I’m ashamed to admit I’ve never played a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. I’m not sure why, seeing as it’s right up my alley, genre-wise. I have no real reason to have skipped a series that combines the post-apocalyptic and survival horror genres, but I did. Thankfully, West Games is giving me, and gamers like me, a chance to redeem ourselves with Areal, a spiritual successor to the long-dormant S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series.
If you’re worried they’ll mess it up, don’t be, because the studio is comprised of developers who worked on the series, as well as the similarly themed Metro: Last Light.
Areal hit Kickstarter yesterday with the very modest goal of raising $50,000 by July 24.
According to a description on the game’s Kickstarter page, Areal “features a massive and intricately detailed open world environment that is extremely varied and colorful, even though it’s set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Areal depicts a future where civilization has fallen apart due to an unearthly material called Metamorphite, which eventually spreads, corrupts and infects the whole world. The source of Metamorphite comes from a meteor that impacted the earth long ago, and it is the site of constant conflict and bloodshed.”
Areal is slated for a September 2015 release on PC, Max, Linux, PS4, Xbox One and Wii U.
If you’d like to support it, you can do so on the game’s Kickstarter page.
