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Review friv game of Return To Kurgansk - a stalker in the fog

Return To Kurgansk is the first VR horror and the third work of the Russian studio Friv2Online, which successfully operates as part of the Incubator project created by Gaijin Entertainment to support such young indie developers. We share our impressions of getting to know the friv game.

First there was The Abandoned - a mobile survivalist and a test of the Yadon pen as part of the Gaijin inCubator. "Stalker", quite playable and in some ways even original The Abandoned found a new life in the face of the already PC-project Shadows of Kurgansk. The plot of both was stylishly presented in a comic book format, there was an unusually large amount for a resource farming and crafting setting, and there were horror elements - the most successfully successful Yadon Studio.

And then the developers decided to develop the universe further, to try to enter from the side of virtual reality, where the horror genre is especially in demand, and “stalker” survival games are quite welcome. Return To Kurgansk is a little “foggy”, but otherwise it has not changed in appearance, which is both good and not very good at the same time - weak textures, simple models, all this is appropriate on mobile phones and even in indie format on a PC, but that’s all with glasses perfectly visible.

On the other hand, the game turned out to be story-driven, well-structured, and, most importantly, undemanding. It “flies” on the same Oculus as it doesn’t fly, for example, Into the Radius VR is the closest competitor to Return To Kurgansk, which, nevertheless, I would like to recommend to “lovers of this business” in the first place.

According to the plot, the group of the protagonist went on an expedition somewhere in the taiga and got lost safely. The guys wandered, wandered, until they saw a strange glow in the sky. An anomaly similar to ball lightning approached them, an explosion occurred, and the protagonist lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he found himself on the territory of an unknown exclusion zone.

Around the anomaly, strange, aggressive people in hoods, huge, disgusting rats and entire fields flooded with radioactive chemicals. The confused hero, that is, directly you, get to the nearest ghost village. The place is dead, but some of the locals survived. It is he who will bring you up to date, issue the first tasks and help you get settled in one of the abandoned shacks.

Return To Kurgansk has a corridor world structure similar to those in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, but the atmosphere is closer to Chernobylite. You wander through narrow, but quite spacious locations, rich in all sorts of loot, vegetation and opponents.

The friv game has a full daily cycle that affects the environment (that is, some anomalies and creatures manifest themselves at night, others during the day). It is gloomy, sometimes creepy, which is facilitated by disturbing ambient, and strange sounds, and the fog itself, which at the same time simplifies the life of your gaming system.

Gradually making their way deep into the exclusion zone, players will learn its secrets, get acquainted with the local inhabitants and intensely explore more and more new territories. Researching, gathering resources and completing current tasks are the cornerstones of Return To Kurgansk. If you really like story survival games in VR, and you are ready for the loads associated with them, you are welcome to Kurgansk.

The design of the world and the plot pleased, despite the nondescript appearance. In this regard, Yadon Studio went in a slightly different direction than their counterparts from CM Games, and instead of one spacious territory, they made many smaller but more diverse locations: empty villages, cemeteries affected by anomalies, underground shelters, a military base. Yes, and the monsters here are not shadows, but rather creatures of flesh and blood.

The game feels interesting precisely from the point of view of plot immersion: you seem to be on the territory of the Zone, the nature of which you have no idea about, and those few who go into radio contact with you are the only hope for salvation. You immediately feel uncomfortable, even scared, and if your mental health falls, unpleasant hallucinations also begin. The atmosphere is catchy in its own way, and small territories and clear tasks motivate to move on.

Craft is well done. You have a huge amount of recipes for field crafting and working with stoves, campfires, workbenches, anvils and special laboratory tables, and there are a lot of things in the world that can be collected and somehow adapted.

To cut down some fruit tree, you will need to manually wield a tool, you will have to pick up a hammer and chop a dilapidated fence to get hold of boards, cut reeds to collect nutritious roots and grass, and in general look at both, because even old tin cans can come in handy one day.

The friv game has a very well organized storage system. The Yadon backpack was borrowed from other popular VR titles, organized side pockets for large equipment, convenient slots for reagents and plot items. On the belt, the player can carry up to two medical supplies, two consumables, and two tools or weapons, while the center slot is for quickly moving items into the bag.

A walkie-talkie and a diary are attached to the shoulders, a backpack is over the shoulder. It is convenient to interact with everything, there are no problems with “aiming” objects when you are trying to take a weapon, and your hand grabs an apple hanging nearby. Everything is made according to science.