A few days ago, the developers of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl announced that the project’s release date was being postponed from September 5, 2024 to November 20, 2024. This is already the 6th postponement of the release date of the expected game from GSC Game World, if we take only the officially announced dates. However, this time the game may really be close to release – it has already received an ESRB rating.
The American rating agency ESRB has reviewed STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl and issued The game has a Mature (17+) rating. At the moment, the game has only received a rating for the Xbox Series X | S consoles, although its release is also planned for PC.
The ESRB rating description states that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is a first-person shooter with an open world, missions, and character interactions. Players will use “machine guns, rifles, and explosives to kill enemies that emit blood splatters when they hit.” Blood will also be visible on walls and “under corpses.”
There are also some other points that led to the decision to give the game a 17+ rating:
Anomalies in the environment can cause bodies and creatures to explode, leaving chunks of flesh on the ground; one scene shows decapitated heads on spikes. Players can kill civilians, but doing so may result in immediate retaliation from other characters; one scene shows a tied-up man being executed at close range. During the game, the player character can drink alcohol, which causes the screen to blur and the character to sway; one scene shows the player character smoking a cigarette in first-person view. The word “f**k” can be heard in the game.
Taking all of the above into account, the ESRB agency has decided to give the game STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl a 17+ rating.
Let us remind you that immediately after the release, the game STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl will become part of Game Pass.
