If you need a quick reminder on Areal, we’ve already covered it before in two articles, but here’s the gist of it – it was meant to be a spiritual successor to the STALKER franchise as an open-world post-apocalyptic FPS, but then, well… things went wrong. Areal developer West Games (apparently consisting of ex-STALKER devs) came under fire for using assets from STALKER in their pitch video without permission and were eventually suspended by Kickstarter. Even Vladimir Putin’s name was brought up at one point – we’re not kidding.
Now, the project is back (not on Kickstarter, mind you) with a new name: STALKER Apocalypse. Yes, really. As for the obvious ‘can you even use that title?’ question, they had this to say: “We have registered a trademark for Stalker Apocalypse, and have every right to use it as our title. Stalker by itself is a common word, and anyone can use it.”
Well, there you have it. I can’t say I’m quite convinced just yet, but if you still want to check out the project, you can do so over here. It’s asking for $600.000 and will run for a total of 90 days, offering a game made with Unreal Engine 4 for PC/PS4/Xbox One, with both single- and multiplayer modes and “plenty of familiar elements”, West Games explained.
