Where ice puns go unpunished.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:55 - The Third Door
10:32 - I Thought This Game Was About a Haunted Iceberg
14:33 - Mutiny on Ice
19:48 - Giant Spider, Bull
24:19 - Breakdown
30:48 - Fallout
35:38 - Chronos, The God of Time
39:44 - End Credits
Links:
Noelle's channel - / @speedyspcfan
Patrons see episodes early: / civvie11
Twitter: / civvie11
Join the Dungeon discord: / discord
#FreeCivvie #RetroGaming #horrorgaming
I 100% expected him to have a flashback AS the ship
Technically, second-before-last one IS the flashback of the ship. When you challenge Cronos to change the fate of the ship by saving people instead of letting them die, because ship's "life" hinged on many different people, not just one fatal mistake. That orb you interact with isn't from anyone else, it's directly above hole where ship's reactor had exploded.
@@quint3ssent1a holy shit this makes so much sense
@@quint3ssent1a and Cronos/Kronos allows you to change the faith of the crew by altering the deeds of the key characters that could change the outcome (Engineer, Security Chief, First Officer), but their bodies weren't on the ship (since by saving the helicopter from crashing, all the key characters managed to escape the ship), that's why Cronos/Kronos comes in to help out if you prove yourself
@@quint3ssent1a Yep. You touched the frozen corpse of the ship, and saved it from death. Part of the ship, part of the crew.
@@Bluecho4Philadelphia experiment type shit...
Not gonna lie, that segment where you have to shoot the projector screen to take out enemies shooting you through it? One of the most interesting and neat things I've ever seen in an FPS. What an odd but really cool game. Pun partially intended.
That was by far a massive mindfuck and the execution of it was amazing......
My jaw practically dropped when I saw that. Didn't even know that was possible in a game, especially in Slav jank from 2008 XD I need to play this game but i have no idea where to get it
Genuinely brilliant stuff. How the hell I've never seen something like that in anything else is amazing, because that's *such* a good idea.
@@Raybro16 Comrade, you know where you can get this game. Just reject capitalist ways of obtaining goods to grab it when no one sells them, that's all.
That one segment everyone remembers years after finishing the game, tbh I was shocked when I first played it like back in 2009
I love the reveal that you weren't reaching out to touch them all along; you were reaching out so they could grab your hand and pull you out of the ice-water. What a great reveal.
He literally reached out so a cow could grab his hand. And a polar bear. What a mad lad
I'm confused by what you mean
@@rickperrine1059 he meant that the player chariter is reaching out for help to who are not attacking at him.
@@rickperrine1059 The animation where he puts out his hand before doing a flashback sequence is like at the end where he's being rescued from falling along with the sled.
I see too many upvotes for an objectively wrong take. The "reaching out" animation is nothing more than the "grab" animation that exists for literally every interactive thing in the game. Picking up ammo, opening doors, turning levers, going back in time, they ALL use the exact same "extend right hand" animation. During the zoom in period as you go back in time to save a crew member, you can turn your camera around and see that the protagonist isn't actually reaching out at all. He places his hands on his head as if he has a headache. You would know this if you actually played the game. In the ending sequence the devs simply re-used the grab animation. It's literally that simple, there's no pretentious deeper meaning behind it. They had a grab animation ready so they used it.
This might have one of the most opptimistic endings to a horror game i've seen. Yea there's plenty of horror games with happy endings but this one feels genuinely hopeful. Like the ending is that no one dies because you fixed everything after going through hell
Not gonna lie, definately would prefer to have more games in general be more optimistic! Did not expect it and was pleastantly surprised
Happy ending? They were forced to go on and make mobile games :(
and throughout the video that was the ending I was hoping this game would have. I was hoping the end goal of this game is to reach the captain or someone else, go back in time to prevent them from doing the mistake that'll get the ship stranded there in the first place.
@@dorpth At least they are still afloat.
@@Web720 hopefully that just the shell and the plp who make this when on to make other game
So happy you covered this hidden gem. The oppressive sense of cold, the immense creativity of the flashback sequences and encounters (the "projector firefight" is one of the coolest setpiece gimmicks I've ever seen), and the surprisingly mature story about leadership, loyalty, and man vs nature... it's an experience I hope more people will be made aware of and appreciate. Plus it's super cool to play a game about slow methodical combat in awkward polar gear. One thing that wasn't in the video but is worth mentioning... there are several different ways to save the North Wind, corresponding to each of the characters around the captain. Each of them has some moment where their actions can change the outcome, and you're able to choose which one you want to play as after the Chronos fight. My favorite is the engineer guy, where instead of reaming out the captain you can show him the model ship and be like "here, send this to be decommissioned instead!" I like how the game treats just that one little confirmation of solidarity as enough. It's also really interesting to think about the story in its cultural context, since it circles much more around the idea of following and remaining loyal to leadership, which is maybe a more common Eastern European theme compared with Western fables that usually focus more on individualism. Anyway, awesome game, wish it weren't delisted, really glad you did a video on it!
You come into MY HOUSE and give a coherent and interesting review? Rude. ♥️
This guy fucks
A wild Dusk Dev appears!
I read this comment before I read who posted it. Regarding your comment about the theater fight. Dude you did some shenanigans of your own when making DUSK. Escher Labs is some straight black magic voodoo. Also the effort you put into making the games balancing as tight as it is, is its own level of impressive. To this day I regard DUSK's Cero Miedo as a master class in how to balance an action shooter game.
Dusk will never be a good game :) It's only interesting to zoomers who never played an actual good game from the 90s :) I'd play Redneck Rampage 1000 times than touch Dusk even once :) Dusk is ugly, Dusk is boring, Dusk has bad gameplay :)
There are actually 3 scenarios at the end that you can alter, based on which finder you walk across, you chose the middle. One of the other 2 scenes are about the Captain and the Engineer guy who is making the ship model, instead of scolding the captain and sending him away, he raises his spirits by giving him the finished ship model and being kind to him, thus the captain doesn't become depressed and doesn't make rash decisions. (basically the scenario which you chose doesn't end up happening since the captain doesn't get depressed and act out of desperation) In the other scenario the the First Officer decides to help the crew in fixing the ship instead of giving the decomissioning message to the captain. Basically the path you chose was the last chance to save the crew, since it only happens if the decomission note is given to the captain and the engineer guy doesn't cheer him up. Also, all the other people you save beforehand are irrelevant, since up until the endgame, the ship is still a frozen wreck, meaning the people you saved until that point died somewhere else regardless. The only meaningfull saves are when you prevent the helicopter from crashing, because the captain and the key characters manage to get away with it. That's why Kronos helps you out, since the key characters escaped on the helicopter, there are no corpses to interact with, and the key characters are the only ones that can change the outcome of what happens to the ship. Key characters being: Security chief who helps up the injured captain rather than helping the First Officer stop the ship Chief Engineer who cheers up the captain rather than telling him off First Officer who helps the crew rather than hand the Captain the decomission note.
The main character dies right in the beginning of the game when he falls into the frozen pit, you can understand that, if you choose that one ending where you give the captain of the ship the model of the ship, if you choose, that ending you'll be sent to the very beginning of the game once again and be saved by the key characters, and you'll see that the pit you are falling into(in the very first intro) was actually full of frozen water where you die.
Nah, this game is a masterpiece, such a cool premise executed perfectly
so if you choose a different path, you can avoid the encounter with Kronos entirely? Or does the helicopter crash regardless?
@@benjamingiddens6758 the helicopter always crashes, the main outcome is the ship breaks down with zero survivors, once you get there and start interacting with the corpses you change the outcome on one of the late levels you come across a crashed helicopter or what remains of it (I don't remember 100%) and you can alter the outcome of what happens to the helicopter, so it doesn't end up crashing, this means that everyone who was on the helicopter survived (meaning the key characters I believe) but since the key characters never died in this scenario, there are no corpses of the key characters to interact with, meaning you can't change the outcome of the ship and the whole crew until Kronos challanges you that's why I was saying that saving any crew member during your journey only alters their deaths and doesn't prevent it it's basically working your way from the worst possible outcome (beginning of the game) to the best possible outcome (end of the game where everyone gets saved) at least that's how I interpret the story
Huh, I got ending with the Chief Engineer. Maybe it's somehow connected with other game decisions?
Taken from the wiki, accurately explaining what exactly happened, at the end: At the end of the game, having drawn his attention by repeatedly meddling with history, a battle with Kronos, the titan of time, ensues. If Nesterov wins, Kronos rewards his efforts by allowing him to choose to use Mental Echo on one of the three missing officers, and hence avert the entire tragedy. Possessing the first officer, he may choose not to give the decommissioning note to the Captain and instead go to help the crew with repairs; by possessing the chief engineer, he can sympathize and cheer up the Captain when he arrives with the message from HQ; by possessing the chief of security, he can choose not to support the first officer when he tries to stop the Captain from ramming the ice, instead helping the wounded Captain, whose ramming effort then succeeds. After the final flashback, the character is returned to the beginning of the game. The dog sled sequence starts the same, but when Alexander is about to fall down the cliff, he is saved by the Captain, who, together with the first officer, the chief of engineering and the chief of security, leads him aboard the North Wind; now intact and free of ice.
"As far as I paid attention to it it goes like this.. Alexander Nesterov dies at the very beginning of the game by fallig into a ice pitt, he gets the second chance by Chronos the god of Time to undue the mistakes the crew of the north star and the captain did back in time, its like the north star is cursed by the terrible mistake. Thats the reason why Alexander can enter other dead crewmen memory. After you finished the game you face Chronos and release your soul and are saved by the ships captain then the whole ship disappears because the curse is lifted, the only survivors are actually your sledge dogs, because the captain says "unlike us they always find the way back home" its a indirect statement that you are dead and you join them on the ship at the end and disappear with it." 4 months late but I was looking up stuff on this game and this really caught my eye, it's a forum post from another user, thinking further logically why are the old crew here, why did they send the dogs home and not take the sled, why walk through the arctic wastes, where are they gonna go without the sled, they are gonna freeze or starve or get lost. in all likelihood they are all dead so not the most optimistic ends but somewhat poetically hopeful, really interesting concept and execution for a story
@@bogdankl2000 Also how the game introduces the mental echo thing; you reach out to someone, keep them from falling into icy water to save their life; at the end of the game, the Captain reaches for your hand and keeps you from falling into icy water, saving your life.
It feels like you play as someone who stole the powers that the insurance agent from Return of the Obra Dinn uses (I know Obra Dinn came out way later) but without any license from any higher power and using it in a way that is not allowed and causing a huge mess across time causing all this weird zombie stuff to happen both in the present and retroactively as you mess with the past, and eventually Kronos tries to stop you but you impress him and he goes “fine, I’ll go fix the mess and let the changes stay”
Interesting is, that originally the game was named "Анабиоз: Сон разума", which can be roughly translated as "Anabiosis: sleeping mind" or "Cryostasis: the sleep of reason" which is a reference to a phrase "The sleep of reason/mind produces monsters". And so, every character who acted without thinking made the ship crash and the monsters appear.
The cool part about the monsters is that you're not killing them because you're stuffing them with bullets but because bullets (and your punches as well) release kinetic energy upon impact. And then it transforms into heat. You're killing (killing?) monsters by giving them a bit of warmth! This game blew my brains out when I was a kid.
Not only that, bullets are HOT when they're fired. I mean, what do you expect from a metal rock that's propelled by explosions XD
yeah I noticed that too, I think the creatures are actually made of negative energy rather than positive energy
@@Raybro16 The funny thing is that all the weapons the enemies use shoot ice for some reason. There are monstrous welders that have ice torches for some reason and even the gun enemies shoot ice which is visible as frost on the screen when you are hurt.
The monsters are a metaphor for the lethal effects of cold. Every bit of heat drives them away, and every source of heat in the environment undoes the injuries it inflicts. The cold also freezes, not merely in the physical sense, but in the sense it stops all progression. Literally freezing something in time. You find the people trapped at the moment the cold took them, and you give them back their time.
@@Biodeamon A shame our Protag didn't just cast "Turn Undead", then. :)
Still got this on my Steam account from back in the day. Was always impressed with how weirdly upbeat the story actually is once you get to the end. Seems so grim, and yet ultimately, it's about how not being a dick, and doing the right thing, can save everyone.
The best pat is that the men were competent but feelings and attitudes got in the way of progress.
@@isaiahgarraway5568 "Selfishness". That was the metaphor represented by the hooded figure that stalks the player sometimes. The chief of security ending CIvvie showed is sitting at the table made of guns, the "me vs the world". The other choices are the first officer, sitting a top a very tall chair, the "ambitious climber". You have to not hand the captain the message from HQ in his flashback and go help repair, instead. And the chief engineer, sitting on top of a very big bed, the "tired, leave me alone". You have to comfort the captain, instead of telling him to fuck off, and making him feel alone.
is very comrades-in-arms, da.
Upbeat? You save souls of the crew from being in the eternal limbo of the icebreaker, but everyone died. You included. This is why the captain lets your dog loose and they go back without you. Imagine the story yourself: you go in a dangerous mission into the deadly cold and only your dogs return. What would people think? Ah, yeah, he's safe on some god forsaken icebreaker? No. They start a search and rescue mission.
@@LedoCool1 Uh, yeah that's still pretty damn upbeat even with that interpretation - saving the souls of an entire crew from a hellish eternity of suffering and tragedy? A horror game ending with "and they were allowed to rest in peace, suffering no longer" is very, very upbeat.
This was an absolutely beautiful game in every sense. The story was about human compassion, and the source of horror was much better than just enemies draining your health bar. It's very rare for a game, let alone a horror game, to leave you feeling so good and warm inside.
In Sound Mind has a similar theme of human compassion with a protagonist fighting his guilt and getting an uplifting, cheerful ending. Another one would be Outer Wilds Echoes of the Eye. An exceptionally well themed narrative about a society guided by fear that becomes paranoid and hostile, which you (the player/protagonist) perceive as spooky monsters till you go far enough in the story to start feeling bad or sorry for the monsters.
I see what you did there 😆
Nobody wants a happy ending more badly than the russians.... Or anyone from Eastern Europe for that matter.
That "enemies coming out of the movie projection" bit was actually genuinely clever and well designed. Bravo!
I remember Markplier playing this one till the end... From what I understood, you don't "bring weapons" from the past, but since you saved those people, the weapons became available to you in your way up to the point you are. Thus allowing you to carry them over to the point of your return. This game was very competent in delivering an horror story, from jank land, this one's storytelling stands out
wait markiplier played this?
Mark actually played Cryostasis? :O
I call BS.
Is it not on KZhead, or are you thinking of someone else?
@@RougeMephilesClone he did, but it was around 2012 if i remember correctly. It might even have been on the original channel. It might also be on his livestream channel he never speaks of, or on his first channel. Err i suppose it isn't the first channel but he has an old-ass channel with some old videos, including his first minecraft series he did before or just after amnesia. That entire channel is unlisted, but he has a video where he gave a link to the content.
The lack of Katie's editing, the 2 robots not shocking him for ice puns and the section with the polar bear implies that this vid IS the clown room.
If he's being punished why is he playing such a good game?
An abandonware game, mind you.
@@eclipserepeater2466 Well even that could be part of the punishment. Give him something good first ... let's wait whats next on the list
@@michaelandreipalon359 Not all things abandoned were bad.
@@danieladamczyk4024 those are the words from an orphan and you know it
Going back in time to fix the mistakes of people to save their lives is such a ridiculously cool idea and mechanic! I can't believe more games didn't crib the idea
The only other game that comes to mind that does something like that is Ghost Trick, which is another fantastic underapreciated game. Looking forward to that new release on modern systems!
Singularity did it kinda.
"Murdered: Soul Suspect" has a similar mechanic, where you as a ghost try to solve your own murder (i think. only played lie 20 minutes of it)
@@Cesly-mo3uf but the story fail sadly
Yeah, I really wonder why everyone didn't rush to imitate an obscure Ukrainian game from 2008.
Man, the devs nailed the just. Damn. UNNERVING atmosphere of the "monsters" in this game. The part where Civvie's person is warming themselves by a fading fire while across the room a zombie-thing is standing in plain sight just watching...and waiting...
And if you look at it from the perspective that the fire is supposed to be a safe point. It's a bit of comedic relief to just be defrosting and a zombie is like "What's up bro?"
Figuring out what the ice spiders actually look like is terrifying
He’s just standing there..... *Menacingly!*
29:21 this is so creative, wtf. And must have been a technical hell to actually make, but they did it anyways
I literally started reading the comments to see if anyone else had mentioned this. Like, my eyes widened I was so impressed with it. Creative as hell and technically impressive too
same for having the picture in picture scope on the mosin. Utterly pointless but nobody stopped to think if they should, they just fucking did it
Extremely creative but wouldn't have been technical hell. Just some raycasting and a texture buffer.
Easily the best part of the game. Legitimately shocked me when it happened and I couldn't immediately understand how it was even possible. One of the best examples of Action Forms being a woefully underrated studio.
@@Civvie11 Nevermind the Overseers themselves are a fucking awesome monster concept with the jungletaped Akimbo Papashas, the arms holding the Flashlights as their eyes, the air siren noises when they appear
A survival horror where you can use the PPSh-41 can only be a masterpiece
Funnily enough, despite being given a fucking machinegun with what amounts to LOADS OF AMMO, you are still feel vulnerable and scared. Because shit in this game is much more scarier than just some zombies whom you can kill.
@@quint3ssent1a but this game is not scary
The PPŠ is a classic when it comes to survival/FPS horror games like You Are Empty and this game.
@@Gutek524 seems to me like a you problem, not the game's problem. It's scary when it needs to be.
@@baronvonslambert hmmm true
As a massive Action-Forms fan I jumped on Cryostasis the moment it released. Getting it into New Zealand was borderline impossible. I played it while snowstorms lashed our city and made a point to keep the windows open. Following the release I even made some mods for the game which seem to be lost - things like regaining warmth whenever you do any exercise, or tweaking weapons/attacks. I really loved this game.
Legend! I love it when people make mods.
"What else could go wrong" Giant god with clockwork staff shows up Me: "the god of time shows up" Title card: Cronos the god of time Me: " I WAS FUCKING JOKING"
dont worry he was helping but you didn't guess that now did you?
Yeah i lsot my shit when i saw it back in 2008 since we are close to rusia we had the game early in late 2008 with patches to have english texts...
Now there's a game I didn't think I'd see anyone talk about ever again. Such a gem of a game.
Took the words right out of my mouth.
Grimbeard also covered it
Had the exact same thing in my mind
Yep, same. Ya love to see it
@@perryborn2777 Not familiar with that channel. Will look it up, thanks.
Glad to hear that Civvie survived the Clown Room.
Did he though? Somethings wrong when he makes a Mr Freeze pun and he's not severely punished.
Hamm3r and Ax3 didnt shocked him with his puns. Even if there were shitty. I think he's still in the Clown Room.
@@Chromeberd Agreed. No Katie response, no actionable pun punishment... I don't think we're/he's in the clear...
Truth. I'm glad.
@@MateriaMaster and the whole "i dunno what is real anymore" was the biggest give away.
Danko leading his people through the bog, his own burning heart in his hand is one of those pieces of imagery that gets stuck in your head and never leaves.
Intellectually I understand that Katie probably isn't even real, yet emotionally I really hope she's okay.
It's both strange, and heartwarming, to see Civvie struggle with having a conscience
Yeah, after what he tried to pull last time, this was a nice display of humanity.
the scene when you play as the cow for a moment is so impactful and horrifying I've never seen something like that in a game
I don’t understand what was supposed to have happened. Did the guy hang himself because the cows escaped and they didn’t have any food?
I love how right after you see what they had to eat instead. It seems like a cheap gut-punch because of course you want to save the animal but considering how the game already set up the whole "about food" thing? Well it makes you feel less cheated.
this section is dark souls of cow simulators
Katie not adding her editor notes nor reacting when Civvie mentions her, Civvie not getting electrocuted after puns, no Hammer nor Bird Robot nor Administrator, no dungeoneers in the purple cages at the ending section, Katie not being credited as the editor of the episode... I have a baaaad feeling about this...
Yeah, something stinks. There's a higher narrative going on here, and I don't like its direction. Or, in modern terms, something's sus.
Oh god, is *that* the secret of The Clown Room?
@@jtlego1 Could be? I just hope all of them are alright and that this is not a narrative way for him to show us it's the end of the dungeon gags Civvie-11 is known for. He's a really good game reviewer and I wouldn't stop watching him if he does drop the narrative stuff with the robots and all that but I'd still feel sad that he threw away one of the major things that differentiated him from other reviewers for the sake of simpler videos. I doubt it but it sure feels like it a little bit.
I was waiting to hear "Actionable pun detected" the whole video
@@selectionn Same. Something's going on and I'm not a fan.
When I was a young teen I was at a LAN party trying and failing to explain why this game was the coolest shit I've ever experienced, after picking it up at a GameStop with no prior information bc the box art looked interesting and absolutely devouring it in a few nights. One friend tried it at the party, but managed to get jumpscared by opening doors and refused to progress :) Ah, those were the days! Thanks for listening to my nostalgiadump
I too have very fond memories of playing this game. IIRC, my local stores didn't carry it, so I had to import it from somewhere.
10:37 the animation on him folding that origami ship though! This game has more attention to detail than it has any right to have tbh.
With Chasm: The Rift having a fully fledged remaster, I really hope more of Action Form's work can get preserved and shown to a wider audience, despite it's flaws. More people need to experience Vivisector in a easier fashion.
Man the care that went into little things, like the ammo counter, is actually kind of incredible. watching the PPSh drum mag animate as you shoot is just a cool way of visualizing your ammo, and it's a lot more original than most every other ammo display in video games. They didn't need to do that, but it adds this... Charm and originality to the whole thing. And watching what a bunch of slav-devs in the mid 2008s managed to do with a terrible budget and big dreams makes me wish we had gone down the SlavJank timeline and not the AAA timeline.
As a gun nut I can say with certainty that 'Puh-PSSH' is how you pronounce the name.
@@WTFisTingispingis Puh-puh Shah
or Pee PeE Sha
How many 2008s were there?
Holy shit, that projector segment is one of the coolest and most creative things I've ever seen in a shooter. I also really dig the segments where you touch animal corpses, the devs really left nothing unexplored with their unique mechanics. And that ending, albeit confusing, is really sweet tbh. Shit like this game is what I watch this channel for.
This game has 3 endings and the way you get them is crazy. I don't know if Civvie knew about it or just chose the good one to show.
This whole video I was thinking this game looked pretty cool but holy shit the projector segment really cemented it. This game is awesome.
@@weirdautumn Oh neat! I figured from the way it was presented you kinda HAD to fix everything.
titanfall 2 time hop segment beats it wasy
Yeah, I've never seen any other game do that
Was not expecting a guest appearance of the elder Greek God of time Chronos as a boss.
Out of everything we expected to be the final boss in a survival horror on a broken icebreaker in a middle of arctic, a God certainly wasn’t one of them.
Chronos: So you’re the sunuva bitch trying to steal my thunder huh!?! *Thunder in distance* “Shut up Zeus its a metaphor!”
When the Slav jank survival horror game decides it wants to end like a JRPG. Time to kill god.
@@NEEDbacon astute observation
@@NEEDbacon kinda, but more like a contest to prove Chronos time needs to be changed. Chronos fights since he wants to maintain the current flow of time and events, player challenges him and after proving his worth, Chronos agrees to help the player change history, but only since he wants to, he could have easily ignored the player efforts but he did not in the end.
I found out recently that this game has 3 endings and the way you get them is crazy. At the very end when Chronos picks you up after the boss fight you can chose the finger to step off his palm on a platform and that choice actually determines the ending. The game doesn't indicate that choice for a player in any way, it just happens. I don't know if Civvie knew about it or just chose one to show.
so either way you get a good ending?
@@HoopleBogart No matter what choice you make, the ship breaks free of the ice before everything goes wrong and you're rescued by the crew. The difference is how; you can also choose either to not give the captain the message that state that his ship will be decommissioned or to comfort him once he does get the message, keeping his morale up and preventing him from making worse decisions.
The ending is surprisingly wholesome
It's a bit sad Civvie didn't show the rest 2 endings. They are about as powerful as this one.
The "Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head" bit was such a wonderful surprise.
I enjoy the silent breakdown coming from Civvie for not being electrocuted for puns.
Either AX3 and H4MM3R were pulling their punches after the Clown Room, or Civvie's still in the Clown Room.
@@GmodPlusWoW except Katie is MIA too.
@@Slash0mega ...does this video even exist, then? Are we here? Are we real?
@@TheRogueWolf oh god, even Chronos fucked up the 4th wall.
This episode was based on Civvie's experience in the cold room. Also, nice callback to Chasm slavjank with "try to pay maximum attention". Action Forms games are certainly a trip.
Fun fact: this game actually has THREE endings, although all of them result in saving the ship in a different way! There's three crucial crew members sitting in Cronos' room, although two are off to the sides. First mate: by reassuring the captain rather than supporting the officer, you delay the "back" order and prevent the reactor from overloading. The ship breaks free. Chief officer: by accepting the captain's word about repairs rather than handing him the decommission order, you let things get repaired. The ship breaks free or waits out the winter. Chief engineer: by giving the captain a model of the ship to "decommission", you comfort him in his time of need and defy the order. The ship waits out the winter. It's one of the best survival horror endings I've seen.
One of the most underrated FPS games imo, played it a year ago for the first time and absolutely loved it. It's such a shame it'll probably stuck in the legal limbo forever,. When I was still working on my final review on this game, I inquired 1C Entertainment (original publishers of Cryostasis, known now as Fulqrum Publishing) about the fate of this game. They told me that they are not interested in bringing it back and were fully focused on new projects like King's Bounty 2. I still hope that some other studio would get rights on Cryostasis and remaster/re-release it someday. Hopefully this Civvie's review would help to bring more attention to it, because this game absolutely deserve more love!
I like how the revolutionary tech behind the ice/melting ice textures was just layering so many shaders that the game would run like total ass on every system
Hey, at least it looks *cool*
It's pretty dope for what, 2008?
He was running on medium settings on a modern PC though lol. It's probably an x86 binary so it might ignore multiple cores, anything over 4gb ram, and not make proper use of modern GPUs. Idk though.
Apparently, the game was designed to work with a specific graphics card, that isn't made anymore obviously. Other systems can technically run the game, but can't capture the full technical marvels it's capable of.
@@0v_x0 It's dope today, too, but the issue is that you can't really see it anymore unless you have the specific hardware.
So many survival horror games have you use a valve handle to solve a puzzle. About time it got the chance to shine as a weapon.
I would like to personally thank Katie for all of her efforts in every video
It's Civiies wife
@@ThommyofThenn sister, isn’t she?
@@sergeybelnikow9884 say, that could be right! It could be either
@@ThommyofThenn could be both
@@DianaTaffie hmmm :)
My jaw dropped HARD when I saw the movie theater scene, I didn't even know that was possible, especially with Slav jank! The studio deserves SO much funding with how creative they can be! Not only that, seeing Civvie so genuinely creeped out and disturbed is such a treat. I've been wanting to play this game for ages but don't know where to look for it. Glad to see that the atmosphere in this game holds up (even though it goes off the wall with its story, like what????) Also what the song called in the polar bear scene???
Where? Torrents man...
Music is 19th floor by Bobby Richards c:
I remember when one game journal sold me cryostasis on the spot just by telling me that it has flare gun like in Blood (i.e. flares embed in enemies and continue burning.) That's a good mark to steer your game towards.
Too bad it sucks ass.
See also SIGNALIS.
@@Bluecho4 Signalis? More like gay anus
@@KeksimusMaximus You are not wrong. SIGNALIS has Gay in it. And there is also more than one fleshy orifice in the game that resembles an anus.
@@Bluecho4 sounds hot
One of those huge surprises in gaming I had in life, I remember playing it around the same time as actual OG penumbra. Solid as hell.
This and Penumbra are likely the best two survival horrors in an Arctic setting ever made, at least to date.
That projector fight is one of the coolest things I've seen
A real gem of a game. Shame it's barely playable nowadays.
I mean he disabled a couple of options to make it perfectly playable, and I believe I fixed the issues with config file when I played it years ago. Can't really call it barely playable, it just has some quirks.
Like most good games from this era, unplayable laggs to high heaven, I'm just glad diablo 1 got a source port actually 3 or I would of gave up on PC gaming lol
@@nuffsaid0 That hasn't been my own experience. I'm pretty good at making old shit work on modern PCs, but Cryostasis is really rough to get to properly work.
Should be grateful if you think about it, how many 80s games could you barely play with 00s PCs?
I think this could be the new benchmark for emulation. "But can it run cryostasis
The HP constantly falling down was implemented into another frost survival game I really like, Long Dark. You basically have to eat, drink and sleep to keep it up and keep warm as well. The difference is that if you sustain injuries your HP is locked to lover levels until you recover by resting and taking meds. In the case of frostbite, you have a permanent debuff to your HP if you get hypothermia for a longer time but survive. It is generally tense af!
you hp isn't locked thoe pretty sure in The Long Dark as long as you have the 4 core needs warmth , sleep , water , food above 0 your condition aka health will gradually go up till max (unless you have the well fed buff from not having starvation go 0 for 3 days straight which gives you extra health and carry capacity till you starve) its just that sleeping will increase it a lot more sleeping for long hours is better than sleeping an hour at a time as it gives you more hp but you still lose water and food while sleeping so you can potentilly lose hp while sleeping best health giver is either story segments in the Wintermute story mode of the game or the emergency stim which gives 15% hp instantly while giving you max sleepiness and stamina for 60 seconds but then after immediatly drains your sleepiness to zero.
@@noobguy9973 Your HP can be partially lost permanently if you get frostbite, it is a permanent affliction. You get the message: You have sustained frostbite. Your general condition is permanently reduced, and a portion of your HP bar is blacked out... Outside of that, besides from stamina recovery, I have no idea if you actually need to sleep to recover HP, outside of being hurt in a non-cold related ways... I know that you actually need to spend a bunch of time resting if a moose brakes your ribs, but for the other things like infections, food poisoning and pain, you can just eat a pill and keep on trucking! Granted, you will be weaker and lose stamina faster (water in the case of poisoning) but it does not require you to sleep. Stems are a perfect thing to use when climbing. There is also energy drink, but it gives you pain debuff when it runs out and is less effective. Did you get the DLC by any chance?
@@rexrip1080 oh yeah frostbite is permenant but I didn't het the DLC too expensive in my country maybe I'll consider it when it gets more content or it goes on sale
@@noobguy9973 From what I have seen, you pay 20 bucks and it gets updates for the next 12 months. You get 3 big regions and a mystery storyline with added gear for this specific area. All the rest survival gear is free if you have the game. I was thinking about buying it but it is a bit of a price for my country as well so I will most likely get it when it releases and the price falls a bit more...
@@rexrip1080 they plan to slowly increase the price by $5 for every big update, so i highly suggest buying it while it is 20$ with 1 new region before it is 25$ for two new regions, or $30 when all three new regions are released.
Wow, this was legitimately amazing on several levels. This game is now definitely high on my list of games I'd love to see a modern version of made with love.
Played this game as a teenager back in 2008. Didn't expect Civvie to like it this much, but it's sure a thing of its own. A hidden gem packed with original ideas and wrapped in janky execution. And a creepy one too. Used to scare the shit out of me along with Penumbra and Amnesia.
12:48 "But this is not an action game, this is an Action Forms game."
I swear, I have a mutant superpower that tells me about 90 minutes before Civvie uploads a new video. I felt a strong "new Civvie" vibe this AM. And here we are.
That's definitely an Aquaman-tier super power you've got there.
Have a 69th like. It seems he's been pretty consistent lately, between mon-weds every two weeks. I woke up with the "probably a Civvie day" in my head too.
I really enjoy the surprise editing sequences that are so good it takes me out of the "funny haha" mindset and seriously drops me into "holy shit this is so good" levels of awe. Shout-out to the song choice for the finale, it fit the bonkers twist so well ♥️
song name?
one of the most unique games ive ever seen, so many cool ideas in it, plus a horror game with a happy ending with no catch? unprecedented hell of a lot of care and passion went into this, real hidden gem.
Finally more people will be aware of this game's existance
If you didn't know about this game before you don't deserve to have an opinion about games. Simple as
Civvie, the king of Slav jank, maybe one day we’ll get a stalker playthrough
God yes please that would be amazing
Get out of here Stalker !
yeah, but i kinda suspect he won´t like it. or worse, we´ll lost him to it, as i´m lost to that wonderfull nightmare
@@Gatorade69 I said come in, don't stand there !
Which entry though? ShoC, CS, CoP, or one of the many mods?
That movie theater shooting gallery section, is one of the most impressive things I've seen in a video game.
Fond memories downloading this and playing it in 2009 to discover it was an absolute hidden gem, I don't even remember where I heard about the game from.
That boss is one of the most amazing things I've seen in a game.
Civvie's ice puns are the coolest part of the video.
Strange there was no repercussion. Normally there would be an actionable pun detected, but not today. Perhaps they are just chilling.
This was a very chill video.
@@nescumzwei hes still in the Clown Room
@@nescumzwei Or maybe the guards were giving him the cold shoulder.
@@LordofSadFac that is bone chilling to hear.
Going into a cow’s memories is one of the best part in this game I really like,and witnessed it getting turned into hamburger meat is indeed absolute horror.
2:39 - Thankyou for reminding me about Fire Coming Out Of A Monkeys Head , listened to it after watching this and that whole album is still amazing !
Ah yes, it’s always a good day whenever Civvies captives force him to make another video
Captors*. Civvie is the captive.
@@TheIronSavior am I that retarded?
Original comment
But... Where were the shock treatments for bad puns? Something is going on
@@OnyDeus Clown exposure therapy.
If I recall correctly the reason why the graphical effects don't look very good/tank performance is because even on it's highest setting you are still seeing a watered down compromised version of those effects, as this game was infamously used by Nvidia to test the concept of Graphic Card exclusive graphical effects. There was a very specific card Nvidia made at the time and only on that card could the full effects be used. Even newer more powerful Nvidia cards which theoretically could be capable of using these effects don't. As a result basically no one in the modern day can see these effects anymore which is a shame as if you go back and look at promotional material they really are fantastic.
It's a big shame.
@@peppermillers8361 That's Nvidia for you. If a developer works with them, its pretty much guaranteed to run like shi**.
GeForce 8800? You can still get those second hand since nobody needs them.
Can't someone figure out an emulation hack or something?
Yeah, those visual effects are incredible when you are able to see them.
That fight through the theater screen though! Never seen anything like it, so creative
One of the more intriguing stories ever put to an FPS. I remember having to look up a guide for the final boss. Ice spider encounter was so cool I showed it to my ex. In the end I wasn't sure what the hell happened but it was a fun journey. Didn't have constant crashes like some people which is funny because my computer at the time was a piece of crap.
Man, i remember watching a let's play by Helloween4545 back in the day. This brought me back to a time when youtube was simpler. Did a check; It's been 13 years. Bloody hell time flies.
Remember when KZhead was a place of freedom to say what you wanted be who you wanted to be. Now all my favorite KZheadrs are shoveling AG1 powder down my throat just to make enough money to make up for the lost revenue. Accept for civvie. No sponsors no bs. The way it used to be.
That LP sold me on the game too, back when you could still buy it on Steam.
1:38 One of the reasons for poor performance is that very same PhysX. Nvidia deprecated it, and removed PhysX support from its drivers, so even if your GPU supports PhysX on a hardware level, driver forces it to use software emulation anyway, so half of the effects work at lower framerate, half don't work at all (like puddles of liquid), and all of them tank your FPS no matter what.
Shame. PhysX was a big deal back then
Just use physics legacy drivers = problem solved
I had this game back when it came out but my system couldn't handle. So I never got past the first couple of enemy's because the lag was so horrible in my old single core p4 1.7ghz lol. But the game made an impression on me. It stayed in my mind all these years. So happy I finally got closer vicariously through cv11. Thanks man, for taking care of the 40 plus gamers.
29:12 - Okay I don't think I've ever seen such an effective horror trick. Lowering a projector, and having the screen be filled with enemies and even having one come out??? That's inspired.
The first time I'd even heard of this game was through Two Best Friends, when it appeared in the first Shitstorm of Scariness. This game looked really neat, but we only got a taste of it there, and I straight up forgot to look into it further. Civvie over here confirming that the game is indeed an absolute banger of a game that goes *some places* but honestly I love how it actually ends. That you go through the entire game saving people from their terrible fates and in turn, they do the same for you. Thanks for showing this one off in some of its real strengths. What a really neat game.
So that's why I have vague memories of this game.
The voice acting isn't half bad in this game, I'd even go so far as to call it decent for the time
the original voices are waaaaaay better because they've actually hired professionals
@@tsartomato as if the voices you hear in the English dub aren't hired? Or not professional voice actors? Chill, moronZ, your GLORY DAYS OF GREAT MOTHER ROOSSIA are gone
Je ne sais pas pourquoi il y a des sous-titres français, mais c'est un vrai plaisir de pouvoir profiter de toutes ces vidéos. Il n'y a pas de contenu équivalent en France.
👍
Damn, what a gem. That's a big reason why I love your channel Civvie: exposure to all sorts of stuff I would have never seen before or else had the chance to play. Thanks brother
Finally after all these years I've finally found the game I've been remembering
Same, I never thought I would see the name again
This masterpiece of a game needs to come back. Fun fact, in E3 2007 trailer you can see more gore effects and the game was even more scary than this. This realy was a fascinating game.
When I was in college learning game development I developed a game called FROSTBITE: Deadly Climate, and it took inspirations from both this game and the film The Thing. Really CRYOSTASIS is such a strange gem of a game, that it really deserves to get some kind of Remake/Remastered so more people will be able to play it.
Sleep of reason produces monsters. What a fantastic game. Totally crushed my 9600gt back in the day.
A pity you didn't show the other two ending variants that lead to two other key figures in the plot by walking on one of other fingers of Chronos at the end The game felt great and very immersive at the time, and God, I loved those ice melting effects when rooms warmed up
Huh? There are different endings? I'd like to know more!
@@CamiloSinger there are 3 fingers as far as I remember, one shown leading to the security chief in his room with furniture built of guns, another one leading to deputy who was wearing that sick papakha hat and made a report on Captain, and the third one leading to Captain. They show resolution of conflict from 3 different perspectives but lead to the same ending with protagonist being saved from fall under ice IIRC
@@CamiloSinger You can also alter past encounter with second in command, who instead of sending a telegram that would decommission the ship, could follow captains advice and manually help sailors in the lower decks with repairs, and the other on with chief engineer, where in a dialogue in which captain asks him for help with telegram about decommission, he instead of cursing both captain and the ship, could offer him a toy boat, and say that they will bring it to HQ and force them to decommission it, instead of a real ship. Basically, if any of the main three were supportive to the captain and gave him a helping hand when he was down on his luck, all of that could've been avoided.
@DrNiradino That's so fucking cool, and the game's message is weirdly wholesome for a horror game but man, this is a damn good videogame. A shame it's so obscure, it deserves more recognition.
29:21 blew my mind. I have never ever seen anything like that at all in a modern game and I can't even imagine how hard that may have been to do back in this games time.
That part with the targets on the projected image being actual threats was really damn cool
Really glad this game is getting the attention it deserves.
The best game that studio ever made. Just absolutely batshit crazy.
That cinema section was amazing. The moment I realised that you had to shoot back at the enemies in the movie, and how the projector screen reacts to your bullets blew my mind. That belongs in a AAA game, it's too good!
I played this game fairly recently and was very impressed. It still looks good visually, also despite it being based on a ship, the levels are not copy/pasted at all. At first it felt unusual that everything was so slow-paced but later I got used to it. This is definitely not your standard first-person action game. Totally worth playing even today. It's a shame that Action Forms have been defunct for a while now, but at least their last project is a proper farewell to the gamers. One of the best games to come out of Eastern Europe.
I know of a SlavJank game that fits those three criterias that were mentioned and could be worth checking out. In 2005 a Ukrainian company called Deep Shadows developed and released a game called Boiling Point: Road To Hell. The game definitely tried to punch above it's weight with the kind of open world action-RPG stuff it tried to do. It's definitely one of my favorite SlavJank games and I think it deserves more attention. Only other good video I've seen about it is from TehSnakerer that was made years ago.
Saul Meyers is about to hit Boiling Point
Also its installer has a theme song that gets stuck in my head for days
i loved random groups clashes in this game, you minding iwn bussines riding a car and there a freaking war happening on the road. I dunno if spots were scripted or not. but they felt random at time i played
@@iMost067 They were somewhat scripted. Certain chunks of road would have a possibility to have fights happen on them.
Can I just point out that the fact that the game represents your current ammo with an actual cutaway of the specific gun's magazine is *awesome!?* *And* it shows the number of magazines you have!? I also love the absolute weirdness of the fight through the theater screen. I'm very disappointed this game isn't on storefronts, I probably would have bought it after seeing this video.
You can probably get it if you put on an eye patch, peg leg, and sail the seven seas
@@derealization_ yeah if it used to be on gog there are likely drm free installers floating about in bays they've washed into.
I didn't notice until you pointed it out but holy shit you're right. They have the bullets angled properly for the Mosin Nagant and the SVT, and your spare clips and magazines (respectively) are represented with the actual ammo pouches that were originally issued with the rifles. The the PPSh magazine cutaway shows the wind up drum magazine rotating as bullets are fed into the chamber, it's all just so perfect.
While not as good as this game, the PC version for 007 nightfire (dont know about the console version, I think it has it too) also has the cutaway. But its more simplistic since it doesnt show the magazine spring push the bullets up. It just shows the bullets disappear as you shoot.
I've played this game before, the gunplay is awesome too. The guns are weighty and slow. the reloads are methodical and lumbering. your character is cold and the guns are old as hell and beaten so it works well. it's one of my favorite games.
When you tried to pronounce the word "PPSh" I just burst into tears. For me, as a Russian speaker, it was very funny
Same, very good bit.
Gets me every time.
The way the PPSh gun barrel hisses when you shoot it for a while and the silent movie bit have made me decide that Action Forms are officially the kings and queens of cool shit in video games. Those must've been such a nightmare to program, but you know they wanted it in just so we players could really be wowed by what video games are capable of.
Making a gun barrel hiss isn't exactly nightmare programming... Neither are non-euclidean spaces, you can even do those in the Doom engine (see: My House).
@@AlphaCarinae Sure. It's cool when people add that kind of immersive detail. The nightmare thing was more a figure of speech.
Genuinely never heard of this game so thank you for introducing me to it. Looks like one of the most creative survival horror experiences I've ever seen
Thank you for covering this game. It brought up some long lost memories of buying a 7300GT from my boss and playing the hell out of Prey multiplayer and this game. That frost and it melting blew my mind.
One of the best games I ever played. I still have the original disc. Thanks for reviewing it, Civvie.
This game had by far the weirdest ending I’d ever seen
Just think of it as of JRPG but instead of KILL GOD you just challenge a GOD to a nonsensical but still relevant to current situation minigame so in the end you cal feel smug about yourself without putting you into dangerously edgy corners.
@@quint3ssent1a or alternately, playkng chess with death
It actually has 3 endings. I don't know why Civvie did not show the other 2. They all were right at the end in the Chronos universe.
@@j.h.6672 because they aren't different endings, the endings are the same, the key choices to the ending are what differ, Engineer cheering up the captain instead of telling him off, and the First Officer helping the crew fix the ship instead of giving the captain the decomission note
3 endings
all I ever heard about that game when it came out is how badly it ran, but none of the reviews mentioned it having a really beautiful story. It's an fps about saving people instead of killing them, and it manages to do it in a way that isn't corny. the ability to pull off a positive, everyone-lives ending in a way that feels earned is hard enough to do in prose, never mind in a video game format.
After hearing about this game for a long time, I was extremely interested to see you covering it! It's a hell of a ride, and such an oddly upbeat story after all the horror. Love the concept of using body temp as health, too.
Im happy to see more people cover this game but i didn't expect you to be one of them
This game really is one of the best, most unique examples of survival FPS ever. The dreamy yet repressive atmosphere, soundtrack and story really has few rivals. And now, please let us have CRY OF FEAR.
29:30 that is genuinely one of the coolest ideas i've ever seen in a video game
29:15 Okay but that is an AWESOME sequence