The Farm 51 is back at it, this time with a horror sci-fi action game called Cerhnobylite. While Get Even didn’t quite set the world on fire, the developer decided to take their latest idea to the crowdfunding sector to get it financed, and they did so by building a prototype and releasing an alpha build to influencers, as well as rolling out a story trailer to help push the Kickstarter campaign forward.

The game is essentially S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fused with Layers of Fear. It’s one of those cerebral games that isn’t just about walking around and being scared out of your wits, it’s also about scavenging for gear, collecting ammo and weapons, and fending yourself off while you scour through Pripyat to unravel the truth behind the anomalies that have taken over the region.

You can check out the promotional story trailer below, which is put together very similar to how they promoted Get Even (for better or for worse) and so you can basically get an idea of what they’re going for with the game.

So the general pitch for the game is that it has a non-linear storytelling structure, and that much like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. you can scavenge and craft new items to help you survive in the irradiated zone. Supplies and resources are limited, and there are strange creatures lurking about, so the game dabbles heavily into the survival-horror sub-genre.

The Farm 51 is really looking to pay homage to GSC Game World’s popular series, though, because the main character of the game, Igor, is being voiced by Aleksandr Vilkov, the same guy who voiced the main character in S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl and Artyom from Metro.

The team is also cutting down costs by using photogrammetry based on real life objects located in Chernobyl to help bring the game to life while also being modest with the budget.

They’re also using photogrammetry for the actual topographical layout the map via laser-scanning drones. This is a method typically employed by racing simulation developers in order to capture the most accurate layout of the track, and then convert the geographical data into floating points, which is then mapped out by the environment team with proper geometry, mesh data, and textures. The team even went on location to capture as much data as possible in order to recreate the experience in the game.

Of course, the team – and gamers – want the experience to be as realistic as possible, and so the team of 20 would like to make additional trips to the exclusion zone in order to capture as much data as humanly possible in order to bring the locations life as intended. So they’re hoping that they can hit all their goals and then some to make the spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that GSC will likely never properly make at this point.

As far as the actual gameplay is concerned, as I mentioend at the top of the article there are preview builds being sent out to influencers containing one through two hours worth of prototype gameplay.

Some YouTubers have been posting up some Let’s Play footage of the alpha preview build. YouTuber CJUGames put up an hour long video to showcase what the gameplay is like so you can get an idea of what the actual gameplay is like.

There are some obvious supernatural/sci-fi elements in Chernobylite much like Get Even. However, the game contains survival elements where you have to craft healing and food supplies much like other survival games out there.

At the moment the Kickstarter is sitting at $69,000 out of its $100,000 goal. They still have 25 days to go, so it’s very likely that they might get enough dosh to bring Chernobylite to life.

If you want to contribute to the cause you can do so by visiting the Kickstarter page.

If all goes well they have plans on putting Chernobylite into Early Access on Steam by November of 2019.