STASIS

The two stars for this review are for 1) finishing and releasing the game, impressive no matter what, and the fact that it runs well on old systems. 2) the incredible art for the ship coupled with the fact that they hired Mark Morgan Otherwise this game is vastly overrated here on GOG, which is a bummer because I really wanted to like it. The puzzle design is not clever by any means. It's willfully obtuse and borders on hidden object puzzle hunting at times. The central problem, however, is the writing. It's two-dimensional and stale. It's overly serious but under delivers. It's hard to put my finger on it, but it's seemingly the sci-fi horror equivalent of a college student writing a frat party love story. My writing gold standard for this type of game would be the best parts of the Shadowrun Returns series, and for AAA titles it would System Shock 2 (which clearly inspired this game), Planescape: Torment, Fallout, etc. Again: really wanted to like this game, was on the fence about buying, but after a couple hours of gameplay I frankly wish I had stayed there.

This game gets an additional star for being beautiful to look at and for exceptionally good sound (not necessarily voiceovers however). Otherwise, I would have rated it with two stars only. Why? 1. The story is told, as opposed to other comments, in my opinion in not particularly well written dialogue. The diaries to be found everywhere are partially believable, but the dialogue? No, these are not people talking, these are concepts and stereotypes given the form of fake dialogue. 2. Immersion breaking by voicing exaggerated emotions through the protagonist. Maybe I find other things horrifying or interesting than the protagonist does. His moans and sobs and comments come at other places than mine would have - why have his opinion forced on me instead of letting me feel on my own? 3. It's completely morally black and white, with maybe the exception of Te'ah's motivation. And the black on this moral compass is science and research: All the "helping humanity" patina in the diaries of the non-completely-sociopathic personnel is so obviously fake that the writers apparently didn't even bother to try and make the scientists' motivation believable. Also: no scientific methodology visible anywhere, and the puzzels themselves often show a distinct lack of research on the devs' part. If truly interested or professional in medicine, biology or chemistry, best stay clear of this game in order to avoid frustration. 4. Lack of polish: The interface is clunky at best, and sometimes ceases to work. Under certain circumstances, the inventory (quantum storage device) shows up as empty, and the "eye" and "interact" mouse cursor cause no mouse over texts after reloading at times. 5. Puzzle logic and lack of interactive hints: There was only one instance where I got a helpful comment from the protagonist when attempting to solve a puzzle in an "incomplete" way. Mostly it consits of hoping to catch every single item in the room, then try to combinine everything with everything.

Pour mon avis en français, voir ici: https://www.indiemag.fr/forum/vos-tests-jeux-inde/t5373-test-stasis ___________ Seriously, I admit don't understand the hype about this game. However, I like point&click, and am a good SF and monster-film lover. But Stasis accumulates clichés, from its beginning to its end, then you play all the time with the feeling of things already seen elsewhere (and in fact, it's not only a feeling...). The plot is a caricature which borders on the grotesque, and proves highly predictable ; and better to be lenient on the coherence and plausibility of the scenario. The game merely offers a forced, gratuitous and complacent ghastliness, just like the exaggerated blood stream which noisily squirts on the screen each time you died ; even if you died burned, electrocuted, strangled or drowned. (you can watch the death screen here --no spoil-- http://youtu.be/G15BlXVbv2Y) Then, ok, the atmosphere is great, driven by excellent graphics and sound-design, but it is not enough to make an excellent game (especially if, beside, the story is weak...). Mostly, the gameplay is also very classic, puzzle-based, with some good ideas but as well some wacky and frustrating ones. Finally, Stasis is likeable by its really great horrific-SF ambiance, and you'll play to it with pleasure ; but without surprise, constantly reached by a feeling of déjà-vu. A game for me dispensable and overestimated, mainly recommended for fans of the genre (and lenient ones).

Besides higher resolution, darker story and fouler language, this game could've come straight from the mid 90's, and not off the top shelf either. It's as if the last two decades of progress in game design never happened. It's painfully linear, geographically and in gameplay. There's one correct action at any moment that will nudge you along the rails, otherwise the game stops dead. The game deliberately slows you down, to no end. Environment and plot will frequently make you shuffle or crawl; this does not help gameplay, where movement isn't a key mechanic. In adventure, experiment and exploration are core, and slow movement ruins this. Like 90s isometric RPGs, the view of each sprawling room is broad and cannot be zoomed - useless for getting a good look at any handful of shadowy pixels you try to interact with. Whole rooms are empty, objects strewn far from where they're needed - realism and world-building aside, this makes you spend even longer trudging around. Most of this game is watching a guy walk. This gets even more frustrating with obnoxious, "do-it-again-stupid," puzzles that need you to react to new information in a fraction of a second or die, and one outright deathtrap that could only be survived if you had foreknowledge, breaking immersion. This information needs to be implied from dark and murky surroundings (I walked into one dark room and died several times before resorting to a walkthrough, and was surprised to read that a robot lurks in the shadows and guns you down if you don't take cover immediately), as the text boxes that describe non-interactive scenery in rich detail are absent when the game needs to telegraph that you're in danger. Add to this poorly-chosen autosave points and unskippable cutscenes & dialogue, and the game becomes utterly gruelling. Lastly, the plot is relentlessly foul and depressing, a nihilistic exercise in grim futility, with no underlying meaning or emotional resonance to make it worth subjecting oneself to.

I followed the creation of this game since a time. First, I was thrilled, then I became nervous that I wouldn't dare to play it due to the horror elements. But now I did play it. It is a great interactive story. If you like Aliens, Event Horizon, Eden Log, Cargo and similar movies and imagine you mix it with a bit of Sanitarium and other adventures, you will like this game. The thrill comes from the story as such which catches you in. The puzzles are mostly straightforward and not too difficult. In this case, I feel it rather helps the game because too strange puzzles would become a distraction from the storyline because it would feel "misplaced" in the SciFi setup. The graphics are very nice. They add to the storyline a lot and I prefer the perspective much over the "modern" 3D perspectives where you continously fight with the controls rather then with the story. Of course I also like other adventures (mainly the point & click stuff) and also enjoy their different puzzle design but here the mix is absolutely matching. So I recommend to get the game and enjoy.