Whether or not you liked the direction GSC Game World took Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, you’d have to admit that releasing a game as ambitious as it was under the conditions the studio went through was nothing short of a miracle.
You can, of course, appreciate that, and still prefer the old Stalker games. Unfortunately, because of their age, playing those games on modern PCs requires a lot of modding and tweaking. Although that’s fairly standard for classic PC games, it’s nevertheless a hurdle.
That, however, creates an opportunity for a proper re-release. Which, you may recall, actually came out last year – just not on PC.
We’re talking about the Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy, which was announced and released in March last year as part of an Xbox Partner Preview presentation. The trilogy was mainly designed to make the games work on consoles, but it still felt strange for PC players to be left behind.
That version had very much been designed for last-gen consoles – Xbox One and PS4 – even if you could play it on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 thanks to backwards compatibility. At the time, GSC said it’s going to release a patch later in the year to allow the games to take better advantage of modern console hardware, but that never materialised.
Which brings us to today’s announcement of Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition, a re-release of a re-release. This one, thankfully, won’t be skipping PC when it arrives on May 20. This is also when it’s going to be available across PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
The good news is that owners of last year’s, non-enhanced release will receive the upgrades for free. Those who purchased games individually from the same bundle will get an enhanced version of whichever game they own. Things are even better on PC, where owners of the original, classic games will receive the enhanced editions of all the games they own entirely free. You’ll even get the classic games for free if you buy the Enhanced Edition.
All the upgrades from last year’s re-release remain, but PS5 and Xbox Series X/S owners will have a wider selection of graphics and performance modes to choose from, including a 2K/120fps mode. Keyboard and mouse support is also an option on the same consoles. As for PC, the biggest upgrade is Steam Deck support for the entire trilogy, as well as Steam Workshop integration. All three games now have full controller support, too.
Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy Enhanced Edition is priced $40 (or $20 for each title), and includes three games: Shadow of Chornobyl (2007), Clear Sky (2008), and Call of Prypiat (2009).
