Is Road to Vostok "STALKER from Finland”? We Ask the Developer
Road to Vostok is an extremely ambitious project for another realistic survival FPP with only one man behind it. We check out what the game will actually be about and whether it's closer to Stalker or perhaps Escape from Tarkov.
Road to Vostok recently became available as a demo on Steam – a game heralded as a very realistic FPP shooter, with an atmosphere reminiscent of the legendary STALKER. The first mention already triggered in me the desire to check this title out, and buzzwords like: "loot", "permadeath", "survival" or the need to exfiltrate alive from the map evoked associations with single player version of Escape from Tarkov rather than STALKER. Except that traversing the map with a set of basic weapons was a bit like a bucket of cold water – because Road to Vostok in its present form can hardly even be called a demo. It's more of a preliminary presentation of the skills of the developer, who single-handedly took on a very ambitious project.
In the demo, we can explore a piece of forest with a few buildings, collect test items and shoot at not very clever AI enemies using the standard array of weapons: pistol, submachine gun, rifle, shotgun and a sniper rifle. We can also check out the first iteration of the inventory menu and a road map of the entire Road to Vostokproject, which describes the future stages of the game's development. So far, I've really enjoyed the weapon models and the forested areas.. The rather crude graphics of the assets in abandoned buildings are less appealing, and the UI of equipment also needs a lot of polishing. And that's basically it – as far as first impressions go.
Road to Vostok so far hasn't fully functional mechanics, not even the animations of reloading weapons. Everything currently boils down to a technological presentation of walking through the forest, picking up objects and shooting. So, instead of speculating or daydreaming about a great realistic shooter, I decided to ask the author himself about what the Road to Vostok is supposed to be. Should we expect another STALKER, or Tarkov, or maybe something else?
Who is the lone dev behind the project Road to Vostok?
Introducing himself as Antti, the developer is a former soldier of the Finnish armed forces, who has always dreamed of creating games. During his service, he graduated from university, and after parting ways with the army, he began serious learning of the Unity engine tools necessary for game development, such as 3D graphics and programming. As a freelancer, he sold game assets, and for the past four years he has been a teacher of game design at a private school. Road to Vostok is the culmination of his plans to become a game developer.
The game is to be an extremely realistic combination of FPP shooter and surivival, with the action taking place in a post-apocalyptic world on the border of Russia and Finland. Maps are to be based on authentic locations in the area. The core of the gameplay will be survival and looting of items in hostile terrain. The player will traverse successive maps moving eastward to the title Vostok, where the difficulty level is the highest, and death equals permadeath and loss of all items - including those held in a safe hiding place.
STALKER or single-player Tarkov?
Gamepressure: My main association during the first moments with the Road to Vostok was Escape from Tarkov in the single player version. Was that really one of your inspirations and the type of gameplay we can ultimately expect?
Antti: Both terms "Finnish STALKER" and "single-player Escape from Tarkov" are pretty accurate ways to describe the project currently. One of the main inspiration for the game is Stalker Anomaly Mod, but I see EFT more of a "proof-of-concept" for me personally, meaning EFT has proven that there is a big market for realistic and hardcore looter shooters. On top of this, there are many more games that have influenced the design of Road to Vostok, like DayZ, Project Zomboid and even Runescape
in terms of game design, I think I'm going to select a new path to approach hardcore shooters that hasn't really been utilized yet in these types of survival games. The game isn't on this path yet, because I'm still working on the core mechanics, so it might seem for some that Road to Vostok is aiming to be just a single-player Tarkov, but I would say around 1-2 years people are going to see that this is actually something different and and there's some really unique ways to approach hardcore shooters.
Gamepressure: Will we see any supernatural phenomena, creatures, mutants in the game? Or will every aspect of gameplay be 100% realistic?
Antti: Road to Vostok is based on realism and real abandoned places, there will be no monsters, creatures, nor supernatural events. If there are people who would like to see those, that is still possible in the future if they want to mod them into the game, because I will implement really extensive modding toolkit for Road to Vostok.
What will the Road to Vostok storyline be about?
Gamepressure: Will visiting all the maps in the game be connected by some kind of common, main thread that will keep the player curious? Or, as in Escape from Tarkov, the main goal will be simply to survive?
Antti: There isn't a main storyline or one big main quest that you would have to follow, but there are definitely a lot's of lore related quests and "mini storylines" that will unveil some of the details that happened to this post-apocalyptic border zone where the game is placed. I think my goal is to provide a sandbox, which allows multiple approaches for storytelling and role-playing. I see that best stories come naturally from player-driven experiences and my job is to amplify those storytelling experiences with certain lore/story-related features and elements of Road to Vostok.
Realism, mechanics – how complex will survival be?
Gamepressure: What exactly will survival be like in Road to Vostok? Will there be traditional wounds, diseases, poisonings, thirst, hunger, or will these mechanics be even more complex?
Antti: The medical system will be pretty in-depth; there will be no automatic "bandage-healing". You have to understand some core elements of gunshot wounds, and each weapon-related hit you take is a serious problem that you don't want to have. There will be a pretty extensive set of different medical conditions, but I want this medical system to feel enjoyable, not a constant chore of checking stats and values. I think that would hurt the immersion. But yes, you can get poisoned, contract a disease, get an infection and all those basic survival-game things.
What is the biggest challenge when working on such a project alone?
Gamepressure: What is the biggest challenge for you in creating the game, and what do you expect to be such a problem? After all, you're working alone.
Antti: Technically, I think I have all the skills in order to develop this game and my experience and military background will help a lot along with the development. I see that the hardest part is related to balancing the core idea of this game, meaning traveling East, towards the border and entering Vostok which is a permadeath zone. I want Road to Vostock to feel like a dangerous journey and ultimate risk-and-reward game, but the progression has to be balanced in a specific way in order for that journey to be enjoyable.
I also really want to generate situations when players have to acknowledge that "I'm not prepared for this yet", or "This fight is not for me", so there's an actual skillset/equipment demand for some of the maps or quests.
Finally I also want to mention that one of the hard things to develop is a "feeling of home" in this post-apocalypse world. This game will provide your opportunities to have shelters, and I want them to feel like they are actually yours, meaning you can decorate them and modify them in multiple ways. I think some hardcore shooters and survival games approach this from the wrong direction, meaning in most of these, shelters and bases are like soulless wooden structures that are totally unrealistic or in some games, like the Hideout in Escape form Tarkov – the core idea is just to generate money for you and that's pretty much it. So, I think there's plenty of room for innovation in this part of the survival/shooter game design.
Too much ambition or "doable"?
Looking at the road map for Road to Vostok and judging by how much content is already being prepared for next year, I strongly root for the author and keep my fingers crossed that everything will work out for him on the one hand. On the other, I also remember writing about the first ideas for Escape from Tarkov in 2015, and what eventually came out of them, or rather, is still waiting to come out. There's no denying that this is an incredibly ambitious undertaking, given that the creator intends to work on this project alone and openly says that he doesn't plan to seek aid for the time being, because acting alone is more efficient for him. Well, it remains for us to wait until the third quarter of 2023 to see if indeed Road to Vostok will then go ahead with its roadmap, and how well the planned mechanics came out.
