One of the biggest scams in the history of the game industry. Areal was supposed to be the spiritual successor to STALKER

From today’s perspective, one could argue that one of the biggest disappointments in the gaming industry was The Day Before, which was briefly released in December 2023. The game, which was meant to rival The Division and prove that a small studio could deliver a true survival MMO, ultimately ended up as a poorly executed extraction shooter.

Still, few recall that back in 2014 and 2015, the industry saw another, perhaps even bigger flop. Areal (later renamed STALKER Apocalypse) was meant to fill the void left by the original GSC Game World series…or at least that’s what its creators claimed, because the project never actually materialized.

STALKER on Steroids

When news came out in 2011 that GSC Game World had shut down, along with the first version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 being canceled, few believed that the Ukrainian team and the brand they created would ever return to life. Fans of post-apocalyptic Eastern European settings had to look to spiritual successors to the adventures in the Zone, such as the Metro series, Survarium, or the aforementioned Areal.

Announced in June 2014, the game looked like STALKER on steroids. The Ukrainian studio West Games envisioned an open world game, where a meteorite crash released a mysterious substance called metamorphite that started spreading across the globe. In the game, players would explore a zone surrounding the meteorite impact site, where humans and mutated creatures battled for dominance, and various anomalies posed constant threats.

Areal / STALKER Apocalypse. Source: West Games.

The game world was meant to be open and divided into three zones - from the relatively safe green zone, through the yellow zone with more frequent anomalies, to the red zone, where radiation levels were so extreme that anyone entering could be transformed into a monster.

Developers promised non-linear gameplay and a story shaped by our actions and choices. Our choices would even dictate which missions we could take on. The X-Life system, designed to meticulously simulate the behavior of NPCs, was meant to make them feel like living, breathing beings. This was meant to make players think twice before opening fire, since you could never be sure if an enemy or creature might summon nearby allies. In addition to firearms, players could harness metamorphite on the battlefield, giving them a range of supernatural abilities.

All of this was set to stand out from STALKER thanks to a much more colorful visual style, which today reminds me more of Far Cry: New Dawn than the spiritual successor to the Zone adventures.

That’s the theory - so how did it actually play out?

Areal / STALKER Apocalypse. Source: West Games.

Red flags galore

In reality, things were far less vibrant than the promotional materials suggested. But were they even from the game they claimed to represent? And did the project ever actually progress beyond the creators’ ideas?

Shortly after the Kickstarter campaign for Areal launched, players - and others - began connecting the dots. The main red flags associated with this project were:

1. the questionable background of West Games, based in Las Vegas rather than Ukraine, became apparent over time, revealing that the team had only worked on a browser-based version of STALKER, not the main games;
2. the concept materials released by the creators were quickly exposed as "borrowed" from Ukrainian fantasy novels, the STALKER wiki, and Unity engine assets;
3. a "scam" warning from the Vostok Games team, along with GSC Game World withdrawing their support for the project;
4. and the so-called "gameplay" shown by the creators looking more like a graphics engine test than an actual playable segment.

A letter from Putin

Things get even crazier from there. Although the creators quickly raised over $20,000 in just one day, the pace soon started to slow down. At the last moment, the project was supposedly saved by... Vladimir Putin, who allegedly sent a letter to West Games claiming to be a fan of shooters and wishing that Russians and Ukrainians would only shoot at each other in video games, not in real life. Even at the time, it sounded absurd, and looking back today, the claim seems even more ridiculous than it did 11 years ago.

The message the creators supposedly received was accompanied by two hefty contributions to the project, $11,000 and $12,000. Fortunately, Kickstarter interpreted this as the creators funding their own campaign, which violated the platform’s rules, leading to the suspension of the campaign and the developers losing access to the collected funds.

Areal / STALKER Apocalypse. Source: West Games.

STALKER Apocalypse

West Games didn’t give up though and launched another fundraising campaign in December 2014. To make it harder for vigilant players to spot them, they decided to rename the project STALKER Apocalypse.

The developers aimed to raise $600,000 in 90 days, this time using the World Wide Funder platform. Ultimately they didn’t even come close, as the total funds raised barely reached $16,500.

Areal / STALKER Apocalypse. Source: West Games.

What happened next?

Well... nothing. After that fundraiser failed, West Games vanished, taking Areal - renamed STALKER Apocalypse - with them. Fortunately, after several years, GSC Game World returned to the industry and eventually set out to create a true second S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. The rest is history, unfolding right before our eyes, because S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, despite its "issues," has finally hit the market, and its creators have been working on fixes and further development for over a year.

STALKER Apocalypse

cancelled

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• Overview

• West Games
• cancelled games
• Necro Gaming