West Games is a new indie studio consisting of devs who worked on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and Metro: Last Light. The team's first big project is called Areal, a shooter which promises to be a spiritual sequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that takes the post-apocalyptic genre in a new direction. To that end, a Kickstarter has been established (although the page has yet to go live as of this writing) to target a $30,000 funding goal and release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Windows, Mac, and Linux.
The story of Areal revolves around "Metamorphite," an alien material that landed on Earth long ago and eventually spread and corrupted the entire planet. You'll be able to explore the world unbounded, venturing into each of three regions that affect play in various ways. For instance, the "green" zone will allow you to use electronic equipment and transportation, the "yellow" zone will disable those tools' functionality, and the "red" zone will transform any living thing that enters it into some sort of zombie.
The weapons you acquire can be modified to suit your playstyle, and you can pick up metamorphite chunks to alter your attributes and battle prowess. There's no morality system or linear story path, so changes to the narrative and environment will be more dynamic than in similar games. Of course, many games promise a robust palette of options with far-reaching impact yet fail to deliver, so we have to trust in the pedigree of Areal's staff to hit those benchmarks.
Beyond the initial $30K goal, West Games has some lofty stretch targets, such as 32-person free roam multiplayer at half a million and more missions, greater enemy variety, and a "survival" mode at the big one million. Since the Kickstarter page is still in draft form, these goals could change or have their values altered by the time the page goes live.
We'll keep our eyes open for whenever funding begins.
