It was announced couple of days ago that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lost Alpha would be released earlier and as a free add-on.
Dez0wave, the developer took the decision after a bugged build was leaked online by some of the testers. We decided to dig into the details of the matter as well as the future plans of the group.
We asked Jason aka LiquidBronze to shed some light on the back-story of the leak and whether the tester really did all this just to pull an April Fools’ Prank.
The reply wasn’t really as elaborate as we would have wished, and he merely stated that “we (Dez0wave) put our trust into people and they decided to act on their own and not as a team”.
I wonder how exactly did that hamper the developer’s ability to release the mod as an official add-on, and even the developer shied away from answering this.
We know that everyone among the STALKER fans are mad at the testers who leaked the build and there are fans, who are unhappy by its early release considering the game might not be as complete as they would have wanted it to be.
As far as the latter is concerned, we asked the developer about content being cut from the game in order to release it by April 26 and we have a good news on that front.
It looks like there won’t be major content cuts:
All maps and core mechanics are still in the release client. In fact, some existing maps were even revised within the last 6 months; adding more décor, tasks, stashes, etc.
There will be some minor content cut: for example, seeing your hands when driving, which is more cosmetic though. There is also some content in place, such as the skill system, that won’t be available right away until further testing is done, so it will be patched in later.
I guess that means some of the features being missing but firstly, this is quite less than the content cut that was being rumored and secondly, the developer has said that they will be fine tuning it to make sure as much of the content is ready as possible:
The leak build has not disrupted work as we continue to fine tune the game until release. Lost Alpha will not be a commercial game, but released as a free standalone add-on for all to enjoy.
Moving on, we understand that the hardcore fans of the game who had also backed the project would want to know what the developer has in store for them.
We asked what should be expected from the release build of the mod, to which we were told that Dez0wave regards it as more of a full-fledged game than a mod, so it could really have a lot stuff that may surprise us all:
We believe Lost Alpha has moved away from being a modification and stands on its own right as a full-fledged game, to that extent, expect the unexpected 🙂 The game is stable, and with all graphical elements turned on, it will look beautiful!
Moreover, you will be able to download the game from the medium of your choice – be it torrent or ModDB. In the end, we had asked Dez0wave about the upcoming project that they mentioned while talking about donations in the Lost Alpha release date announcement.
Although they have decided not to let loose anything, the developer has promised us that they will be revealing more on that front ‘soon.’
How content are you with the developer’s take on the state in which Lost Alpha is being released?
Would you still want them to give it more time and try to churn out what they actually set out for, or would you be satisfied with what is coming your way on April 26?
