STASIS, the New Old-School Horror Point and Click Adventure

I backed STASIS development back in November 2013 in KickStarter and finally a few weeks ago I got the final copy of the game. The good news is that I finally have some time to play this game after leaving it sitting in my computer for a while. So today’s article is of course about my first impression of this game.

The game started smoothly in my laptop and after getting passed the intro cut-scenes I was presented with the isometric viewing angle and the familiar point and click solely mouse control. Within a few minutes the impression that I got was as if I was playing a modern version of classic games such as “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” and “Sanitarium”.  This is of course a good thing as there are not much games like those around anymore.

I guess a part of it being true to old-school point and click adventure game genre is that you really start with nothing much at all. There was not much introduction on how to play the game nor any game hints. Instead, STASIS keeps you in the atmosphere and gently guides you in your first few minutes of play time through series of basic puzzles that gets you familiar with the game mechanic.

I’ve only played this game for about an hour now and I know that there are so many things in the game that you need to read and listen. Failure to read all the messages left in the consoles and PDA will lead to your character dying or you getting stuck for quite a while. Thankfully though, there is not much pixel hunting so far. I think most of the puzzles turns out logical and can be worked out by thinking it out. Besides, reading all of those messages keeps you in the game atmosphere anyway, which by the way is set up really well. The lighting and the sound effects are eerie and do suit the sci-fi horror theme.

In terms of the game being scary, yes, there were a couple jump scare scene that was pretty surprising. STATIS doesn’t hold back on the gore either, there were quite a bit of gruesome stuff in the game and because in the beginning we didn’t really know what has happened it’s actually adds to the feeling that your character may die anytime if you choose the wrong actions.

Lastly, the graphics are beautiful, however unfortunately I don’t think there is a higher resolution (HD) version of the game. Still, this means the game does not demand too much graphics processing power at all. I don’t think this is a disadvantage at all though as I found that this does not detract me from the atmosphere and the graphic does scale quite well in full screen mode.

It really took a while for this game to actually come to life from the first time I backed it in KickStarter, however I think it’s worth it. It’s not everyday we get to play a new point and click horror adventure game. If you really want an atmospheric point and click horror adventure game, then this is it. Just grab it from your favorite game retailers such as GOG or Steam and start experiencing the horror atmosphere of STASIS!

Categorised in: App Review, Games