In terms of sheer genre diversity, the PC easily bests its trendier cousin, the console. If you aren’t convinced, take a look at the PC game shelf at any retail store. It’s a literal buffet of content: puzzle games next to MMOs next to hardcore strategy titles next to shovelware next to The Sims. In short, the PC is a place where a game can find a home regardless of genre, budget, or exposure. And frankly, that’s part of what makes Cryostasis so appealing.

Comparisons to BioShock are inevitable, and certainly reasonable, but to deride Cryostasis as any sort of cheap knockoff or imitation would be absurd. If you enter expecting to find the usual array of overused FPS tropes, you won’t. What you will find is an uncompromising, often unsettling first person experience, and the very definition of a wonderfully slow burn.

Cryostasis takes place during 1981, in the bleak expanse surrounding the North Pole. Russian meteorologist Alexander Nesterov is sent to investigate the shipwrecked Russian nuclear icebreaker, the North Wind. It quickly becomes apparent that something much deeper, and darker, has occurred aboard the ship. Most of the crew has perished, and those that remain have become hideous, twisted monsters. As you make your way about the ship, there are many short instances of sepia toned, in-the-moment flashbacks. For the most part, these come about as a means of conveying the prior destruction, death, and despair that took place aboard the North Wind. While this information does a good deal to reveal some important aspects of the story, it can also be the key to avoiding a similar fate as you attempt to solve many of the game’s physics-based environmental puzzles.

On their own, these puzzles would seem relatively conventional and uninteresting. But Cryostasis adds another dimension of ingenuity with the “Mental Echo” ability. Although its origins are never explained, this power essentially allows Alexander to enter the memories of any deceased person (or, occasionally, animal) aboard the North Wind. Not only does it allow him to view the mistakes that led to that person’s death, it gives him the opportunity and the duty to erase them. If an individual is saved, the present will be altered as well, often making it possible for Alexander to proceed deeper into the ship. It’s a clever hook, and one that is employed to brilliant effect on more than one occasion.

More than just an original gameplay mechanic, the Mental Echo ability really goes hand in hand with the core themes of the entire game, namely mistakes and redemption. The story itself, fleshed out by flashbacks and visions, can still be still be more than a little confusing. Beneath a relatively opaque premise, there’s a sea of underlying themes and morals. This concept is perfectly illustrated by a somber parable told in junction with the main plot. More than just a side story, it exists to compliment and further the overall tone and subject matter of the game, and in that regard it’s highly effective. Although it’s definitely possible to enjoy the core narrative on its own merits, if you have enough patience and vested interest to look a little deeper, it can make the experience much more rewarding.

Cryostasis emphasizes a trial-and-error approach to many of its gameplay situations, specifically the Mental Echo instances. And while I never found the game to be gratingly difficult, there were a number of times when various mechanics felt unpolished. Many times throughout the game, before you acquire a firearm, you will be required to dispatch various monsters with a mix of hand-to-hand and melee combat. You are given access to a variety of weapons, but using any of them is a slow and arduous process, and can leave you vulnerable to attacks for far too long.  It makes some sense given the context of a subzero environment, and it certainly doesn’t make the game unplayable by any means, but compared to games that boast superior first-person melee combat, like The Chronicles of Riddick or the Condemned series, it feels very lacking and incomplete. The same complaint applies to the shooting mechanics, which really wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the last quarter of the game wasn’t so hectic and combat heavy. Fortunately, with that singular exception, the majority of combat situations you’ll find yourself in consist of you and only one enemy. It’s a good design decision, and another example of how the game plays to its strengths. The health system is also fairly forgiving, and quite unique. Your life bar is based around Alexander’s body heat: take damage in a fight and heat is lost, warm up next to a lamp or a torch, and heat is gained.

It’s reasonable for one to expect that the dank interior of an old Russian icebreaker would make for an uninteresting and repetitive game environment, and in the case of Cryostasis, the second half of that assumption is true. The North Wind is a cold, desolate tomb of a place, complete with the recurring hatches and corridors of any industrial ship. I understand the argument, but its repetitiveness is hardly a detriment. If anything, I feel it emphasizes the ideas of isolation and imprisonment that are critical parts of the game’s story and structure. Graphically, the game looks excellent, especially when dealing with variations in lighting and temperature. The downside to this, as with many visually striking PC games, is that it takes a fairly powerful system to play Cryostasis. I highly recommend doing some homework beforehand to make sure your rig can handle it.

In the end, Cryostasis’ few mechanical faults are eclipsed by its successes. It’s a game of admirable ambition, and it matches a chilling and breathtaking world with unrelenting originality and enthusiasm.

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Things We Liked: Engrossing narrative. Original and effective gameplay systems. Great artistic direction.

Things We Disliked: Melee/shooting mechanics are clunky.  Requires a high-end PC.

Target Audience: Lovers of BioShock and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. Horror/suspense enthusiasts. Story junkies.

(Cryostasis – Developer: Action Forms. Publisher: 1C Company/Aspyr Media. Available on PC. New to CFD!’s reviews? Read our explanation here.)