Cryostasis Preview

The very, very cold war.

"The Russian BioShock." Not a bad start, Mr PR Man. Ken Levine's undersea epic may have divided opinion, but it takes a hard heart not to warm to its narrative ambition and to the fantastic vision of the city of Rapture. We don't care whether it's the Russian BioShock, the Indian BioShock, or the Kyrgystani BioShock - anything that strives to reach similar goals is automatically interesting.

Setting eyes on Cryostasis for the first time, it's apparent where the BioShock comparisons stem from. Like 2K Games' hit, Cryostasis is a first-person game where you play a lone human exploring a strange environment populated largely by hostile foes - and like BioShock, much of the game focuses on the need to piece together details of the disaster which brought about this state of affairs.

Also like BioShock, the game is set in the 1950s - but there the comparisons between the settings end. In Cryostasis, you play a Soviet meteorologist working north of the Arctic Circle. At the start of the game, you receive a distress call from a nearby ship, but upon your arrival you black out - and when you wake up, you're on board, deep in the bowels of the stricken vessel.

Two key elements define Cryostasis' environment. The first is the ship itself, a Soviet-era nuclear-powered icebreaker - and therefore an astonishingly huge beast. These ships plied the frozen waters north of Russia and Siberia during the Cold War, and the game's fictitious icebreaker, North Wind, is the height of a nine-storey building and over 200 metres long. As you'd expect, there's none of Rapture's fine art deco style here. The ship is relentlessly industrial and utilitarian, with echoes of films like Das Boot in its often brutally claustrophobic interiors.

'Cryostasis' Screenshot 1

Horror games aren't known for cheerful lighting. It's scary enough worrying that you'll stub your toe in the dark, let alone being set upon by frozen nasties.

And the second key element in Cryostasis' environment? Cold. In this game, cold isn't just a description, an excuse to draw some nice snow and ice textures. The cold in Cryostasis lies right at the heart of how the game works. It gnaws constantly at your character as you progress through the (mostly) dead, frozen interior of the vast ship, a constant and unwelcome companion throughout your adventure. Cryostasis has no health bar - instead, there are a pair of thermometers in the bottom left of your screen. One shows the temperature in the room around you - the other shows your internal body temperature. Let your body cool down sufficiently, and you freeze to death. The cold wins.

Much of the game, therefore, is spent looking for sources of heat. The ship's reactors continue to pump it through various pipes and devices, which you can use to warm yourself up before plunging through frozen environments. Some areas of the ship even have heating elements which can be turned on, warming up entire rooms to habitable levels - a process accompanied by a rather nice graphical effect where the ice covering every surface rapidly melts and runs down the walls to form puddles on the floor.

In itself, this sets up an interesting set of puzzles and progression systems. To get through the game, you have to beat the cold - staying warm as you move forward, enabling the heating systems to make progress, and occasionally running across the deck of the ship to reach new areas. The deck is one of the most inhospitable areas we saw - stranded in the middle of a snowstorm, visibility is incredibly poor, and the air is so cold that the inside of your goggles ices up after only a few seconds outside, leaving only a small area in the middle of the screen through which you can see clearly.

However, it's not just the cold you'll battle in Cryostasis. The dead ship features plenty of undead nasties as well - former inhabitants of the vessel who, in the words of the game's developers, "gave in to the cold", and have now become manifestations of elemental cold in themselves. Around them the temperature drops appreciably - and although they're susceptible to heat (it's hinted that there's a heat-generating weapon you'll gradually assemble as the game progresses), most of your fighting will be done with authentic Soviet-era light weapons, such as rifles, shotguns and a Tommy-style machine gun.

Initially, at least, these enemies seemed a bit disappointing - but as the developers led us through the demonstration, subtle things about the different foes started to creep us out a bit. The enemies we saw were all basically human, frozen and mummified, but they retained certain traits that were designed to pick out their original roles in the ship. Repairmen in the ship's engine area sport a pair of welding torches, one grafted into each wrist in the place of their hands. Those left to rot in the brig as the cold infiltrated the ship sport cell bars where their faces should have been - turning their frozen, hollow heads into macabre parodies of prison cells. Their jailers, meanwhile, have keys instead of fingers, which they use to claw at the player.

For the most part, Cryostasis' hero is a fairly normal human being stuck in a horrifying situation - but true to the survival horror roots of the game, your character does have one supernatural ability up his sleeve.

'Cryostasis' Screenshot 3

Oh, I spoke too soon - here comes one of them now. He only looks angry because he's forgotten to bring his fabric swatches with him.

Early in the game, you discover that there are some corpses spread around the ship - people who didn't "give in" to the cold, but who were killed either by accident, or by their crewmates, as the insidious frost took over. You can enter the frozen brains of these people and relive their last moments, and can even take action to save them from their fates. In one example, we travelled back to rescue a crew-member by disarming the marauding bad guy who had murdered him. A rather more tongue-in-cheek example saw us rescuing a cook from the frozen sides of beef which fell on him by, er, going into the cows' past and rescuing them from the slaughterhouse. Right.

Along with various sequences where you witness black-and-white echoes of the ship's past as you explore, the developers imply that these incidents will add up to a comprehensive picture of the vessel's fate - a single, momentous, game-spanning puzzle, in essence. In another nod to BioShock, saving crew-members will also contribute to the game's plot and resolution.

Whether those elements can add up to something with BioShock's narrative scope remains to be seen, however. At the moment, Cryostasis is a relatively good-looking first-person survival horror, with the potential to blossom into something with a tense, creepy atmosphere and a great plot. The demo we saw wasn't varied or complex enough to convince us that we're seeing the Russian BioShock - but we're certainly intrigued. If the developer can deliver on its bigger promises, we're certainly open to the potential of finding love in a cold climate.

Cryostasis is due out for the PC in October.

Comments (30) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • the_dudefather #1 4 years ago

    'heat-generating weapon'

    perhaps a weapon that can allow you to 'throw' fire or flames at your enemies, a 'fire thrower' perhaps...

    anyway, sounds good from the preview, hope it turns out good
  • frostcircus #2 4 years ago

    I just finished these guys' previous game, Vivisector. Unashamedly old-school FPS action; came out in 2006, looked like 2002, played like 199x. It was brilliant. Awesome box art, too.

    It also imbued me with serious doubts as to their storytelling ability, technical prowess and capacity for innovation. Honestly, this game's main gimmick sounds like the worst section of Crysis (and chucking an osta into the name isn't going to distract me from this). Please, Action Forms, don't do gimmicks. Do sheer lack of gimmicks, you're great at that.

    But my guess is that they weren't making any kind of old school statement with Vivisector - they were just four years behind the rest of the world. What other explanation is there for using Doom 3's art direction in 2008?
  • UncleLou #3 4 years ago

    This has been on my radar for a while - it does sound rather interesting.

    A rather more tongue-in-cheek example saw us rescuing a cook from the frozen sides of beef which fell on him by, er, going into the cows' past and rescuing them from the slaughterhouse. Right

    Pre-ordered.
  • Eraysor #4 4 years ago

    The enemy designs sound like they have gone through the same method as The Suffering, which was a damn good game.

    I just wish it was a tiny bit lighter in the rooms.
  • Dizzy #5 4 years ago

    How many good games have emerged from "Eastern" Europe software houses? They seem to have design ideas that are stuck in the 80s... pity since there seems to be a lot of talent there.
  • UncleLou #6 4 years ago

    Hm, not sure I agree with that - quite the contrary is true, in my opinion - I'd argue they more often than not have very ambitious and fresh ideas, but balls up the execution a bit - see Pathologic, for example. But Stalker (and The Witcher, to name the two most recent examples) was brilliant, and it was the most "modern" FPS I've yet played.
    Edited by 2 at 28/07/08 @ 08:57
  • the_dudefather #7 4 years ago

    @frostcircus

    where the hell can you buy this fantastic looking game? nothing on ebay, amazon or play

    or am i forced to go down the eyepatch and pegleg route?
  • ChthonicEcho #8 4 years ago

    Sounds like a simple fun generic game.
  • stoopidgreg #9 4 years ago

    "A rather more tongue-in-cheek example saw us rescuing a cook from the frozen sides of beef which fell on him by, er, going into the cows' past and rescuing them from the slaughterhouse."

    seriously..? that's pretty funny, but i don't see how one less cow getting slaughtered would affect the overall quantity of meat in a kitchen.
  • huxathon #10 4 years ago

    That ability to change people's fate seems like a very cool idea, specially if you can save cows. Actually the more I think about it that cow bit sounds great.
  • huxathon #11 4 years ago

    Just watched a clip of Vivisector...looks like Rise of the Triads. Which was a great game from the last century.
  • Eraysor #12 4 years ago

    How many good games have emerged from "Eastern" Europe software houses?

    Stalker?
  • Talbot #13 4 years ago

    Hidden and Dangerous? Hidden and Dangerous 2?
  • andromeda #14 4 years ago

    "Awesome box art, too. "

    you are joking, right?
  • GriddleOctopus #15 4 years ago

    The heatgun isn't a flamethrower, it's more like a microwave gun or just a very big waffle iron. Mmm, waffles.


    The cow bits awesome - it's on one of the older trailers I think.
  • frostcircus #16 4 years ago

    @the_dudefather:
    Gamersgate.com, US$15. Fully worth it, and I can vouch for the delivery service too.

    There's also a demo, but it's in German. You should be able to bluff your way through the menus though. As far as I can tell, Germany's the only country that ever sold the game at retail, but they also censored it quite a bit.

    @andromeda:
    Short answer 'no' (long answer 'no and I dream of a world where all box art looks like this')
    Edited by 2 at 28/07/08 @ 10:58
  • Gurrah #17 4 years ago

    ...going into the cows' past and rescuing them from the slaughterhouse.

    Best thing I've read all year about a PC-game. The whole thermometer idea sounds very intruiging too, so colour me interested.

  • Skeletor #18 4 years ago

    @Dizzy

    "How many good games have emerged from "Eastern" Europe software houses? They seem to have design ideas that are stuck in the 80s... pity since there seems to be a lot of talent there."

    You're joking right?

    Poland: Painkiller, Call of Juarez, The Witcher
    Czech Republic: Mafia
    Croatia: Serious Sam
    Ukraine: Stalker
    Russia: Heroes of Might and Magic V

    Just to name a few...

    @frostcircus

    Vivisector was sold at retail in every Eastern European country, uncut.
    Edited by 1 at 28/07/08 @ 12:28
  • Carpathian #19 4 years ago

    Not entirely sure about the thermometer idea.

    Could be genius and give a new slant on health/life or could be an excuse for tenuous "get this wheel working elsewhere so you can pump oil somewhere else" type of wanderings.

    Will keep an eye on this though - will be interesting to see which way it goes.
  • Christian_Otte #20 4 years ago

    Actually sounds pretty interesting. If they can manage to tell a good story while keeping the gameplay fun, then count me in.
    Edited by 1 at 28/07/08 @ 12:25
  • AphoticCosmos #21 4 years ago

    Looks very good, will keep eyes on this one.
  • Krusty #22 4 years ago

    Any game with heroic steak rescuing deserves keeping an eye on.

    Do you play a cow in that bit?
  • stoopidgreg #23 4 years ago

    death by frozen beef. what a way to go.
  • Dynamize #24 4 years ago

    I'll be keeping an eye out for this one. I have a cow-saving fetish you see.
  • Vixremento #25 4 years ago

    Sounds rather interesting. Would be nice if they read forums like these to get some ideas to make sure the game doesn't flop...I mean come on they have to let us play with the cow a bit! I guess if we're lucky the cow will still be there (and fresh) - we can use our heat-generating weapon to cook up some sweet steak.

    I like some of the puzzles in survival horrors - I just hope they aren't all too straight forward like most are though. Also, add in an ability where I can drop my temperature just enough to hide from the enemies...but at the same time this puts me at risk of dying unless I can warm up soon enough...of course the enemy has to pass by first without detecting me.

  • darc #26 4 years ago

    Darkest. Game. Ever. Or darkest game since Doom III at least. I love the whole "run out and buy a $500 DX10+ graphics card so our amazing engine can render rooms w/ the lights turned out" approach. 3 out of 4 of those screen shots would look identical if you unplugged your monitor!
  • dellbell #27 4 years ago

    Two things.

    1) Action Forms (the game's developer) is a Kyiv-based studio, Kyiv which is located in Ukraine. So that essentially makes Cryostasis a "Ukranian Bioshock" not Russian.

    2) The screenshots used in the article don't reflect the current state of the game at all. They are from 2006. Since then the game has improved visually tenfold. Check latest E3 2008 video on Gametrailers.

    Quite a lack of professionalism on EuroGamer's part. Not good.
  • samadriel #28 4 years ago

    not "varied or complex" enough to 'be' Bioshock? This must play like Bubble Bobble!
  • Waldo #29 4 years ago

    I just finished these guys' previous game, Vivisector.

    Me too, actually: got it cheap off GamersGate a couple of weeks back. Decent game.

    Here are a few videos of it: [link url=http://vime o.com/videos/search:vivisector
    ]http://vime o.com/videos/search:vivisector
    [/link]

    The two earlier videos are from the German demo, where the "vivisector" feature (which allowed you to blow skin and flesh off characters) was removed for the human enemies.
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 05:51
  • frostcircus #30 4 years ago

    Decent's a decent enough description for it.

    I reckon the world needs more decent games. Too many of them want to be the next big thing, so they reinvent/embellish the wheel in various ways, resulting in fiery unmemorable death for everyone