The old STALKER games have shown themselves to be quite a formative influence for a significant number of developers over the years. One of the more prominent such developers, drawing some talent from the original developers of STALKER, are Vostok Games, who are ready to announce that their next project - Fear the Wolves - will be making its way to Steam via Early Access on 18th of July, this year.
Whereas their previous title, Survarium, has seemingly gone under the radar, Vostok Games are much more vocal about Fear the Wolves, their first foray into the likes of battle royale games.
According to the official press release, Fear the Wolves is going to be "combining traditional last-man-standing gameplay with PvE elements and unique radiation, weather, and endgame extraction mechanics." Set in what's left of the leftovers of Chernobyl and the surrounding area, Fear the Wolves will try and replicate the thick, intense atmosphere that made STALKER as special as it was, and if the screenshots are anything to go by, Vostok may have something going here.
This aside, Fear the Wolves is going to be a 100-player battle royale supporting both solo and squad gameplay modes. With about two dozen firearms, over 25 attachments and various other assorted items, it already promises a decent amount of content to burn through.
Unsurprisingly, the game will feature a single 25 km2 map, where the ever-shrinking area of interest will be dictated primarily by an uncanny and unbeatable pack of giant wolves, for a more organic twist on the classic battle royale mechanic. Aside from the titular wolves, which we should understandably be afraid of, the game will also feature a constantly-changing, anomalous weather system, a day/night system and randomised instances of radiation-induced anomalies.
The endgame itself will consist of players rushing to the extraction, signified by a helicopter, for an especially explosive finale.
Vostok Games seem to have a pretty good idea of where they'd like to take their game in the future, as well, with a nice little development timeline promising more gameplay mechanics, more items, more guns, more mutants and other such wonderful things.
While it remains to be seen whether the developers can pull this off right, there's plenty of promise shown on paper, with a potentially really solid twist on the already-tired battle royale formula.
