Tunguska: The Visitation - top-down survival shooter inspired by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series

[Jinn]

Just got a big update and is on a nice sale right now.



Grabbed it last night and got to play it for a couple hours. Went with the "Hardcore" mode. Really impressed with what I've seen so far, particularly from a one-man developed project. Will likely post some more impressions when I get a bit further in.

 

[ADL]

Saw this a couple days ago on GOG but didn't buy it since no one was talking about it. Impressions seem good and the hardcore mode looks interesting. Please post more when you've had a chance to play it.

 

[Jinn]

Saw this a couple days ago on GOG but didn't buy it since no one was talking about it. Impressions seem good and the hardcore mode looks interesting. Please post more when you've had a chance to play it.

I got to play a few more hours. Hardcore mode is great, except for one thing: being only able to save at stationary beds, i.e. not with a sleeping bag you can carry in your inventory. For the first couple hours, this didn't seem like it'd be a big deal for me, but when you're going on certain quests that require you to travel a fair distance, end up having to stealth around certain areas, get in several combat encounters, activate generators, find switches, and sometimes wait for time to pass (if you want to try to infiltrate or bypass a location at night, for instance), dying and redoing all of these things can become rather time consuming. Mind you, this is my experience early game. I feel like you'll be able to survive longer when you have better armor, weapons, and healing options at your disposal, as well as a better grasp on which enemies you want dance with or not. That being said, the intensity of some of these travel attempts with Hardcore difficulty enabled have been truly great and memorable moments of gameplay, where every action has meaning, and every mistake can mean a quick death. I think it actually served as a way to get a quick helping of what the game truly has to offer with its breadth of approaches to different situations and player agency. I continue to be impressed by what I'm seeing. Sadly I think I might have to start over on the normal difficulty and maybe try Hardcore on a replay someday in the future.

Other small positive observations I've had are: I love the UI both functionally and aesthetically. Conversations are much more in-depth than what you'd expect to find here as well, working much more like a straight CRPG using keyword prompts, without any attribute based dialogue options of course. The atmosphere is great and I've enjoyed some of the early world and "level" design quite a lot. Combat is - as I hinted at before - very lethal, particularly in the beginning stages. Different types of enemies display different challenges too. You'll be lucky to stand toe to toe with a military man for more than a couple seconds if you're unprepared, but if you have the darkness of night and some cunning at your side, you can take down a good 3-4 bandit-type enemies with a pistol. And you can of course beat the shit out of a mindless ghoul mutant with a crowbar or machete as long as you play your cards right. But get a scratch from them and you're going to contract the T-Virus, which will cause you to become weaker and more susceptible to taking additional damage.

So far it seems like the isometric STALKER I never knew I wanted. Most everything I said above was positive, but I'm sure that's mainly because I'm early on. I have no doubt the game has some hidden flaws that have yet to reveal themselves, but I at least know at this point that I'm happy to have supported this game and having a great time with it. Really hope this guy is able to make more games in the same vein in the future.

 

[cyborgboy95]

New Free Gear, Improved Main Menu, Update on Dead Zone DLC
Dear Ghoul Hunters:

First of all, thank you everyone for the support! It's an honor for me to present this game to you, and I hope you get many hours of fun time from it

As a small token of gratitude, I'm releasing a free gear that you might find useful: a wooden shield. You can equip it on either of your primary/side arm slots, and when you pull up a melee weapon, the shield will be moved to your left arm. The shield will provide 100% protection from head-on melee attacks - if you keep it in good condition (and no it doesn't block bullets). Attacks from the side has some chance to be protected as well. It will definitely help when you tackle a group of Scythes!

You can find this shield at the barrel on the small pier by the Zernaskaya church (if you start a new playthrough), or buy it from any traders who sell melee weapons (except Sidor, his level is too low).


Also, I know many of you folks are eagerly waiting for the Dead Zone DLC. I apologize for the delay; I just had to fix some of the technical debt that got piled up. I'm almost done with making all the new weapons. I just have a couple of things left, such as the throwing knife - it's going to be the most realistic throwing knife you'll see in modern gaming, might even be as tricky as real throwing knives After this, I will start making some "boss ghouls" for the high challenge playthroughs.

Other changes included in this update:

- NPCs will sometimes loot dead bodies they see. Not all of them, which would be frustrating for you. They would equip the new weapon if it's better than their, and save the rest of the loot in their inventory, and put them on sale if you trade with them.

- The main menu now supports up/down arrow or Dpad navigation

- When you click on "Continue" in the main menu, it'll show a "load save game" page where you can choose which save to load.

- Balanced the sound effects in the main menu.

- Increased the F1 Grenade and Makeshift Landmine's damage drastically to make them more desirable and useful.

- A new icon for the potato bread so it's no longer confused with the Rye bread

- Fixed some issues with strangling with Garrotte. Hopefully now you will no longer encounter problem with your victim sliding away when you strangle them.

- Fixed a bug with NPCs detecting dead bodies even when they are out of their sight. This could cause your silent takedowns to go haywire when you kill one of them, and immediately the guards would notice the dead body

- Fixed a bug with Ashinaka sanatorium spawning human NPCs who just stand there like idiots

- Added a chest in the car in the army cordon level. Now you can find all three gasolines required in that level, not having to go back to town to get it.

- Sidor will try to remind you about Hans's detector project before you head to the train station

- Siren and mutant spawning sounds are cached, hopefully to reduce some micro-stuttering

- Added error handling of failure to connect to local database, which can be caused by putting the game file in a folder with special characters



As usual, whenever I add new features I tend to break stuff... Please feel free to let me know either in the Steam Community or Discord if you notice anything wrong.

Thank you!

 

[agris]

Grunker speaking of interesting-looking iso games like Seven, here's a FYI if you weren't aware.

I haven't played this one either, but it does pique my interest.

 

[mkultra]

Seems decent, but i think i will refund, i'm such a graphical whore unfortunately.

The assets used here belongs in games made some 20'ish years ago, makes very little sense. It reminds me of games like never winter nights 1 or so.

He could spend maybe $100-200 on modern stock assets to make the game look at least twice as good. Bet it would sell better and it could be advertised better with some pretty nice looking screens. I mean its not running on a 20 year old engine, Unity is capable of higher poly count than 800'ish for a tree and 20 for a rock..

 

[normie]

was looking around Steam thinking I'll get the new Deadnauts, but somehow happened on this instead
picked up some turds from the outhouse and played for a few hours until I got the garrote, I'm really really liking it

 

[tred]

It is pretty good. I've finished it last year and really liked it.
It felt a lot like a 2D Stalker (SoC). Not as complex, of course, but good enough.

 

[normie]

I'm in a personal inventory hell
is it worth picking up weapons and fixing them up to sell them? or will the mid-game scale up in moneys in a manner I'm being a weaponhobo for too little reward for the amount of work it is? for that matter, will money buy me anything? I've been stocking cash and it did get me a backpack upgrade as soon as I happened on it, but that's upgraded my hell

 

[normie]

the answer was "no"

 

[normie]

I'm doing more farming, fishing, cooking and brewing than shooting things
the dev is releasing bugfixes and usability updates every day as they're brought to his attention while working on the next big DLC called the "Dead Zone" that also features New Game+ and a new difficulty level, and a bunch of new weapons and boss monsters only featured in the new difficulty level, if I'm reading it right

you can now SLIDE into a crouch from sprint, the time to get the game is now
ok, I'm going back now, I have pizzas and beer to deliver

 

[normie]

I did it, boys

Spoiler

edit: ohmygawd, I went to test out what the reward item does and it's a ridiculous god item that's truly well deserved - I checked the steam forums and nobody's made mention of it, so it truly feels like a rare autism reward because becoming master chef takes you well into the post-game territory, and as such would only be presented to the truly insistent

 

[normie]

Revolver that isn't Nagant with a silencer...

Nagant revolver has been added in today's update.

 

[Rean]

I actually have this game.
I gave up on Atom about 10 hours in or so, the lolsorandom humor, memes and silly portraits were getting too much. Is this any better?

 

[normie]

Is this any better?

yeah, at the very least it takes itself seriously for most of the time, so the ways it's shit are forgivable - unlike atom, which doesn't take itself seriously enough to begin with and whiffs everything by design

 

[Rean]

yeah, at the very least it takes itself seriously for most of the time, so the ways it's shit are forgivable - unlike atom, which doesn't take itself seriously enough to begin with and whiffs everything by design

Cool. I'm reading there's a DLC in the works, so I'll probably wait for that. But the way the dev has been updating this is truly praiseworthy.

 

[normie]

yeah, at the very least it takes itself seriously for most of the time, so the ways it's shit are forgivable - unlike atom, which doesn't take itself seriously enough to begin with and whiffs everything by design

Cool. I'm reading there's a DLC in the works, so I'll probably wait for that. But the way the dev has been updating this is truly praiseworthy.

the DLC doesn't appear to be adding any new areas or quests or such, just new game+ and guns that are exclusive to new game+ and don't otherwise make sense, like the minigun - the dev seemed really insistent on the minigun

 

[Grim Monk]

Before opening the thread my imagination painted a rather different picture then what this actually is.


I had a vision a Stalker like set in alt-history version Tsarist Russia of 1910s where the Tunguska Area is a “Zone”. The perimeter being “Great War” style trenches, barb wire, and bunkers, struggling to contain the zone and the strange creatures spawned appearing in it. Soldiers on on the perimeter (and of course visitors to the Zone) carrying Gas Masks due to the zone due to the risk of "noxious fume clouds" originating and drifting out of the zone.
Those inhaling these vapors would be at risk of death or "highly unpleasant" mutations.

Rumors of artifacts and mysteries attracting scavengers, scientists, mystics and religious fanatics, representatives of the various revolutionaries groups active in the Empire, and agents of foreign powers outside Russia all seeking to obtain or unravel the Zones secrets for their own ends.

Failed expeditions to penetrate the zone left behind rusting Armed cars and Tsar or Mark V* style Tanks.
*(Lent "prototype" aid tech form Entente Allies in the West.)

Perimeter Soldiers and Zone Stalkers carrying bolt action and bayonet Berdan and Mosin rifles, Nagant and Mauser pistols, while more high level weapons would stuff like prototype Federov Avtomats issued to the Tunguska Perimeter Imperial Cossack elite forces.
Also exotic imported weapons would stuff such as the Mondragon Rifle or Lewis LMG.


But on clicking the thread turns out the developer went for a more generic Stalker Clone...

 

[normie]

Wishlist Dead Zone DLC! Early Access Open IMMINENT
Dear Ghoul Hunters,

Thank you all for patiently waiting as the Dead Zone DLC undergoes development! I have finally collected enough in-game footage to create a Steam page for it, with a video showing off a few weapons, and some screenshots of the new elite ghouls!

I plan to release the DLC some time in June, and until then I will keep uploading new screenshots and updating the description to reflect whatever new stuff I'll be adding.

Now, in a few days, I will start a free Early Access for the DLC, where you can try out the entirety of the DLC. I have made the NG+ gameplay very very difficult, so the goal of this Early Access is to gather feedback and finetune the difficulty Please keep an eye on my announcements - the opening of EA is IMMINENT!

Spoiler

Also, I updated the game to 1.67-9 version with the following changes:

- In Ravenwood, you can now use the boat at your house to travel to either the Rangers camp or Lake Kraken church. Should save you a bit of running time. You just need to enter the boat from a different angle to hit the trigger for either travel directions.

- When a full-auto gun's durability reduces, it'll start shooting a bit slower and irregularly.

- Successful melee attack will now increase your fitness skill a little bit.

- Greatly reduced the price of backpack extensions sold by merchants. But Jian Jun is still a cutthroat - his extension still costs 15000.

- You can now secretly raise your relationship with the Mongols by delivering food orders. Once you reach 100%, Jian Jun (if he's still alive) will sell you poison that you can apply to your melee weapons for an extra caustic damage.

 

[normie]

dlc is released, I've not bought it yet

 

[Optimist]

Played it for an hour or so (just managed to get the gun for Sidor fixed after spending a bit too long with the Mad Mechanic) and must say I am generally positive about it. It's janky, but not unbearably so. I have a soft spot for tactical-ish top-down view gameplay. Melee feels odd. I contracted T-virus during my first crowbar fight with ghouls and decided to mostly stick to ranged weaponry. Yet when dealing with bandits at the farm trying to melee them seemed to break their AI for a bit, as they started to run around and shoot in the air.

The Legionnaire situation felt odd. When I tried paying them off to fuck off for a while they attacked me regardless - is there a way of dealing peacefully with them? I fully get that this could have been one of those "can't trust anyone in the zone, Stalker" situations, but this felt more like scripts going off the rails.

I don't mind the graphics. I'd say they are somewhere on the level of SS2. Far from pretty, but functional. I actually enjoyed how at times I wasn't sure whether what I was approaching was a big rock or some Tunguska-local shadebeast. It'd be interesting to see the author go with overdithering (e.g. Nobody Lives Under the Lighthouse) as the graphics crutch, as this could increase the horror factor while masking the shittiness of the graphics a bit.

 

[Fargus]

Looks interesting. I'll wait for sale.

 

[normie]

The Legionnaire situation felt odd. When I tried paying them off to fuck off for a while they attacked me regardless - is there a way of dealing peacefully with them? I fully get that this could have been one of those "can't trust anyone in the zone, Stalker" situations, but this felt more like scripts going off the rails.

Spoiler

It used to be the case that you could pursue the paying them off path and they'd betray you immediately. There was no peaceful way about it, ultimately. Now it's supposed to be a valid way to complete not-Sidorovich' quest but they'll turn aggro later on. Could very well be bugged, who knows.

 

[normie]

btw lol

New Playable Character Skins

This build adds two new player character skins, both female. There will now be a unique ability of playing female characters: you can earn XP 50% faster! However at the same time, you will suffer more damage when contracted Tunguska Syndrome, and you will be more affected by Visitation events.

Dead Zone Release Date! + 1.68-1 Random Invasions
...
Also, as many folks have requested, in version 1.68-1 I implemented random "invasion events" in the game. Basically, human NPCs will randomly launch invasions towards bases/spawn points held by their enemies. From the player's perspective, you will receive a radio notification when this happens, and you can choose to respond to it (within 24 hours) by heading towards the location of invasion. Once there, you can choose to help the defenders or the invaders, knowing that if you are friendly with the faction you help, each kill will give you some bonus in relationship towards that faction. This will help you towards that 100% relationship to unlock premium goods... And, makes the game feel more alive

Enjoy!

 

[Fargus]

PMS Stalker