Indie dev talks about horror, guns and Amnesia.

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Cryostasis has one of the greatest stories and greatest storytelling methods in gaming. The fable was a narrative parallel to the story that the game told about the disaster, the captain's decisions, the mutiny and the crew's health. Every single thing you do has some symbolic significance to the plot--the enemies you fight, the heat you collect as health, the time travel sequences/puzzles and so on--and this exceedingly complex manner of expression for a story that's, as far as I'm concerned, second to one is what makes the game worth playing. Even though it's an extremely vanilla shooter as far as gameplay is concerned.

I am aware of the parallels, I just did not find them compelling in the least. Good storytelling? I'll grant you that, for the most part, especially the "flashbacks" and mental echo sequences. But the game does not have one of the "greatest stories in gaming", it is boring and largely inconsequential. I enjoyed the disaster and mutiny subplots but there is so little character development that it lacks much of the impact it should, and the game's plot is extremely thin apart from vague themes. Also, it doesn't matter how much you talk about the symbolic significance of the actions you perform, they are still not exciting. Bookkeeping is symbolically significant to a game about the life of a bookkeeper, that does not make it interesting or worth putting in a game. Likewise, uninteresting jumpscares and boring combat did not need to be in this game at all. I liked the central theme of frost a lot but I did not like the way they implemented the health system. Optimally there should have been a separate health bar and the thermometer/ammo pouch HUD was distracting at best (but then again I hate HUDs with a passion).

But I still have very fond memories of Cryostasis. The mental echo sequences are some of the most memorable gaming moments I've had in a long time. If the game had been designed more like an adventure with more time spent on making memorable mental echo sequences (and if it had a better ending) I would have considered it an instant classic. It just falls short on too many scores. Of course, it's all a matter of opinion. If the story had an impact on you, I'm glad. It did not interest me in the slightest and I play games primarily for their stories.