Customer Reviews

Cryostasis

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This is a truly wonderful game for people that regard storyline and ambiance over endless, mindless killing. Painkiller this game isn't; a cross between Penumbra and Bioshock is a much better comparison.

Unlike many FPSs you don't have to choose between the weapons you carry. You have a full complement of everything you find; from a chain wrapped around your fists, an extremely effective axe, a bolt-action rifle, a sniper rifle, to a full auto machine gun. This is a game that forces you to be conservative with your ammo supply and, in some cases, to be very careful with when you decide to reload (these are older style firearms and you never know what's creeping up behind you).

I know that most don't think that the graphics are particularly impressive; but I totally disagree. I think the game designers succeeded in creating a visually stunning experience. There's water perpetually flowing down the walls in warmer rooms, and the walls are covered with ice patterns in its colder rooms. When you get some warmth into colder rooms the icicles on the ceilings melt and fall to the floor. The shadows and lighting effects are absolutely breathtaking. I think people are used to wide open environments and constantly changing scenery. That is not Cryostasis--this game is all about close quarters and the inherently claustrophobic environment of a ship.

The sound design is another high point. Your only companion is the groaning of the hull, the screaming wind and your footsteps--save for the occasional hair-raising moans and grunts from whatever hell-born creature is coming at you from the darkness. I've heard no in-game music at all. Try playing the game in the dark and I suspect you'll agree that sound is a big part of the success of this title.

The fighting is this game is not constant. Not every hallway or room contains a bad guy. In fact, sometimes you'll go for several minutes before encountering one. But I personally think that this adds to the tension.

The game is not difficult but it takes thought. The time traveling puzzles are fun and can be challenging; but you will not likely be stymied by this game. But if you enjoy a challenge it will satisfy you. Fighting is also not particularly hard, but there are points that are difficult and most encounters require some level of strategy.

The one star I've removed is due to the lack of optimization of this title. I have a high end system and a good video card and I cannot run this game on particularly high settings. And occasionally when there's a lot going on on the screen it will turn into a mild slide show. But it's not so much that I would stop playing it.

It could have also used some reason for searching. Firearms and ammo are usually out in the open. It would have added some fun to the game if you needed to search the prodigious lockers. But this is a minor gripe.

You have no reason to not buy this game. It has no DRM and it doesn't even require a serial number. Have fun!

Cryostasis is a first person game that sort of defies description. Some may call it a FPS, others an adventure game. I believe it melds these two concepts together, and does them well. You play a Russian scientist at the North Pole who is sent to investigate an ice breaking ship that has run aground and become incased in ice. The big hook of this game is the 'Mental Echo' ability that allows you to re-live the last moments of dead crew members and try to correct things that they did wrong before they died. This is a very unique premise, and I rather enjoyed it. There is a lot of trial and error with the Mental Echo ability, but it is pretty painless as you can retry as often as you like (with no loading or game over penalties!) Some people have been comparing this game to Bioshock, but that is an inaccurate comparison. Just because there is a lot of water and water effects around your character does not make this game even remotely close to Bioshock. The action is not very good, and you have several melee options, as well as some rifles to collect. The combat consists of approaching your enemy and hitting him, then backing up while they attack, then approach and repeat. The monsters subscribe to the jump out from the shadows (ala Doom 3) mentatilty to provide cheap scares, however there are some tense moments. The color palette is pretty bland as the ship is iced over, so lots of blue and grey. Some areas of the ship heat up to melt the ice, and the true colors come out, and look very good. Combat overall is actually pretty bad compared to current action games. Keep in mind that this game is not about the action, which makes me feel like this is more of an adventure game. Very good story, creepy atmosphere, and great graphics make this a good choice overall, just know what you're getting into. Also this game is a graphics whore, so have a good system to run it!

There has been a lot of talk that Cryostasis is a spiritual successor to Bioshock, given all the water effects and feelings of being stranded in a deserted environment. Well, that's pretty much where the similarities end in my opinion. Cryostasis is essentially a survival-horror game that is very eery, has some innovative elements, and has some features that don't work so well.

This game is a bit of a resource hog. I tried turning everything up to high with AF and AA on, but the frame rate got so choppy it was barely playable. With AF and AA off, things got better (specs: Q6600 @ 3.0ghz, 4gb ram, 8800gt, XP 32bit, 24 inch monitor 1920x1200). Graphically, the game looks pretty nice. You can see frost crystals littering the walls of the ship. The water effects are pretty. The game is fairly monochromatic, but you're in the arctic. What do you expect?

Game play involves your character investigating what happened on an ice breaker that became locked in the ice. You traverse various corridors trying to find some answers. You have what is called "mental echo" ability, which allows you to see what the dead experienced right before they bought the farm. While in the "echo state" you can correct the mistakes that the dead made and hopefully release their spirit (or something like that). This is probably the most innovative feature of the game. Also, you have to watch your body temperature so you don't freeze to death. Find light bulbs and torches to warm up with (which are littered throughout the ship) and you'll be fine.

Combat isn't so great, especially melee. It feels very imprecise and looks like you are basically punching air. You never really feel as though you land any hits. The "zombies" that attack you are dead crew members (pretty standard). You get access to a few guns (no cross hairs, you have to use iron sights to aim). This is where Cryostasis is a bit lacking.

Overall, this title is still intriguing. I would say more things work than don't work in terms of game play. For the price, it's worth a ride around the arctic circle.

I just finished Cryostasis a few minutes ago, and I am genuinely impressed.

It was long and challenging. It's a hybrid, combining FPS and puzzle solving elements in an interesting way. It was genuinely scary and disturbing. Even at the moments when the scares were fairly predictable, it managed to give me the creeps. It very much reminded me of Silent Hill in its abstract scariness, its cumbersone execution, and its focus on atmosphere and story.

The game is very linear and the environment is dark and claustrophobic. That said, the graphics are quite good, I thought. They have a very interesting stylized look to them, and the "black and white" sequences were an interesting addition. The light and the "ice" effects were nice touches. Overall, however, this is not a game you will spend a lot of time admiring for its graphics, and if you find it boring at the start you will probably feel that way right to the end. Lots of corridors and small rooms, and little or no opportunity to explore. This, however works to the benefit of the story as it slowly unfolds, and the feeling of being pushed forward while struggling to survive against the cold and against the restless spirits on the ship creates a genuine tension that holds throughout.

It has a great story. So rarely do games have decent endings any more. They usually seem rushed, like a ridiculous after-thought, when there is one at all. Not so here. The story builds in bits and pieces, constructing itself from clues and visions until it achieves a very surreal and abstract climax. When the last scene unfolded, I thought it was breathtaking and incredibly awesome. Its the first time in years that Ive been this suprised and pleased with the end of a game. And dont kill it when its "over." Let the credits roll to their conclusion for the "real" ending and a final written message. This is a game that demands patience, right to the final fade-to-black.

It IS a system hog though. I have played many of the current high end, graphics intensive games on my computer with the settings in the upper-medium to high settings range, but I had to play Cryostasis with everything turned all the way down and most of my other applications turned off. Even so the performance remained choppy, and the extremely difficult and clunky combat was made all the more difficult. This is definitely not a game to play if you want smooth and continuous action. I also experienced the dreaded bug that causes you to fall through the floor. This bug, once it starts, will effect all of your game saves and renders it impossible to progress. It is apparently not adressed by the existing patch either. However, it is fixable using a couple of simple console commands than can be found in the cryostasis forums, and once fixed, I continued using my original game saves without trouble to the end of the game.

Overall, with regards to the quality of the product, I am reminded of Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, which is still my favorite game, but which also required a lot of effort and patience and a pretty decent bit of hardware. If you are very patient and have a good computer, though, this game will deliver an interesting and unique atmospheric experience with a thoughtful and poetic story. It stands alone as its own strange blend of elements, and it will be memorable for this reason.

Personally, I applaud the developers and recommend the game if any of this sounds appealing and you aren't afraid of the technical issues.

I have to admit, I was ready to give up on this game after the first 5 minutes when I could not get though the first dream level.

Slowly, however, the game starts to grow on you. It is not your standard first person shooter. Game play tends to be slow and methodical, and you have no health meter, but a heat meter instead. I think I only froze to death once or twice, so it's not really a big factor.

There are plenty of interesting enemies, but what make this game interesting is the puzzles and dream sequences were you have to either figure out a complex series of interactions, or change the past by changing the lives of the many dead people you find on the ship.

A lot of people here have talked about the graphics, but its not the graphics themselves that are bad, it's the GRAPHICS ENGINE that is terrible. My box will run Crysis, Far Cry, and Doom 3 at the full tilt graphic settings, but to improve the chunky game play on this game, you really need to dial down the resolution and the graphics options.

Another thing is that many times during the game you will find yourself with no idea what you are supposed to do. Some of the sequences seem impossible at first, but after 4 or 5 times you will slowly figure out what you need to accomplish.

The 'boss' scene, if you can call it that, is on par with the ending of Castle Wolfenstein 3D. When you start it you will be killed over and over. But once you examine the environment and decide who the real enemies are, it is actually quite well done.

There are many spots that will make you want to search for the walkthrough online, but give yourself 10-15 minutes first because you will most likely figure it out.

Lastly, I really have no idea what the back story with the land people and the story you are living on the ship have to do with each other. It was all very confusing but did not take away from the game play.

My advice is to wait for this game to drop to $20 and then give it a whirl.

PS - There is zero scare factor here. I never jumped once.

Cyrostasis had been on my list of "to buy" for a while. I like the idea of wandering through a period ship with period weapons trying to stay warm. As others have indicated, this is a slow thought invoking game. It is dark and monotone most of the time. You would think all of that monotone would produce a game that would run properly on even lower end graphics processors.

But, even at low settings I found movement choppy on two different computers, both with Windows Vista 64. The first runs on an i7-920-2.67 chip with 12G of RAM and an ATI Radeon 4850 graphics card. The second is running an Intel P7450-2.13 chip with 4G of RAM and a Nvidia 9800GS graphics chip. Both computers can run Crysis and Fallout 3 without any significant choppiness -- and both games are huge graphically rich processor hogs at their highest settings. Even the cutaways in Cyrostasis do not show any super significant details that would cause these system slowdowns. For example, see the dogs in the first memory sequence--they have little details with pixellated tails. Ice crystals on the wall? Even at low settings I had only minor improvements in performance on both computers. My only conclusion is it has to be the coding -- optimization is obviously required for Windows running multiple core chips and moderate high end graphics cards that can run lots of other programs properly.

It is hard to get play with the continuous choppiness, and like another player I played to the end, and was glad it was over. Buy it because it is different than just about any other game you have probably played, but expect to have to reduce the game to graphic lows. 2 stars for "fun" tied to performance, and 3 stars for concept.

This is my new favorite game. Playing this game feels a little like the movie The Thing from 1980. No, there's not 10 other guys with you but it certainly has that freaky movie-like quality. This is slow paced so fast action players need not apply. Just remember to install the new 1.01 patch and install on Vista 32 (graphics and physx are better) if ya have it.

I bought this game primarily as a political move, there is zero DRM on it. No CD key even. This is only for the U.S. versions though. Europeans have to deal with DRM.

However, I did try to play it despite my general inability to play horror games. The graphics are absolutely amazing, my C2Q 9450 @ 3.01 GHZ w/ 8 gigs RAM and 9800GTX+ were able to run it all settings high or ultra high with no anti aliasing @ 1680x1050 with no visible lag. I didn't get an FPS count.

I did not get around the first corner. I was playing with a xonar D2X hooked up to Z-5500s, the ambience was overwhelming. I suck at horror games as it is. The tight, narrow corner was just too much, I knew the game would, by its introduction, contain much melee combat with the monsters mentioned in the manual - which were on par with the puppets in thief 3 - deadly shadows even in black & white.

My rating is: If you have a good system, good sound system, big monitor, and play these types of games, it's going to blow you away like an arctic storm. If you dislike horror games, this is one where things will jump out at you (admitted by the manual's monster descriptions). These things will be scary in a psychological type of way. You should stay away if you don't like horror games, or like them a little and have a good setup.

Rated 4 stars for fun, the engine looks like a blast to play in. The level design creates a sad, oppressive atmosphere. The sound hammers it in - that you are not in a good place. One star off for being overly intimidating. When you start the game it's 'on', unlike the only game that has a level I can compare the environment to, thief 3 deadly shadows in shalebridge cradle, which is built up to in the game.

Overall rated 5 stars for the following reasons:
-No DRM what-so-ever in the U.S. versions, finally making some headway.
(But DRM in the european versions! Write the company, take no prisoners on this issue!)
-a ton of work went into this game for gameplay, not just graphics.
-Creature design is innovative.
-Made it to a "T" rating instead of "M". They created an oppressive, scary atmosphere without ridiculous amounts of blood and gore, or rotting corpses.
-PC only. No compromises for a console with 10 megs of video RAM and 512 megs of system RAM. Come at this game with a newer dual core, 4 gigs of RAM, and a geforce 9 or x3870 or better and you'll be blown away.

I have an extremely powerful gaming PC but never got Cryostasis running under Windows 7. I've downloaded and installed the recent patches but still doesn't run. Please post any info if you've been successful running this w/Win7. thanks!

-The game developers put so much effort in the story and it payed off. Almost every part of the game symbolizes something (different colors,enemies,items,chapter titles,etc. resemble the plot or the emotions of characters). Pay attention and use your own knowledge to draw comparisons between the main character and the ship's crew and captain. The notes that you discover along the way are helpful.

-Great graphics,physics,and voice overs

Performance: The game is made by a small Russian developer and uses it's own in-house game engine. That's why so many people see performance/optimization issues. Lower your resolution to get a better frame rate.

If you like the Penumbra games, then play Cryostasis. The two are very similar (good physics,small European developer,horror genre,good story,good atmosphere). The game is worth playing for it's story, so I would ignore the performance issues.