Cloned Zone: Survarium Footage
Stalk on.
My conflict-o-tron is clicking like that time I discovered a 'free kitten, smoosh child' lever. I could have had a free kitten, but then there's that child. Not even imagining the cutest kittens and the worst children could get me to pull it. Believe me, I tried. Survarium has me in that same sort of headspace: a game from a lot of the Stalker devs set in a zone of alienation! Hooray! But it'll start out as a free-to-play shooter. There is some footage of a match below, and it looks lovely and lush, but doesn't play anything like Stalker.
I do want to play it, if only to encourage the team to carry on with their grand plan of turning out a co-op and mmo-ish Stalker, which was always the next step that I wanted from the series. But it is a little bit sad to see that lovely world design being overrun by some running and gunning.
There are some moments: the patched up roof offering scant protection on a loot hunt at least brings some sort of dilemma to the match, and the sniper using the muzzle flash to pin-point a slightly hidden enemy was nice. The level was also nice and big. I'm still optimistic after reading Jim's piece on Vostok's plans for the game, but after modding up Stalker and returning to the zone a few months back I guess I just miss the dark nights drawing in as I cautiously limp around anomalies.
The alpha should be out in Europe sometime in 2013.