Reconstruction of a Wasteland - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Lost Alpha Developer's Cut by group dezowave
Thousands of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans all over the world co-operated yesterday in a spontaneous effort to improvise mirror sites and by creating and seeding torrents in order to mitigate the server load on ModDB and deliver the long awaited definitive version of one truly great game.
"Have you ever dreamt about playing the old, forgotten S.T.A.L.K.E.R. ?
We were amazed by GSC's work when they released the first S.T.A.L.K.E.R. screenshots in 2002. The old design, and atmosphere was stunning and we couldn't believe our eyes. Later in 2005 things has changed. They redesigned almost all old levels. Some of them became smaller, simpler (still nice, but different), and some levels were removed. After the release in 2007 we played the game a lot, and quickly noticed that some areas are missing. We opened forums, and talked countless nights about those for almost a year. Nowdays we could say, we have a full vision about GSC's old levels, due to the collected materials, videos and forgotten screenshots. We decided to remake those stunning areas, maybe they won't be the same, but we will try everything to make them look really nice, as we always wanted to see them. In early 2009, GSC released a build from 2004, which contained many old materials. We used some of the sdk objects for the level remakes, but adjusted (and bugfixed) them for our liking, also we didn't throw out our own levels. So expect to see our own Darkscape, Dead City, Rostok Factory and some more in Lost Alpha :)" by group dezowave
To call Lost Alpha a mod is misleading as it is a complete re-designed game from the ground up. Many locations which were cut in the Shadow of Chernobyl(SoC) release of 2007 were meticulous crafted according to hunted down old concept art, screenshots or code snippets remaining in the original release version. It is standalone so there's no need to own SoC.
RockPaperShotgun
Impressions: Stalker: Lost Alpha
By Craig Pearson on May 12th, 2014 at 7:00 pm.
"I don’t speak Russian, but I can recognise a cry of pain in any language. I could tell that someone nearby was curled up and dying in the rain, but I was bleeding, exhausted, out of bullets and low on everything. I stumbled through the rain towards a building lit from within by a brazier, ignoring the sting of guilt that jabbed with every groan in the air. The only comfort you’ll find in Stalker is near the glow of a burning barrel, and I’d just escaped from a huge military compound with a scrap of health left. I got lucky: there were shelves of supplies. I filled up and checked my map to see a coloured dot surrounded by grey dots. I was ignoring a dying man surrounded by corpses. I fell asleep as that pained call for help cut through the rain and thunder, and I hoped he understood that I couldn’t face the night again. He’d have to wait until morning.
It was strangely comforting to wake and hear his wail. As I was gathering things, I heard a snap and spotted the colour drain out of the dot. I moved through the building and saw a military patrol standing over the corpse.
Later, as I cower in the corner of a building, staunching wounds with a med pack that could have saved him, I still feel bad about it. I have plenty of supplies, but I’ve earned every one of them, and survived without having to beg for help in the dirt. The squad that killed him is dead and looted, and I have a useless harmonica that I took from his corpse. Apart from guns and bullets, it was his only possession, and it’ll forever remain in a corner of my backpack."
"Everything about and around the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise is weird. It's developed by GSC Game World, based in Ukraine, also responsible for the Cossacks series. Comprised of 3 games (eat your heart out HL) that have horror, survival and RPG elements wrapped in an open world FPS. Its story encapsulates everyday villains and heroes put against each other and sci-fi monsters, anomalies and artifacts, while Soviet era conspiracies about mass brainwashing and the Chernobyl disaster from 1986 serve as a backstage. All of it supported by one of the most advanced AIs in gaming, A-Life, with its simulation of every creature you see in the game - their habits and needs, which makes the Zone a truly living and breathing world."
The A-Life AI in the pre-release gold status version of SoC was so good that it had to be nerfed for the release as it could you make lose the game in reaching the ultimate goal - the center of the zone - faster than the player. Compared with A-Life the AI in other games with perhaps the exception of the original Fear is laughable until this very day.
The game shines in showcasing the melancholic northeastern plains of Europe riddled with the rotting remains of a fallen civilization. I never had the questionable pleasure of visiting Pripyat but watching a documentary each time I get this creepy feeling of deja vu.
Lost Alpha is the superior S.T.A.L.K.E.R. period. Why would you pay for a lesser product? It is save to say that Zoltan 'dez' Munkacsi is the driving force who let this project succeed in sacrificing the best of ten years of his spare time without diminishing the hard work and dedication of the other team members.
Let it be a monument not only for exceptional game design but for all the thousands of 'liquidators', women and children who died a slow and painful death in the aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion.
Sources:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/lost-alpha
http://www.dezowave.com/group/
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/05/12/stalker-lost-alpha-review/
https://aigamedev.com/open/interviews/stalker-alife/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R.:_Shadow_of_Chernobyl
https://www.facebook.com/dezowave/
Until the team has found the time to polish the game and release a proper repack please watch this excellent guide how to install Lost Alpha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2WstX5iJKM&t=405s
Ok folks if you've made it this far thank you very much and maybe we'll meet in the zone on the biggest bug hunt this side of hell.
In the meantime I made a 4K gameplay video to show you how it looks like in reality. Of course if I played seriously I'd never walk alone through the zone at night. In my real play through at daytime after I passed the tunnel back to trader Sidorovich suddenly an alarm went off telling me a PSI storm was immanent and I made it into a bomb shelter in the nick of time after the third try.
Even in easy difficulty this game is a challenge and you have to be prepared for surprise events. Compared to this game the original SoC is like a walk in the park.
