Ukrainian studio AGaming+ has announced that their next project, VR shooter Z.O.N.A Origin, set in the Chernobyl zone, will be released on Steam Early Access on August 26, 2024.
Z.O.N.A Origin is a VR-only shooter/horror with role-playing elements set in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in 2030. The authors promise to recreate a unique atmosphere of loneliness in a place where time seems to be stopped forever, as well as to show realistic handling of various classic and modern weapons. In addition, the game features dangerous anomalies, valuable artifacts, a gloomy atmosphere, and bandits. So yes, this is S.T.A.L.K.E.R. in VR.
Z.O.N.A Origin is not the first VR project by AGaming+ and not even their first game about the Chornobyl zone. The studio has been releasing mobile games for more than 12 years, but a few years ago it switched to VR and has already released four games on Steam, including Z.O.N.A Origin ‘s predecessor, Z.O.N.A Project X VR, which has quite positive player reviews (Steam rating 78/100) and sales of 5 thousand copies.
As Igor Migun, a big fan of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and founder of AGaming+ studio, told us at the end of last year, the full-scale war hit the small team hard. One of the leading developers, Igor’s brother, is serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and one of the studio’s 3D modelers was killed at the front in 2022. But Igor did not give up and continued to develop a complex and ambitious VR project almost alone.
“I didn’t just aim for a linear game, but for something bigger and more ambitious with a partially open world, a main storyline, and side quests. Here the player can act as he wants and go wherever he wants. In the game, factions can fight each other or mutants, and thanks to partial procedural generation, each visit to a location will be unique,” the developer writes in an address to players.
The game has Ukrainian localization and voice acting. The price of the game has not yet been announced, but given that the previous installment, Z.O.N.A Project X, had the lowest price in the world in Ukraine – 353 UAH, we can expect the same approach this time. Despite having a full Russian localization, it is likely that the new game, like the previous installment in the series, will not be sold in Russia.
As a reminder, Z.O.N.A Origin will be released in Steam Early Access on August 26, 2024.
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