The Stalker Trilogy Lands On PS Plus With A PS5 Upgrade
Try to survive.
When Stalker 2 launched in 2024, it was the first game in its series in 15 years, but despite what its name might suggest, it was actually the fourth entry. The original trilogy of Stalker games were released one year after the other, from 2007 to 2009, building out of the most fascinating, hostile worlds in video games. Now, those original games are available on PlayStation Plus with enhanced versions that bring them more in line with modern hardware while retaining all the brutal charm of the originals.
Stalker: Legends of the Zone Trilogy collects all three Stalker first-person shooter games — Shadow of Chornobyl, Clear Skies, and Call of Pripyat — into one package. These are remasters, as opposed to full remakes, so while they’ll look and run better than previous versions, their idiosyncratic gameplay remains intact. While the trilogy was already available on PlayStation 4, it hits PS Plus the same day it receives an updated PS5 edition.
Stalker: Legends of the Zone was added to PS Plus the same day its PS5 upgrade was released.
It’s hard to describe what makes the original Stalker games so great without also making them sound a little miserable, which they are. The series takes place in a fictionalized version of Chornobyl, the site of an infamous nuclear power plant meltdown in the real world. It’s directly inspired by Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker, and Roadside Picnic, a novel that the film is based on. In the game’s setting, a second explosion happens decades later after the area is repopulated, giving rise to mutated creatures, a supernaturally altered landscape, and anomalies that break reality throughout the region. Even before you get to its tough gunplay and harshly limited resources, the world of Stalker is incredibly difficult to survive in due to its very nature.
Within the Zone, the world of the Stalker games, survivors and scavengers have organized themselves into a multitude of factions either seeking to study its anomalies, claim their secrets for themselves, or just try to eke out a life in the ruins. Dealing with the battles between these factions, and choosing whether to align yourself with one or try to survive alone, is a major part of the games. Even if you do make yourself useful to one side or another, you’re not likely to get a warm welcome from any of them, as mistrust and selfishness are endemic traits in the game’s fractured world.
All three Stalker games feature brutal combat in an unforgiving world.
Again, I know that makes the experience sound like an agonizing ordeal. In a way, it is, but that’s part of what makes it so appealing. The Stalker games lean heavily into survival horror elements, not just in featuring grotesque monsters but in making resources extremely scarce and turning each bullet into a precious commodity. That becomes especially important in firefights. Combat is unforgiving in Stalker, with players often forced to fight off overwhelming numbers with limited ammunition in fights where just a few shots can be fatal.
Even out in the wild, there’s always the risk of encountering dangerous mutated creatures, whose behavior is modeled by artificial intelligence that attempts to make the Zone feel more realistic by having them hunt and fight for territory even independent of the player. Hunger is a constant peril, as well as the risk of developing radiation poisoning just from staying outside without proper protection for too long.
But precisely because of how much of a struggle it is to survive, getting by in the Zone is thrilling when you can manage. One false step could land you in a nearly unwinnable fight, and every advantage you gain has to be earned by risking everything you’ve gained so far. Everything that makes the Stalker series great also makes it an uphill battle, and for some players, the payoff isn’t going to be worth it. But if you’re willing to struggle for every bit of ground you gain in a game, Stalker: Legends of the Zone’s arrival on PS Plus might be exactly what you’re looking for.
