What do you need to know
- STALKER: Legends of the Zone Trilogy is a collection of the three original STALKER open-world survival FPS games released on Xbox and PlayStation earlier this year.
- At launch, developer GSC Game World promised mod support via mod.io integration coming later. Mod support is here.
- After logging into mod.io in-game, players can download and install mods uploaded by the community to the mod.io website. Modders are free to change or edit animations, textures, models, gameplay videos and sounds.
- It is noteworthy that mods do not require Internet access after installation and do not prohibit achievements. However, there is a size limit of 1 GB for individual mods.
Players of GSC Game World’s open-world single-player shooter series STALKER have enjoyed many excellent community mod projects on PC over the years – especially after their development was accelerated by the release of the open source version of the X-Ray Engine. Now official mod support has arrived for the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the STALKER trilogy as well, allowing anyone to create mods for the games that fans can download and install for free.
That being said, when the shadow of STALKER: Legends of The Zone Trilogy fell on the console earlier this year, GSC teamed up with mod.io – a platform that helps developers integrate mods into their games – to bring mod support to the console. The way it works is simple: after someone creates a mod for STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, STALKER: Clear Sky or STALKER: Call of Pripyat, they can upload it to the mod.io website. Then, in the main in-game menu, players can log in with their mod.io account and search for mods to install.
The official modding FAQ covers questions you’re likely to have and includes links to things like how to make mods, mod.io terms and conditions, and the STALKER GSC End User License Agreement. The developers note that animations, textures, models, game videos, and sounds are all editable files, although other file types such as scripts, configurations, and libraries are prohibited. Individual mods also can’t be larger than 1GB, so expect graphical improvements to come in bits and pieces instead of massive, comprehensive fixes.
A quick flick through the FAQ reveals the good news: you don’t have to be online to use the mods, so you don’t have to worry about getting back to the main menu or anything if you start having connection problems. You only need an internet connection to download the mods you want; once installed, they will work regardless of whether you are online or offline.
Another interesting thing to know is that GSC chose not to ban the achievements of the STALKER trilogy from using mods, which is in contrast to how Bethesda handles mods for Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Starfield. This means you have free rein to use mods to their cheese, which I’m sure we’ll see mods for soon. My money is on someone making a stash in Rookie Village that spawns with one of every collectible in it.
In case you’re wondering, there aren’t many mods ready yet – PS5 players have access to a great, high-quality retexture for blind dog mutants in Shadow of Chernobyl – but I’m sure we’ll start to see a lot of uploads hit the mod servers. and in the following days and weeks. Personally, I’m most excited to see if the fans develop major visual improvements that elevate the games to the presentational quality of STALKER Anomaly, but I’m also looking forward to the game’s redesign and fun mods. I’m sure someone will put in a Thomas the Tank Engine somewhere in the zone.
As a huge fan of the STALKER games, it’s great to see GSC keeping their promise to bring them mod support to consoles – and if you haven’t played the trilogy yet, there’s never been a better time to try it out. A bundle that includes all three games is now just $7.19 at Fanatical if you’re part of the PC crowd, and you can also get them for $27.99 on Xbox — a whopping 30% off the $39.99 MSRP. Every single STALKER game also has this discount in case you only want to get one of them, by the way (Shadow of Chernobyl is what I’d recommend in that case).
Also coming in just a few months is STALKER 2, the first new game in the series since Call of Pripyat was released in 2009, almost 15 years ago. It picks up on the events of the first three games and takes fans back to its fictional setting in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, complete with advanced graphics, deadlier gunfights, a new story, and more. I’m jealous that my colleague Zachary Boddy got to play it at Summer Game Fest (read their preview), but on September 5th, I’m going to put on my gas mask and dive right in. If you have Xbox Game Pass, you can too, as it launches on the first day of Microsoft’s game services.