Stasis: Bone Totem is an incredibly atmospheric point and click narrative that knows exactly what kind of game it is and embraces it completey. Much like its prequel, the environment is thick, heavy, dreadful, and horrific. Every scene flows one into the other and despite the slow moving characters and puzzle sequences (some of which can be laborious if one accidenty clicks one too many times and has to start over) the game itself feels fast paced. I'm not sure exactly how many hours I put into this game as of this review but I want to say it was close to fifteen and it was worth every second. Don't be fooled, despite its point and click nature, it is not easy. Puzzles are wonderfully complex (but not mind-numbingly difficult) and always have a clue somewhere to pick up on. There IS a guide for the game from the devs if you get stuck. That happened to me twice and I was very careful to only read the slightest amount of a hint that I needed to get back on track to not ruin the surprise. I gotta say, I'm not normally a puzzle game kinda guy, but this game made it incredibly fun. Mostly because there is a rewarding cutscene or event when you finally get it right. Stasis knows how to reward you for your efforts. The writing is fun, witty, and even charming. The characters, despite everything that is happening around them, are grounded and relatable - for the most part. Jarring character inconsistencies can really throw me out of a game, that definitely didn't happen with Stasis. Motivations were solid, actions taken were reasonable most of the time, and darn it, if it didn't hit me in the feels or make me laugh too. This is the first game I have felt compelled to crank out a few hundred words for on GoG. But for those wondering, I genuinely enjoyed the game and paid full price. The only downside was that I couldn't watch the cinematics on the steam deck and had to through my Windows laptop instead. If you have the Steam Deck I'd recommend the Steam version instead.
BE CAREFUL buying D: OS2. If yo are not familiar with tactical, hardcore, turn-based combat then this game is probably not for you. I wasn't and a year ago I bought it expecting it to be like Pillar of Eternity. Boy was I wrong. This plays completely different. More like a pretty chess board than a game and if you aren't prepared to spend 45 minutes on a fight thinking between your next move and a spending five minutes between actions trying to decide whether to drink that potion or finish the enemy off then pass on this one. If you're thinking, "Man, I've never played a game like that before, this might be fun." I almost garuntee you that you'll be frustrated when you start. The people who rate this game 4-5 stars are people who have played every Iso RPG on the planet, beaten them on every difficulty and rage when they are not "sufficiently challenged". What that means for the rest of us more casual gamers is that this game is freaking hard. Even on the easiest difficulty. I'm rating it 3 stars because OBJECTIVELY it is a solid game. And I enjoyed most of my 65 hours into it. But the final fight was a frustring 8 of those 65 hours and I played on easy. That's another thing, if you have look up the definitions of the level difficulty which are given names like explorer, tactician, etc. Then you know what kind of game you are in for. This isn't an easy, medium, hard kind of game. More like hard, insane, masochist. You will be Googling the answers to A LOT of the stuff in this game. How to beat fights, how to craft, how to finish quests, etc. Guides will be your power source. You're helpless without them. This is a game made for the hardcore. For the people who live in these worlds and want to spend another difficult 150 hours doing it all over again on the hardest difficulty. Now that you've been warned, have fun ignoriing everything I say and buying it anyways due to all the 5 star reviews that say otherwise.
