Survarium, spiritual successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R., will shut down this month

Survarium was one of several games that hoped to claim S.T.A.L.K.E.R’s stalking hood after GSC Game World burst. Ten years after it was first announced and seven after it was released, developers Vostok Games say that Survarium’s servers will go offline for the final time on May 31st.

“A bittersweet day approaches. On one hand it is good to look to our future but on the other, it is difficult to say farewell to an old friend,” wrote Vostok on the Survarium site. “Survarium will go offline for good come the day of May 31st 2022, 23:59 Kyiv time.”

Survarium, much like its inspiration, is set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Chernobyl exclusion zone, and one which is beset by deadly anomalies and human scavengers. Vostok was formed by former GSC Game World staff and initially discussed Survarium as an MMOFPS and the STALKER idea’s next evolutionary step in every respect.”

In reality, Survarium launched into early access in 2015 as an incomplete package. In our early access review, Marsh Davies loved the game’s setting but ultimately found it a “disappointing team deathmatch game, but an enticing base on which to build other, more subtle game modes.” Some further modes did arrive in later updates, but Survarium never found much of an audience.

More recently, Vostok Games, who are based in Ukraine, said they were safe” but “not in a position to work on further updates” to Survarium in light of Russia’s invasion of the country.

If you do crave more adventures in The Zone, you might soon be in luck. GSC Game World are unburst again and have been working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, announcing three days ago that they had resumed work after relocating the studio from Ukraine to the Czech Republic.