Damn, I really don't know what to say about the Lost Alpha. With full access to game sources, seven years of development, lots of good developers, agressive marketing everythere and users donations, they've made the ultimate S.T.A.L.K.E.R disappointment EVER
First of all, it's buggy as hell. Everything what can be broken is broken, what can be spoiled is spoiled. Whom the hell are they allowed to make changes in game engine? This is awful, they even somehow manage to broke the NPC's combat AI. It's now absolutely braindead, even in the original game it was so bad so I written myself a full-scale standalone scripted combat AI for OGSE 0693, but AI in LA is even worse than in original game. They've managed to step on a rakes even in game's dangers recognition and NPC states manager, which problems are well known and documented by many dev's including myself.
Second, they heavily oversized the locations. There are absolutely nothing to do on them, yes, i know, users wanted a bigger locations, but not so big ones.
Third, the plot is awful. Illuminati in my S.T.A.L.K.E.R? You must be kidding. Who wrote the plot, an UFO freak? They don't mistaken the game they are modding? It's S.T.A.L.K.E.R not DeusEx, you know.
Fourth, gameplay features are bleak. Really bleak. Does they really think a PC with tetris game at barmen's room can add some joy to the game? If they really wanted to do this, they've must add at least a hacking minigame to this. All this things added was interesting 4-5 years ago, not now.
Last and worst - what is so special about leaked build? Are they some A+ game gevelopers or someone? We have some builds leaked then we was in process of making OGSE 0692, and just warned the users what leaked build are unfinished, unacceptable by our standarts, and by distributing and playing it they will spoil their own enjoyment from game and mod, and we wouldn't provide any technical support or feedback on this build. And then we just continued ours work. And everything went fine in result.
Verdict: goddamn disappointment. I've, being a game mod developer, waited LA myself to see and play, hoping to see something revolutionary. Well, I've seen a revolution as result. A revolt of bugs and nonsense in a simulator of homeless tramp in the industrial wasteland. Facepalm...
I opine criticism is the best, even better you have added what things were bad in your opinion. Sincerely I haven't playednstalker before, but it promises great gameplay. But I recognize, singleplayer is not my laugs provider into games. Anyway, your blog looks well written and organized, nice.
You're right. Dezowave kill this fabulous project. Lost Alpha is disappointment for a lot of guys.
They needed to release it before 2012, without new engine. As a mod or as a map pack and not as a "new game".
It's not the old stalker dream, it's a nightmare.
They loosed a lot of time, this is not a professional work as they said.
Too much promises.
Level design is good, but not perfect. Some place are very nice but details are corrupted in a lot of places (uvmap for too many object, aimap, objects properties like ghost trees...).
Storyline is for child. Look dialogue or the "good ending".
I have no words to speak about Alife. Have large level is a good thing, but they are absolutely empty. No stashes, no quests, no life, no dynamism.
And they did a bad choice. To protect the storyline, they destroyed the AI too.
Finally, LA engine is broken too. SoC, CS or CoP engines are better.
As you said, we've hoping to see a revolution. But nope.
SoC's revolution will be in OGSE 0693 imo.
I haven't played it myself yet but from what I've seen and heard so far I have to agree, Lost Alpha seems like a major disappointment. Even if they eventually fix the most glaring issues like bugs, the empty world, and unbalanced gameplay, we're probably still going to be stuck with the horribly out of place cutscenes and silly storyline, completely ruining what was one of Shadow of Chernobyl's strongest points, the atmosphere and arguably, story. Such a shame, I was looking forward to the mod as well.
Bring on 0693!
I was put off by Lost Alpha straight from the first conversation with Sidorovich, it was just too polite for the grainy atmosphere. As someone said above, childish. And then I saw how he tells you how to avoid anomalies, and then I deleted it straight away.
Eagerly waiting for 0.6.9.3!