On 20 November 2024, the second part of the world-famous S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, called “Heart of Chornobyl”, was released. GSC Game World announced it in 2010, but the creators faced many problems, which delayed the release of the long-awaited sequel until 2024: bankruptcy, Covid-19, and a full-scale war.

The developers dedicated the game to the Armed Forces and honoured the memory of the fallen defenders. On 22 December 2022, one of the creators of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, Volodymyr Zhov, died near Bakhmut. The studio commemorated him and voice actor Oleksii Khilskyi, who died on 17 August 2023 while performing a combat mission in Zaporizhzhia region, in the credits of the documentary “War   Game: The Making of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2,” which was released on 3 October on the official GSC Game World YouTube channel.

In the game, users can see the actor and Azov Brigade fighter Oleksandr Laptiy, who joined the 3D animation. The players were also pleasantly surprised by the number of songs by young Ukrainian artists – there are about 450 songs.

GSC Game World sold more than 1 million copies of the game during the two days of its release. In Russia, Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma for Information Policy, said that everyone who buys S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 there should be prosecuted for treason because of the Armed Forces’ active support of the developers.