I admire eurojank mostly because it's the result of lofty ambitions and tiny budgets. This is in contrast to buggy AAA games with no vision (other than profit) and huge budgets that still turn out awful
Well it's usually a vision of profit from the publishers, while the developers are worried about virtue signalling and "diversity". A bad combination to say the least.
Oh boy I sure do love slow-burn bone chilling psychological horror with no jumpscares and actual character development. There’s nothing I love more than slow-burn bone chilling psychological horror with no jumpscares and actual character development.
God, I remember playing this when it came out. It is one of the most unoptimized games I ever played but man, it is great. Loved the tense, lonely atmosphere and storyline, didn't love playing it at 15-20 FPS at 1440x900 on a GTX 260. Aside from the Batman games and Borderlands 2, no other game pushed PhysX tech this hard.
Interesting thing is when I was in college learning game development one of my first games I developed in college was a game I called FROSTBITE: Deadly Climate which actually took heavy inspirations from THE THING, RE7, and of course CRYSTATSIS (even put a reference to the game in my game). Anyway I have such a strange love for Cryostasis (was luckily able to play on my PC years back), and I got to say that it is one of those games that really needs a Remake or at least a Remastered.
I remember playing FROSTBITE years back, i also had a love for old horror and games like Cryostasis and found it an interesting compact game ,even if really rough
I remember reading the Gameinformer review, and the person did not like it for the jank, but begrudgingly gave it an 8/10 because they felt like judging it by its faults was missing the point of the experience. That review has always made me wish I could play the game, and makes me miss when game reviewers have some degree of integrity. Glad you also are a reviewer of integrity.
@@xBINARYGODx that time did exist at one point, and I reject your cynical attempt to deny it. at the same time, it is hard to deny that the industry has not been mostly taken over by paid shills.
A small thing you do in your reviews that’s easy to look over but I really appreciate is… When you mention a sound/music you actually let us hear it .. Some reviewers mention sounds or music and don’t let us hear it & it annoys me so much 😅
I remember playing this game so long ago. It was pretty unique in the horror game was set in freezing cold. Only other game I can remember like it is The Thing.
It's always interesting to see games that when they launched, actually got mixed to poor reviews. But as time passes they get revalued, reassessed. I recall this was one of those. Like the Splatterhouse Reboot, and Silent Hill Downpour, this was a game I enjoyed when I played it near or at its launch. You almost always need to play a game yourself, to know how you truly feel. Can't always rely on a review's subjective opinion.
I still have the PC disc version in its original box (opened, of course) in my closet (along with PC Disc versions of Halo CE, Gears of War 1, Bioshock and NWN Diamond Edition). I really liked this game, and I was happy to have a powerful rig when it came out.
I really like to see Night Dive make a remaster of this game too. It’s a very unique game, and the concept of surviving a heavy snow. Is indeed a good experience.
This is genuinely the only game whose ending always makes me cry. Even just thinking about it. Something went WRONG on that ship, a cold and apathy colder beyond even the ice itself. And only a single man was left. But in his heart burned such a love and hope for the men mired in that ice, that his No not only reached Time Himself... But touched His heart, to. Time freakin' Himself, stops, and sees a single ant fight the tide with such righteous and pure fury, that He just this once... Bends. And allows ONE act, and one act alone that might save the ship. And with but one act, of kindness and hope... the man with the burning heart kindles that flame in another. The flaming heart, having guided ONE other, to shine when things were as darkest. And the Wrong was not only righted, but never was. Its stain... burned away. Because The Captain did not fall alone this PROPER time, but was lifted up by another. Who themselves needed but a hand to hold, to do that grand deed towards THEIR fellow Man. And after all that... the Burning Heart was himself lifted up. By The Captain he saved. This heart was not stomped out, but saved. Because he deserved that end of warmth and light, after facing such cold and darkness. ... Like... this game is freakin' art. There's freakin' operas and ballets with a tenth this level of symbolism. It's a damned travesty, that a story this good is so hard to actually experience. It should be thought in schools, not... rot in legal no-man's land.
It is a great game, when I tried to play it back in the day my PC almost cried, I finished it a decade after that and it is one of the biggest surprises in my 3 decade gaming life and that is a great achievment because I don't get many wow moments in games, in fact most of these moments come from old games I missed when they were released. When I was listening to the voice of the captain I thought it was the general from Metro series...didn't google it though.
i see alot of people calling this their childhood game and it reminds me of a few i used to love as a kid, i hope one of these days you can cover project snowblind or even airborne troops: countdown to d-day which is a pretty obscure but fun ww2 tps with lite stealth mechanics.
@@theblobconsumes4859 lol my bad, I just watched it the other day and forgot the date and yes it was pretty negative. I disagreed with the review but still there's not many Project Snowblind reviews on YT. Beggars can't be choosers unfortunately.
It's a fantastic game and manages it's atmosphere and environmental storytelling very wel. I feel abyssal cold just looking at the gameplay, and the warmth sources really do feel welcoming. I think Steve blum did voices for this too? Just realised Khronos is using an anchor as a weapon. Fitting.
If you enjoyed this id love to see you analyse cold fear, similar setting in the style of resident evil 4, awesome underrated horror game with an unfortunate release date
Well, this is a pleasant surprise. I actually picked up Cryostasis a couple months ago (thanks Civvie) and have really been enjoying it, even if I'm not that far in. Something about the tone and worldview of a lot of games made in this region speaks to me and I'm excited to hear your thoughts. I patched the title to use more memory and turned the effects off, and the framerate has been pretty stable so far, but I did find a couple videos demonstrating what the effects would've looked like back in the day - this one is probably the best I found: ua-cam.com/video/kufpPwho9Ec/v-deo.html.
Melee is better once you understand how to do different moves. From the footage, it seems you ignored the tutorial telling you that movement inputs affect your swings, and that's probably why it felt a lot clunkier It's clunky nonetheless, but it feels much better once you get the hang of the swing system and use it more. But, maybe I'm misremembering the system.
Action Forms were working on a sequel game to an old Ukrainian cartoon called Adventures of Captain Vrungel that never got finished, but since the show was about sailors it could have potentially been the total opposite to this game in its tone.
Oh damn I remember this game like forget Crysis because Cryostasis was the new benchmark for systems, I think It took me 2x 5870's to get this running at 1080p max settings and stable smooth 60fps
I loved that game, i had to order the physical game from a weird website back in the days. The only reason i wanted this game is because of the new technologie they had in, the physX. Instead I've found an hidden gem. Was so good Excellent video Edit: the reason the guns were so prominent is because of the new physX and the bullets impact on n the walls, was so ahead of it time
Ending Spoilers (and for Signalis and The Thing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Shoutouts to this game for actually having a decently happy outcome overall. A lot of horror media (but not all!) I've noticed feels like it has to end on a downer note for no apparent reason other than to contribute to the hopelessness that horror already makes us feel. This CAN work, like with Signalis where the heartaching ending fits with its themes on cycles and The Thing where the ambiguous nature of the ending services the greater, more ambiguous style of storytelling. However, it just kinda feels like more often than not, downer endings in horror media just... Kick you when you're down lol This game has a fully, unambiguously happy outcome for the most part and I'm glad for that.
I've tried to run this game on three different PCs and it ran liked shit on all of them, it's kind of amazing. A shame that such a horrible optimization always stopped me from playing it because it looks honestly good and the cold atmosphere looks really nice.
Recently played it and it is a MUST play . it is such a good game and very interesting. The only main issue is the ending which isnt that good at all and kind of ruins the storry though it makes it up massively with its atmosphere and gameplay ( I like the non spiritual story if that makes any sense )
Another bone chilling, spine tingling, teeth chattering, character led, you never SEE the monster, unreliable narrator, one location, blood curdling, suspense led, methodical, show don’t tell, skin crawling SLOW BURN Eurojank masterpiece.
Not a graphics card. Phys-X cards. Before they were brought up by NVIDIA. Sounds crazy nowadays, but for a few years hardware based physics needed a whole extra bit of hardware in your rig. And they were PRICEY, too.
Cryostasis is an interesting game, but the time shenanigans (especially the final fight with Chronos) just seem to come right outta left field with little rhyme or reason.
It wouldn't be Slavjank without being tied to nuclear technology, depressing literature, and whoever voice acts the captain, who I hear in every game that comes out of Eastern Europe.
Just by watching your video on this game, it makes me want to play it for myself and rediscover its mysteries. Thank you for your work, BP! Also, this game makes me even more disappointed with The Callisto Protocol. Both games are claustrophobic and initially have a prominent focus in melee combat, but only one game manages to tell a compelling story that utilizes its setting and not wasting its own potential.
@@bbbbbbb51 i would say that its strength is not within the story but more on giving you some breadcrumbs and let you peice in the story. I would say that the atmosphere and the reason why you are there made you more intrigued rather than the grandiose storyline. However I would say that yeah you are correct as it does not really explain a lot and it might look bland but hey its is what it is.
dude usually i love your content but my god i just cannot stand the editing of this video on particular. switching to the startling, long soundbites of regular gameplay footage slows the watching experience to a CRAWL and makes listening to it exhausting when it happens after nearly every sentence.
Sorry, but I busted out laughing when you talked about the audio and then played a bunch of high register compressed earrape as a "good" example. The audio in this game sounds quite painful, if I'm honest.
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I admire eurojank mostly because it's the result of lofty ambitions and tiny budgets. This is in contrast to buggy AAA games with no vision (other than profit) and huge budgets that still turn out awful
Well it's usually a vision of profit from the publishers, while the developers are worried about virtue signalling and "diversity". A bad combination to say the least.
Oh boy I sure do love slow-burn bone chilling psychological horror with no jumpscares and actual character development. There’s nothing I love more than slow-burn bone chilling psychological horror with no jumpscares and actual character development.
OP’s username is almost a conceptual writing prompt for the kind of story they love.
Thought provoking character driven tours de force
God, I remember playing this when it came out. It is one of the most unoptimized games I ever played but man, it is great. Loved the tense, lonely atmosphere and storyline, didn't love playing it at 15-20 FPS at 1440x900 on a GTX 260.
Aside from the Batman games and Borderlands 2, no other game pushed PhysX tech this hard.
Borderlands 2's PhysX is really good. Love its implementation. Mirror's Edge plastic tearing is also still impressive today.
for me it's Mafia 2, not the definitive edition, god forbid.
Man, it might be "slav jank", but it's genuinely a gem.
Dare say, "gemuinely"?
Interesting thing is when I was in college learning game development one of my first games I developed in college was a game I called FROSTBITE: Deadly Climate which actually took heavy inspirations from THE THING, RE7, and of course CRYSTATSIS (even put a reference to the game in my game). Anyway I have such a strange love for Cryostasis (was luckily able to play on my PC years back), and I got to say that it is one of those games that really needs a Remake or at least a Remastered.
I remember playing FROSTBITE years back, i also had a love for old horror and games like Cryostasis and found it an interesting compact game ,even if really rough
I would love to see a reboot of Cryostasis
I remember reading the Gameinformer review, and the person did not like it for the jank, but begrudgingly gave it an 8/10 because they felt like judging it by its faults was missing the point of the experience. That review has always made me wish I could play the game, and makes me miss when game reviewers have some degree of integrity.
Glad you also are a reviewer of integrity.
that time never existed, a few do at any given point, but most of them are trash at any given point
@@xBINARYGODx that time did exist at one point, and I reject your cynical attempt to deny it. at the same time, it is hard to deny that the industry has not been mostly taken over by paid shills.
Action Forms was a Ukrainian studio. A lot of games from Ukraine have this vibe of insufferable sadness. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Metro series, for example.
I think most Post Soviet countries have that vibe.
make sense from where they're coming from
These games also seem to push tech a lot
so excited for the new stalker but i doubt well see it for a long time i bet
@@deadricrevolver9 don't hold your breath
Has next to none of the original creators
A small thing you do in your reviews that’s easy to look over but I really appreciate is…
When you mention a sound/music you actually let us hear it ..
Some reviewers mention sounds or music and don’t let us hear it & it annoys me so much 😅
I remember playing this game so long ago. It was pretty unique in the horror game was set in freezing cold. Only other game I can remember like it is The Thing.
It's always interesting to see games that when they launched, actually got mixed to poor reviews. But as time passes they get revalued, reassessed. I recall this was one of those. Like the Splatterhouse Reboot, and Silent Hill Downpour, this was a game I enjoyed when I played it near or at its launch.
You almost always need to play a game yourself, to know how you truly feel. Can't always rely on a review's subjective opinion.
OH MY! @4:42 he said the thing!
Haha, nice review as always! Love the coverage of games I didn't even know existed.
Pov: Boulder Punch reviews that obscure game from your childhood
Can't wait for the day he reviews my obscure childhood. Boulder Punch can do anything
@@ACHelliwell yessir
Not obscure for me, saw it on TV back then
@@steelbear2063 damn on tv? Interesting I thought this was one of those things that was released without a buzz and got forgotten
@@psychon2083
There was a cool TV show about games, focused mainly on horror, it was featured there.
This game has stayed in my mind for years. It's just such a fascinating game for me.
only did 2 playthroughs but one of the strangest games ever, never expected that kind of an ending
One of my favorites. What a weird and cool game.
Game runs pretty good nowadays with DXVK and in 120 fps.
Never tried DXVK with this game, PCGW doesn't mention it either. Will have to give it a shot.
I still have the PC disc version in its original box (opened, of course) in my closet (along with PC Disc versions of Halo CE, Gears of War 1, Bioshock and NWN Diamond Edition).
I really liked this game, and I was happy to have a powerful rig when it came out.
Back then I didnt have any issues with the game in terms of bugs or performance - but I dont remember if I did any fiddling back then, but probably.
I really like to see Night Dive make a remaster of this game too. It’s a very unique game, and the concept of surviving a heavy snow. Is indeed a good experience.
I remember seeing a play through of this 15 or so years ago, I was a child. It stuck with me until today.
That same Ukrainian studio made Vivisector, which was an interesting action take on The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Nesterov can also Mental Echo into a friggin' POLAR BEAR and you can attack people as it. That should have been the selling point.
The golden standard for first person melee combat is Mount & Blade Warband!
This is genuinely the only game whose ending always makes me cry. Even just thinking about it.
Something went WRONG on that ship, a cold and apathy colder beyond even the ice itself. And only a single man was left. But in his heart burned such a love and hope for the men mired in that ice, that his No not only reached Time Himself...
But touched His heart, to. Time freakin' Himself, stops, and sees a single ant fight the tide with such righteous and pure fury, that He just this once...
Bends. And allows ONE act, and one act alone that might save the ship.
And with but one act, of kindness and hope... the man with the burning heart kindles that flame in another. The flaming heart, having guided ONE other, to shine when things were as darkest.
And the Wrong was not only righted, but never was. Its stain... burned away.
Because The Captain did not fall alone this PROPER time, but was lifted up by another. Who themselves needed but a hand to hold, to do that grand deed towards THEIR fellow Man.
And after all that... the Burning Heart was himself lifted up. By The Captain he saved.
This heart was not stomped out, but saved. Because he deserved that end of warmth and light, after facing such cold and darkness.
...
Like... this game is freakin' art. There's freakin' operas and ballets with a tenth this level of symbolism. It's a damned travesty, that a story this good is so hard to actually experience. It should be thought in schools, not... rot in legal no-man's land.
It is a great game, when I tried to play it back in the day my PC almost cried, I finished it a decade after that and it is one of the biggest surprises in my 3 decade gaming life and that is a great achievment because I don't get many wow moments in games, in fact most of these moments come from old games I missed when they were released. When I was listening to the voice of the captain I thought it was the general from Metro series...didn't google it though.
You made me play Signalis, when will you take responsibility and hug and comfort me over this experience?
i see alot of people calling this their childhood game and it reminds me of a few i used to love as a kid, i hope one of these days you can cover project snowblind or even airborne troops: countdown to d-day which is a pretty obscure but fun ww2 tps with lite stealth mechanics.
Mandalore gaming did a snowblind recently. It was an awesome game and a great vid! Pretty sure Boulder watches him too
@@Funko777 That video is from 6 years ago.
Also, it was a highly negative review.
@@theblobconsumes4859 lol my bad, I just watched it the other day and forgot the date and yes it was pretty negative. I disagreed with the review but still there's not many Project Snowblind reviews on YT. Beggars can't be choosers unfortunately.
It's a fantastic game and manages it's atmosphere and environmental storytelling very wel. I feel abyssal cold just looking at the gameplay, and the warmth sources really do feel welcoming. I think Steve blum did voices for this too? Just realised Khronos is using an anchor as a weapon. Fitting.
Its quite interesting, and underrated
If you enjoyed this id love to see you analyse cold fear, similar setting in the style of resident evil 4, awesome underrated horror game with an unfortunate release date
lame
Reminds me of a cross between SOMA and amnesia bunker, play-wise, I love old little gems like this.❤kinda Kholat a little too.
such a great narrative.....reminds me of disco elysium
I remember when this game came out. Think I saw it featured on X-play.
Well, this is a pleasant surprise. I actually picked up Cryostasis a couple months ago (thanks Civvie) and have really been enjoying it, even if I'm not that far in. Something about the tone and worldview of a lot of games made in this region speaks to me and I'm excited to hear your thoughts.
I patched the title to use more memory and turned the effects off, and the framerate has been pretty stable so far, but I did find a couple videos demonstrating what the effects would've looked like back in the day - this one is probably the best I found: ua-cam.com/video/kufpPwho9Ec/v-deo.html.
find it funny you have back to back videos where you said the devs punched above their weight class in the opening
I thought I made this game up in a dream.
After this, a video review of You are empty is in order
Oh dang I remember watching playthrus of this back when I was a kid
Melee is better once you understand how to do different moves. From the footage, it seems you ignored the tutorial telling you that movement inputs affect your swings, and that's probably why it felt a lot clunkier
It's clunky nonetheless, but it feels much better once you get the hang of the swing system and use it more. But, maybe I'm misremembering the system.
Not Eastern Europe, this game was made in Ukraine
....that's Eastern Europe
@@steelbear2063Eastern Europe have a bunch of countries. You may said stuff like "made on planet Earth" it would make same "sense".
Action Forms were working on a sequel game to an old Ukrainian cartoon called Adventures of Captain Vrungel that never got finished, but since the show was about sailors it could have potentially been the total opposite to this game in its tone.
All those frame drops.. oof
A loving fan patch would be great from the modding community.
eating a box of egg salad while watching this
Am I the only 1 that thought of the thing when seeing the thumbnail
I was terrified you were about to casually spoil Signalis out of nowhere hahah! I’m mod play through right now and loving it.
Imagine thinking the correct pronunciation of glacier is amusing
Oh damn I remember this game like forget Crysis because Cryostasis was the new benchmark for systems, I think It took me 2x 5870's to get this running at 1080p max settings and stable smooth 60fps
I loved that game, i had to order the physical game from a weird website back in the days. The only reason i wanted this game is because of the new technologie they had in, the physX. Instead I've found an hidden gem. Was so good
Excellent video
Edit: the reason the guns were so prominent is because of the new physX and the bullets impact on n the walls, was so ahead of it time
If you want to experience the best first-person melee combat ever, then you NEED to play Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
Ending Spoilers (and for Signalis and The Thing)
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Shoutouts to this game for actually having a decently happy outcome overall. A lot of horror media (but not all!) I've noticed feels like it has to end on a downer note for no apparent reason other than to contribute to the hopelessness that horror already makes us feel. This CAN work, like with Signalis where the heartaching ending fits with its themes on cycles and The Thing where the ambiguous nature of the ending services the greater, more ambiguous style of storytelling. However, it just kinda feels like more often than not, downer endings in horror media just... Kick you when you're down lol
This game has a fully, unambiguously happy outcome for the most part and I'm glad for that.
Boulder punch post, i press de like button
Hell yeah lets go new vid drop!
Hey boulder punch I have a real hidden gem from the PS3 era Folklore it's a nice forgotten gem kinda like a Pokémon horror murder mystery.
I've tried to run this game on three different PCs and it ran liked shit on all of them, it's kind of amazing. A shame that such a horrible optimization always stopped me from playing it because it looks honestly good and the cold atmosphere looks really nice.
I love you bro ty for the vids
Is it just me or the graffics and the aesthetic make me think of bioshock 1? I'm a crazy?
Daang I have a feeling that I saw this in Steam but it got ditched.
Recently played it and it is a MUST play . it is such a good game and very interesting. The only main issue is the ending which isnt that good at all and kind of ruins the storry though it makes it up massively with its atmosphere and gameplay ( I like the non spiritual story if that makes any sense )
Another bone chilling, spine tingling, teeth chattering, character led, you never SEE the monster, unreliable narrator, one location, blood curdling, suspense led, methodical, show don’t tell, skin crawling SLOW BURN Eurojank masterpiece.
"You never SEE the monster"
Did you... did you watch the video?
The monster *hits you with a damn axe*
I heard the game used a proprietory graphics card of some kind that made it extremely exclusive to run it well, a major blunder on their part.
Not a graphics card. Phys-X cards. Before they were brought up by NVIDIA.
Sounds crazy nowadays, but for a few years hardware based physics needed a whole extra bit of hardware in your rig. And they were PRICEY, too.
@@LORDOFDORKNESS42 Oh right.
Looks good! How did you find it?
Can you review Raw Danger / Disaster Report 2?
I loved that series. All 3 are pretty good in their own ways.
STARS!!!
*insert joke about 2 penny with civvie*
12:40 - LMAO
Cryostasis is an interesting game, but the time shenanigans (especially the final fight with Chronos) just seem to come right outta left field with little rhyme or reason.
Well hey civvie
Nice!
8:20 that enemy looks like a souls player rolling around 🤣
Heeeeelllll yeah.
But does the game punch well above it's weight-class?
Im subbed to you, but im not getting notifications for your vids
It wouldn't be Slavjank without being tied to nuclear technology, depressing literature, and whoever voice acts the captain, who I hear in every game that comes out of Eastern Europe.
Just by watching your video on this game, it makes me want to play it for myself and rediscover its mysteries. Thank you for your work, BP!
Also, this game makes me even more disappointed with The Callisto Protocol. Both games are claustrophobic and initially have a prominent focus in melee combat, but only one game manages to tell a compelling story that utilizes its setting and not wasting its own potential.
Recently I had this game stuck in my head. But then I found out I cannot buy this game and I do not own DVD player. 😅😅😅
Action Forms might have made jank, but damn if it wasn't well made and memorable jank.
If you liked ukranian shooters, then you should try Codename: Outbreak (Venom). It was made in 2001 by GSC (S.T.A.L.K.E.R series)
Hey
I'm recommend to you make review of bendy and the ink machine and bendy and the dark revival!
If you want it
Signalis is so good. Hope it has new content or a new game
I’m in the middle of my first play through right now and holy hell it’s amazing.
@@CalebtheWhitebread hope you have a good time my friend
I've never understood why this game is so praised. The story seems incredibly bland.
@@bbbbbbb51 i would say that its strength is not within the story but more on giving you some breadcrumbs and let you peice in the story. I would say that the atmosphere and the reason why you are there made you more intrigued rather than the grandiose storyline. However I would say that yeah you are correct as it does not really explain a lot and it might look bland but hey its is what it is.
I love when this janky mess gets reviewed things a lil buddy gem
Game that desperately needs a re-release
More like using flare pistol activats Dark souls 3 pvp. :V
Yeah I did it I broke the 666 likes
this game sucked so bad, i got it free with a GTX 285.
Eurojank? Americans are so arrogant, in love with the sound of their voices.
Fifth!❤
dude usually i love your content but my god i just cannot stand the editing of this video on particular. switching to the startling, long soundbites of regular gameplay footage slows the watching experience to a CRAWL and makes listening to it exhausting when it happens after nearly every sentence.
Sorry, but I busted out laughing when you talked about the audio and then played a bunch of high register compressed earrape as a "good" example. The audio in this game sounds quite painful, if I'm honest.
Just because it's loud and compressed, doesn't mean the sound design is bad.
You're telling me Chronos and Cronus aren't the same figure?! Shocker! It's almost like they're spelled and pronounced differently....