Modders Rebuilding S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Cryengine 2

PC Gamer reports that an incredibly ambitious Russian mod team called World of Stalker has embarked on the monumental task of recreating GSC's survival-horror shooter series, .S.T.A.L.K.E.R., as a Crysis mod.

The team has dubbed the project 'Cryzone - Sector 23," and has released some early video footage (with Russian voice-over) that we've embedded after the break. Cryengine 2's brand new physics engine seems to improve things quite a bit over the original game, and you can already see the original game shining through, despite the early stages of the makeover.

World of Stalker also plans to tweak a few of the gameplay systems, such as including an enhanced healing system (similar to Far Cry 2) that enables players to inject themselves with healing drugs, or remove bullets from themselves, after having been shot. The Sector 23 section of the Ap-Pro forums has some more information about the project, provided your Russian (or browser-based language translator) is up to the task.

As far as we can tell, Cryzone - Sector 23 isn't a sanctioned effort, so there's no telling how long the project will survive, or if it'll be allowed to see a release.