Road to Vostok Reviews

Amazing game. Only thing that I dislike is if there is a bug, or if some game crash happens while I am 2 hours into a vostok trip, I lose a crap ton of progress. Besides that, Amazing. I love every part of this game.

I finally died after 184.7 hours, and it was... [spoiler]surprisingly okay - a little refreshing, actually![/spoiler] The truth is, the game is in a very early state and progress is surface-level, i.e. not deep/shallow. Even when Build #2 arrives, I don't think it will put the game in any more dire of a situation - where permadeath is the worst thing imaginable. Guns are extremely hard to come by if you strictly farm them in Village, and it took me about 60 hours to realize that (hint: I never ventured outside of village in that time). But, after my death, I realized there's no reason I can't venture straight into Vostok on day one. The hardest part is dealing with the loss of all the tasks I completed (29/30 of them), but those are QOL improvements, not strictly necessary to the game. I'll come back stronger and faster than ever, and I look forward to all the new content!! The best part is that the game runs extremely well, for supposedly having unoptimized AI logic. It has never crashed once, also. My 3-generation-old GPU is than sufficient for 100 FPS, which matters a lot if you're accustomed to gaming at competitive shooter framerates.

Outlook on this project looks great, though admittedly the game is very much in it's infancy. Think of it as a Kickstarter donation with a demo. The game currently contains no real goal except hoarding with quests and content stated to come in upcoming major updates.

Great game, well and truly addicted! Very replayable, excited to see where this thing goes!

the enemy ai is genuinely some of the most unfun ever, they see you from half way across the map and have infinite ammo. other than that, this game is alright, id wait until they fix the ai before you play.

game truly makes you feel that perfect sense of loneliness and constant alertness, environment and ambient sounds are excellent. only issue is that the gun sounds, enemy AI chatter and footsteps sound like they're right next to my ear even though they are quite far away.i think it will be fixed asap, but still 10/10.

Fun gunplay, can be very immersive. It is an early release so it leaves much to be desired, but it has a very solid base to build from. Runs smooth and looks pretty damn good too. This is one guy making this game; he is very passionate and has done an AMAZING job so far. I do wish that you could loot everything off enemies (armor plate rig, clothing, etc.) and for the A.I to interact more with each other. Definitely recommend for the price.

Please add Co-op to the game and maybe some logic to the looting and crafting system. <3 other than that it feels really nice to play and it puts me on edge every time I leave my shelter cos these Russians can be anywhere....

Played a lot of Tarkov/SPT, this game hits very different. For starters it runs extremely well. Needs to be mentioned in 2026. The enemy AI seems basic/aimbot like until you realize it isn't. The AI can see out to 200 meters on a clear day, but far less during fog or at night (unless you turn on your flashlight, as I found out). They also can hear you running pretty far, but not unreasonably so (~20-30 meters). The experience you have with the AI depends heavily on if you are running around everywhere. I got ambushed, shot at constantly, and surprised when I was sprinting around. When I took things slow, suddenly I was getting the drop on enemies more often than not. Also not sweating getting shot at from a distance, because the AI is less accurate the further they are out. Way better to fight from further away than closing the distance just to eat a magdump. Another thing I noticed about the AI is that they don't seem to handle foliage well, which is nice, because being able to use concealment isn't exactly common in FPS games. The shelter system in this game alone beats out most extraction shooters to include Tarkov. You actually start getting attached to one once you start filling it out with stuff. Unfortunately I don't recommend adding the cat, because it dies if you don't feed it in like half a day, which can easily pass when you are a zone or two away. Seems like it was just added to screw with people. Now on to actually entering Vostok. I think everyone should do it at least once. You are familiar with the stress of potentially losing all your gear, but the sudden threat of permadeath after dozens of hours of progression is a new one. Feels pretty good escaping with a bunch of gear. Even surviving a single gunfight can be a rush. But it can take a lot of time to unlock some of the shelters, or complete some trader tasks, and as far as I can tell, dying while carrying quest items is a softlock out of certain gear/shelters. So you will lose all of that progress if you get unlucky in Vostok, and have to do it all again. The reward for doing Vostok runs is very good gear, and some trader missions require it (one shelter I'm aware of requires you to go deep into Vostok to complete). But the risk/reward doesn't calculate in favor of going into Vostok at all. All the high end gear is unnecessary to survive in Area 05. Most progression doesn't require it either. There is very little on offer in Vostok that offsets the loss of a save with many many hours of progression in it. This is compounded by the fact that Vostok-tier gear can be acquired, albeit slower, in Area 05 zones. As it stands, Vostok seems like where you go when you want to start over, like a built in wipe mechanic, which I believe is intended. Now for the part of the review that is mostly for the developer: I had some ideas for fixing the risk/reward imbalance, but you aren't an idiot and have probably already thought about them all anyways, so I'll just talk theory. Unless Vostok's entire purpose is a manual wipe mechanic, some sort of pressure, or encouragement, on the player would help balance the risk/reward ratio. I think players will fall into a trap where they hold off making trips until they are adequately prepared, but by then they will start taking into account how much stuff they have and how many hours it took to get it. Then they might not go at all, or only go when they are more or less done with the game and it doesn't matter. Seeing as how it seems intended that the player should be making multiple trips into Vostok to accomplish certain tasks, more players might benefit from earlier exposure and save loss in Vostok. The first permadeath will always be the most painful, and you'd want a player to experience that earlier, rather than when they are deep into progression, when it is likely painful enough of a loss that some players might stop playing, and all of the content, story, and effort developing the Vostok area will be experienced by less people. That being said, the permadeath condition in Vostok is brilliant, and nothing should ever change it. The apprehension of crossing over from minefield and seeing the apartments can only exist if you know this could be the end. That's why I recommend every player at least do it once, even if you are sitting on the inertia of a 50 or 100 hour save. Get in, get some loot, survive a gunfight or two. You won't forget that trip to Vostok anytime soon.

If you are looking for a single player Tarkov style game, look no further.