STASIS

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 135 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 81 out of 135
  2. Mixed: 39 out of 135
  3. Negative: 15 out of 135

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. MalcomGTX
    Sep 8, 2015
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Stasis is a lovingly-crafted game, the atmosphere is oftentimes superb. (My favorite area is the medical bay) Dark and moody is definitely attractive, but at times, items were very difficult to identify from other scenery. Oftentimes I knew what needed to happen in a puzzle, but couldn't figure out where the part I was missing was or seemingly clicked at the wrong spot the first attempt to solve a problem. Some environment interactions are inconsistent room to room (IE, bed footlocker) and a few times a description threw me off. ('Processed') The 'bone ''glue'' could have hinted more at its use if it were Bone ''Plaster'' or something along those lines, glue typically.. glues things solid. Thankfully most are logical. Once there is a need to backtrack near the very end, which at that point I might have just been fatigued but felt a bit contrary.

    It was nice to play a game that was psychologically orientated without relying on jump scares (well, some audio queues are designed that way, but thanks to the isometric perspective they are more enjoyable than uncomfortable). The text entries are well written and the VO is passable, though the actors lines give away a bit too much information in the way they are constructed. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the VAs, the delivery seemed hampered by their lines and it sounds as if lines were recorded out of context.

    I played through Stasis in about 10 hours with my wife; reading every text entry I could find to divulge more of the story. Sadly, towards the end I felt let down as the curtain was drawn. The climax of the story is suppose to be moving (and if it were juuuust a bit different it would be heart-wrenching), but we just sat there in disbelief. Surely there is some twist? This seems too, odd, straightforward. Is this a dream seque- nope. It has a reprieve before the final scene that is very well put pacing wise, it sets a dissonant tone, though it is immediately followed by another confusingly straightforward reveal that was plain as day. I was almost fooled mid-sentence into thinking it wasn't what I suspected with how sudden it was played.

    I advise you to play it, it is definitely worthwhile, it is a flawed game, but if anything the atmosphere of the first half is worth the pick up.    … Expand
  2. PublicNuisance
    Mar 29, 2022
    7
    Having just come from playing Cayne I pretty much knew what to expect with Stasis. I expected to not be a big fan of it’s puzzles but absolutely love everything else. This was spot on. The atmosphere was a delightful mess although the graphics were showing a bit of age compared to Cayne as they were lacking in colour variety and detail. The voice acting was top notch and everyone involvedHaving just come from playing Cayne I pretty much knew what to expect with Stasis. I expected to not be a big fan of it’s puzzles but absolutely love everything else. This was spot on. The atmosphere was a delightful mess although the graphics were showing a bit of age compared to Cayne as they were lacking in colour variety and detail. The voice acting was top notch and everyone involved did a wonderful job. The music was great throughout. As for the puzzles, they were the same as Cayne, which is to say a mixed bag. My issue with many of them were the fact that many were what felt like random mixing of items and others required multiple tries. When I click on a valve and my character can’t turn it my train of thought never gets to “maybe I should try it exactly three more times” and several puzzles have this. Turning valve’s multiple times; hitting glass multiple times, etc. Usually in puzzle games something either works or it doesn’t. There was also a surgery puzzle I thought was terrible. The first part was alright but in part two of it you must hit buttons in a very specific order with little to go on as what that order is and if you die you start it from scratch. Being able to run was great. I do wish there was more of an objective list, it would have been very handy. I also wish that you could pause the game during dialogue but you can’t. You can die in the game but it isn’t really a big deal. A lot of it is common sense stuff of what not to do and if you do you respawn to a point usually shortly before. You never have to worry about enemies which is a bit weird. There are several creatures roaming about the ship; they have killed most of the crew; you can hear them running about; but they never attack you. I know the reason is probably due to combat not working well with a puzzle game but it’s still weird. I guessed the twists in the plot pretty much a mile away but the journey there was enjoyable enough I didn’t mind. The ending could have used a bit more of Epilogue but I guess in a way Cayne helps with that.

    I played Stasis on Linux using the Linux beta. It never crashed and I didn’t notice any bugs aside from Steam achievements not working. You can save whenever you want or there are auto save points as well. One thing I didn’t like was sometimes if I died the game would load an auto save point instead of my last manual save which was further along. It wasn’t a big deal as I just manually loaded the save file I wanted. There are no graphics options at all. Alt-Tab worked. I couldn’t monitor frame rate but I didn’t notice any lag. A couple times there were loading screens that lasted 3-5 seconds, which felt long for being on an NVME, but most loading screens were near instantaneous.

    Game Engine: Visionaire Engine
    Game Version Played: 1.3.9
    Disk Space Used: 2.84 GB

    GPU Usage: 4-15 %
    VRAM Usage: 1165-3257 MB
    CPU Usage: 2-11 %
    RAM Usage: 2.9-3.6 GB

    Despite the puzzles I really think Stasis is a solid game. Everything else is of such high quality I have to recommend it. Fans of the genre probably won’t mind the puzzles anyway. It’s worth it for the story; characters; voice acting; music and visual style. I finished the game in six hours and six minutes. I paid $5.74 CAD for it and felt that was fair value. Even $10 would have been alright.

    My System:

    AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 21.3.7 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Garuda Soaring White-tailed-eagle | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 5.16.16-zen1-1-zen    … Expand
  3. PrimeHydra
    Oct 2, 2015
    7
    Solid old-school point-and-click sci-fi adventure. Some very chilling scenes to disocver. A lot of the backstory is delivered through email and journal logs that you discover along the way. These are all well and good, particularly when they provide relevant clues, but they get a bit repetitive.

    Excellent sound design adds to the eerie flavor, and the voice acting is solid. The story    Solid old-school point-and-click sci-fi adventure. Some very chilling scenes to disocver. A lot of the backstory is delivered through email and journal logs that you discover along the way. These are all well and good, particularly when they provide relevant clues, but they get a bit repetitive.

    Excellent sound design adds to the eerie flavor, and the voice acting is solid.

    The story could be a bit more original--particularly the villain. Most of the puzzles are logical, but a few I had to solve using random guesswork. One thing I liked is that you only have five or so items at any given time, making it less of a guess-fest. You probably won't have to use Google to solve this one.

    It was fun, but a bit of a letdown. Without spoiling anything, I suggest you keep in mind that this is first and foremost a horror story.    … Expand
  4. theNILE
    Oct 17, 2015
    7
    Some decent writing, but a bit more polish would of gone a long way. Implementing music into the game wasn't done well, but the sounds and such are okay. I think they could of done more with the sound though - it seems like you can be anywhere on the ship and hear the same screams and weird noises.

    There is a lot of text in this game and you have to read it as it's probably the best    Some decent writing, but a bit more polish would of gone a long way. Implementing music into the game wasn't done well, but the sounds and such are okay. I think they could of done more with the sound though - it seems like you can be anywhere on the ship and hear the same screams and weird noises.

    There is a lot of text in this game and you have to read it as it's probably the best thing about the game. The **** up stuff was pretty good, and although the general plot was rather simplistic and not that original, it's rather enjoyable. The ending wasn't the best, and kind of reminded you of the lack of polish, but the setting and atmosphere is great.

    Normally not really my cup of tea, but a good game overall for an indie.    … Expand
  5. gettheninjas
    Nov 24, 2015
    6
    Reminded me of the old point-and-click game Sanitarium (except in space, of course). Excellent visuals for such a tiny dev team, but I felt like the audio and music could have done more to draw me into the game world.

    I think it's crucial in this kind of game to feel connected to the protagonist in order to become invested in the story, and that just didn't happen for me. I never felt    Reminded me of the old point-and-click game Sanitarium (except in space, of course). Excellent visuals for such a tiny dev team, but I felt like the audio and music could have done more to draw me into the game world.

    I think it's crucial in this kind of game to feel connected to the protagonist in order to become invested in the story, and that just didn't happen for me. I never felt as "connected" in this as I did in other adventure games. The voices were part of the trouble for me. Ending was disappointing for me, too, but I'll keep this spoiler free.

    Despite the flaws, I'd love to see a second game from this team. So much promise in this debut! If the sounds, music, and dialog were as refined as the visuals, this would be one of the best adventures of the year.

    Recommended for fans of sci-fi, point-and-click adventures, and anyone who is tired of jump scare and hiding games that try to call themselves "horror" game. (Yes, I'm looking at you Alien:Isolation and SOMA).    … Expand
  6. bancandrei
    May 26, 2020
    5
    Was looking for a good horror experience like The Witch's House but didn't find it here. This feels like a rather uninspired adventure game.
  7. raorian
    Oct 15, 2015
    7
    this is the type of games that have an insane amount of flaws but still manages to be great in it's on way.
    there are some more lengthy reviews u should read.
    just two tips: don't be afraid to cheat and use walkthrough. though most of the pazzles are intuitive in a good way, some of them aren't. don't get over frustrated. also, read 50%-70% of the stuff. if u notice something is    this is the type of games that have an insane amount of flaws but still manages to be great in it's on way.
    there are some more lengthy reviews u should read.

    just two tips: don't be afraid to cheat and use walkthrough. though most of the pazzles are intuitive in a good way, some of them aren't. don't get over frustrated.

    also, read 50%-70% of the stuff. if u notice something is boring u, skip it.
    i honestly didn't care about the **** love triangle blah blah    … Expand
  8. Shaer
    Apr 4, 2021
    7
    ==My Opinion==
    What Good: Good atmosphere, nice graphics, cool story.
    What Bad: Lack of puzzles, Low resolution graphics, Too much reading materials through entire game-play which were really not much needed to progress.
  9. Crimert
    Mar 22, 2020
    6
    The sound and atmosphere were good. On the other hand, the controls were sometimes annoying and the ending was disappointing. 6hrs on record.

Awards & Rankings

71
#71 Best PC Game of 2015
73
#73 Most Shared PC Game of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 31
  3. Negative: 0 out of 31
  1. Brash Games
    Dec 3, 2015
    80
    It’s still an extremely worthwhile game though and provides an entertaining, if harrowing, experience. But those damn PDA entries remain incredibly irritating to the extent that STASIS remains only ‘very good’ rather than excellent.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Nov 14, 2015
    75
    The story promises a lot but fails to deliver, visuals resembling Planescape are great but often obscure, but dense atmosphere (think Dead Space) and music will not leave you indifferent. [11/2015, p.58]
  3. Pelit (Finland)
    Nov 5, 2015
    90
    STASIS is one of the best point´n click adventures of the year and a solid horror experience. Its take on horror genre – slow-paced but intense 2D sci-fi horror with a claustrophobic atmosphere – is something completely unique. Add to that solid puzzles, good story and and you have gem of a game. A must for both fans of the horror and adventure genres. [Oct 2015]
See all critic reviews »