{"id":72112,"date":"2026-07-27T21:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=72112"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:57:08","slug":"stalker-2s-first-major-expansion-arrives-very-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=72112","title":{"rendered":"Stalker 2\u2019s First Major Expansion Arrives Very Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/stalker-2-coh.jpeg?w=300\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stalker 2 has been out for nearly two years, and if you&#8217;ve been itching to jump back into the post-apocalyptic hellscape, you&#8217;ll have a great reason to do so. The game&#8217;s first expansion, Stalker 2: Cost of Hope, releases in just a few weeks across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cost of Hope puts you back in control of Stalker 2 protagonist Skif, with the character following a &#8220;mysterious PDA signal&#8221; as the dangerous Zone&#8217;s Duty and Freedom factions come into conflict. GSC Game World promises &#8220;dozens of hours of content&#8221; along with new allies and enemies, weapons, and locations. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope \u2014 Release Date Reveal\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l5BwA-OUyNY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The expansion will launch alongside the base game&#8217;s Update 2.0, which will include &#8220;a new version of Unreal Engine 5&#8221; alongside &#8220;a variety of new content and improvements.&#8221; Unlike the expansion itself, this update will be free. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stalker 2: Cost of Hope arrives on August 20. You can watch the release-date trailer above. The game originally launched on PC before coming to Xbox Series X|S and later to PS5. In our Stalker 2 review, Richard Wakeling said, &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t reinvent the wheel, and at times it feels like you&#8217;re playing a game straight out of 2010, but that&#8217;s part of the charm and feeds into what makes Stalker 2 the quintessential Stalker experience.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespot.com\/articles\/stalker-2s-first-major-expansion-arrives-very-soon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stalker 2 has been out for nearly two years, and if you&#8217;ve been itching to jump back into the post-apocalyptic hellscape, you&#8217;ll have a great&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5230,6310,1406,27281],"class_list":["post-72112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-arrives","tag-expansion","tag-major","tag-stalker","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}