Servers offline, devs nowhere to be found.
Tag: STALKER
Early Access: Szone – You Have Left The Zone
If gaming has suffered in any way from the MMO industry shift to free to play, it is through the saturation of what I’ve referred to as mass-market shovelware, MMOs that seem to exist for no other reason than to show up, exist for a while, and then hopefully leave with a little profit. These are games piled out by the thousands, mostly by devs in Russia, China, and Korea of no reputation and no discernible talent, throwing out games riddled with bugs, unfinished content, hackers, gold farmers, and a surprisingly filled out and functional cash shop.
The latest genre to be tied down and mercilessly tortured comes in the form of online clones of the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R, by GSC Game World, and while my patience with the developers of these games is growing thin, I will gladly admit that I have enjoyed one or two of their offerings. I genuinely enjoyed, and continue to play, Survarium.
You get an idea on just what kind of experience Szone Online is when you first load into the world and find that you are weaponless. The first NPC you meet, the blacksmith, tells you to come back later once you’ve gotten more experience and he’ll give you some stuff. Head inside the closest building, talk to an NPC, and he’ll give you some rusted weapons. Now the real frust-fun starts.
Try to shoot the gun and you’ll get an error saying “no ammo.” Double click on the ammo and see the message “this ammo is already loaded.” What you need to do, and I figured this out through trial and error, is to unequip your gun and use a magazine on it in the inventory. Go through the long list of Steam reviews and you’ll see this issue pop up a lot, with new players put off by the simple lack of explanation on how to initially load your gun, disregarding a needlessly complex and convoluted method.
Szone Online is the first game I’ve seen where it is conceivable to “lose,” in that you’ll run out of ammunition and money, rendering you useless in combat and unable to make that money back. That being said, I don’t see myself playing long enough to fall into this trap because the game itself just isn’t fun.
The four hours of Szone that I managed to get in consisted mainly of me running from NPC to NPC, killing large swaths of dogs and rats, in what feels like bad fanfiction of the GSC STALKER universe. Just read a bit of the description.
This is a story of human pride. Time is at hand when, in their utter desire to study the world, people will start destroying it. Tests of high-energy heavy particles accelerators will result in billions of microscopic black hole rupturing the structure of time and space. This will become the point of no return. The Earth as we know it will cease to exist.
Szone isn’t a STALKER game, it just happens to be set in a post apocalypse, specifically in a “zone” in the Ukraine where players, or ‘stalkers’ seek out artifacts for the sake of science, glory, and profit.
The game plays about as poorly as it reads, likely owing to a combination of inexperienced programmers and a poor engine. Characters are clunky and will occasionally get stuck on geometry that they shouldn’t get stuck on. Jumping is a frustrating experience that will get you killed more than once since your character will simply not jump if you’re too close to whatever you’re jumping on. Animals seem to be able to reach you from distances they shouldn’t. Gun handling feels directly pulled from the numerous free to play shooters built partially to look and feel like Counter Strike 1.6, except without iron sights.
I don’t know which to blame for Szone’s combat, poor AI or bad netcode. Hit detection is horrible, with animals either often dying a few seconds after you shot them or just ignoring your bullets despite the splats of blood indicating a hit. Dogs are easy to pop off with one or two bullets, but once they start moving they become difficult to hit without spraying your automatic weapon everywhere. Shoddy netcode and poor hit detection often mean missing shots that should have hit, hitting with shots that should have missed, and dying because NPCs are warping around the map.
And don’t be confused by the fact that the game is in early access, Szone has been up and running for years. I originally played this game back in 2012 partially to aid in my Russian language courses, when the game was known as Stalker Online. Crucial issues like the netcode, lag, weapons, etc, haven’t had any noticeable change in three years.
If Szone is with us for the long haul, it’ll likely be because the game survives not off of massive income but by maintaining a cost of living that is near nothing, similar to Alganon. You won’t lose anything for playing it, other than your time, but I’d be willing to bet you won’t come out ready to dive back in.
First Impressions: Survarium
I took some time to sit down with Survarium, knowing full well that the game is open beta, still a pretty long way away from launch, and missing the key component: Free play. Still, with the game now open to the public and taking money, I wanted to see what the player vs player had to offer.
So far I haven’t been disappointed.
Right now, Survarium isn’t much more than another free to play shooter set in a universe reminiscent of the STALKER franchise. You have the choice of team deathmatch, research, and protective device. Protective device tasks both teams with picking up and returning charged batteries to their base. Research involves fighting for control over territory points.
I wasn’t able to get into the research mode due to what I believe is a bug, you need a certain number of rounds completed in PvP before you can unlock research and protective device, and the counter for mine randomly wouldn’t count after a match.
So far I’ve found Survarium impressive in terms of netcode, experiencing next to no lag considering the majority of players in each game were Russian. By the way, the majority of players are Russian, so be prepared to not understand anything being said in chat, unless you speak Russian. Be prepared to see ‘cyka’ in chat, a lot.
As usual in first person shooters, team deathmatch was the only mode really represented by players. I did get a single match of protective device in, but didn’t have the time to deal with the ten minute queuing to get any further sessions in. Team deathmatch is of the Battlefield variety, with both teams fighting to tick down each other’s pool of reinforcements until none are left standing.
Death, in Survarium, comes both quickly and slowly as you not only must worry about being shot, but also the chance to bleed out afterward. It’s a pretty common occurrence to get into a shootout with someone only for the victor to die seconds later from injuries sustained during the battle. I haven’t been able to fully explore the injury system, but I did note that a well placed grenade, while not lethal, was able to cripple my character and prevent him from walking.
Given that this is a beta, I’ll refrain from giving any credit to the game’s current rate of experience/money/weapon prices because all of that is subject to change before launch, and you never know if Vostok Games will pull a 180 (as has happened in games before) and nerf everything to draw more focus to the cash shop. Each match rewards the player with experience in their character level, faction, and offers rubles as well as the chance for weapon/gold drops. Rubles can be used to repair weapons and buy new items, while premium currency is available to buy premium weapons.
While free play mode won’t be in for some time, I wanted to get a look and see how the foundation of Survarium is progressing. As a shooter, the game seems to be on solid footing, one that will hopefully translate into the open world mode coming soon™. If you’d like to check the game out for yourself, you can do so here.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R Developer Announces Survarium
Back in 2007, Ukrainian developer GSC Game World stunned us all with S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadows of Chernobyl, an alternate reality where the Chernobyl power plant explodes once again causing all kinds of oddities to emerge in the zone. Over the next few years, GSC would release two followup titles: Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat. The games were applauded for their open worlds, extensive AI system, and disturbing atmosphere. Unfortunately, as of yesterday, GSC has officially closed its doors, resulting in the cancellation of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2.
In keeping with the spirit of the franchise, the team from GSC has gone on to form Vostok Games, and has announced their upcoming free to play MMO, Survarium.
“The topic of mankind who survive, but in totally new conditions, very dangerous ones where death is around, where there are mutants, factions, where there are some mysterious goals, where there is something like the Zone, explored by the well-known stalkers.”
Most important is that this is not a S.T.A.L.K.E.R MMO. That is a completely different game, and will probably never be released outside of Russia.
(Source: Eurogamer)
MMO Fallout 