Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason Demo

Survival games must make you really fear for your in-game life in order to achieve their true purpose, which is easier said than done in most cases. If it is too easy to kill that which haunts you, then the atmosphere fails to inflict the desired crippling effect. On the other hand, if you are too helpless and every contact kills you, then the terrible monster becomes analogous to the pits in Super Mario, which are not so frightening, as you may have recall.

Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason is a first-person shooter that blends in a little horror into the mix, in order to make the experience more memorable and somewhat unique. Moreover, beside the awful scenery and semi-humanoid monsters that seem to be after you, you also have to deal with the cold and avoid freezing to death, by searching warm places and not staying outside too much, which is a bit difficult to achieve when you are on a boat in the Arctic Ocean.

Speaking of which, the story talks about a meteorologist who goes to the North Pole to investigate the mysterious death of a boat crew. Naturally, the role is played by you, which means that the bodies you run into must also be investigated. Things get more disorienting after you realize that you can travel into the past and change it, which proves to be handy when it comes to saving the men you find dead on the boat.

There are a few original ideas packed into the game as well, such as the fact that you can use icicles as ammunition for one of the weapons. Old-school rifles and machine-guns can also be found throughout the story, although it is pretty difficult to make proper use of them. The aiming system is supposed to be realistic, which means that most of your shots will miss and you might end up not taking a shot unless you are very close to the target.

The visuals are quite unique as well, since a few new technologies come into play when it comes to rendering the environments. Ice is prevalent, due to the blistering cold, but if you happen to turn on a heat source, the ice melts and water starts dripping. Obviously, it works the other way around as well, which is definitely a neat and interesting idea. However, there are many bugs that can cause this to malfunction and hurt the frame rate, not to mention the large number of errors and desktop crashes.

All things considered, Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason had all the right makings for a successful title and it can certainly be enjoyed, with a bit of hassle on your behalf. However, the potential was wasted due to poor design decisions and the horrendous optimization problems.