It's not too rare to see a modification turn into a stand alone release, but CryZone: Sector 23 is a bit of surprise since they just released a beta of it back in January. If you cannot tell from the name CryZone is a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. modification for Crysis 2, well it was one. A couple of days ago they announced on IndieDB that it is no longer a modification and they are changing CryZone into a stand alone Indie game using CryEngine 3. There is no mention of whether that means the game is now for profit or still a free fan project. They have already been working on this engine for a while and have a few screenshots to show. Read on for more info and a few screenshots of the new engine.



The story of CryZone: Sector 23 is pretty similar to Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, but with a few differences. It is still about finding the Wishmaster and getting around the Brain Burner, but the story about the Stalker you play seems to be different and the areas that you go through are also different. The zone is still full of anomalies, mutants, other stalkers, factions and filled with plenty of atmosphere. The game has always looked quite promising and exciting for anyone that enjoyed the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, but it is one of those games that always has release dates and such postponed. They originally intended to release episode one of the mod back in January of 2011, but all that has been released was a small beta in January of 2012. Many are justifiably worried that now that this mod has turned itself into an Indie game and is using a different engine that now we may never see an actual release of it. I of course hope we see this game come to fruition, especially since we may never see another S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game. Check out links below for more info and thanks for checking it out.
IndieDB Page: http://www.indiedb.com/games/cryzone-sector-23
Main Website (Russian): http://cz.owl-game.ru/#




-Written by Sean Cargle