Not gonna lie, when RagnarRox said that the game developers tried to make you feel the very cold that the game portrays, he spoke absolute truths. I live in the Caribbean and I have never even seen real life snow, heck I feel cold at 25 degrees Celsius - but damn if just watching that game didn't make me shiver. ... ... Also my 5 year old brain refuses to let me ignore the fact that RagnarRox said "seamen".
@@targard.quantumfrack6854 I really do. My country is not the hottest in the world, of course, but in recent years you can really see the changes. The temperature used to have an average of 26-28 degrees on a given day. That's risen to 28-30 degrees (and seems to keep rising). Being used to that range, when it hits 23-25 degrees at nights or on rainy days, I do indeed start to feel very cold.
Same goes for the 2005 Area 51 FPS. I think it did the seeing the environment through your weapon scope before Cryostasis did. And that game was released on Xbox, PS2, and pc.
There's just a special something about slavic art. I don't know how to explain it, but you see it in games, in films, in literature and in music. It's just special
True. Darkwood, Stalker, Metro, The Witcher, This War of Mine, Frostpunk, Pathologic, to name a few, are oppresive and awe inspiring games in its darkness and horror. I liked polish and russian cinema first, then when I knew about this series of games, I became depressingly happy lol
My family is Slovakian, and I wholeheartedly agree. There's an odd sort of...not sure what to call it, but you just know you're experiencing Slavic art when you see it. It's unmistakable. I love it so much. 💜
@@WobblesandBean Back in the day, I bought Bioshock and DL a crack because of their fucked up DRM. Sometimes, hackers are the solution to problems some companies create for themselves.
@@scotcheggable These days, I get a crack and then if I like the game, I buy it. People give CDPR a lot of crap but they have been ballsy enough to release Cyberpunk on GOG, which means that it doesn't even need a crack.
Fun fact I was mistakenly bought this game as a kid by my grandparents who mistook this for the game I actually wanted at the time, Crysis. Instead i got this, and at first i thought 'Wtf is this' but without the heart to correct my elders mistake I installed the game and ended up playing a game that stuck in my mind for years. I thought I was the only person who knew it existed, none of my friends had ever heard of it and there isn't much online about it. Nice to see it getting some recognition. Great video man. edit: I actually have a boxed copy of this somewhere if you want it, idk if you enjoy physical copies of hard to find things lol.
DONT mind me, just using words the algorithm favors, like: great, life-changing, brilliant, insightful, and incredible. Thanks for the vid gonna try and post some smart and insightful comment but for now, I wanna feed the algorithm gods
@@WobblesandBean Really? I thought leaving a comment boosts the video stats within the algorithm. I still watch the ads since I'm to broke to help out on patroon
@@Brilchan ua-cam.com/video/9V5dwuYaaIs/v-deo.html Don't know if you're familiar with The Spiffing Brit,if not I would recommend wholeheartedly.Link above should take you to rather interesting and hilarious vid. Enjoy.
@@Snow-vo1yi I mean, most games where you actually interact with Nazi soldiers they're fine lol They are pretty much right to portray high rank nazis as evil tho
It always brightens up my day when one of your videos comes out! I'm going to save it for later, when I can watch it calmly and enjoy it! I already said this in another video, but seeing you analyze Darkwood made me so happy! It's one of my favorite games ever, together with the Cat Lady and others you covered on this channel
@@Stret173 чел, что ты тут забыл, если не знаешь английского? Slav = slavic = славянский. Собственно, почему у всяких Вячеславов и Светославов это в имени.
@@Readysetheal i know еnglish quite well oh indeed, but thanks for unneeded explanation anyway ля люблю постненько пошутить даи заодно отметить насколько неглубоко и мономерно эти англицкие господа понимают наш контекст собна и всё тут
Love someone finally giving this game some credit. It's one of my all time favorites, with one of the best video game stories ever, and the way it's told organically is fantastic. It's jank to end all jank though, the gameplay is fine, very smooth and modern, but I don't think I've ever seen such a technical disaster. In the last few chapters of the game I was crashing so often that essentially every time I did anything at all, like entering a new area or killing a single enemy encounter, I'd quicksave, because it'd crash to desktop like every 10-15 minutes. The fact that it was compelling enough for me to spend hours of gameplay like that speaks volumes.
I got this game when it came out and I didn't think anyone even knew it existed, everyone I spoke to had never heard of it. Amen to being compelled to work through the jank, I played that game through blocks of 10fps firefights and I enjoyed it dammit.
The inspiration seems so obvious, but it still only really hit me while watching this video breakdown of the mechanics. Gamedevs standing on the shoulders of innovators is what builds the industry.
As always RagnarRox's ability to speak so poetically of a game has left me in awe. Cryostasis was a game that I haven't thought of in years and seeing this brought back a lot of love I had for the game as a kid.
Been avodiing all things stalker cos damn are my hype levels in danger of running away from me... and now you got me thinking about walking the zone again. Chort!
I think slavic zone style of mising better days works for more and more people because of well ... society is kind of getting more and more insestable this days. Maybe is a steriotype but each generation feells like work and life is getting more inestable. Maybe i am pesimistic
Very enjoyable video. Have you heard of The Shore? It's an Eldritch horror game made by a small dev team recently released. I'd love to hear you talk more about games with good Lovecraftian and Cosmic horror angles.
This is one of my favorite horror games. I was completely devastated when I tried to recommend it to a friend recently and found out it was pulled from stores.
I remember watching a lets play of this like ten years ago, even watching secondhand I still remember the bonkers spider enemies and the feeling of relief and comfort when finding a simple hot pipe in the wall. Great video, I never though i'd see this game again!
I can still remember the atmosphere, the feelings this game could awaken. I libed it, it was scary and erie due to it happening inside of a ship in a frozen waste land
I remember reading about this game back when I was much younger. I then played an hour of it and was too scared to continue. However, upon revisiting I really like the plot and the ideas that are in this game. Great video :)
Same, this video gave me the biggest sense of deja vu, back to when I was like 6 and played a level on my dad's Pentium 4 laptop. So weird to see something you recognize but could never quite put your finger on.
I remember playing this after picking a copy up at a Staples or some office supply store and falling in love with it. Great sense of atmosphere and some clever health mechanics.
I'm glad to see the video about my favorite game, which I play time by time. I would like to talk about story and enemy design, which depicts their "sins" or identity before the change. The protagonist probably is dead or close to it for the most part of the game. But not succumbed to it, whether because of the help of Kronos, the god of time, or thanks to his own strength of mind. Enemies are not mutated, they willingly changed to exist in new conditions. In my interpretation, the Cold or maybe the Death is a supernatural opposing entity. The people you can help are always strong-willed people who fought to the end and their bodies have radiating warm hearts(like in Danko's story). They didn't change, they just died. On the contrary, those, who succumbed to the hardships, embraced their fate, were embraced by the Cold and given new non-life in a dormant, thoughtless state. That's why they are hostile to the protagonist, bringer of heat/life/change. His mere presence threatens their non-life. Some of the people you saved, later may succumb and change. In some back trips, you see certain people as monsters, while other people see them as regular men. Their deeds influenced their new form. For example, there is an enemy in military form, with metal legs and a small prison cell in their head. They walk loudly and light pours from their lit cell. Another enemy is covered with pieces of metal, his face covered with a metal mask with two big nails in eye sockets. Cell keys weld to his hands like brass knuckles. Feels like both of them were treating prisoners badly. There are heavy parallels with the Danko story by Maxim Gorky, which excerpts are scattered around the game. In short, Danko led his tribe through the dangerous and hard-come forest. It's hard to walk, some people die from poisonous fumes. Big storm breaks out and terrified by it, deaths, and other hardships, people of the tribe began to blame Danko for everything. In a blind rage, they want to kill Danko and go back. In his desire to help his people Danko rips his heart and raises it in his hand like a lantern. Light from his burning heart chased away the darkness and cleared the way out of the forest. Led by his light, the tribe got out. Danko was left behind and died from a wound. Game does not show directly who is the Danko. I think it may be the protagonist, the Captain, and even the Ship. Alexander Nesterov brings life to the ship in spite of his denizens and the Cold. The Captain led his ship with his experience and intuition. And with help of the crew. When the crew lost faith in him, everything went south. The ship is an atomic icebreaker, perhaps, his heart is atomic reactor. Or it is the Captain because the reactor explodes when the Captain's body gets carried away in a helicopter.
Is it considered as "lost" ?? I thought it was pretty popular from that era, with Penumbra and stuff it was also a tech demo for nvidia physx or something
After a couple minutes into the video I realised that I remember this game from a very long time ago when I was a kid. I remember how strongly it hit me with its incredibly sinister and blood-chilling environment and atmosphere. I was not prepared to delve into this kind of expirience at that time, having not fully immersed myself yet into STALKER universe and Lovecraftian horror, but now thanks to you I'm definitely going to catch up on that!
"How I learned to stop worrying and love the jank" -Words spoken in the deep mind of anyone who really just decided they wanted something new and innovating over more and the same over and over and over... IE basically anyone into tactical shooters after the Tom Clancy franchise dropped us off a short cliff on it's way to get a pack of cigarettes in Vegas... (it didn't come back...).
Awesome review of this title! But I think you might be wrong on PhysX not working I had it running just fine on my 1080Ti when I made a water physics video. I think you may just need to have the PhysX runtime installed from a more modern title on your machine?
Just a question... don't all modern NVIDIA cards have Physx? They all have a switch on them saying to swap it from cpu or gpu, or other gpu... lot of people used to run low in NVIDIA cards in a second slot for the physx... Does this not work anymore? Cause it installs a physx driver every time I reinstall or update my drivers and if that's not a real thing anymore I'd be buthurt abit.
Exploring an hostile location but being on the lookout for pockets of replenishing environment agents is something I first experienced with Ecco the Dolphin (An undersea game where you play as something that breathes air. So yeah, you need to constantly find air pockets or air bubbles), and I have to say, nothing makes you more scared of going into a dark, winding tunnel and have you pace around mentally preparing, than knowing beforehand that while inside, you will have a timer hanging over your head. I like the idea of doing it with lights, because that sounds like something you just want to have in every environment regardless, without any players questioning its in-canon reasoning for being there.
I have the honor to say i enjoyed playing this gem back in the day a few months after it's release because i'm a PC gamer since i have memory and i was amazed by the graphics quality in environment effects and pshyx interaction with hot or cold things specially during every cutscene when activating the mental echoes where i was completely immersed into the desperate situations the crew experienced before their deaths and the transition to the new altered reality in the present after changing things in the past but also the jumpscares and the search for heat sources made it so memorable as if it was more of a survival horror game than an horror first person shooter. It's a fantastic new experience but gives familiar vibes as when you discover the dark secrets of Rapture in Bioshock or explore the intriguing and hopeless past in SOMA. I always got fascinated by these incredible games ahead of their time and i wish i had time to play them again now but i'm thankful youtubers like him make these nostalgic and interesting videos about our childhood iconic games that we all love so much 😊
I recently found out about this game and was pleasantly surprised. Despite the fact that this game was released in 2008, it still looks very nice. I was very pleased with the plot and aesthetics of this game.
Hey Ragnar I would like to point out, at 14:37 you mention that it’s funny that you get colder when you get shot, I think the developers wanted to use and add the fact that blood loss does cause a drop in temperature, and nothing causes a quicker temperature drop than some lead injections.
I am very happy that I picked this one out of the 5€ bin in a game store on a school trip. Having no expectations from it, I came out with a deep fascination for the game and I sill hold some very outstanding moments of horror in my memory. Still got the copy but sadly - as many more games from pre 2010 - it stopped working on Win10... what a shame.
there is a number of different patches for this game, at least one official (from publisher 1C), some semi-official (the weird nvidia physx one). last time I saw a good description of those in a buccaneer forum topic... so sad that the game was basically shitcanned by the publisher
Great video, I subscribed to your channel. I played Cryostasis when it came out,. I remember trailers before the game came out showing PhysX engine stuff. So cool!!!
"This game contains depictions and/or discussion of:" "Flashing Imagery" Meh, no worries "Violence" I can take it "Blood" not squeamish "Eurojank" SWEET MOTHER OF MERCY GET THIS OUT OF MY SCREEN
Aaah this man's voice... when i'm not feeling ok, need to sleep but my mind wont let me, i like to put one of Ragnar's videos (always the one's i've already watched and payed enough attention to) and put it on, just focusing in his voice. It's so calming, so beautiful, so conforting. I've been in love with his voice for a few years now.
Agreed. My girlfriend always has me put several of his videos in a playlist (that I've already watched of course) to help her sleep. She's not a gamer, but has had to listen while I've watched his videos, and loves his voice and that amazing accent.
I remember playing that game ...but lost interest after a few hours,screen kept shaking as cold creeped in.(a very bad feature of the game ) The past memories stuff was unique , but I somehow didn't like that game as a whole 🙃...it was full of bugs too
I always loved how cold this game feels. I really ever only saw the first hour or so cause my PC at the time ran it at 10fps tops, and even later my laptops were running it really poorly. At the time I kind of resorted to watching a let's play of it and I just loved a lot of its mechanics and ideas.
My god I found your channel on accident when I was looking for inspiration on how to make an audible essay for darkwood and I have become entrapped in a rabbit hole of these great videos
Always love your content, but also especially love how you took elements of NIN's "Theme from Tetsuo: The Bullet Man" for your intro. Excellent choice. :)
I haven't been around here long, but your Pathologic 2 and Darkwood videos pushed me to give those games a shot and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm wondering if you had to pick, between Japanese horror and Slavic.. which one would it be? 👻
don't know why but i've recently been craving for these kinds of lonesome, chilling horror experiences... gotta say my thanks to mr ragnar for always shedding light on those games! (also accepting any suggestions you people may have)
I watched The Terror because of a friend's rec this year and I could NOT pinpoint why exactly it made me feel like I did. As in, I was oddly attracted to that atmosphere of being-stuck-in-the-pack-ice-we-must-do-everything-to-survive. Until I came across this video and holy shit you opened my eyes. I played this when I was 14 yo and even though my English was not good at that time, the story was incredibly comprehensive without me having to read or understand what was going on. And the feeling stuck. I can't believe this is a 10-hour campaign when I feel like I've played at least 50 hours when I was young. The sound of "warming up" is imprinted in my brain. The freezing patterns on all metals, I feel like I can see them behind my eyelids. Well done with this video, I am another person
I have such a strong love for this game (luckily was able to play the game years ago) that when I was in college for Game Art & Design I developed a horror game called FROSTBITE: Deadly Climate that took inspiration from both Cryostasis: Sleep Of Reason and John Carpenter's The Thing. If any game that deserves a Remake/Remastered, it is definitely this game.
This is a great analysis of the game! Cryostasis is on my list of most underrated horror games for all of the reasons you listed. I hope the devs find a way to remake or re-release it so more people get to experience it.
Wow. I played this years ago and forgot what it was. I still recall goggling at the melting ice, freaking out being attacked with an axe while trying to stay warm, the flashback style story telling and the nuts finale. Not many games stick in my memory like that. On par with Butcher Bay and HL1/2 in that respect. Thumbs up and subbed for randomly helping me!
I've actually played this game for like 2 hours like 7-8 years ago I think? Now I really wanna replay it and can't wait to get my hands on it again. Great video as always!
This, FEAR and Condemned: Criminal Origins are like, my personal holy trinity of nostalgic horror-action FPS games that gave me a set of bespoke feelings I've been unable to replicate since. Hopefully, if games like HROT and DUSK can capture the feelings QUAKE gave people, there will come titles that capture the feelings these games gave me. A man can dream, I suppose.
I heard about Cryostasis long before I've actually played it in 2019 (I think it was 2019). I was deep into it, I've sat my whole day playing it from the start to the very end, while being all cold, because we've had a harsh winter that year (meaning another regular Siberian winter; only added to my experience). My PC was barely dealing with it, lagging every now and then, but still, I've found myself absolutely astonished with it, which I haven't experienced with games for a big while now. What really caught my attention was that yes, enemies take your body heat. At some point I started to think that what is happening to main character is basically a hallucination. After all, enemy's muzzle flashes are blue cold, the hit marks they leave are also frozen cuts and wounds, and your hits - are hot orange, as opposed to them. As of now, I'm playing it on a significantly more powerful laptop, and while it runs without FPS drops, it sometimes may just drop to the desktop. About keys and such - I heard that Steam keys for Cryostasis are quite scarce nowdays and not that cheap. It can be found on Myabandonware though. P.S. I also advice you to try it with original voicing. English variant is great, too, but you know, _authenticity_ P.P.S. Sometimes you can see rifle itself in the scope. Sometimes even the scope.
Дuде, it’a not because of bad marketing that it’s game fell flat. Atm avg paycheck In Russia is about ~$500. Add cyber-piracy heaven into equation and you get this games fate before you. Tho, love this game and even bought a CD on launch.
I've been binging your content for the last few days and I gotta say you're doing amazingly! About the mosin-nagant, I think part of the reason why the devs included it might have been because it was something that could theoretically have been found onboard a nuclear icebreaker, as if I remember right, all of your weapons are ones that could theoretically be fashioned out of stuff that would be on said ship. If you're hunting polar bears from the deck of the ship, the hugely-zoomed scope makes sense, since it wasn't meant to be used INSIDE the ship.
Damn, I completely forgot about this game. And the funny thing is, I'm not exaggerating when I say that Cryostasis was a BIG thing in Russia. Everyone was talking about it all the time when it came out. I couldn't even find the disc in all the local shops, because they were all sold out. It was like some mythical beast that people know about, but have never seen themselves. Then I found out about the requirements and... Well... I just gave up, lol. Basically the worst thing about Cryostasis is that it barely works on modern computers, which says a lot. Yeah, it's quite stable overall, but anytime the particles appear on screen, it starts lagging like hell. Nevertheless, the graphics are amazing even today, so it's not really surprising. Thanks for shedding some light on this game. Now I would like to see a Penumbra analysis from you someday.
So excellent as always. No kidding in that it's still some of the best conveyed freezing feelings in games.
Thank you Mandy! 🙏
I am fanboying in my chair so hard reading you two interact. Makes my day! Thank you!
I like how just seeing this comment was enough to get me to subscribe to this channel I've never been to before
I concur. This and The Long Dark convey the cold better than I’ve seen other games do.
Hey Mandy!
Not gonna lie, when RagnarRox said that the game developers tried to make you feel the very cold that the game portrays, he spoke absolute truths. I live in the Caribbean and I have never even seen real life snow, heck I feel cold at 25 degrees Celsius - but damn if just watching that game didn't make me shiver.
...
...
Also my 5 year old brain refuses to let me ignore the fact that RagnarRox said "seamen".
I knew that people would comment on the sea-men ^^
@@RagnarRoxShow You couldnt wait to get the "seamen" out of your mouth?
Do you really feel cold at 25 C? I live in france and at this temperature, we kinda walk around naked
@@RagnarRoxShow I appreciate how meticulously
you pronounced it to not make it sound like a semen.
@@targard.quantumfrack6854 I really do. My country is not the hottest in the world, of course, but in recent years you can really see the changes.
The temperature used to have an average of 26-28 degrees on a given day. That's risen to 28-30 degrees (and seems to keep rising). Being used to that range, when it hits 23-25 degrees at nights or on rainy days, I do indeed start to feel very cold.
There was a GOG version still floating around, if'n ye be willin' to brave the scurvy seas.
Also it's available on abandonware sites, arrr.
@@RagnarRoxShow s-senpai noticed me :
Same goes for the 2005 Area 51 FPS. I think it did the seeing the environment through your weapon scope before Cryostasis did.
And that game was released on Xbox, PS2, and pc.
Shame, i was hoping to pick this up on Steam or something ;w;
GOG is in no way pirating but you tried
There's just a special something about slavic art. I don't know how to explain it, but you see it in games, in films, in literature and in music. It's just special
It has this depressing, melancholy erie aura surrounding it.
It is one born of hardship.
True. Darkwood, Stalker, Metro, The Witcher, This War of Mine, Frostpunk, Pathologic, to name a few, are oppresive and awe inspiring games in its darkness and horror. I liked polish and russian cinema first, then when I knew about this series of games, I became depressingly happy lol
те прост показалось
My family is Slovakian, and I wholeheartedly agree. There's an odd sort of...not sure what to call it, but you just know you're experiencing Slavic art when you see it. It's unmistakable. I love it so much. 💜
Y'all should raise the Skull and Crossbones for this one. Pretty easy to find out on them seas.
Ahoy!
I find it hilarious that game companies hate piracy so much, but then do stuff like this so gamers have no choice BUT to pirate these games!
@@WobblesandBean Back in the day, I bought Bioshock and DL a crack because of their fucked up DRM. Sometimes, hackers are the solution to problems some companies create for themselves.
@@scotcheggable These days, I get a crack and then if I like the game, I buy it. People give CDPR a lot of crap but they have been ballsy enough to release Cyberpunk on GOG, which means that it doesn't even need a crack.
@@targard.quantumfrack6854 CDPR are the owners of GOG, of course they'd release it there! 😆
I don't know what to say to this Masterpiece. This comment is just for the Algorithm!
You could say you’re motivated?
Fun fact I was mistakenly bought this game as a kid by my grandparents who mistook this for the game I actually wanted at the time, Crysis. Instead i got this, and at first i thought 'Wtf is this' but without the heart to correct my elders mistake I installed the game and ended up playing a game that stuck in my mind for years. I thought I was the only person who knew it existed, none of my friends had ever heard of it and there isn't much online about it. Nice to see it getting some recognition. Great video man.
edit: I actually have a boxed copy of this somewhere if you want it, idk if you enjoy physical copies of hard to find things lol.
DONT mind me, just using words the algorithm favors, like: great, life-changing, brilliant, insightful, and incredible.
Thanks for the vid gonna try and post some smart and insightful comment but for now, I wanna feed the algorithm gods
That trick doesn't actually work, but it's the thought that counts. 💜
@@WobblesandBean Really? I thought leaving a comment boosts the video stats within the algorithm. I still watch the ads since I'm to broke to help out on patroon
@@Brilchan ua-cam.com/video/9V5dwuYaaIs/v-deo.html
Don't know if you're familiar with The Spiffing Brit,if not I would recommend wholeheartedly.Link above should take you to rather interesting and hilarious vid.
Enjoy.
I love learning about these games I would have never personally found
Finally a videogame where the Soviets are portrayed as human beings and not as a variation of cartoonish nazis.
Erm, well, the Metro saga?
Now if we can just get a portrayal of nazis as human beings and not cartoons. But that's too scary so we don't do that
That seems like a pretty common occurrence my guy. I don't think I've ever seen soviets portrayed as badly as 'nazis' in a video game.
@@Snow-vo1yi
I mean, most games where you actually interact with Nazi soldiers they're fine lol
They are pretty much right to portray high rank nazis as evil tho
@@GabrielCosta-xt1dv not really, Wolfenstein they show them as cartoonishly evil
I played this game on harsh winter, when my house was literally freezing, that was quite an experience.
😅
Please, cover more of the forgotten and obscure games! It's always fun to find something cool that went under the radar.
Obscure 1 and 2 😎
It always brightens up my day when one of your videos comes out! I'm going to save it for later, when I can watch it calmly and enjoy it! I already said this in another video, but seeing you analyze Darkwood made me so happy! It's one of my favorite games ever, together with the Cat Lady and others you covered on this channel
Thank you so much
This makes my Slav heart happy 💜 Oh, also Ragnar, Bean laid an egg! We're gonna have baby Wobbeans soon!
Славик? Это ты ,Славик, Слава?!?!
@@Stret173 Jiný druh Slovana, já jsem Čech 💜
@@Stret173 чел, что ты тут забыл, если не знаешь английского? Slav = slavic = славянский. Собственно, почему у всяких Вячеславов и Светославов это в имени.
@@Readysetheal i know еnglish quite well oh indeed, but thanks for unneeded explanation anyway ля люблю постненько пошутить даи заодно отметить насколько неглубоко и мономерно эти англицкие господа понимают наш контекст собна и всё тут
@Readysetheal бред 😸
Just realized that the memory system reminds me of Obra Dinn where you see the last moments of a corpse.
I genuinely wondered if Lucas Pope took some inspiration from this game for Obra Dinn
@@RagnarRoxShow Probably a coincidence but who knows. Unless asked from the man himself.
I was trying to find someone else who thought that cause 100%
Finally someone talked about this masterpiece!
Feed us more existential dread zaddy
Papa Rox is spoiling us with spooky content this week
we are so lucky
....uhjjhgh...jhggjk. Por favor seNor: no petnames for the Rox-Man. Oh shoot. I did it to-
Love someone finally giving this game some credit. It's one of my all time favorites, with one of the best video game stories ever, and the way it's told organically is fantastic. It's jank to end all jank though, the gameplay is fine, very smooth and modern, but I don't think I've ever seen such a technical disaster.
In the last few chapters of the game I was crashing so often that essentially every time I did anything at all, like entering a new area or killing a single enemy encounter, I'd quicksave, because it'd crash to desktop like every 10-15 minutes. The fact that it was compelling enough for me to spend hours of gameplay like that speaks volumes.
I got this game when it came out and I didn't think anyone even knew it existed, everyone I spoke to had never heard of it. Amen to being compelled to work through the jank, I played that game through blocks of 10fps firefights and I enjoyed it dammit.
Would there have been a Return of the Obra Dinn without Cryostasis? (probably, but there are parallels)
The inspiration seems so obvious, but it still only really hit me while watching this video breakdown of the mechanics.
Gamedevs standing on the shoulders of innovators is what builds the industry.
@@HCBYRD i mean, people can also just come up with similar ideas independent of eachother too sometimes. it happens
As always RagnarRox's ability to speak so poetically of a game has left me in awe. Cryostasis was a game that I haven't thought of in years and seeing this brought back a lot of love I had for the game as a kid.
Agreed. His use of the English language is sublime. He uses the language far more effectively than most native English-speakers.
Been avodiing all things stalker cos damn are my hype levels in danger of running away from me... and now you got me thinking about walking the zone again. Chort!
I think slavic zone style of mising better days works for more and more people because of well ... society is kind of getting more and more insestable this days. Maybe is a steriotype but each generation feells like work and life is getting more inestable. Maybe i am pesimistic
It's the truth, my friend. It's what the stupid mass blob chooses.
I was always taught that ''slavic'' refers to a language group, but it looks like it apparently means ''freezing'' and ''shithole''
*despair*
ага, а ещё "па ешь га вна"
Hey c'mon now, it's more than just that. It's also very, very rainy.
Played this game many years ago but never actually finished it because frustration of awful optimization on top of my potato PC LOL
Very enjoyable video. Have you heard of The Shore? It's an Eldritch horror game made by a small dev team recently released. I'd love to hear you talk more about games with good Lovecraftian and Cosmic horror angles.
This is one of my favorite horror games. I was completely devastated when I tried to recommend it to a friend recently and found out it was pulled from stores.
Zone punk. Have you officially coined this phrase ?!!? I’ve been searching for this genre name forever.
And not a word about "Danko" and "Old Izergil"?
"ok, but can it run cry(osta)sis?"
I remember watching a lets play of this like ten years ago, even watching secondhand I still remember the bonkers spider enemies and the feeling of relief and comfort when finding a simple hot pipe in the wall. Great video, I never though i'd see this game again!
I can still remember the atmosphere, the feelings this game could awaken.
I libed it, it was scary and erie due to it happening inside of a ship in a frozen waste land
This game is 12 years old? I remember watching this with TheRadBrad in 2014.
As a slav I enjoy these types of videos a lot.
Same 💜 Jste také Slovák?
Pozdrav ,jel toplo more?
One thing to add: as the story progresses you uncover this old legend (from Basarabia) "The Flaming Heart of Danko".
I remember reading about this game back when I was much younger. I then played an hour of it and was too scared to continue. However, upon revisiting I really like the plot and the ideas that are in this game. Great video :)
Same, this video gave me the biggest sense of deja vu, back to when I was like 6 and played a level on my dad's Pentium 4 laptop. So weird to see something you recognize but could never quite put your finger on.
I remember playing this after picking a copy up at a Staples or some office supply store and falling in love with it. Great sense of atmosphere and some clever health mechanics.
Great video. Thank you. I really enjoyed it.
I never heard of this until I saw a Let's Play on Something Awful years ago. It was such a trip watching it. Felt like a John Carpenter directed game.
I'm glad to see the video about my favorite game, which I play time by time.
I would like to talk about story and enemy design, which depicts their "sins" or identity before the change. The protagonist probably is dead or close to it for the most part of the game. But not succumbed to it, whether because of the help of Kronos, the god of time, or thanks to his own strength of mind.
Enemies are not mutated, they willingly changed to exist in new conditions. In my interpretation, the Cold or maybe the Death is a supernatural opposing entity. The people you can help are always strong-willed people who fought to the end and their bodies have radiating warm hearts(like in Danko's story). They didn't change, they just died.
On the contrary, those, who succumbed to the hardships, embraced their fate, were embraced by the Cold and given new non-life in a dormant, thoughtless state. That's why they are hostile to the protagonist, bringer of heat/life/change. His mere presence threatens their non-life. Some of the people you saved, later may succumb and change. In some back trips, you see certain people as monsters, while other people see them as regular men.
Their deeds influenced their new form. For example, there is an enemy in military form, with metal legs and a small prison cell in their head. They walk loudly and light pours from their lit cell.
Another enemy is covered with pieces of metal, his face covered with a metal mask with two big nails in eye sockets. Cell keys weld to his hands like brass knuckles. Feels like both of them were treating prisoners badly.
There are heavy parallels with the Danko story by Maxim Gorky, which excerpts are scattered around the game. In short, Danko led his tribe through the dangerous and hard-come forest. It's hard to walk, some people die from poisonous fumes. Big storm breaks out and terrified by it, deaths, and other hardships, people of the tribe began to blame Danko for everything. In a blind rage, they want to kill Danko and go back. In his desire to help his people Danko rips his heart and raises it in his hand like a lantern. Light from his burning heart chased away the darkness and cleared the way out of the forest. Led by his light, the tribe got out. Danko was left behind and died from a wound.
Game does not show directly who is the Danko. I think it may be the protagonist, the Captain, and even the Ship.
Alexander Nesterov brings life to the ship in spite of his denizens and the Cold.
The Captain led his ship with his experience and intuition. And with help of the crew. When the crew lost faith in him, everything went south.
The ship is an atomic icebreaker, perhaps, his heart is atomic reactor. Or it is the Captain because the reactor explodes when the Captain's body gets carried away in a helicopter.
Im making popcorn for this
Yall can have some virtual popcorn 🍿🍿🍿🍿
Hey look up RainWorld,it's a good indie game
Seconded, Rain game is good game
Is it considered as "lost" ?? I thought it was pretty popular from that era, with Penumbra and stuff
it was also a tech demo for nvidia physx or something
Ха-ха, он смешно произносит "наган", как будто это "нажан"
Content Warning: Eurojank
Well now that my sides have entered orbit, I will now watch the video.
After a couple minutes into the video I realised that I remember this game from a very long time ago when I was a kid. I remember how strongly it hit me with its incredibly sinister and blood-chilling environment and atmosphere. I was not prepared to delve into this kind of expirience at that time, having not fully immersed myself yet into STALKER universe and Lovecraftian horror, but now thanks to you I'm definitely going to catch up on that!
"How I learned to stop worrying and love the jank" -Words spoken in the deep mind of anyone who really just decided they wanted something new and innovating over more and the same over and over and over... IE basically anyone into tactical shooters after the Tom Clancy franchise dropped us off a short cliff on it's way to get a pack of cigarettes in Vegas... (it didn't come back...).
Oh yeah, nobody remembers this. It was genuinely scary.
Awesome review of this title! But I think you might be wrong on PhysX not working I had it running just fine on my 1080Ti when I made a water physics video. I think you may just need to have the PhysX runtime installed from a more modern title on your machine?
Plans on the next Games from the underground -video?
I loved this game when I played it years ago. Thank you for an excellent analysis.
Just a question... don't all modern NVIDIA cards have Physx? They all have a switch on them saying to swap it from cpu or gpu, or other gpu... lot of people used to run low in NVIDIA cards in a second slot for the physx... Does this not work anymore?
Cause it installs a physx driver every time I reinstall or update my drivers and if that's not a real thing anymore I'd be buthurt abit.
Exploring an hostile location but being on the lookout for pockets of replenishing environment agents is something I first experienced with Ecco the Dolphin (An undersea game where you play as something that breathes air. So yeah, you need to constantly find air pockets or air bubbles), and I have to say, nothing makes you more scared of going into a dark, winding tunnel and have you pace around mentally preparing, than knowing beforehand that while inside, you will have a timer hanging over your head. I like the idea of doing it with lights, because that sounds like something you just want to have in every environment regardless, without any players questioning its in-canon reasoning for being there.
I have the honor to say i enjoyed playing this gem back in the day a few months after it's release because i'm a PC gamer since i have memory and i was amazed by the graphics quality in environment effects and pshyx interaction with hot or cold things specially during every cutscene when activating the mental echoes where i was completely immersed into the desperate situations the crew experienced before their deaths and the transition to the new altered reality in the present after changing things in the past but also the jumpscares and the search for heat sources made it so memorable as if it was more of a survival horror game than an horror first person shooter. It's a fantastic new experience but gives familiar vibes as when you discover the dark secrets of Rapture in Bioshock or explore the intriguing and hopeless past in SOMA.
I always got fascinated by these incredible games ahead of their time and i wish i had time to play them again now but i'm thankful youtubers like him make these nostalgic and interesting videos about our childhood iconic games that we all love so much 😊
I recently found out about this game and was pleasantly surprised. Despite the fact that this game was released in 2008, it still looks very nice. I was very pleased with the plot and aesthetics of this game.
Hey Ragnar I would like to point out, at 14:37 you mention that it’s funny that you get colder when you get shot, I think the developers wanted to use and add the fact that blood loss does cause a drop in temperature, and nothing causes a quicker temperature drop than some lead injections.
One could say that the game is "Die Hard surrounded by seamen"
There is an abundance of white stuff.
I am very happy that I picked this one out of the 5€ bin in a game store on a school trip.
Having no expectations from it, I came out with a deep fascination for the game and I sill hold some very outstanding moments of horror in my memory.
Still got the copy but sadly - as many more games from pre 2010 - it stopped working on Win10... what a shame.
there is a number of different patches for this game, at least one official (from publisher 1C), some semi-official (the weird nvidia physx one). last time I saw a good description of those in a buccaneer forum topic... so sad that the game was basically shitcanned by the publisher
Friendship ended with medkit
Now desk lamp is my best friend
Oh come on bot, you've already replied to this last week
the enemies leave little ice marks on your screen, and you leave little heat bursts on the enemies.
you're fighting with temperature!
Great video, I subscribed to your channel. I played Cryostasis when it came out,. I remember trailers before the game came out showing PhysX engine stuff. So cool!!!
Cryostasis was a true gem. So glad I played it before it literally vanished.
it's still in my steam :)
(this and Clive Barker's Jericho, too)
Leaving a comment so that the algorithm doesn't condemn this excellent video to the frozen depths.
Can never get enough of STALKER and Cryostasis. Inject that atmosphere and world directly into my veins.
Name more iconic trio: Junk, slavic and underknown.
I baught this back in the day and wish I didn't loose it during a move. Something about those pc game boxes and disk are special.
Man i love that game to the death, it is a shame that people nowadays cant enjoy this gem.
"This game contains depictions and/or discussion of:"
"Flashing Imagery" Meh, no worries
"Violence" I can take it
"Blood" not squeamish
"Eurojank" SWEET MOTHER OF MERCY GET THIS OUT OF MY SCREEN
Aaah this man's voice... when i'm not feeling ok, need to sleep but my mind wont let me, i like to put one of Ragnar's videos (always the one's i've already watched and payed enough attention to) and put it on, just focusing in his voice.
It's so calming, so beautiful, so conforting. I've been in love with his voice for a few years now.
Agreed. My girlfriend always has me put several of his videos in a playlist (that I've already watched of course) to help her sleep. She's not a gamer, but has had to listen while I've watched his videos, and loves his voice and that amazing accent.
Supportive Comment
This game was awesome. A lost gem.... Good analysis.
I remember playing that game ...but lost interest after a few hours,screen kept shaking as cold creeped in.(a very bad feature of the game )
The past memories stuff was unique , but I somehow didn't like that game as a whole 🙃...it was full of bugs too
I always loved how cold this game feels. I really ever only saw the first hour or so cause my PC at the time ran it at 10fps tops, and even later my laptops were running it really poorly. At the time I kind of resorted to watching a let's play of it and I just loved a lot of its mechanics and ideas.
The game is very similar to SOMA in terms of feeling constantly oppressed by forces of nature.
It totally does!
Oh so excited!! Click so fast
My god I found your channel on accident when I was looking for inspiration on how to make an audible essay for darkwood and I have become entrapped in a rabbit hole of these great videos
playing through this now but the framerate issues makes me can't even progress some parts with out fps dipping to single digits
The game is really a lottery. On some PCs it runs flawless and on others it's a slide-show or crashes randomly. I could never put my finger on it.
What a pleasant surprise, I am happy to understand English to enjoy content like yours, greetings from Bolivia
I wish this game has had a remaster, not gonna lie
Wow it looks really cool ! Thank you for the video
definitely seems like this game was a big influence on Return of the Obra Dinn
I bet this was an inspiration for "Return to the Obra Din"
Had the same association.
Always love your content, but also especially love how you took elements of NIN's "Theme from Tetsuo: The Bullet Man" for your intro. Excellent choice. :)
God I love this track so much.
Cuddling the souls of dead seamen.
I haven't been around here long, but your Pathologic 2 and Darkwood videos pushed me to give those games a shot and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm wondering if you had to pick, between Japanese horror and Slavic.. which one would it be? 👻
Don't make me choose my favorite child!
@@RagnarRoxShow SO THERE IS A FAVOURITE!
don't know why but i've recently been craving for these kinds of lonesome, chilling horror experiences... gotta say my thanks to mr ragnar for always shedding light on those games! (also accepting any suggestions you people may have)
So all those "NVIDIA PhysX" software, drivers... etc is just pure BS
I watched The Terror because of a friend's rec this year and I could NOT pinpoint why exactly it made me feel like I did. As in, I was oddly attracted to that atmosphere of being-stuck-in-the-pack-ice-we-must-do-everything-to-survive. Until I came across this video and holy shit you opened my eyes. I played this when I was 14 yo and even though my English was not good at that time, the story was incredibly comprehensive without me having to read or understand what was going on. And the feeling stuck. I can't believe this is a 10-hour campaign when I feel like I've played at least 50 hours when I was young. The sound of "warming up" is imprinted in my brain. The freezing patterns on all metals, I feel like I can see them behind my eyelids. Well done with this video, I am another person
STALKER: Gopnik RPG lol
I have such a strong love for this game (luckily was able to play the game years ago) that when I was in college for Game Art & Design I developed a horror game called FROSTBITE: Deadly Climate that took inspiration from both Cryostasis: Sleep Of Reason and John Carpenter's The Thing. If any game that deserves a Remake/Remastered, it is definitely this game.
This is a great analysis of the game! Cryostasis is on my list of most underrated horror games for all of the reasons you listed. I hope the devs find a way to remake or re-release it so more people get to experience it.
Wow. I played this years ago and forgot what it was. I still recall goggling at the melting ice, freaking out being attacked with an axe while trying to stay warm, the flashback style story telling and the nuts finale. Not many games stick in my memory like that. On par with Butcher Bay and HL1/2 in that respect. Thumbs up and subbed for randomly helping me!
I've actually played this game for like 2 hours like 7-8 years ago I think? Now I really wanna replay it and can't wait to get my hands on it again. Great video as always!
This, FEAR and Condemned: Criminal Origins are like, my personal holy trinity of nostalgic horror-action FPS games that gave me a set of bespoke feelings I've been unable to replicate since. Hopefully, if games like HROT and DUSK can capture the feelings QUAKE gave people, there will come titles that capture the feelings these games gave me. A man can dream, I suppose.
I heard about Cryostasis long before I've actually played it in 2019 (I think it was 2019).
I was deep into it, I've sat my whole day playing it from the start to the very end, while being all cold, because we've had a harsh winter that year (meaning another regular Siberian winter; only added to my experience). My PC was barely dealing with it, lagging every now and then, but still, I've found myself absolutely astonished with it, which I haven't experienced with games for a big while now.
What really caught my attention was that yes, enemies take your body heat. At some point I started to think that what is happening to main character is basically a hallucination. After all, enemy's muzzle flashes are blue cold, the hit marks they leave are also frozen cuts and wounds, and your hits - are hot orange, as opposed to them.
As of now, I'm playing it on a significantly more powerful laptop, and while it runs without FPS drops, it sometimes may just drop to the desktop.
About keys and such - I heard that Steam keys for Cryostasis are quite scarce nowdays and not that cheap. It can be found on Myabandonware though.
P.S. I also advice you to try it with original voicing. English variant is great, too, but you know, _authenticity_
P.P.S. Sometimes you can see rifle itself in the scope. Sometimes even the scope.
rx6800xt runs so bad when physx tech shows up because physx doesnt work well on AMD, good job amd.
Дuде, it’a not because of bad marketing that it’s game fell flat. Atm avg paycheck In Russia is about ~$500. Add cyber-piracy heaven into equation and you get this games fate before you.
Tho, love this game and even bought a CD on launch.
I've been binging your content for the last few days and I gotta say you're doing amazingly! About the mosin-nagant, I think part of the reason why the devs included it might have been because it was something that could theoretically have been found onboard a nuclear icebreaker, as if I remember right, all of your weapons are ones that could theoretically be fashioned out of stuff that would be on said ship. If you're hunting polar bears from the deck of the ship, the hugely-zoomed scope makes sense, since it wasn't meant to be used INSIDE the ship.
Damn, I completely forgot about this game. And the funny thing is, I'm not exaggerating when I say that Cryostasis was a BIG thing in Russia. Everyone was talking about it all the time when it came out. I couldn't even find the disc in all the local shops, because they were all sold out. It was like some mythical beast that people know about, but have never seen themselves.
Then I found out about the requirements and... Well... I just gave up, lol. Basically the worst thing about Cryostasis is that it barely works on modern computers, which says a lot. Yeah, it's quite stable overall, but anytime the particles appear on screen, it starts lagging like hell. Nevertheless, the graphics are amazing even today, so it's not really surprising.
Thanks for shedding some light on this game. Now I would like to see a Penumbra analysis from you someday.