STALKER Engine Creator Says STALKER Engine Not Used for STALKER-Like Game that is Not STALKER

So Oles Shishkovtsov, CTO of 4A Games – the new Ukrainian developer behind the upcoming Metro 2033 – has reiterated his insistence that S.T.A.L.K.E.R.’s (proprietary) X-Ray engine is not being used, in whole or in part, on Metro 2033.

Of course, Shishkovtsov created the X-Ray engine, and left GSC Game World just before the first STALKER game shipped. And I hate to say it, but Metro 2033 looks a lot like STALKER. A lot. Not in terms of art direction, in terms of technical presentation. You know how you can recognize a game powered by the DOOM 3 engine at a glance? Kind of like that.

Sergey Grigorovich, founder of GSC Game World, insists that 4A is using code liberated from the X-Ray engine. On his side is the fact that Metro 2033 could pass for a STALKER game, visually. On Shishkovtsov’s side is the fact that only a crazy person would willingly use the X-Ray engine in a new game, given that codebase’s legendary instability and exuberantly poor optimization. Who’s right? You decide!