burial rites for the exiled and forgotten. what else can i do to save these people?

painterly in a way that eludes a lot of similarly inclined first-person shooters, genuinely really striking images presented here and accompanied with an eerie soundscape. it’s shackled to linearity both in rhythm and in how it opts to supply the player with resources, which admittedly may not have earned it the warmth it deserved back in 2009, but there’s an appreciated pointedness to its pace which perfectly accompanies its relatively short runtime. frankness is ultimately its greatest asset; most of the nonlinearity here is deployed through the vignettes comprising its narrative, portraying the north wind’s genuine tragedy with a leanness & brevity that underlines the humanity of its limited cast. as your journey shifts from something seemingly corporeal to metaphysical and impressionistic, it is this comfort with being construed as folkloric which allows its final moments to not only register as meaningful, but to provide this unexpected & poignant catharsis. really loved it.

Great horror game with a neat premise that has not been used in other games, as far as I know.

A little janky and it has some issues running well.

I so wish this would get a patch, update or maybe even a mod to help it run better.

a horror game narrative that can go toe to toe with rule of rose or the best of the silent hill series, in terms of thematic potency. i would kinda compare it to obra dinn in how its plot is told through vignettes of each individual crew member's final moments, out of chronological order, but done with far greater dramatic effect (the folklore-parallel with the captain and his officers) and with greater humanity communicated through its gameplay goals (reliving the final moments of others and taking various actions, both mundane and intensified, to save them from a cruel fate). a tale of loyalty, of warmth against the cold of despair, of regrets and a genuine wish to make things right; all this leading up to a final sequence that would sound incredibly ridiculous on paper, but is instead heartwrenching in its earnestness. "what else can i dp to save these people?"

absolutely blindsided by what i expected to be not much more than a competently atmospheric and clunky--not in a bad way necessarily--horror fps. cryostasis deserves far more appreciation than its been given and its a fucking travesty that it was pulled from digital storefronts. if you find some way of playing it and can run it well enough (it was very poorly optimized so even decent machines these days may not cut it), id say its very worth it.

Absolutely incredible atmosphere in this one - you don't get too many horror games with frozen aesthetics (off-hand, I can name the PS2 The Thing and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories) so it's refreshing to see a game embrace the potential of them in earnest. Learning what happened to the decrepit ship you wander is surprisingly engaging, especially with the novel mechanic of reliving the sailors' last moments to change their fates and save them for the unfortunate events that killed them in the first place. Combat's a real slog, though, and the story set in the present is...well, odd is probably the best way to describe it. You go from finding an abandoned ship in the Arctic to fighting frozen monster men to literally fighting monsters before ending it all with an unexpected game of "get to 10 first" with the titan of time, Chronos. There's so little in terms of cohesion or logic to it, and yet I can't help but get swept up in strangeness of it all and the effectiveness of the setting. To call it overlooked would be underselling how much more credit this deserves.

Cryostasis: Sleep of reason presents excellent lessons in how to meticulously craft an incredibly immersive atmosphere. Immersive is a buzzword thrown around carelessly today, but I really mean it. It's sound design, levels, and non-linear storytelling in a unique and unconventional scenario. It all just clicks into place to convey a chilling atmosphere of dread and despair.

And it's a shame because it is genuinely a fantastic game that remains forgotten to the tides of time in a nebulous legal limbo.

[ Full review at https://bluedemonarchive.blogspot.com/2021/08/review-cryostasis-sleep-of-reason.html ]

I love first person shooters with great atmosphere and Cryostasis pulls this off well. While the story is pretty confusing and never really makes any sense at all (even at the end) you at least know why you’re here. You are moving through a Russian nuclear icebreaker that was destroyed after hitting an iceberg (sound familiar). You walk around finding dead bodies and upon touching them you can relive the moments leading to their death and try and prevent it so you can continue getting through the area that is blocked. This also provides more backstory on how the ship actually did hit the iceberg and why.

The game is a first-person shooter so you get some guns, but the game is slow paced and not a high octane shooter like most people like. You move very slowly and you have to take your time aiming since these guns don’t exactly fire at a high rate. You get several different types such as bolt action rifles, a Tommy gun, a water cannon (that uses icicles!), and even a flare gun. The aiming is slow like I mentioned and you just feel like you’re shooting in slow motion. This isn’t entirely bad since you can take your time and aim because ammo is a tad scarce. You do, however, never feel like your guns are very powerful even on the weaker enemies. But you don’t get guns right away since for a good 25% through the game you get to use melee weapons.


The enemies in the game are pretty unique and not just average cannon fodder. These enemies are pretty creepy and look great and behave decently towards your actions. Some swing axes and some shoot back, but they are all pretty hard to take down especially the bigger guys later on.

The game doesn’t really consist of puzzles but the game is a linear maze sometimes. You do flip switches and activate heat sources (more on that later), but there are no actual puzzles in the game. This game makes things a bit dull and feels monotonous since the tone of the game never really changes and even the atmosphere wears thin before the end. You’re opening a lot of doors, flipping a lot of switches, and shooting some bad guys and that’s about it. This game is really only for people who are into atmosphere and story.

You can use any heat source such as lamps, lights, heaters, fires, you name it to recharge your health. There are two meters and the outer one shows how warm the room is or the heat source. You can only heal up to where that meter stops, and then you have your endurance gauge for sprinting.


The game looks pretty good and you need a monster rig to run this with DirectX10 and get the best looking settings. The textures are highly detailed, and you can even watch the ice melt and watch the water run down walls in real time. Of course, this was one of the very first DX10 games so there are plenty of glitches. The PS4.0 has a problem making animations jerky so you have to fiddle around with minimizing to the desktop and changing it from 3 to 4 to get it to stop. The game will crash at random sometimes, and there is some weird out of nowhere glitches throughout. This makes the game very frustrating to play even if you have a hefty rig.


The game can feel like a chore towards the end because the pace never changes and is just deliberately slow and the story just never makes sense. However, it has something about it that makes you keep playing regardless of all this, but people who like fast action should stay away. Cryostasis could have been a lot better with a more stable engine, better shooting, and a more steady pace instead of just slow throughout. If you have the rig to the run this game and the patience then Cryostasis is your thing.

Update (06/14/18): The game has actually been pulled off of Steam as of late and does not run on Windows 10 or modern GPUs. This is such a shame as it can easily be run on any GPU from the last 5-6 years with no problems. If you want to pick up a copy you need to find someone who has it in their Steam library.