Romier S Posted May 8, 2009 Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 (edited) Do you like horror games? Do you like games with a ton of atmosphere? How about games with fantastic storytelling mechanics and that wonderful old school adventure game feel? If so, buy Crysostasis! Seriously, it's on Steam right now for $27.99 and can be purchased in stores for $29.99. I picked it up today and just got done with a massive 3 hours binge. It's really one of those suprise little titles that you never expect to be good but you are SOOO happy you took a chance on. So hows about the bad? Well, it's a resource hog and even with a beastly machine you won't be enabling everything and running at a smooth clip. I read some horrid reports about the games performance but its honestly running pretty nicely on my rig with almost all of the bells and whistles. Mid-range rigs may suffer though. However, the game is extremely slow paced so if you do have a bit of a sluggish framerate, it shouldn't cause you any major headaches. Here's a trailer for the game: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/38693.html ..and if you need a further push. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/cryostasissleepofreason/review.html http://www.giantbomb.com/cryostasis-the-sleep-of-reason/61-21478/reviews/ I'll post some screens tommorrow when I get home from work! Edited May 8, 2009 by Romier S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 8, 2009 Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 There are demos out there (a "playable" one and a PhysX one), and some say the PhysX-oriented tech demo from the game runs better than the actual game thanks to much better multi-core use, heh... looking forward to trying it. Looks pretty sweet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted May 8, 2009 Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 Romier's new job at that PR and marketing firm is bleeding into his forum posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelley Posted May 8, 2009 Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 That is one good looking game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2009 There are demos out there (a "playable" one and a PhysX one), and some say the PhysX-oriented tech demo from the game runs better than the actual game thanks to much better multi-core use The final game isn't quite as impressive as the PhysX demo. There is a patch coming to add all of the PhysX effects to the final retail version though. As you note, the final game is not optimized for multicore system which puts a heavy load on the GPU. I'm hoping that is corrected as well as it would certainly help overall performance and allow for all those sweet PhysX effects to come through with a bet less overall "cost". Still, it's not worth avoiding the game over. I was actually suprised at how well it ran for me after reading all of the horror stories and the narrative in the game is so well done that I have a hard time putting it down. Romier's new job at that PR and marketing firm is bleeding into his forum posts. :lmao I wish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Here's a couple of screenshots... [ATTACH]3864[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]3865[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]3866[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]3867[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]3868[/ATTACH] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 The demo impresses. Except for the performance, but it's playable (good thing I'm used to gaming at lower resolutions). Now if only Steam would stop rejecting any payment method I try for no good reason... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 (edited) If you played the full PhsyX demo, the final game plays at a nicer clip since it doesn't have all of the PhysX effects enables as of yet. I'm hoping the patch they release readds all of the effects along with optimizing the engine for multicore processors. I can see that making a world of difference. Performance wise I'm sitting between 25-30fps at 1680x1050 with anistropic filtering on, anti-aliasing on and all settings on "High" except for Shadows which I've ketp at "Medium" (High enables soft shadows and murders my FPS). Also, I turned off the motion blur and camera blur since they only annoyed me and they have a nasty effect on the framerate as well. Oh, I'm about 7 hours in...I LOVE the story so far. There's an underlying fairy tale that mirrors the events on the ship and I love how it''s slowly and painstakingly fed to the player at just the right time. You'll find yourself continuing on because you just need to know what happens next. I've heard the ending doesn't disappoint as well which has me very excited to complete it.... Edited May 9, 2009 by Romier S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbert Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 That shot should be on the back of the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Well, I thought I was playing the regular, "playable" demo as opposed to the PhysX one, but apparently not You're right, Romier, the full game is running better And I'm in love! I thought it was odd how so many settings barely affected framerate in the demo. I guess it was pretty physics-bound. The full game, by comparison, is flying along and it's freakin' beautiful. I gotta wait until tomorrow night to really start playing and it's killing me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Squeezed in a couple of hours. Holy shit is this game amazing! The sound and feeling of movement... hell, everything about it is pretty fantastic so far. It oozes great design in all aspects all over the place. And I think it's going to really creep me out when I play it late at night So glad you tried it, Romier. You made my weekend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magness Posted May 11, 2009 Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 I heard this compared a few times to Penumbra - is that a fair comparrison? Are they similiar in subject matter at all? Or is it just that they both (apparently) have underground winter base levels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 11, 2009 Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 Just tried the Penumbra demo. Sweet. Neither game reminds me much of the other, though. Cryostasis is on a boat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magness Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 Ah heheh Me=Pretty far off-base on that one then. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 12, 2009 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 Just finished the game. It was so ridiculously awesome, I think I'm in shock. I almost want to spoiler this, because I don't want to build it up too much. It really just has to be experienced. The developer has leveraged the video game medium to tell a unique story in a unique way that makes it difficult to talk about without spoiling things (the whole experience is intrinsic to the story). Not that there haven't been great stories in video games before, but I've never experienced one that was so beautifully told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 Toldya. I'm near the end myself. On Chapter 15 right now so I've got a bit of gameplay to go. This is a game that so few people will be talking about in a year or two (which is ashame) but those that have played it will easily get drawn into discussions about how, as gamers, you get to places where you're about ready to give up on the mediums' ability to tell a good story and then you played Cryostasis. That's not hyperbole either. I haven't even reached the end yet but just the simple mechanics the game uses to relay the narrative will impress you. The structure of the story, the characters, the writing...it's all REALLY damned good. I can't wait to finish it tonight.:tu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2009 (edited) I completed Cryostasis at last. I've already said enough about the game so I'll keep it short. Amazingly well told story. It's simple, it's effective and you simply can't present the story to a player using a youtube recap. You have to experience it! (Covak and I are in absolute agreement there). The underlying allegory to the fairy tale presented allows the player to garner a deeper understanding of the emotions the Captain and the crew of North Wind felt as opposed to if the developers had decided to just tell the story straight. I did have some issues with a lack of polish in some key areas including some crash to desktop issues in the latter levels (quite a few actually) along with some UI and menu issues but I was able to overlook them because the good most assuredly outweighs the bad. Seriously, if you enjoy quality narrative, stellar writing and quality gameplay mechanics that support it all - get this game NOW! I cannot recommend it enough and I can assure you it will land on my list of favorits for '09. Edited May 18, 2009 by Romier S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magness Posted May 18, 2009 Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Saw this relatively cheap at GAME the other day so I think I will pick it up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magness Posted May 27, 2009 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 Picked up Cryostasis over the weekend and started it... Very impressed to start with but wow was it crashy till I disabled PhysX. I was under the impression that the PhysX stuff just wasn't properly implemented in-game but, from reading the boards its more than that and disabling it fixed all my crashes. Not too far in or anything yet but, it is amazingly cool so far Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 Did you update to the latest Nvidia drivers? They also update PhysX on the machine which gives both a performance boost and helps with the crashed. All of the crashes happened during the latter half of the game for me. I spent the first 6 hours or so totally crash free with PhysX enabled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magness Posted May 28, 2009 Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 I did update the drivers to the latest from Nvidia but I was still crashing repeatedly on both the MacBook and the desktop until I disabled PhysX in-game. Looking forward to retrying it after the patch but, I'm o.k. with it as-is and I can play so I'll live without PhysX for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted June 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 The PhysX patch is out along with a slew of fixes... http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/patches/cryostasissleepofreason/patch.html#id31647 Only works for the US release right now. Using this patch if you have a high end nVidia Graphics Card and meet or surpass the RECOMMENDED System requirements This patch fully enables the support of nVidia PhysX technology by adding unique physical effects. The items below were added to 'Video' menu section: * Hardware physics: enables PPU support. * PhysX efefcts: enabling of effects, realized by means of PhysX technology. In order to produce more realistic atmosphere of deserted ship, heaps of small and average physical objects were added on each level and location: * rubbish, splints, cans, boxes, ship rig, etc. * parts of clothes, fabrics, mops. * icicles, splitting into multiple shatters. New Weapon * New weapon available - water gun. !!! Important! The jet of water from the water gun can be seen only on computers, equipped with nVidia cards with Physics Processing Unit. Effects added with patch: o Water: evidential simulation of water can be found at each game level. You can see it flowing down the walls, dropping from the pipe breaks or ceilings. Also, the water is present in some Mental Echo scenes. o When bullet hits any metal surface, it produces thousands of realistic sparkles, that are reflected in this surface. . o Wires can produce electric sparks, too. Critical Fixes: o Do Halt by script stack corruption (game crashes in scripts) o Inability to strafe (or other keyboard settings) with outer controller enabled (wheel, gamepad) o Shaders 4.0 are working properly on ATi cards now. o Wires can produce electric sparks, too. General Fixes: o The flashlight can not be enabled while Intro is played.li> o The Quicksave is now available after you enter and quit 'Save' manu. o Memory leaks o Memory fragmentation o Debug-variables are ignored when loading saved games o Bubbles and steam when player enters/leaves Mental Echo o 'Hardware physics' option is added to Video menu section o The loading screen is now displayed properly o The possible appearance of 'black screen' when the Hero is killed while returning from Mental Echo is removed. o Push/pop index is optimized (possible freezes, crash on level 12) Game fixes: o The problem with hatch on 1st level is solved. o FOV is optimized on 13th level. o Fog blinking and player's death are optimized in 3rd "experience of the past" part, 1st level o Intro movie can be skipped on 1st level o The second Mental Echo on 2nd level is simplified o The Omen (Man In Black) can be skipped on 5th level o The possible Player's death when he enters/leaves Mental Echo on 6th level is fixed o FOV is optimized (1st scene, 13th level). o Player receives 120 life points after finishing the second Mental Echo, 13th level o Fishes are removed from the dried up aquarium, 14th level o The fight against Spider on 15th level is simplified (it's easier to hit the ice cracks) o Incorrect skipping of Scene_82 on 15th level is fixed Graphics Additions: o Anisotropic filtering is working properly. o Green frames in the beginning and ending of intro movies are removed. o water visualization improved (only for video cards supporting Nvidia PhysX under Windows Vista) o Disabling the camera motion blur fixed o A snow skin on telescopic sight is added, when player goes outside o HUD display is corrected (weapons, ammo, diving suit) for every resolution Sound: o The looping of sound in some scene endings is removed. o Characters landings volume fix. o Sounds of falling and icicle smashing are changed o sound volume settings are fixed o a sound of 'collecting cold' by Spider is added APPLYING THIS PATCH WILL RENDER YOUR PREVIOUS SAVED GAMES UNPLAYABLE. YOU WILL HAVE TO START THE GAME OVER FROM THE BEGINNING. I think I'll reinstall the game and apply the patch. I wouldn't mind another run through.:rock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted June 3, 2009 Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 Dang. Patch came out last Friday and still nothing on Steam :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magness Posted June 4, 2009 Report Share Posted June 4, 2009 Found the EU version of the patch on UK NZone so will patch it and retry this one tonight... Sucks that previous savegames aren't compatible :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.