S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, which comes out on PC and Xbox Series X/S April 28, 2022, will be quite the beefy download at launch, so you may want to make sure your SSD can handle it.
Originally it was revealed by developer GSC Game World that the installation size would be an already huge 150GB of SSD. But according to the recently updated Microsoft Store pre-order page, that file size has increased to 180GB.
It looks like the other minimum and recommended requirements haven’t changed, which can be seen below:
Minimum requirements
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel Core i5-7600K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
- RAM: 8GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB
Recommended requirements
- OS: Windows 10
- CPU: Intel Core i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
- RAM: 16GB
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER / GTX 1080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
Analysis: How big is too big?
No matter how you slice it, having 180GB of free space is a tall order, especially for those with a cheap SSD. On top of that, SSD is the only acceptable form of storage for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, so those with the right amount of space on a hard drive will have to upgrade their SSD as well.
And though no other game has required 180GB of space at launch, plenty of other PC games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War surpass the 200GB mark once DLC is included. Considering many games are being made using Unreal Engine 5, this trend will most likely continue in the future with larger installation requirements.
There’s also the fact that the other minimum requirements, such as needing an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card, are nothing to sneeze at either. And that’s before you consider the recommended spec of an RTX 2070 Super or RX 5700 XT. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be a very demanding game, to say the least.