Road to Vostok is a hardcore single-player shooter that’s a bit reminiscent of Stalker. I finally got around to playing it and didn’t want to stop.
What, it’s already 2 a.m.? Okay, just a little further! What was supposed to be a short evening with a few demos from Steam Next Fest got completely out of hand. And the culprit is a single-player shooter called Road to Vostok. Surprisingly, it captivated me so much that I didn’t want to stop playing. Why? Let me explain.
What is Road to Vostok?
I became aware of the game because of certain similarities to Stalker. There’s the washed-out visuals, combined with Eastern European-style landscapes and AK assault rifles. However, Road to Vostok is not set in Ukraine, but on the Finnish-Russian border. According to the developer, I find myself in an undefined post-apocalyptic world, which explains the abandoned villages and marauding bandits.
Post-apocalypse? Stalker atmosphere? Count me in! So I start the free demo and select the easy
difficulty level. Easy in quotation marks, because even then Road to Vostok is not an easy game. At least I start my journey in a safe shelter and am handed a random starting weapon.
Tutorial, map, crosshairs? There’s nothing like that here. If I find a new weapon, I first need a suitable magazine and the right ammunition to be able to shoot. I then have to refill empty magazines by hand
in my inventory if I want to reuse them. And, of course, I have to drink and eat in survival mode.
But I’m already used to this from DayZ and other shooters that aim for realism, so I start my first excursion with optimism. I am greeted by a landscape dominated by coniferous trees, with the saturation turned all the way down. Everything looks gray and gloomy, but this fits the setting perfectly.
Except for the howling wind, it is completely silent; no one seems to live in the dilapidated huts anymore. So I start doing what any sensible player would do: I search every corner for loot and collect everything I can get my hands on. Suddenly, there’s a loud bang: a bullet whizzes right past my ear. I have no idea where the shot came from and run for cover in a panic. After crouching behind a car for a few seconds, I venture out, spot the shooter, and take him out with one or two hits.
Luckily, he didn’t get me. After this encounter, I’m much more cautious: I always look for the nearest cover, observe my surroundings closely, and keep an eye out for enemies.
At the same time, I’m accumulating more and more loot: a guitar, various books, board games, gloves, canned peas, an assault rifle, and various magazines for different weapons. Road to Vostok isn’t stingy with loot, but it also threatens you with death.
Because half an hour later, a bandit surprises me and I go down. Everything that was in my inventory is now gone and I have to start all over again. However, I can safely store loot in my accommodation at any time or exchange it for valuable items at merchants.
But what’s the point of all this? Road to Vostok has no story missions or fixed goals. I fight to survive and gradually advance to more difficult maps. I buy furniture for my shelter from merchants and deliver special items to be rewarded with weapons and equipment.
In the endgame area Vostok, you can find particularly powerful weapons and equipment, but at a high price: If I die here, I not only lose my inventory, but my entire character, and have to start all over again. In addition, stronger enemies await me here, who even call in air support.
It is currently unclear when the game will be released. Road to Vostok is being developed by a single developer from Finland. However, most of the items on the roadmap have already been checked off. Currently, additional maps need to be completed and the game needs to be tested more extensively. At some point, the shooter will be available in Early Access on Steam. But even now, the foundation is promising: Road to Vostok may not have glossy graphics, but it does have solid gunplay, reasonably intelligent AI enemies, and an atmospheric soundtrack. The high difficulty and the risk of losing everything force you to take a tactical approach and make my heart pound with every battle.
Editor’s conclusion
Extraction shooters aren’t really my thing. The possibility of losing everything in an instant tends to put me off games. Nevertheless, I’m having a lot of fun with Road to Vostok. The dark atmosphere, the constant tension, and the short but intense firefights really draw me in. The fact that I regularly find valuable loot motivates me even more.
I’ve already filled all the cupboards and shelves in my hideout with items and am constantly going on new exploration tours. I’m already excited to see what maps and enemies the developer is still working on. Because, of course, at some point I’ll get tired of my village and the bandits that always look the same.
It remains to be seen whether Road to Vostok will still be motivating after release without a clear goal. I would prefer it if there were a way to actually play through the shooter.
