Developer: The Brotherhood
Publisher: The Brotherhood, Daedalic Entertainment
Rrp: £14.99 (Gog.com), £14.99 (Steam), and £14.99 (Humblebundle)
Released: 31st August 2015
Available on: Steam, Gog.com and Humblebundle
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
You awake cold and alone in a dark place, coughing and sputtering as your body desperately tries to expel the liquid in your lungs. Slowly and agonizingly you rise to face the darkness of a ship that’s unknown to you. In your mind all you have are questions and precious little answers, where are you? How did you get here? Where are your wife and daughter?
Stasis is a sci-fi horror point and click adventure game although unlike most point and click games this ones camera angle is isometric. The game was funded through Kickstarter and, in the interest of transparency, it was one that I backed.
You play as John Maracheck, a man who has had the misfortune to wake up from stasis aboard a seemingly abandoned ship.
Stasis’s pre-rendered 2D backgrounds hint as to its influences, the architecture, for example, gives off a very strong ‘Alien’ vibe. Some of the early scene’s also don’t escape the films influence as they are very reminiscent of the film.
The gameplay also reminds me a little of the Bladerunner game as well as an old game called Sanitarium (which I believe I still have… perhaps I’ll review it soon).
You can perform certain actions depending on what symbol appears next to your cursor when its hovered over an object. These symbols come in three types; an eye meaning that you can inspect an object, a hand tells you that you can interact with the object or pick it up and finally there’s the symbol to exit an area that is an arrow bent into a circle.
There are many pieces of the background that, when hovering over with the mouse cursor, will show some information on the world that you’re in. Most of them will hold no actual significance in a gameplay sense but really add to the world building and narrative.
It is clear that the movement is ‘node based’ because John will always walk along the same path when commended to go somewhere and sometimes the route chosen will make no sense from where he was stood at the time.
The inventory (or Quantum Storage Device as the game calls it) is located on the bottom left of the screen. You use anything within it by simply clicking the item and then whatever you want to use it on, be it inside or outside of your inventory.
Not all the puzzles require you to combine or use items from your inventory however, in some cases you’ll need to use a computer system to solve a problem which can mean finding clues in PDA entries and the environment.
There are moments where the voice acting gets a little sketchy at times, with certain characters voices changing slightly between lines. Generally its not something you notice but on the odd occasion it just felt like they hadn’t quite grasped their characters voice properly or understood what the tone of the line they delivered was supposed to be.
Stasis is a flawed but great game, perfect for those of you who are really craving a bit of old school adventure game action but want a dark story to go with it. And when I say the story is dark, I mean its really dark.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Bladerunner
Planescape: Torment
Sanitarium
