Cryostasis

I am slightly behind in reviewing  Cryostsis, I simply ran out of games and had this on the back burner. After reading staff and reader reviews on Giant Bomb I decided to google any issues Cryostasis may have, being burned before I know that if a pc game has issues at launch be prepared to wait about a month to play. Being said the latest patch came out months ago so the wait was over. Bought over Steam the download was pretty hefty well worth 30 bucks... on to the experience. 
  
 I was able to play at full settings 1920X1200... WOW this game looks very original , seeing ice crystals on every surface, sparkling in the shadows is nice and your characters long breaths produce a hefty fog at the bottom of the screen. I literally went and put on a hoodie for no reason. Playing with headphones is a must, the MCs constant large struggling breaths and crunching footsteps are crisp among the sterile howling wind in the distance and the hollow clanking echoes of the cramped steal ship, I totally got into the atmosphere. 
 
 The story is a mystery you are simply an arctic explorer who comes across a huge Icebreaker ship stuck in an ice field, investigating the ship you come across random notes, some telling of an ancient tale of an exodus and some left by the captain of the ship and occasionaly the dead bodies of the crew that have a unexplainable condition that allows you a glimpse of their final moments alive. The purpose of this game mechanic is to offer you a chance to change this persons fate and at the same time perhaps influence your own . A pretty novel idea that works great with the story. The remains of the crew start to project the unfortunate and dark events that unfolded resulting in the ships ghostly state. 
 
 Exploring the ship you find a couple of  crude melee  weapons and some old russian fire arms, with very questionable reliability, reloading a rifle is a very involved process. A couple guns are unique in that way, each has a different handicap so dealing with adversaries can be a fairly easy task, or if unprepared can turn to " Holy Shit Im Fucked Run". Having played a ton of world war shooters I was happy with the guns, Uh wait till you see the scope on the rifle- laughable and im not sure if its on purpose but firing the PPSH is quite a ride, the guns just fit in with the strife. The fist flying used at the start of the game was interesting, you can actually jab L or R, Hook and uppercut, simply by holding down L mouse and tapping WASD to swing, effective but its not long before that skill is outclassed by an actual weapon.    
  
  In my experience the beginning of the game left me thinking this game was mediocre and pretty broken. But the latter half this game really comes on strong. The first thing to put me off was the first enemy you encounter, just exploring this believable setting with very immersive visuals when outta knowhere comes a character that looks exactely like SubZero from Mk wtf ! The second enemy character I ran into bald tough guy with typical sailor striped sweater brought me back a little. Small little visual and mechanical bugs gave me the feeling that the game had limited testing time, at the current  v1.1 patch nothing really breaks the immersion but I still had a few "omg" and "wtf really" moments.