STASIS: BONE TOTEM

STASIS: BONE TOTEM by The Brotherhood is an isometric horror adventure game, with classic point 'n' click gameplay. It is set in the same world as the developer's previous games (STASIS, CAYNE) but stands alone in terms of story.

A story that is set about a hundred years in the future, and in my opinion it's worth commenting on two levels, one for the immediate adventure of the main characters (Charlie, Mac, and Moses, more on them in a moment), and another for the very interesting world-building of the game.

For the former, we have control of three different characters, rare though not unprecedented in adventure games (Day of the Tentacle, the obvious similar case), Mac and Charlie who are married, and Moses, a highly sophisticated bear-shaped toy companion for children, whose AI has received some dubiously legitimate enhancements from Charlie, making him extremely capable of dealing with difficult situations, despite the childlike naivety with which he perceives the world. Very soon the game reveals that Moses is entwined in a family tragedy, with Mac and Charlie having very different feelings towards him.

Mac and Charlie have a small boat, and their job is to locate and salvage either scrap or abandoned ships. On the night the story begins, they've sailed away more than usual, and radar detects a huge stationary object in the middle of the ocean. The approach reveals it to be an oil pumping platform owned by the powerful CAYNE Corporation. Attempts to communicate are fruitless, and no signs of life are seen. If for some reason the platform has been abandoned and the couple manage to retrieve it, the estimated reward will solve all their financial problems.

What happens from the moment the protagonists board the DEEPSEA 15 platform is best experienced by every player without spoilers. At this point it's worth noting that practically all of the storytelling is done through finding and reading the personal logs of those who lived and worked in the wider complex. In this respect, STASIS: BONE TOTEM is relatively slow-paced, and is certainly not for those who are not inclined to read sometimes lengthy texts to understand exactly what has happened. The various descriptions of the environment and items that are there purely for flavor don't help the situation as they are rather verbose, and I at least started to ignore them well before the 18 hours or so it took me to complete the game.

I think the work that has been done on the characters and their gradual development, and in revealing their motivations, is excellent. For much of the game I was put off by how reckless Charlie's behaviour was, but ultimately this is fully justified.

Finally, regarding the story of Charlie, Mac, and Moses, I have some objections that are hard to explain without spoilers, so I'll settle for saying that maybe it mixes too many horror tropes/antagonists, so it loses in philosophical depth compared to SOMA, which, besides having a similar setting, touches on related topics.

Regarding the world-building of the game, in the twenty-second century much has changed compared to today, almost nothing for the better. The world-building of STASIS: BONE TOTEM is clearly dystopian, but sadly not at all unlikely, at least as far as the environmental situation, the omnipotence of multinational corporations, and the debt hostage situation in which most of their workers have fallen.

I said that "almost nothing" has changed for the better. The exception that proves the rule is biomedicine, whose achievements, as Arthur Clarke famously said, are indistinguishable from magic... for those who can pay. And unfortunately, not paying is not exactly an option for the economically disadvantaged, since without improvements, they cannot compete in the job market with those who have already upgraded their bodies and skills.

Of course, solutions exist, CAYNE Corporation is always willing to assist those in need, and as for the loan, they will pay it off with their fat salaries... if they are good employees and don't lose their jobs, otherwise the quarries on the Moon have plenty of room and minimum wage (and a lifetime of debt bondage) for everyone. We saw the same concerns in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, but STASIS: BONE TOTEM is a horror game, and confirms it with quite shocking stories and images. Besides, it doesn't have and doesn't rely on jump scares at all (ok, lie, it has one), and the horror genre is served purely by its story and atmosphere.

Since I mentioned the atmosphere, it's time to say a few things about the technical aspect. First the purely good news - the sound, both in terms of voice overs, music and ambient sounds, is excellent.

The graphics, however, have some issues. On the plus side, it clearly has its own design identity (a short, late game and fully conscious and expected homage to H. R. Giger in no way can dispute that). Beyond that though, there's clear and very good detail in the design of the premises, but this is mostly noticeable with full zoom in - which is somewhat uncomfortable, so for purely gameplay reasons full zoom out is more convenient. The intermediate zoom levels fail to provide an acceptable middle ground. Secondly, there is excessive darkness for almost 90% of the game, to the point of making the environment indistinguishable. And this may be justified by the setting and the spaces we move through, but realism is not always a good choice for a game. I was so impressed from this choice, that I played STASIS and CAYNE again, and confirmed that everything there is bright and distinct. I can't consider this change as a positive one. And I can't help but notice that on the game's store page, the promotional screenshots are all of the 3-4 brightest scenes from STASIS: BONE TOTEM.

When it comes to gameplay, the term point 'n' click adventure says most of what prospective players are interested in. The puzzles are divided into those that require finding appropriate information and codes to operate the various devices and mechanisms, and more classic ones that require combining objects either with each other or with the environment. The goal is almost always to gain access to some new area of the semi-decomposed base. After the first (of five) chapters, the world opens up quite a bit and the challenges range at an average level of difficulty, but the vast majority of puzzles are solved with observation and logic - unfortunately, some puzzles in which the only solution is "click everything on everything until something works" are not completely absent, but they are rare.

Some peculiarities worth noting are that the characters' inventory is essentially shared, as the Quantum Storage Device technology allows them to exchange items with each other even if they are hundreds of meters away from each other. Each character has a unique ability, (Mac can disassemble items, Charlie can combine them, Moses can hack) but I found this addition rather gimmicky, especially for Charlie who reduces to a "skill" a user interface function that in all other adventure games, just works. Finally, mouse right-click pings and highlights all points of interest, something simply essential for navigating the complex and excessively dark environments. The ping also helps a lot in single screen puzzles, as the hotspots are sometimes not where you would expect just by looking at the screen.

Ultimately, STASIS: BONE TOTEM is a worthy member and continuator of the horror universe that The Brotherhood has created. It has some issues in both the script and visual aspect that deny it the title of "hidden gem", and is demanding for the players in terms of the time they have to spend reading text. However, those who approach it with the right attitude will find an atmospheric and satisfying horror game, which also offers food for thought for our socio-economic future.

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