a poor wretch clinging on to the Zone, perhaps even lying about his abilities, to maintain a sense of purpose and self-worth. This premise is both subverted and reinforced over the course of the film. Stalker, a guide through the film’s anomalous, cordoned off Zone, is introduced as a kind of blessed pariah with special abilities that enable him to navigate the Zone. At nearly three hours long, with barely any action sequences and a cast of just four key characters, it is a deliberately slow, brooding, contemplative tale – as much a mood piece as it is a setting from which to examine the nature of human desire, ambition, and fulfillment. The title STALKER is a reference to Stalker, a 1979 art film by the legendary Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. Beneath the digital shadow of the Chernobyl power plant, amongst the monsters and burly men playing guitar and shouting “cheeki breeki,” it’s easy to forget the literary and artistic roots of the franchise. Yet for all my barely controllable enthusiasm, I hope that this time around the developers take more risks with the narrative and embrace STALKER’s source material. Assuming we are not looking at a vertical slice that will be downgraded or fall apart in action, STALKER 2 looks set to deliver long-absent, long-missed thrills in a shiny and polished new package. The graphics look unreal, the game world oozes the familiar foreboding atmosphere, and the gameplay seems to recapture the frantic firefights and patient exploration of the old titles. 2: Heart of Chernobyl (or just STALKER 2, to simplify) shown at E3 2021 is prime hype material.
This discussion of STALKER 2 contains spoilers for the novel Roadside Picnic, the film Stalker, and for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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