STASIS

When it comes to point and click adventure games, there's not really much to expected. What is expected is pixel hunting, back-tracking, and madman logic on puzzles. Stasis has little of those three negatives, which is a huge plus along with the fine voice-acting, amazing atmosphere, and stellar visuals. So why a one star? One word: Story. It wasn't enough that the villain was a stereotypical god-complex type, but there's a twist that just harms the story, then an ending visual which utterly murders it off! The atmosphere, especially discovering and reading random PDAs for backstory, is bloody amazing. It almost feels like the designers of this game want me to avoid all future products. The first twist is a bit cliche, but the ending stinger--the one shown right before the credits as a 'DUN DUN DUN'--is trash. I don't know how to design how awful it is without it being a spoiler. I feel cheated of my $5.

As a veteran of point-and-click adventures I'd say that Stasis is one of the most mediocre titles I ever played of this kind. It's not awful but very far from being one of the best I ever played. For a start, graphics are just nothing special, rooms pretty much look all the same and animations are unconvincing. Sanitarium came 17 years before and was much better in this regard. If I had not read that music is by Mark Morgan I would not have guessed it; not really a patch on the superb work he did for the Fallout series. But we all know that the real substance of adventures are story and puzzles. And things fall really apart here. The story is a collection of clichés, from the lone survivor guided by an ambiguous character to the mad scientist who believes to be a god. What I really do not like, however, is the gratuitous gore and shock, especially in the last part of the game. It seems that the authors were unable to convey a captivating atmosphere and went through the punch-in-your-face way. It just feels "cheap" as well as, for certain parts, illogic - why dedicate so much room and resources on a spaceship to the removal of "waste" when you could simply throw it into the cold immensity of space or burn it in the hydrogen-based atmosphere of Neptune? The ending was quite predictable as well. As for the puzzles, I found them more than easy to solve, except for a couple of times where I had to employ the old try-everything-unless-something-happens method which is the bane of this kind of games, together with pixel hunting (which thankfully was not something I experienced here). In a nutshell, I was disappointed by Stasis. I would only recommend it to beginners of traditional adventures, if they can live with the bad writing and forcefully shocking setting.

A faithful recreation of themes already repeated in hundreds of sci-fi horror novels and short stories.

As a huge fan of sci-fi horror I couldn't pass this game up. Normally I wouldn't pay this much for an adventure game but I figured it was worth a shot. Man am I glad I did. Great graphics, logical puzzles and a good story that reveals itself over time and avoids many of the predictable tropes we've seen before.

This is a good adventure game. It shows its age with some serious jank though. Your character (who is in a suit but looks naked the whole game) appears to run on ice whenever you move. There are some good puzzles but also some terrible ones. I used a walkthrough 3 times because I missed something very small, or it was before I realized some puzzles are just goofy and you essentially need to try all of the items you carry on an object. I did appreciate the puzzles that made sense though. When you think something through and know what to do it's always satisfying. But that is the difference between an older gameplay style (that they went with) and a more open/non-linear game. There is only ONE way to solve puzzles. I enjoyed the game overall but the voice acting is pretty terrible. The story is ok. And it really isn't scary. The person who said they played SOMA and rank this up with the scariest games played... no. I look at stuff in the Silent Hill series and this is not scary at all. There are some 'horrific' scenes but nothing scary. Recommend on sale but be aware it shows it's age. I think it would have when it was released too. I remember playing Blade Runner from westwood studios and that was a superior point and click game released decades ago. But this is a small studio and they did a good job.