Are you a PC gamer? If the answer is Yes, then likely you've played or at least heard of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series that rounded off with Call of Pripyat - the third in the series - before the developer eventually bit the dust due to lack of funds, mismanagement and all sorts of other things. Though the active modding community have worked their hardest ironing out bugs and improving the visuals of the three games, many fans have been demanding a proper sequel.

Now it seems a spiritual sequel might become a reality, although the title is different. Consisting of many of the old employees of the now defunct GSC Game World dev studio, the recently established West Games have launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new game titled AREAL. As the devs themselves put it;

"Areal is a new video game that's being developed by the people behind S.T.A.L.K.E.R. It features a massive and intricately detailed open world environment that is extremely varied and colorful, even though it's set in a post-apocalyptic setting. "

Asking for as little as $50.000, the team are already close to success within days of the project having been launched. Apparently, the reason for this low goal is that the team are already well into the making of the game, and have run a little low on cash.

"We've invested all of our savings into making Areal, and don't have funds to go any further. Unlike most companies, every one of our employees has invested their time and money into making Areal. That's why we think Kickstarter is the perfect platform to help us get our game done. If we are successful on Kickstarter, then we know we can finish the game."

However, controversies have surfaced, and may make it hard for the team to succeed. After GSC dissolved back in 2011, some of the developers started 4A Games, the team that brought us the fantastic Metro: Last Light. (pixeljudge.com/en/reviews/metro-last-light/) Another team was also established; Vostok Games. Though they don't have much to show for at the moment, they're very much real, and they currently have a F2P MMO shooter - Survarium - in the making.

Notice how all three of these teams are making games set in grim near future universes where the world has gone to hell? As addressed in one of the project's updates, someone over at the Survarium forums apparently claimed that West Games were fraudulent, mostly basing the claim on the fact that AREAL's Kickstarter video - which you'll see embedded above - uses a lot of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-series' CGI videos and gameplay footage. The forum post has since been deleted. But that's not where it ends. Misery LTD, the team that created the highly popular Misery Mod for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, seem to have gone to open war against West Games.

"AREAL by West games is a scam from the minute they launched their project on Kickstarter. Even prior to campaign launch West Games have ignored the three basic questions raised by MDT in an interest to safeguard the names of legendary developers and the S.T.AL.K.E.R. franchise."

They go on to describe several points of concern, including the wide use of concept art, CGI and gameplay-footage from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, suspicious use of various online and public domain assets, Kickstarter pledges going to a mysterious "Leonid Kovtun", and other things. West Games themselves claim, in another Kickstarter update, that Misery LTD are only doing this because they themselves apparently also are making a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-esque game of their own. That would be the Kickstarter-funded The Seed, which raised a modest £20.000 a few months back.

"Misery LTD and people associated with them are flaming a witch hunt against us, and trying to discredit us at every chance that they get, whilst promoting their own post apocalyptic video game. They say that they are not doing this, but multiple accounts have repeatedly posted misleading information about us, and then directed commentators to Misery's site, which features a project that's exceedingly similar to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. They are spreading lies and misinformation to various news outlets, who are unknowingly posting said lies and misinformation."

What to believe? Who to trust? Regardless, whether or not there is anything to Misery's claim, it'll be hard for Areal to raise the money needed with this kind of bad publicity buzzing around. We'll keep you updated as more information surfaces.