Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason

 PC
  • Publisher: Aspyr
  • Release Date: Apr 24, 2009
User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 221 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 145 out of 221
  2. Mixed: 51 out of 221
  3. Negative: 25 out of 221
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  1. suneater
    Dec 13, 2012
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game would be fantastic if it stuck to the atmospheric horror a few of the chapters focus on. The best scares in this game came from trying to navigate the frozen ship and hearing a door slam behind you, the howling of the wind through a broken window, or fear of dying from lack of heat. Instead the majority of the game is cluttered with clumsy, coverless firefights resulting in lots of cheap deaths. Poorly optimized graphics mean sudden single digit dips in frame rate happen often before, during, and after battles. A flashback system fleshes out a great narrative about a captain losing control of his ship with another overarching story told by a narrator with sketches that runs parrallel to the plot. Along with time travel elements and numerous trippy encounters, there was the framework for a great story and game here. With some more focus on puzzle solving and non-combat survival this could have been a great game. As it is, this is an average survival horror at best.… Expand
  2. EvanT
    Jul 7, 2009
    7
    It's a shame this game hasn't received a better critical reception than it has. Based on the critic reviews I feel that overall this game has been largely misunderstood. The biggest flaw in this game is - without argument - combat mechanics, particularly the melee combat. However, these failings in design were not enough to turn me off to the game. This game's story and the It's a shame this game hasn't received a better critical reception than it has. Based on the critic reviews I feel that overall this game has been largely misunderstood. The biggest flaw in this game is - without argument - combat mechanics, particularly the melee combat. However, these failings in design were not enough to turn me off to the game. This game's story and the folktale that is being told concurrently tie together nicely - the game's story leads us through a modern mystery which gives us "facts and details" about the events that lead up to the demise of the ship's crew, while the folktale gave us a more esoteric insight into the base human emotions and fears that often - and in this case have - lead to highly irrational actions. The criticisms of the "heat" based health system also seems to be larger misunderstood. A standard practice in FPS games these days is to indicate you are being shot by the enemy with a red "arc" or "blur" in your line of sight; the red being meant to correlate with blood. Here, the indicators are not red blurs, but ice "marks" indicating that hits from the enemy are freezing you rather than physically piercing you. However this is only an indication of the overall misunderstanding. Why is it that your character is even assumed to be physically alive or moving through a frozen ship in what we would term reality? I went through this game thinking the body of my character was lying dead somewhere, either in the ship or back in the ice when the sled fell in the crevasse. It makes the bizarre enemies, traveling back in time, etc. much more plausible within the context of the story. I felt as if I was supposed to be "between" time, giving me this this one opportunity to change the course of events that have already occurred. And why the complaints about homogeneous environments? The entire game is played in a single location, an old rusting ship. What kind of variety do these critics expect? Comments like these justify my assertion that many game journalists lack the credentials to adequately evaluate and comment on games. Being a past employee of a videogame retailer should not be sufficient qualification for gaining employment as a critic. But I digress... Despite Cryostasis's graphical glitches and poor combat design, I thoroughly enjoyed this game and the story it presented. I hope the developer can bring other similarly creative and interesting concepts to markets beyond its Eastern European home. My score reflects the technical imperfections of the game and their impact on my impression of the game as a whole.… Expand
  3. Ensi
    Dec 7, 2012
    5
    Call me stupid or whatever, but I found the storyline pretty confusing. There were a lot of "what???" moments. The gameplay itself is pretty okay, nothing spectacular. It's not good, but it's not bad either. The atmosphere is pretty good and the mechanics and features of the gameplay are pretty interesting. No FOV slider in menu, but enabling the console and entering r.fov X into it solvesCall me stupid or whatever, but I found the storyline pretty confusing. There were a lot of "what???" moments. The gameplay itself is pretty okay, nothing spectacular. It's not good, but it's not bad either. The atmosphere is pretty good and the mechanics and features of the gameplay are pretty interesting. No FOV slider in menu, but enabling the console and entering r.fov X into it solves this issue. My biggest gripe is that it's the same damn thing all the time. You go into a room, kill some dudes, flashback this dude, go into another room and the cycle repeats. Add in some cutscenes and you have a game that is pretty mediocre, but not bad.… Expand
  4. Mouse
    Oct 7, 2012
    7
    Cryostasis is largely comparable to Bioshock namely for its approach to terror mixed with combat, but relies instead on jump scares over suspense and buildup. Conversely, the combat is clunky, which helps to make your encounters more frightening. It's heavy heavy on philosophy, told through a complex to assemble and albeit slow-to-tell story that's very satisfying to unravel, but someCryostasis is largely comparable to Bioshock namely for its approach to terror mixed with combat, but relies instead on jump scares over suspense and buildup. Conversely, the combat is clunky, which helps to make your encounters more frightening. It's heavy heavy on philosophy, told through a complex to assemble and albeit slow-to-tell story that's very satisfying to unravel, but some parts are very difficult to figure out in relation to each other, even to Portal 1 veterans. The characters are excellently portrayed, and the player's interaction with them through the "mental echo" ability is highly emotionally compelling, but sorting out who's who is difficult, partially due to the English dubbing. Animations are unnatural, but the graphics more than make up for it. And above all: the atmosphere. Like so many other games made in eastern Europe, it's all about immersion. And the arctic atmosphere really intensifies the unique health mechanic of keeping warm instead of popping pain pills or ducking into cover to regenerate punctured flesh. All that said, there are some bugs about, which makes it strangely reminiscent of STALKER. But don't even dream of an open world, as this one is a strictly linear story. In the end, I recommend getting this game on STEAM, and saving it for a nice autumn day where the wind from your opened window makes your fingers burn on your keyboard, because that'll suck you right into this fun, satisfying, and poignant story. Final note: the end "boss" has a highly difficult learning curve, and there are three ways to choose how to get to the same ending. All three are equally excellent!… Expand
  5. AdamB
    Oct 22, 2009
    6
    Graphic Great, and runs smooth as with a Quad core Q9550 and GTX295.. However I found it repetative and confusing, with no enemys or weapons to start its very dull to begin with!!
  6. saleks
    Aug 1, 2011
    7
    For once my score agrees with critics' average. It is an enjoyable and unusual game and I give it credit for that and for the scary atmospheric feel. It is similar in concept to Amnesia: The Dark Descent but Cryostasis lacks on execution and the story. The graphics are good but spoiled by ugly lighting and shadows - and I was running it at max settings. Also, the game has crashed on me tooFor once my score agrees with critics' average. It is an enjoyable and unusual game and I give it credit for that and for the scary atmospheric feel. It is similar in concept to Amnesia: The Dark Descent but Cryostasis lacks on execution and the story. The graphics are good but spoiled by ugly lighting and shadows - and I was running it at max settings. Also, the game has crashed on me too much at the end spoiling the immersion - perhaps it does not like 64-bit environment. It has innovative game mechanics, scary atmosphere and that feel of hopelesness with no clear direction despite being totally linear. But somehow I fail to connect with the game even though I speak Russian and designers did a great job recreating likely setting of that era. I also think the final boss scene is very disappointing - it almost feels that the designers built a game that kept going and going and then they had a brainstorming session to wrap it all up to meet release deadline. In my opinion it fits neither with the main story nor the secondary.

    To sum up this game has more goods than bads overall and at current prices (as of July'11) it is an absolutely great deal to try something novel.    … Expand
  7. ermac
    Mar 13, 2013
    6
    The storyline its very beautiful but the game very very bug...
    The graphics engine is very heavy, slow and not at all optimized (my pc configuration i7 whit, amd radeon HD5800 creative x-fi and 6gb of ram), the final levels from 15 to 18 of the game keeps crashing every 15-20 minutes
  8. JonesR
    May 18, 2011
    6
    This game is plain weird. While the shooter aspects of the game are not that great, the suspenseful story is dramatically built piece-by-piece which keeps you coming back to finish it. Completing the game felt like an accomplishment, but I don't think passing this one by would have left me feeling like I missed out.
  9. Backslider
    Mar 13, 2011
    5
    The convoluted story probably tricks the weak minded into thinking they're enjoying an amazing tale, but in fact the story makes little sense and succumbs to plotholes and timeline errors under the weight of appearing deep and complex.. The Sleep of Reason is right. The graphics are alright, and the overall mood is well done, but the levels feel empty and tedious, the combat is mediocre atThe convoluted story probably tricks the weak minded into thinking they're enjoying an amazing tale, but in fact the story makes little sense and succumbs to plotholes and timeline errors under the weight of appearing deep and complex.. The Sleep of Reason is right. The graphics are alright, and the overall mood is well done, but the levels feel empty and tedious, the combat is mediocre at best, and the game bogged my system down when even today's titles won't. It's worth checking out if you're a diehard survival horror fan, but don't expect it to make sense, and be sure to pick it up for under $10.… Expand
  10. PlayerReview
    Nov 13, 2012
    7
    This game is actually an amazing survival horror game... if your computer can handle it, that is.

    The mechanic to gain warmth to stay alive helps the innovation and the immersion. Many imaginative ideas well implemented in this game. It could have just used a smoother implementation of its physics; as a result many of you will spend time configuring your settings for optimal play. I    This game is actually an amazing survival horror game... if your computer can handle it, that is.

    The mechanic to gain warmth to stay alive helps the innovation and the immersion. Many imaginative ideas well implemented in this game. It could have just used a smoother implementation of its physics; as a result many of you will spend time configuring your settings for optimal play.

    I recommend any fan of the genre pick it up.    … Expand
  11. agurczuk
    Aug 6, 2017
    5
    A first person perspective horror mystery game taking place on a frozen Russian ice breaker near the north pole.

    In the game you play as a meteorologist wanting to hitch a ride returning from the north pole. But the ship you were meant to board is stuck in the ice and it looks like it's been that way for quite some time. The ice breaks under you and you're forced to investigate the fate    A first person perspective horror mystery game taking place on a frozen Russian ice breaker near the north pole.

    In the game you play as a meteorologist wanting to hitch a ride returning from the north pole. But the ship you were meant to board is stuck in the ice and it looks like it's been that way for quite some time. The ice breaks under you and you're forced to investigate the fate of the ship.

    I'm not sure how to classify this game. It's pretty bad, but at the same time I finished it which means it's not completely bad.

    The visuals do look quite outdated and bland. Texture quality is terrible, the models are of poor quality and there is little variety. For as bad looking game the whole engine is very unoptimised requiring definitely too much of processing power. The audio is fine for the most part, nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about. The voice acting is at least decent.

    The game play itself is a slow exploration of the ship. Health is represented by heat and you replenish it by holding your hands to the heat source. The combat is dreadful, not all entertaining and quite painful to be honest.

    At least there are no audio logs - all the history is presented either through flashbacks or through quite the interesting mechanic of going into peoples memory in order to re-write the history. Those short episodes are mostly fun, though frustrating at times as you need to perform exact actions in order to change something that will let you progress in normal time line.

    The game starts slowly and I was thinking of giving it a pass within the first hour. It does get better later on mostly due to the story that slowly starts getting interesting over the course of the game. The ship itself is an interesting thing and exploring it is satisfying.

    The whole game was a bumpy ride. Started really poorly, didn't get better for a while. then it started getting better mostly due to story evolving. Then a bit of combat sections brought it down again. Then started to entertain nearing the end until the final boss which was unnecessary and made no sense - the ending was a real let down.

    Overall I did finish the game. I did enjoy it at times. I would not however recommend it.    … Expand
  12. Genek13
    Nov 20, 2019
    7
    Very unique title on my library. Atmospheric and visually good looking back then.
    To this date I never understand the story, which was tells in this game :)
    Score 7/10 because of few technical issues and forgetabble story.
  13. SegeiNowichkov
    Aug 28, 2022
    7
    The main idea and the atmosphere are perfect, but gameplay is too boring for 2022
  14. gotterpotter56
    May 3, 2023
    7
    Игра оказалась довольно уникальной, после прохождения оставляет то самое "странное чувство". Сюжет- интерпретация Старухи Изергиль, так же есть другие аллегории. Конечно местами пахнет бредятиной, но нарратив в игре хороший. Приятная и атмосферная игра, которая запомнится мне надолго.Игра оказалась довольно уникальной, после прохождения оставляет то самое "странное чувство". Сюжет- интерпретация Старухи Изергиль, так же есть другие аллегории. Конечно местами пахнет бредятиной, но нарратив в игре хороший. Приятная и атмосферная игра, которая запомнится мне надолго.
  15. SilentLev
    Aug 23, 2022
    7
    С этим проектом у меня были тяжелые отношения. Начинал я его немереное количество раз, однако добраться до заветных титров удалось только около года назад. Финал чертовски запоминается своим контрастом сюрреалистичного представления финального боя и реалистичных последних кадров. Атмосфера пробирающего до костей холода здесь воссоздана как нигде более. Пускай боёвка не хватает звёзд сС этим проектом у меня были тяжелые отношения. Начинал я его немереное количество раз, однако добраться до заветных титров удалось только около года назад. Финал чертовски запоминается своим контрастом сюрреалистичного представления финального боя и реалистичных последних кадров. Атмосфера пробирающего до костей холода здесь воссоздана как нигде более. Пускай боёвка не хватает звёзд с неба, да и разнообразием геймплея проект не балует, раз за разом заваливая игрока пушечным мясом. Интерпретация легенды о Данко в столь красивой форме завораживает и врезается в память, какими-бы многочисленными косяками она не полнилась.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

41
#41 Most Discussed PC Game of 2009
75
#75 Most Shared PC Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 28
  3. Negative: 2 out of 28
  1. Absolute Games
    74
    Design flaws and the game's tendency to wax philosophical do not distract from the core idea and its stylish execution. This is what Vivisector, Action Forms' previous project, should have been like.
    Read full review
  2. Eurogamer
    60
    Cryostasis is a brave, fascinating, often very beautiful game, but I find it impossible to recommend it - and not least because it runs like an exploded dog on most PCs. It's not quite creative enough - its environments fall into a monotony of samey rooms and bulkheads - and its combat is too clunky to be delicious.
    Read full review
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    70
    Cryostasis is a kind of revelation in the horror genre where you can alter the past to change the present. Game excels in visuals but lacks in combat system. [Feb 2009]
See all critic reviews »