STALKER 2: Cost of Hope is a "massive nonlinear expansion" that includes the Chornobyl power plant visit the base game never made time for

Freedom fights, Duty calls

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is getting its first proper expansion this year, titled Cost of Hope, and it looks stuffed to its icky mutant gills with classic STALKER series beats that the base game – while a powerfully engrossing survival FPS – missed out on. The Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant returns as an explorable, doubtless horrible addition to the game’s open world, and the story concerns the conflict between the rival Freedom and Duty factions that’s been simmering since the original STALKER.

Here’s the trailer, featuring a monster fight in a CNPP reactor room – look out, Skif! Remember what happened to Paul Ritter! – as well as multiple grumpy blokes arguing over ceasefire treaty terms. No solid release date yet, but dev/publishers GSC Game World say Cost of Hope will be out in Summer 2026.

Like a Russian soldier about to give himself radiation sickness, I can dig it. The Zone’s defining landmark was always a strange omission, and Cost of Hope will also have you exploring the adjacent Iron Forest region: a particularly cataclysmic stretch of mangled transmission towers and anomalously tangled electrical cables. In other words, all the interesting-looking yet greyed-out bits on STALKER 2’s map? We’re finally going there.

The Freedom/Duty war also came off as an afterthought in the base game, even after an upgrade to the A-Life system brought back the possibility of unscripted NPC territory grabs. GSC’s Cost of Hope bumf, however, describes it as "a new chapter" in the series-spanning conflict, where the fragile accord seen in STALKER 2 is on the verge of being accusingly finger-jabbed into shreds. Player choices in the expansion will, it adds, "shape what happens next - and the consequences could affect not just the Zone, but far beyond it."

"Step into a fresh expedition across the Zone - a massive nonlinear expansion packed with dozens of hours of gameplay," reads the full announcement. "Expect haunting stories, twisted characters, and that same heavy atmosphere of decay... with just a flicker of hope breaking through."

Not that there’s much hope to be seen elsewhere in the trailer, which provides glimpses of new guns and familiar mutants, plus what appears to be a punchy new humanoid adversary who immediately puts Skif on his backside. This fella was, it turns out, was teased in last year’s free Stories Untold update, his goofy CRT-panelled helmet having been pointedly left on a table in one of the added sidequests.

Cost of Hope will also, according to the press release, form part of a "new, expansive narrative arc within the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. saga," along with another major expansion coming further in the future. That’s intriguing enough, but it also describes Cost of Hope as the "middle chapter" of this arc – does that make Stories Untold the first? It isn’t clear, though the Iron Forest could be just the place to continue its tale of mysterious, zombifying radio signals.

I, unfortunately, am more interested in sorting out this soldiers vs hippies squabble. Although if I’m absolutely compelled to pick a side, sign me up for Freedom – not only is their base in STALKER 2 much richer in helpful traders and comfy chairs than Duty’s spartan outpost, it’s also the only place in the game where you can get a delicious piece of freshly baked bread. I dunno how much hope costs, but my price is warm carbs.