Last month, GSC Game World unveiled Cost of Hope, the first major story expansion for 2024’s STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl. The long-awaited piece of DLC promises to introduce dozens of hours of content, massive new zones, and a faction war between two of the most iconic organizations in STALKER’s illustrious history.
At the BAFTA Games Awards, I caught up with Ievgen and Maria Grygorovych, respectively the CEO and Creative Director at GSC Game World. The team was nominated for the ‘Game Beyond Entertainment’ award, and when I spoke ot the pair, I found out exactly why.
STALKER 2’s Story Goes Beyond Just Being a Game
GSC Game World was one of the most prominent Ukrainian developers impacted by the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
The team has maintained a presence in Kyiv and, over the years, has continued working while defending against hacking attempts and other attacks, often amid power outages, forced into shelters, and even the loss of former developers in the fight for freedom.
This year, GSC Game World will release Cost of Hope, the first major story expansion for STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, a masterful survival shooter that was years in the making. The highly anticipated expansion will push the game’s narrative further, while leaning on real-world influences brought about by Ukraine’s situation.
It’s a similar story to 4A Games and the recent reveal of Metro 2039, a game also shaped by the ongoing war.
At the BAFTA Games Awards 2026, I spoke to Ievgen Grygorovych, GSC’s CEO and the Game Director, about Cost of Hope and why STALKER 2 was nominated for Game Beyond Entertainment.
In our part of the world, this game is closely connected to our war.
We, as a team, are also part of everything that’s going on.
For us, this project is one million times beyond entertainment. It’s a really important way to send a message to the world.
Maria Grygorovych, Creative Director, offered her thoughts on how STALKER 2 had been received over the last two years:
We already won our goal, because one of the most important goals was to give to the player an opportunity to love Ukrainian culture.
We truly believe that Ukrainian culture deserves to be loved. When we saw that people around the world, around the globe are listening to Ukrainian music or starting to get interested in Ukrainian language, or literature, or the philosophy behind the game, it already proves that we did something important, at least for us and for our internal goals to make art.
Much of the development of STALKER 2 took place in a studio in Prague, which was opened following the exacerbation of the war in Ukraine. The game’s development was halted for a while as the team scrabbled to organize itself, ultimately stretching the game’s development cycle to fourteen years, from announcement to delivery.
While STALKER 2 didn’t win the BAFTA for Game Beyond Entertainment, it was nominated for a clear reason. The themes of Heart of Chornobyl explore the human psyche, the horrors of war, and the nature of suffering in a world torn apart by cataclysmic events, aggressive factions, and otherworldly mutants.
The very fabric of STALKER 2 is centered around surviving against all odds, making the right choices, and looking out for your fellow man.
Are you looking forward to Cost of Hope? Let us know if you’re excited for the major piece of DLC on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out what a Crimson Desert actor had to say about the game’s story
Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Comments