It’s been over 17 years since the STALKER series first dragged players deep into the irradiated horrors of the Zone. And with STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl out, it’s the perfect time to look back-and forward-at the franchise in its entirety. Here are all the STALKER games in order from 2007 to the present day.
From janky 2007 gunfights to massive, seamless worlds built with photogrammetry and real-time AI, the series has evolved dramatically. Depending on whether you want to experience the story by release date or by when events take place in the Zone, you’ll get a different kind of journey. But either way, this STALKER games in order guide covers it all: technical leaps, in-world chronology, and the grim, philosophical core that holds it together.
If you’re more in it for the story than the tech history, chronological order actually makes more sense. Events unfold in a way that tells a much cleaner arc: the rise of the Zone, the tragedy at its heart, the fallout, and then the future that tries to rebuild from it.
This order not only gives you better context but also makes the world feel more alive, more tragic, and ultimately, more rewarding. Here’s what each entry in the series offers, in detail.
Alternatively, you can also check out our list of best action games.
Image Credit: GSC Game World, THQ
You’re Scar, a hardened merc with that odd immunity to anomalies. Recruited by the secretive Clear Sky faction, your mission is to stop Strelok before he reaches the reactor, an event that, spoiler alert, doesn’t go well.
It’s infamous for occasional crashes and difficulty spikes, but it sets the stage for everything that follows faction politics, Artifact loops, and the creeping dread of uncontrolled scientific hubris.
Image Credit: GSC Game World, Deep Silver
As the “Marked One,” you wake up with zero memory and a PDA that simply says, “Kill Strelok.” Your journey to rediscover who you are becomes a broader quest to understand the Zone’s secrets-and the man at its center.
Despite its age and engine limitations, Shadow remains a high watermark for immersive sim and survival horror. It sold millions of copies-thanks largely to word-of-mouth among horror fans and modders.
Image Credit: GSC Game World
Major Degtyarev, a military intel officer, is sent in after Operation Fairway-Ukraine’s doomed attempt to “clean up” the Zone-goes sideways. Your goal: find the downed STINGRAY helicopters and learn what really happened.
Often hailed as the best of the original trilogy, it polished core mechanics while expanding narrative threads-especially around the Zone’s uneasy relationship with the military and scientific communities.
Image Credit: GSC Game World
After years of delays, engine swaps, and a literal war at home for GSC, Heart of Chornobyl lands on Unreal Engine 5, giving you a seamless 64 km² playground of ghost towns, swamps, and industrial wreckage.
Despite glaring bugs at launch, it sold over a million copies in 48 hours and made roughly $60 million on Day One. GSC has been patching almost daily to stabilize audio, AI, and graphics. Developed under wartime conditions, it stands not just as a technical marvel but as a testament to resilience and creative perseverance in the face of real-world adversity.
For better or worse, Heart of Chornobyl is the boldest, most emotionally charged entry yet, an invitation to get truly lost in the Zone once more.
Whether you roll through by release date to appreciate the engine upgrades or follow the in-world timeline for the full tragic arc, the STALKER series remains one of gaming’s most unique, haunting, and thought-provoking sagas. It’s never easy, rarely stable, but always unforgettable.
So, pick your STALKER games in order, just keep an eye on that Geiger counter. And maybe don’t trust the guy who promises “safe passage” through anomalies. He probably won’t make it out either.
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