Eastern Europe has had a plethora of exciting new developers and games this couple of years. The PC titles from this region tend to be really hardcore and made no apologies for having a steep learning curve.
They seem like a breath of fresh air considering the trend of western developers that focus on simplifying mechanics of a game. Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason is the latest PC title from this region. Developed by 1C Company, Cryostasis is an interesting new First Person Adventure mixed with a shooter.
Cryostasis isn’t a fast paced shooter with plenty of enemies to blow their heads off. Instead Cryostasis has a very measured pace with only a few enemies on each level. The game’s focus is on its use of time and temperature to add puzzle like elements to it.
The plot is sort of vague with you being sent to a nuclear powered ice breaker that has stalled in the middle of nowhere and its crew disappeared. Set in the sub zero temperature of the North Pole, Cryostasis has weaved the element of heat and cold into a gameplay mechanic. There is no life bar, only a temperature gauge and if you get too cold, its game over.
It adds a sense of urgency as you rush through the outdoor parts of the ship to find a door to get inside before freezing to death. What I didn’t understand was the need to have you right click on a heat source to heat up. Why couldn’t they just make it more seamless and your body heat up automatically too?
Apart from the temperature angle, Cryostasis also includes portions of the game whereby you see through the eyes of a deceased crew in a previous timeline(prior to his death). Using this, you can get to places that may be blocked off in present time. These events are scripted and only happen at set points.
The demo is relatively short and doesn’t represent the puzzle elements in the game well(it was severely limited). I think the demo was more of a tech demo than a gameplay demo(from a gameplay stand point, it was underwhelming). The graphics looked good though. The frost effect was stunning with your hud and things surrounding you getting frost as it gets colder.
While the tech looks great, it doesn’t run that well on an aging machine. Comparatively, Crysis(known system hog) performs much better than this game(and looks better). The stuttering however doesn't detract that much from the game since the emphasis isn’t put on action.
Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason does a lot of very interesting things that in practise don’t translate that well in the game. It has to be noted that in reviews of the full retail version, it has been reported that the game suffers from a host of bug and game crashes.
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