Don't just stand there, Come Watch ...Familiar Areal Footage
Strange similarities to Unity asset packs
I don't want to get into any speculation of my own about what's genuine and who has the right to do what in terms of STALKER's heritage right now. Let's just look at the brief in-game footage devs West-Games have finally pumped out to support their slow-moving Kickstarter, and see how we feel then.
Well... Those are some long arms, aren't they? The devs are at pains to point out that the above is "not representative of Areal's final quality."
West-Games also say of the footage that "the first video was made in two weeks. We hope that the early footage that we've demonstrated, shows you that we're a team that's actively working towards making a great game that we think you'll all enjoy. We hope that you'll help us make Areal a reality and support our Kickstarter."
Previously they've claimed that they're creating their own advanced engine for Areal, but some suspicious backers are now concerned about how similar the footage looks to Unity and an off-the-shelf asset pack. E.g.:
/me shrugs. There's just not enough footage to go on one way or another. There could be a more innocent explanation for the apparent commonalities, but West-Games are certainly going to have to provide it soon, given how much bad PR their project has already has.
Of said bad PR, West-Games said that "We know how to make games and are very passionate about Areal. What we've found out though, is that making and launching a Kickstarter is much harder than actually making the game! One of the biggest mistakes that we made was focusing too much on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and not showing footage of Areal itself. This raised a lot of negativity in the community, and many accused us of being a fraud. We just wanted to show people that we were responsible for creating S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. We were completely unprepared for the wave of negativity that surrounded our Kickstarter and honestly, were more than a little discouraged."
They also put out this video, showing off their somewhat nervous-looking staff:
Areal has six days on the Kick-clock left to go, and sits at $37k of its desired $50k. File under 'funny old business whatever happens', I think.