The spiritual successor to the Stalker games, MMOFPS Survarium, is soon to enter closed alpha testing, ushering willing participants from the wilds of the internet and then forcing them to battle one another for dominance of limited resources in the nuclear-ridden Russian wastelands.
To celebrate the preamble to this battle royale, developer Vostok Games have released a new developer diary that shows off a new location and AI faction from the game, providing a glimpse of Survarium’s current state.
Them Renaissance Army folk don’t seem too friendly, what with their full body armour and easy access to weaponry. Also because I can’t think of many games (or, come to think of it, a time in history) when a group of soldiers seeking to bring the entire world under the yoke of a single united military power has worked out well for everyone. Except possibly the Federation in Star Trek.
The Vostok Radar station looks similarly familiar, a rusted hulk, showing the signs of months of fighting, it’s a small PVP map which focuses the combatants attention on the radar dish centrepiece.
To register for alpha access you’ll need to sign up to Vostok Games’ forums over here.
On a side note, what’s the etymology of Survarium? It looks like it’s the result of ramming ‘survivor’ into ‘aquarium’ and if that’s the case, surely what this game is in fact a spiritual successor to is either Logan’s Run or The Running Man.
Vostok are planning to release Survarium in its free-to-play form by the end of 2013 so the alpha test is likely to begin very soon.