The upcoming survival FPS game inspired by the likes of Escape From Tarkov and DayZ, called Road to Vostok, has updated its current free demo following plenty of community feedback, and you can expect the shooter to play quite a bit better than before ahead of its second demo and early access launch.
The Road to Vostok demo was released last year, with the developer saying that over 300,000 people tested the shooter. After collating all the feedback, shooting, looting, and AI are the areas of gameplay that will see the most focus on improvements. According to the roadmap, the second public demo should arrive in the third quarter of this year, with early access and the full release still to be announced.
The shooting mechanic improvements also come from the bar set by games like Escape From Tarkov, according to the single developer. “I see this as a good thing, games like this motivate us to improve our FPS mechanics and set higher-quality goals towards weapons and shooting in videogames.”
Check out the Road to Vostok update below, with the developer still preparing to release the second public demo in the future.
The Road to Vostok public demo 1 v2 also has a new attachment system, with updated weapon inspection UI, a recoil overhaul, and the entire weapon audio system being reworked as well. The looting system has also been given a complete redo, with hotkeys, new item icons, and plenty fewer bugs as well.
According to the developer, Road to Vostok public demo 1 v2 “seems really positive and there have already been great development suggestions regarding the core mechanics,” so expect more changes over time and with the second full demo release. If you already own the Road to Vostok demo you should have v2 automatically at this point.
There are a lot of new additions in v2, like winter map options, an expansion to the village area, water mechanics, ladders, ambient zones, a night-vision goggles filter, variable optics for guns, nature shaders, and a bigger options menu. That said, swimming and fishing still need polishing so have been removed, and the village map expansion is smaller than it could be due to the focus on AI changes.
“Even though the main demo content is mostly the same, the so-called ‘game feel’ should be much better now,” says the developer, and after taking Road to Vostok for a spin myself, I can see how it’s been improved. Most guns are a delight to use, and while there isn’t that much to do in the demo itself, the promise of this game, and how it takes inspiration from the likes of DayZ and Escape From Tarkov, is pretty clear.
With no release date in sight, the Steam Early Access page is the best place to start with Road to Vostok. You can download the current demo, wishlist the game, and read more about what early access means for the DayZ, Escape From Tarkov, and The Day Before-type game.
Will Road to Vostok wind up being one of the best indie games available on PC? Will it stack up against the plethora of upcoming PC games as well? Only time will tell, but we’ll be here the whole way.
