What you need to know
- SALKER: Legends of the Zone Trilogy is a collection of the three original STALKER open-world survival FPS games, released on Xbox and PlayStation consoles earlier this year.
- At first, developer GSC Game World promised that mod support through mod.io integration would come at a later date. Now, that mod support is here.
- By registering on mod.io in-game, players can download and install mods uploaded to the mod.io website by the community. Moderators are free to change or modify animations, textures, models, in-game videos and sounds.
- Notably, mods don’t require internet access once installed, and they don’t disable achievements either. However, there is a size limit of 1GB for individual mods.
Players of GSC Game World’s single-player survival shooter series STALKER have enjoyed many excellent community-made mod projects on PC over the years – especially since the release of an open source version of His X-Ray Engine accelerated their development. Now, official mod support has also come to the Xbox and PlayStation versions of the STALKER trilogy, enabling anyone to create mods for the games that fans can then download and install for free.
As it said it would when STALKER: Legends of The Zone Trilogy hit consoles earlier this year, GSC has partnered with mod.io – a platform that helps developers integrate mods into their games – to bring keyboard mod support. The way it works is simple: after someone makes 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 game’s main menu, players can log in with their mod.io account and search for mods to install.
The mod’s official FAQ covers questions you’re likely to have and includes links to things like a guide on how to create mods, the mod.io terms and conditions, and the GSC STALKER End User License Agreement. The developers note that animations, textures, models, in-game videos, and sounds are all files that can be edited, although other types of files such as scripts, configurations, and libraries are off limits. Individual mods also can’t be larger than 1GB, so expect graphical improvements to come in bits and pieces rather than all-out massive overhauls.
A quick scroll through the FAQ reveals some good news: you don’t have to be online to use the mods, so you don’t have to worry about rebooting to the main menu or something if you start having connection problems. You only need an internet connection when you download the mods you want; once installed, they will work whether you are online or offline.
Another interesting thing to know is that GSC has chosen not to disable STALKER trilogy achievements when using mods, which stands in contrast to how Bethesda handles mods for Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Starfield. This means you have carte blanche to use mods to wrap them up, which I’m sure we’ll see mods for soon. My money is on someone sheltering in the Rookie Village that spawns with one of every collectible in it.
In case you’re wondering, there aren’t many mods yet – PS5 players have access to a nice high quality texture for the blind dog mutants in Shadow of Chernobyl, however – but I’m sure we’ll start to see many uploads hit the mod.io servers in the following days and weeks. Personally, I’m very excited to see if fans will develop major visual improvements that elevate the games to the presentation quality attainable with STALKER Anomaly, but I’m also looking forward to the gameplay tweaks and joke modes. I’m sure someone will put up Thomas The Tank Engine AROUND in the Zone.
As a massive fan of the STALKER games, it’s great to see GSC follow through on their promise to bring them support for console mods – and if you haven’t played the trilogy yet, there’s never been a better time to check it out. A bundle that includes all three games is just $7.19 on Fanatical right now if you’re part of the PC crowd, and you can get them for $27.99 on Xbox – a whopping 30% off the $39.99 MSRP . Each individual STALKER game also has that discount in case you only want to get one of them, by the way (Shadow of Chernobyl is the one I’d recommend in that case).
There’s also SALKER 2 coming in a few months, which is the first new game in the series since Call of Pripyat was released in 2009 almost 15 years ago. It will follow the events of the first three games and take fans back to its fictional spin on the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, complete with advanced graphics, deadlier gameplay, a new story and more. I’m jealous that my colleague Zachary Boddy played it at Summer Game Fest ( read their preview ), but on September 5th, I’m going to put on a gas mask and dive right in. If you have Xbox Game Pass, you can too, as it’s launching on the first day of Microsoft’s gaming service.