STALKER 2’s first open-world free-play mod is here

There’s something to be said about STALKER‘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 sandbox Call of Chernobyl. Though STALKER 2 hasn’t had anything like that up until now, that’s all changing.

As strange as it may sound, none of the STALKER games have released with a proper, full-featured sandbox mode. Sure, Call of Pripyat had post-campaign content if you played your cards right, but that was an exception to the rule. In fact, even STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has an actual point-of-no-return, which came as a big disappointment to yours truly in particular. Thankfully, the STALKER modding scene knows that this game’s true value lies in free-form sandbox goodness, and so the first free-play STALKER 2 mod 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 a (or , or , 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 befits STALKER‘s Exclusion Zone. To that end, the mod tears out the main story of STALKER 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 play STALKER 2 without 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, as GSC Game World i🅷tself is still patching the game rather heavily.

This is all well and good, of course, but boy howdy does New Game Start – A Free Play Mode Attempt need a different title. How about Call of Chornobyl, perhaps?