I'm unaware if anyone has done a review on this but I finished the game and it made me want to write about it. This is my first attempt at something like this, so bear with me, it's rather long.
Cryostasis
At first glance, one derelict gargantuan ship stranded in the middle of the frozen wastes of the Antarctica filled with oddly shaped mutants may not seem like a good premise for a game.
But couple it with an innovative game play, good physics courtesy of PhsyX, unique storytelling and gripping atmosphere and you might just get one of the best games of this year.
Big words I know, but this game is what a good game should be in the first place : a piece of art.
Graphic Ripples
Seeing it from a visual standpoint the game really does give the player the impression that he is at the mercy of the iciness surrounding the ship. The areas where the temperature drops dramatically have a habit of forming ice crystals on the screen, foam comes out of the character's mouth and movements in all become more sluggish.
What?s neat is that the player will discover various heat sources during his travels and most of them after being triggered change the surroundings by melting away the ice and smashing the icicles forming here and there on ledges. The color spectrum becomes warmer.
The game offers a rather scarce color palette throughout most the gaming experience, as the insides of the North Wind aren?t exactly the most picturesque sights, metal colors and rust abound with the occasional wood-panels. And yes, the game takes place in mostly cramp spaces where strafing to-and-fro is not all that possible and on the rare events when the player is outside the ship, the whole view is obstructed by the onslaught of snow and wind and the rapidly decreasing heat levels will not encourage anyone to idle around for too long seeking inexistent horizons.
The only changes appear in the brief moments when Nesterov perfoms the ?Mental Echo? ability, which takes place in the form of a trippy burst of colors and takes you to the last moments of the person you?ve just incarnated, so to speak.
Also this is the one of the first (if not the first) game(s) to actively use the PhysX technology, but from where I stand it could have been better implemented as the only moments where this feat really surprises is when icicles start to fall down on the floors and break asunder causing the more squeamish player to rapidly move the mouse around and prepare for any ambush and when u happen to step on any props.
Sound waves
I might just as well skip this part as there?s hardly any music while playing Cryostasis. There are some brief synth pieces in some instances when more threatening foes appear. The menu music is dark and as chilling as its layout. The voice acting for the most part I found satisfying at best as they really try to hard to give a grave undertone to the catastrophe which eventually befell the ship. I heard that the original Russian dub of the game is top-class but as I?ve yet to play it I can?t really tell.
Gameplay, mentalplay
The real innovation the people of Action Norms really came with is the ?Mental Echo? ability which basically allows the player to relive the last moments of every dead person he finds on the ship. This is generally required action as saving their lives causes the present to change and thus opening the path for Nesterov to move on. Not only is Nesterov blessed with this unique power but he also seems to posses a certain degree of psychometry which allows him to see certain scenes of events passed entering their respective area, this is somewhat similar to Bioschock instances when Jack would see ghost reinacting past events. There?s a neat chapter where you can see some of the scenes you solved yourself through unfolding while you walk by.
Getting back to more earthly ways of playing, the game in all does not necessarily push the player to spam countless bullets in the hapless creatures assaulting him or her. Nesterov moves quite slow, as he is dressed in thick layers of clothing and so everything he does takes time, this including reloading, swinging an axe, and running in general.
The melee portion of the game is ok for most part, you have some fist-fighting action which you have around with pressing 2 movement keys at once and the character will box around using various moves. And then you have the axe?the axe really feels like one, heavy and powerful, after every slash you make, you will be dragged down with it and for a second you won?t know if you?ve hit the spot until you hear screeching and the screen goes blue as you get punched/slashed/shot/bitten/impaled.
The ranged fights aren?t much better either. First of all there?s no crosshair, so if you want a clean shot you have to holster it and aim carefully, but of course you don?t always get the time to do so. The first gun you find, the Mosin Nagant is a real pain as it requires reloading after every shot and it can get quite distressing when the constant flaying of the monster in front of you only disturbs your sight and thus your aiming more and more, that not counting the steam huddling up the screen and icy crystals. There?s also a flare gun but I didn?t quite get the use of it as there?s rarely any ammo for it in the game and it can use as a distraction at best. As for the machine gun, the dispersion rate is so ridiculous you have to wait until you're up and close if you don?t want to waste a whole clip on one opponent.Ammo in this game is quite scarce so when you shoot something you?d better make it count as finding ammo pack can be quite a hassle.
The style of playing is maintained up until the last chapter when some completely unexpected events cause Nesterov to gain some impressive skills.
Intelligence
The A.I. in this game doesn?t really shine in any way. Most the actions are scripted and monsters have a knack for choosing horrible routes towards you or just get stuck behind a pipe or box. Plus you rarely get attacked by more then 1 opponent at once so dealing with the frozen devils of the North Wind isn?t all that hard.
Storytelling
Now here?s where the game?s strong point lies. Despite its shortcomings in other areas the story completely grips you and immerses you into the chain of events leading up to the complete halt of the ship and the transformation of the crew into their more gruesome versions.
The year is 1961. The nuclear ice-breaker Northwind is stuck and Alex Nesterov, meteorologist extraordinaire is sent to check it out. Simple enough eh? No, not really. What intrigued me, was that the game starts out with a quote by Herman Hesse and the game takes a lot of inspiration from the works of Maxim Gorki in which he has some very interesting things to say about the cold of winter. For example the idea for heat as a substitution of health can be found in the novella ?Konovalov? by Gorki.
The game is riddled with flashbacks which help you understand better what exactly went on by focusing on 4 main characters: the captain, who has become broken and has lost confidence in his abilities after initially ramming the ship into a block of ice, the first officer who begins to question the actions of his superior and sends worrying messages to H.Q. ultimately leading in a docking order for the ship, the chief of security whom you can see in flashbacks throughout the game, and the chief engineer who is as tired as any veteran in his field of work and dismisses the captain when asked for help. The quirk is the last 3 characters play a vital role in the end-game scenario. Telling more about the story would only lead in me writing one spoiler after the other and I?d rather let you discover it yourself.The are some truly epic moments, towards the last moments of the game I was surprised to hear lines recited from the Old Testament, the Ecclesiast to be more precise, the effect was mind-blowing.
Conclusion
I?d say that Cryostasis is more of an experience than a game. It?s a story in which the player is actively taking part and the whole feel of it will leave you pondering on the symbols seen in-game for a long time.
To anyone able to overlook some of its few short-comings and seeking for a thought-provoking experience I?d definitely recommend it.
If you can,buy it. You won?t regret it.
If I were to grade it, out of 100 points I?d give it 90 subtracting the stiff physics and painful shooting style.
Cryostasis
At first glance, one derelict gargantuan ship stranded in the middle of the frozen wastes of the Antarctica filled with oddly shaped mutants may not seem like a good premise for a game.
But couple it with an innovative game play, good physics courtesy of PhsyX, unique storytelling and gripping atmosphere and you might just get one of the best games of this year.
Big words I know, but this game is what a good game should be in the first place : a piece of art.
Graphic Ripples
Seeing it from a visual standpoint the game really does give the player the impression that he is at the mercy of the iciness surrounding the ship. The areas where the temperature drops dramatically have a habit of forming ice crystals on the screen, foam comes out of the character's mouth and movements in all become more sluggish.
What?s neat is that the player will discover various heat sources during his travels and most of them after being triggered change the surroundings by melting away the ice and smashing the icicles forming here and there on ledges. The color spectrum becomes warmer.
The game offers a rather scarce color palette throughout most the gaming experience, as the insides of the North Wind aren?t exactly the most picturesque sights, metal colors and rust abound with the occasional wood-panels. And yes, the game takes place in mostly cramp spaces where strafing to-and-fro is not all that possible and on the rare events when the player is outside the ship, the whole view is obstructed by the onslaught of snow and wind and the rapidly decreasing heat levels will not encourage anyone to idle around for too long seeking inexistent horizons.
The only changes appear in the brief moments when Nesterov perfoms the ?Mental Echo? ability, which takes place in the form of a trippy burst of colors and takes you to the last moments of the person you?ve just incarnated, so to speak.
Also this is the one of the first (if not the first) game(s) to actively use the PhysX technology, but from where I stand it could have been better implemented as the only moments where this feat really surprises is when icicles start to fall down on the floors and break asunder causing the more squeamish player to rapidly move the mouse around and prepare for any ambush and when u happen to step on any props.
Sound waves
I might just as well skip this part as there?s hardly any music while playing Cryostasis. There are some brief synth pieces in some instances when more threatening foes appear. The menu music is dark and as chilling as its layout. The voice acting for the most part I found satisfying at best as they really try to hard to give a grave undertone to the catastrophe which eventually befell the ship. I heard that the original Russian dub of the game is top-class but as I?ve yet to play it I can?t really tell.
Gameplay, mentalplay
The real innovation the people of Action Norms really came with is the ?Mental Echo? ability which basically allows the player to relive the last moments of every dead person he finds on the ship. This is generally required action as saving their lives causes the present to change and thus opening the path for Nesterov to move on. Not only is Nesterov blessed with this unique power but he also seems to posses a certain degree of psychometry which allows him to see certain scenes of events passed entering their respective area, this is somewhat similar to Bioschock instances when Jack would see ghost reinacting past events. There?s a neat chapter where you can see some of the scenes you solved yourself through unfolding while you walk by.
Getting back to more earthly ways of playing, the game in all does not necessarily push the player to spam countless bullets in the hapless creatures assaulting him or her. Nesterov moves quite slow, as he is dressed in thick layers of clothing and so everything he does takes time, this including reloading, swinging an axe, and running in general.
The melee portion of the game is ok for most part, you have some fist-fighting action which you have around with pressing 2 movement keys at once and the character will box around using various moves. And then you have the axe?the axe really feels like one, heavy and powerful, after every slash you make, you will be dragged down with it and for a second you won?t know if you?ve hit the spot until you hear screeching and the screen goes blue as you get punched/slashed/shot/bitten/impaled.
The ranged fights aren?t much better either. First of all there?s no crosshair, so if you want a clean shot you have to holster it and aim carefully, but of course you don?t always get the time to do so. The first gun you find, the Mosin Nagant is a real pain as it requires reloading after every shot and it can get quite distressing when the constant flaying of the monster in front of you only disturbs your sight and thus your aiming more and more, that not counting the steam huddling up the screen and icy crystals. There?s also a flare gun but I didn?t quite get the use of it as there?s rarely any ammo for it in the game and it can use as a distraction at best. As for the machine gun, the dispersion rate is so ridiculous you have to wait until you're up and close if you don?t want to waste a whole clip on one opponent.Ammo in this game is quite scarce so when you shoot something you?d better make it count as finding ammo pack can be quite a hassle.
The style of playing is maintained up until the last chapter when some completely unexpected events cause Nesterov to gain some impressive skills.
Intelligence
The A.I. in this game doesn?t really shine in any way. Most the actions are scripted and monsters have a knack for choosing horrible routes towards you or just get stuck behind a pipe or box. Plus you rarely get attacked by more then 1 opponent at once so dealing with the frozen devils of the North Wind isn?t all that hard.
Storytelling
Now here?s where the game?s strong point lies. Despite its shortcomings in other areas the story completely grips you and immerses you into the chain of events leading up to the complete halt of the ship and the transformation of the crew into their more gruesome versions.
The year is 1961. The nuclear ice-breaker Northwind is stuck and Alex Nesterov, meteorologist extraordinaire is sent to check it out. Simple enough eh? No, not really. What intrigued me, was that the game starts out with a quote by Herman Hesse and the game takes a lot of inspiration from the works of Maxim Gorki in which he has some very interesting things to say about the cold of winter. For example the idea for heat as a substitution of health can be found in the novella ?Konovalov? by Gorki.
The game is riddled with flashbacks which help you understand better what exactly went on by focusing on 4 main characters: the captain, who has become broken and has lost confidence in his abilities after initially ramming the ship into a block of ice, the first officer who begins to question the actions of his superior and sends worrying messages to H.Q. ultimately leading in a docking order for the ship, the chief of security whom you can see in flashbacks throughout the game, and the chief engineer who is as tired as any veteran in his field of work and dismisses the captain when asked for help. The quirk is the last 3 characters play a vital role in the end-game scenario. Telling more about the story would only lead in me writing one spoiler after the other and I?d rather let you discover it yourself.The are some truly epic moments, towards the last moments of the game I was surprised to hear lines recited from the Old Testament, the Ecclesiast to be more precise, the effect was mind-blowing.
Conclusion
I?d say that Cryostasis is more of an experience than a game. It?s a story in which the player is actively taking part and the whole feel of it will leave you pondering on the symbols seen in-game for a long time.
To anyone able to overlook some of its few short-comings and seeking for a thought-provoking experience I?d definitely recommend it.
If you can,buy it. You won?t regret it.
If I were to grade it, out of 100 points I?d give it 90 subtracting the stiff physics and painful shooting style.
