Has anyone else played this game? I had only heard about it as a PhysX showcase in the past, but I picked it up recently and it is probably the most unique and original game I've seen in a while. Opinions on it seem to be fairly divided, although Gamespot voted it for the best story of 2009. It has quite a few flaws but it's also full of innovative ideas.
Cryostasis is all about the story and its presentation. The story is told through flashbacks and "mental echos" (when you find a corpse, you can see and change past events through that guy's perspective). You get snippets of some Russian short story throughout the game that parallels the game events, although it takes a little thought to draw some of the connections. The game has a very surreal, fantastic feel in general that I haven't seen in a long time. You encounter a lot of things that seem weird and trippy but have a deeper, symbolic meaning to them. The story can be confusing unless you're actively looking for these interpretations and connections, and a lot of earlier events only make sense near the end.
The graphics and artwork are very good but the engine performance is lousy, probably worse than even Crysis. I didn't actually use PhysX since it also needs DX10 for that, but I would not want to anyway given the kind of framerates I got without it.
The gameplay is actually pretty boring (there is a clever health system, but combat feels clunky and there isn't much of it in the first place) and the levels are very linear and have repetitive environments. It is probably more of an "experience" than an actual game and it won't appeal to everyone, but it's quite different from anything else I have seen. I like how the developers actually took risks and tried something new here, which you rarely see today.
