It was scheduled to release for Windows and Xbox Series X/S on 8 December 2022, but due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, development for the game was put on hold.

The player character is Yevhen Martynenko "Skif", a veteran of the Ukrainian Marine Corps who has returned from a 3-year deployment in an unspecified conflict.

In the opening, he awakens to find his apartment has been destroyed by an anomaly that has mysteriously appeared outside of the Zone, leaving an unknown artifact in its wake.

Looking to earn money for a new home, he is smuggled into the Zone by a scientist, Professor Hermann, along with a piece of technology called the 'Scanner' that creates local anomalies and can apparently "recharge" depleted artifacts.

Venturing into the Zone, he finds his initial team he was to make contact with have been killed and sets out alone to use the Scanner in special coordinates where it works.

On the third and successful attempt, he is interrupted by an investigation from soldiers of the faction called 'Ward', dedicated to controlling the Zone and stopping its expansion.

He finds himself on the trail of Solder, who sold him and the scientists the coordinates of where to place the Scanner, collaborating with either the local Stalkers or the Ward in the process.

: Clear Sky, who leads an anarchistic faction called Spark that opposes the Ward and believes the Zone can be transformed into a utopian 'Shining Zone', as well as the Noontide faction, consisting of the formerly-brainwashed soldiers of the Monolith from previous games, who seek to make their own lives, having no memory of their pre-zone life or enslavement to the Monolith.

They are divided between Strider, who aims to make the Zone a safer place, and Faust, who still preaches the original mindset of the Monolith.

Regardless of whether Skif collaborates with or conspires against SIRCAA, the Wishgranter is ultimately reactivated and all members of Noontide return to their brainwashed state.

2 had been formally announced in April 2012 on the company's Facebook page,[8] officially stated to have resulted from dispute between investors, staff, and the original IP rights owner.

[9][non-primary source needed] After years of dormancy, GSC Game World was officially reformed in December 2014 to develop Cossacks 3.

[12] Grygorovych later stated on a podcast that the intent of the project's announcement in 2018 was largely to generate hype, in order to strike a publishing deal at E3 2018.

[15] Near the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, GSC, based in Kyiv, released a video on their YouTube account which called for financial aid for the Ukrainian Armed Forces,[16] stating that the outbreak of the war and the need to protect GSC employees has led to the game's development being paused indefinitely.

[17] This was also followed by a Twitter post which linked to an account to donate to the Ukrainian military and stated "through pain, death, war, fear, and inhuman cruelty, Ukraine will persevere.

The evaluation of the game on various open platforms may also have been impacted by the alleged activity of pro-Russian bots and sympathizers, who perceived the virtual front as an extension of the real conflict.