Batch 23 and Spooktober Update
Hey hey! Finished all my monthly challenge games a little early. Might squeak in one more before Halloween. Hope everyone is having a great month! :D
Despite being released in 2013, this game looks and plays like a 2D, side-scrolling adventure that was released on Windows-95. The "choose-and-click" interface only uses the keyboard. However it's strength is the story, which is why this game gets such high review marks. You play Susan, a reclusive, suicidal woman who feeds the neighborhood stray cats. But suicide doesn't quite work out, and a supernatural entity enlists her to deal with several murderers who prey on the people in her run-down London neighborhood.
Despite the sometimes lengthy exposition, the psychological tension and horror elements hold together really well, even if there are some unanswered and dangling questions left by the end. Susan is a likable protagonist and is joined later by another likable character. And even though the graphics occupy a weird space mixing hand-drawn, photo-realistic and pixel art, the imagery is incredibly creepy and disturbing. It makes me wonder how much better the game would be if it had a modern graphical front-end on it. It would probably be considered a must-play title of the genre.
On the down side, the game locks out use of your mouse in the Steam overlay, and alt-tab'ing to the desktop will crash the game most of the time. If you need to interrupt play it's best to save the game and exit properly. You will be frozen out of tapping the ESC key to get to the game's options menu for really long stretches, so it's good to save after these points when you regain control. This is critical if you are replaying a chapter for achievements. Otherwise you may find yourself having to repeat these stretches as there's no "fast-forward" key like in some visual novels, only the spacebar that allows skipping character dialog turns but won't affect parts where characters pause, don't speak or perform cutscenes. Its native resolution in 800x600 with no option for windowed mode, but there are some forum posts about getting to it to look good on an HD or 4K monitor.
If you're looking for a good story-driven horror game and don't mind old technology, definitely consider picking this up.
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A man named John wakes up from stasis aboard a derelict spaceship and proceeds to uncover the unspeakable things going on there. This point-and-click bears some similarities in tone and style to SOMA but is shown from an isometric view. It's technically solid even if the interface is dated. The game play focuses on carefully examining your surroundings to find, combine and use objects to proceed to the next area or chapter. A handful require you to gather codes or info for data entry. Clues are found in various PDAs or displays scattered about, forcing you to read more of the story as told by the observations of the now dead crew members. There were only a few places I got stuck and needed a hint. But despite the gruesome visuals and tense pacing, the story seemed a bit derivative and much of it was predictable. If you are looking for sci-fi horror though it's not a bad way to spend a few hours.
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I have a lot of fond memories of the Cat Lady, and I’m glad you unearthed this treasure to appreciate it, too! I thought the serial killers you, uh, have to take care of were more than a little out there, but I loved the blending of the dreamlike visuals in the afterlife and Susan’s friendship with Mitzi. I just checked the store page and saw there’s a third game coming out in the spring! (after Downfall) How very exciting!
IIIIII am soooo aggravated at just how many ‘you’re on a spaceship/space station/colony, everyone’s dead, guess why?’ and they’re all literally the same friggin story with different mechanics or set dressing. It’s so so so boring. I was on the fence about putting Stasis on my wishlist anyway (far, far near the bottom) when I saw the screenshots. My god, they look like mush! Everything is so friggin far away. How do you FIND anything in that? Did you have any issue with it, or is it just my aversion to zoomed-out isometric games rearing its head?
As much as I liked The Cat Lady, I truly wished it had a more modern interface. For that reason I decided against purchasing Downfall because it looked like same UI, different story.
STASIS is absolutely derivative and predictable. The only thing that made the story worthwhile is the investment in the main character and what he was going through and to see the studio’s artistic angle. The isometric view didn’t bother me so much. The studio did a mostly good job of providing visual cues for things you were able to interact with. In some ways it made things easier than trying to find interactions in rooms and corridors in first person. I’ve played other PAC/HOGs that were a lot more frustrating. But based on your response, I’d say this game probably doesn’t belong on your wishlist. My overall response was, “Yeah, interesting, but could have played something much better.”
The UI didn’t bug me - I kind of liked how it was a little clunky and retro. Different people have different limits.
Yeahh, I’m gonna save my money, especially since my wishlist is full to bursting as it is. Thank you, Big!
I’m intrigued by your review of Styx. I ended up dropping it fairly quickly because I got frustrated as well. The annoying thing is that in general I love stealth games (Splinter Cell were among my favourite games for Gamecube). I do want to go back and re-try it, but many of the issues you point out are ones I ran into. Stealth games really do suffer from bugs more than other types of games.