Is Stalker 2 multiplayer? Does it have co-op at launch?

Stalker 2 is a game that has been cooking for the best part of 15 years and now we are finally really to head out into the Ukrainian contaminated zone one more time and face up the realities, some 40 years or so after the Chornobyl nuclear accident.

The thing is, it is a scary place out there so will be able to take some buddies along for the ride, or will we have to venture forth alone? Let’s find out, shall we?

Is Stalker 2 multiplayer?

While so many FPSs rely on chaotic multiplayer and quick matches at the huge neglect of a coherent single-player game, that, my friends, is not Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

The game is built from the ground up as a single-player experience. You won’t find a lobby here. You can’t turn your guns gold and there’s not an emote key in sight. The world of Stalker 2 is a wasteland where everything you find has to be turned into a commodity. There is simply no room for spraying bullets everywhere because those bullets do not exist in those numbers. So no, there is no multiplayer – at least at launch.

There has been plenty of chat on Discord and forums about possible multiplayer modes coming in the future but this seems unlikely to us here at Readwrite Gaming. It has taken so long and had so much re-working that the late addition of multiplayer and co-op just seems like unnecessary trauma. Having said that back in 2021 the idea did seem to be to include classic multiplayer modes after launch. We will have to wait and see if that still is part of the plan.

Does Stalker 2 have co-op?

Once again there will be no helping hand either in Stalker 2. At launch, it is a you and you alone single-player experience. No co-op here.

The Stalker universe would certainly suit a multiplayer game but it would also not then feel like the Stalker universe and the devs have always been pretty protective of their achievements and rightly so. Indeed the original Stalker had multiplayer modes back in the day, but the internet was a very different place then.

Besides – there is nothing wrong with a great single-player adventure set in a nuclear wasteland. It’s not like we have traversed them before.