Cryostasis review
Alexander Nesterov arrives by dog-sled to an ice-breaker frozen stuck in the Arctic Sea. Quickly, he begins to experience strange visions. Something is very wrong aboard, named the ?North Wind? , and it looks like its inhabitants aren?t too keen on letting him uncover the ship?s secrets.
Cryostasis is a new, frightening experience from Russian developer Action Forms. It is riddled with little technical flaws, but thanks to a series of interesting new gameplay elements, it was definitely one of 2009?s highlights. Cryostasis is a horror/FPS and it definitely achieves both, but the shooter parts feel a underdeveloped at times, as if the makers only realized late in the making of the game, that they were also making an FPS. At times I wish they?d only made a horror/adventure type of game, but I am uncertain whether the game would function if it didn?t incorporate this part. However, the action sequences, particularly in the beginning, feel very tense, although the game uses the standardized method of having scary monster lunging at the player from a dark corridor. The weapons feel heavy and reload slowly, giving you the impression that no bullets must be wasted and every time you lunge forward with your axe you must hit.
There is little variety to be found in the design of the enemies, but the few monsters that do walk about on the ship are generally original and imaginative, from the little, annoying butterfly-men, to the tall, weird things that have tied two PPSh-41?s to their elbows, in addition to tying their wrists to their head in whose hands they have placed flashlights. Scary things indeed. You have to see them to believe it.
As you move through the frozen rooms of the ship, which you slowly restart and watch return to life, the player comes across dead crewmembers, who, for some reason, haven?t turned into the strange zombie-like creatures the haunt the hallways, whose ?minds? you can enter to experience their last memories, and, most importantly, change the outcome, for when you change something in the past, you alter something in the present. This so-called Mental Echo ability is quite helpful in telling the ill-fated story of the ship, as you see the events that lead the ship to getting stuck in the ice through the eyes of its crew.
Another neat thing is the health system, which is based on heat. That means your health isn?t based on how many bullets your corpse can absorb, but how much cold you can take (enemies give off cold damage). This means that to replenish health, you must fin heat sources, ranging from fires to lamps. These heat sources are often placed conveniently nearby an area of extreme cold or an encounter with an enemy. The game doesn?t try to conceal its linearity, making it impossible to deviate much from the predetermined course, but that matters little as the one ride you?ll have will be an enjoyable one.
The interior of the ship is generally well-rendered, both graphically and design-wise, but doesn?t stand out. It?s not a technical marvel and does have its share of technical flaws (mainly in the sense of graphical oddities), but what it lacks in these fields, it makes up for in atmosphere, even a relatively simple thing, such as flickering lights, constantly keeps you on your toes.
Being set in the Arctic Sea, its snow and ice effects are, naturally, of importance. Venturing outside in the impenetrable blizzard that has consumed the ship, is something you would want to avoid not only freezes, but also nearly blinds making navigating on the ship much harder, and makes you long for the dark, infested bowel of the ship. In addition to that, the water effects inside the ship that appears as the ship heats up are quite pretty to behold. The howling sounds of the bending steel constantly gives you the impression that the ship could sink any moment.
Pros
- Eerie and tense atmosphere
- At times brilliant graphics and design
- Impressive sound design
- Intriguing, albeit confusing storyline
- The Mental Echo ability and health system meaningful additions to the game
Cons
- Combat, despite some tense moments, feels tacked on and predictable
- Perhaps the linearity can be a turn-off for some.
Conclusion
Thanks to an interesting story and two appropriate additions to the game, Cryostasis is saved from being a mediocre shooter to an excellent horror experience
Recommendation
Buy it, if you enjoy collecting brilliant games, rent it, you?re not, since there is very little reason to explore the game, except if you missed some parts of the story.
