STASIS

....and asked if it can have its game back. I can understand there is an appeal for late nineties aesthetics but I will never understand why it had to include broken pathfinding, confusing puzzles and a below mediocre story. Stasis strongest asset is it's atmosphere which if you've played games like System Shock, Dead Space or watched movies like Event Horizon or Pandorum will recognize immediately. Visually it looks okay, it gave me flashbacks especially to Odium (Gorky 17 here) and to a lesser extend Planescape and Fallout. It does strikes me odd they also included all the bad things from that era like the earlier mentioned clunky controls, bad pathfinding and the pixelhunting and downright annoying puzzles. [spoiler] The most dissappointing part is the story however, which seem to rely solely on gore and isolation. While I was hoping it would get good at some point, this has been a very underwhelming story. It wasn't just depressing because of certain events that occur but also of its clichéd narrrative and characters, complete with greys and a mad scientist. I cringed from the idea I had to sift through more poorly written PDA logs for clues. [/spoiler] Stasis is often compared to Sanitarium, while on a surface level that may be true but Sanitarium had a heart and a soul and as such is a far superior (written) game.

I'm a big fan of Point-And-Click games. I love solving puzzles. The catch is, I want to feel like *I'm* the one solving the puzzle, that I'm figuring it out via logic and rules of the game world, and that the solution makes sense. Further, I'd like to have an idea of what the puzzle even is. Stasis fails at all of this. Solutions to some puzzles seemed completely arbitrary. There was no "a-ha, that makes sense" moment upon solving them. I didn't even realize In some cases, I was solving puzzles' til I'd solved them, and then didn't know what they were for. I will say the game is nice looking. Lots of ambience in the world and graphics, etc. The sound-effects clearly lifted from Alien and other movies was kinda cheesy and lazy, though.

You can feel the inspiration from Aliens. This game brought me back into the point and click game genre and also got me hooked on all of the other games the Brotherhood has come out with since. Plenty to bring the world to life. Some items needed to progress are less than obvious, well until you do them. Check out Cayne and Beautiful Desolation if you like this.

Absurd game breaking bug that repeated even when throwing away my save and starting over. The story is told through PDAs in the most unsubtle way possible. Predictable horror twists. Disappointing.

Genial